“You should have seen your face!” Louisa wheezed.
“Mine?” Adeline gasped, clutching her side. “I have never seen the color drain from a face so quickly!”
They laughed until their ribs ached, until the indignity of dirt and grass stains seemed glorious rather than shameful. Adeline thought, not without surprise, that she had not laughed like this since... Since before Harston Grange had become her prison. But laughter could not conceal mud. It could not conceal grass stains and bark that became lodged in hair and hid away from the hands that sought to dislodge it.
“We must go back to the house and change,” Adeline said, practically.
Louisa glanced at the brooding sprawl of Greystone.
“If my father catches us, he will lock me away.”
Adeline forced a smile.
“No, he will not. Because he is your father and he loves you.”
“He will scold me. I can’t abide being scolded,” Louisa said.
And I wonder who that trait is learned from?
She could well imagine that the Duke also disliked being scolded. But who would dare?
Together they attempted to sneak back into the house, creeping along corridors, ducking behind a screen when a maid passed. Despite her earlier reservation, Louisa was soon stifling giggles, and Adeline shushed her with exaggerated severity.
They had nearly made it to the staircase when disaster struck. Louisa stiffened, looking back over her shoulder.
“It is Mr. Lavender, the butler. He will report us to Papa. Quick!”
Adeline dashed ahead, holding Louisa’s hand in her own. They darted around a corner only to run into a wall of muscle. The Duke. She released Louisa’s hand, but the impact sent both her and the Duke tumbling down the short flight of steps. The world spun, Adeline cried out and then she felt his body twist, shielding her from the worst of the fall. They landed hard, tangled together, his weight braced beneath her, his breath harsh in her ear.
For one dizzying moment, she was acutely aware of him. His strength, his warmth, the line of his jaw inches from hers. Then he pushed himself up, grimacing, and his eyes blazed.
“What in God’s name were you doing?” His voice was thunderous; his face a storm.
Adeline scrambled to her feet, brushing at a spot where her skirt had been pinned as they rolled and had torn. The Duke was slower, wincing as he flexed his shoulder. Wincing again as he put weight on his ankle.
“I hit every step on the way down.” He huffed indignantly. “Thanks to me, I doubt you’ll ever have a bruise. Running about with your eyes closed. What foolishness!” he muttered.
“I had my eyes open. I was not paying close attention. For which I apologize,” Adeline said diplomatically.
“What were you doing, Louisa?” the Duke asked.
Louisa had descended the staircase more sedately and now hovered near her father. But not too near.
“We were in the garden…” she began.
“Climbing trees by the look of you!” he thundered. “Dangling from a tree like a fool! You could have broken your neck!”
“She is a child,” Adeline shot back, her own temper sparking. “Children climb trees. They breathe, they laugh, they live. Would you have her locked away like a songbird in a cage?”
“Do not presume to lecture me on my daughter.” His chest heaved, his blue eyes contriving to seem dark as coals. “You, who have known her mere hours!”
“Hours put to the good use of talking to her.”
Louisa had slipped away as the two became focused on each other. Adeline was incensed by the way he spoke to Louisa.
He is smothering her. Perhaps out of love, but I believe he would be more than capable of simply wanting to control her for the sake of doing it.
Her anger surged. The Duke stood in for the father she could not reach. Could not remonstrate with.
