Page 75 of A Virgin for the Duke of Depravity
I need to get it together. I cannot let a woman unravel me.
After he returned from the war a hero, he had spent so long trying to construct a façade that kept everyone at arm’slength. He had seen firsthand what happened when he was close to someone—his brother had made it quite clear what the consequences of that proximity were.
Olympus allowed him to be a part of the ton while still being far enough to maintain his comfort.
Nobody wanted to go against the Duke, and he liked it that way.
Hewantedthem to think he was a beast, but Margaret threatened to undo everything he had carefully worked to build. She did not seem to think him beastly in the slightest, which only frightened him.
Leo stood up, the thought of his brother and everything he had lost over the years dampening his lust. He was about to take his leave for the evening when he heard Annie yelling.
A moment later, she pounded on his door.
“Uncle!”
He threw open the door at once. She would never come to him, especially not this frantically, unless something was wrong. Immediately, he thought of Joan.
Could she have slipped chasing after the girls, her back refusing to allow her to get up?
Seeing the stricken look on Annie’s face, he knew right away that it was not Joan. His heart thundered in his chest, leaping ahead of him as dread coiled in his gut. The only person who would elicit a reaction like this from the little girl was the one woman she adored.
“What is it?”
He kneeled down in front of Annie and grabbed her shoulders. He tried not to grip them too tight, tried not to shake her to make the words come out faster.
“I heard Margaret screaming for help. You must hurry!”
Annie tried to turn around, but he held her too tightly for her to move. Realizing that he was needed made him spring into action. He released the little girl and brushed past her, already on his way to his wife. Before he realized that he did not know where she was.
“Where was she when you heard her yell?”
He tried not to shout at Annie, but he was petrified that Margaret might be badly hurt. How could he have offered her his protection and then allowed her to get hurt on her first day as his wife?
“The library,” Annie managed to get out. “Hurry!”
He took off running down the stairs, vaguely aware of the little feet that followed behind him.
Margaret grabbed another book from the shelf and held it out to Kitty, who peered at the title and the picture on the front cover.
“I read this one when I was a girl,” Margaret told her with a wistful smile.
She could still recall being a girl on her father’s knee as he turned the pages and told her the story. It was of a girl in a secret garden where she encountered fairies. The magic and allure of it would appeal to the girls, that much she knew.
Margaret knew that she would make new memories with the girls and get to relive the best parts of her childhood. Before joining the convent, her mother and father had given her a wonderful childhood.
Even if she never had children of her own, she could create that same magic for the girls.
“What is it about?” Kitty asked, but Margaret could tell that her heart was not in it from the way her eyes darted to the door.
“We can look at the books later,” Margaret said, placing the book back on the shelf. “Perhaps you and Annie would like to rest for a while after all that running around in the orangery.”
Looking around, she realized that Annie was missing. The girl had been here just a moment ago when she was searching for the book. She was sure of it.
“Where did Annie go?”
“Oh,” Kitty stammered. “She went?—”
But she never got to finish because the library door flew open and Leo barreled into the room.
