Page 79 of A Virgin for the Duke of Depravity
“But my brother believed his wife over me. When she told him that I had made advances to her, he kicked me out. He suggested I go to war. Told me he wished I would die on the battlefield.” He took a deep breath. “Perhaps it would have been easier if I had been killed.”
“What does any of this have to do with me?” Margaret asked, her brow furrowed.
He wanted to run his thumb over the crease in her forehead, to feel the skin smooth beneath his touch.
“Love makes you stupid. Or crazy.”
She raised an eyebrow at him, not seeing what the problem was.
“I saw enough madness on the battlefield. I do not wish to see more, and I refuse to subject you to the same,” he said.
Leo pulled away from her, letting the air rush back between them. He had not realized how close he had leaned toward her until only inches separated them.
“This is why you have been keeping your distance?”
Margaret’s tone conveyed patience with him, but it also betrayed her sadness. When he chanced a look at her, her brown eyes were soft. Instead of her characteristic smile, a frown creased her features.
When he did not answer right away, she reached up and ran her fingers along his jaw to force him to look at her.
“It is why we must stay away from each other,” Leo said, looking into her eyes. “Can’t you see, wife? I am protecting you.”
She let her hand drop from his face. She stood up and looked down at him on the settee. Her expression had become harder, more defiant, as he was used to from her. He would rather she keep her distance. It was the one thing he could understand.
“And what, pray tell, are you protecting me from?” She crossed her arms, already knowing the answer.
She tapped her foot on the floor, impatient for him to say what he needed to say.
“From myself.”
Leo wished he did not have to disappoint his wife, especially not on the first day after their wedding. He watched her process what he had said, the way her eyes grew misty at his words. Her shoulders tensed.
He wanted to go to her. He wanted to tell her that it would be fine. That he would stay away from her, and that she would be better off for it. But the words he wanted to say were locked deep within him. He would never be able to tell her that it was all right for her to care for him.
The last woman who cared for him had belonged to his brother, and she had not truly cared at all. She had sent him to war and made him into the Beast he was today—a title that might have been conferred by war but did not start there.
“Right,” Margaret finally said with finality. “Thank you, then, husband.”
She turned toward the door so quickly that her motion was a blur to his astute eyes. If he had not been paying attention, he might have missed the way her shoulders slumped and shook as she silently cried.
Even with her despair, he could not help but want her. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and hold her as she cried. But that was precisely why he should stay away from her. If he were the one who made her cry this way, she would be better off without him.
Margaret reached for the handle of the door, but it did not budge.
He had not thought that the girls would tire of this game easily, though he had hoped they would for his wife’s sake.
She pounded her fists on the door, just as he had done before she convinced him to bare his soul to her. Calling out for Annie and Kitty, she continued to hammer on the door.
The only thing to do was to let her wear herself out. Leo knew the girls would not come until they were good and ready to release them from the library.
Odds were they had already scampered off to play a new game.
Margaret turned around to face him, but she did not look him in the eye. She slumped against the door and slowly slid down to the floor. Drawing her knees up to her chest, she wrapped her arms around herself.
It was as though she thought she could hold herself together if she just tried hard enough.
“I want to leave,” she announced in a shaky voice. She refused to look up at him.
“As soon as they unlock the door, you are free to go,” he said. “But I must warn you that Annie and Kitty can be quitestubborn. It may be a while before they let us out of here. We might as well make our peace with it until dinner.”
