Page 80 of A Virgin for the Duke of Depravity
“I do not mean the library,” she mumbled. “Though I would like to leave this room as well.”
Leo’s heart stuttered at the thought of her leaving him so soon after he pledged to protect her for the rest of his life. The only way he could know for certain that she was safe was to keep her here with him.
She had nowhere else to go. Her only family was arrested, andthatblackguard would have sooner killed her than allowed her to live freely.
Deep down, Leo knew that she would not go anywhere where her freedom would be curtailed. Her defiance was her defining feature, the one thing that set her apart and captivated him so greatly.
“Where would you go?” he finally asked her.
She wiped the tears rolling down her cheeks and took a deep, steadying breath. Leo noticed the moment she decided that she was ready to tell him. It was in the way she rolled her shoulders back before she spoke.
Finally, she lifted her eyes and looked right at him. “I want to go back to the convent. It is my only option. You did not claim me, so they would take me back if I asked them,” she explained.
Shock rippled through him. Margaret would rather return to the place where they had tried to break her spirit than enjoy her freedom in the city? Were her freedom and his protection worth nothing to her?
But he already knew more than she did. There was no way she would return to her old life, even if she wanted to.
“You will not find them at St. Agatha’s,” he told her simply.
“What? Why would the nuns not be where I left them?”
Her eyes grew wide at the idea that her old home was gone. If she had been harboring hope that she could get away from him, she was in for a surprise.
“I told the Archbishop that they abused you,” he explained. “I have seen the scars on your back.”
They had been one of her defining features that night at Olympus when she had taken her dress off. The first time he saw them, he could hardly take his eyes off of them, though he eventually found a way to explore her despite them.
He would never allow a woman to fall into terrible hands again.
No other woman should have to endure what the sisters had dubbed as discipline. Though he turned them in to the Archbishop as a form of punishment for trying to break Margaret’s spirit, this much was still true.
“The Archbishop ordered the convent to shut down. The sisters have been moved to different nunneries around the country,” he added. “You could return to St. Agatha’s, but the sisters will not be there. You are better off with Theresa here in London.”
“You did… what?”
She seemed unable to believe that he would take her complaint against Mother Superior seriously.
“I could not think about you being tortured there. I sent word the day you told me about them. And when I saw them for myself… I knew that I had made the right decision to keep anyone else from suffering at their hands.”
Her tears seemed to dry up in an instant. When she looked at him again, it was with those narrowed eyes and the flared nostrils. Something he said had angered her, though he could not figure out what it was.
Surely, she did not want to return to the nunnery where the sisters had been so cruel to her, did she?
Finally, she pushed herself to her feet. Margaret drew herself up to her full height, though she remained petite. If Leo stood next to her, he would have to look down at her, so he remained on the settee.
Whatever she had to say, he was certain he could take it sitting down.
“You could not imagine them torturing me.” Margaret rolled her eyes and huffed out a laugh. “And yet it is fine whenyouare the one who is torturing me!”
“I have never done anything that you did not want me to do,” Leo said defensively. “You were more than eager to follow my commands. I remember you begging for my touch. My hands, my mouth.”
“Not that.” She turned her back to him and took a deep breath. “You married me when you knew that you would never touch me again. You married me when you knew that you could not love me. When…” she trailed off and bit her lip.
He wanted to run his thumb over her plump bottom lip and tell her that it was all right to say what she wanted, no matter how much it would hurt him. She paced in front of him.
“When what?” he asked when she did not pick up her thought after a moment.
“You married me when you knew that you could not love me, when you had made me fall in love with you. The naïve little nun you could toy with.”
