Page 68 of Stolen and Seduced By the Duke

"And a footman?" she continued.

Margaret gave her a triumphant smile. "You see? We are already understanding each other."

Mrs. Norris regarded her for several seconds before surrendering. "Very well, Your Grace. I shall have the carriage prepared."

Margaret swept towards the door, satisfaction warming her. "Excellent. And Mrs. Norris?"

"Yes, Your Grace?"

"If His Grace asks where I have gone, you may tell him precisely where I am."

The housekeeper looked amused. "And what shall I tell him?"

Margaret paused, then smiled sweetly. "Tell him his duchess has gone shopping…without his permission."

She swept out before Mrs. Norris could answer, feeling rather pleased with herself. If Pierce wished to discover whether she could follow rules, she thought, he was about to discover something far more interesting.

The new Duchess of Ravenfield had never been particularly good at obeying orders.

CHAPTER 17

Iwant to see Hugh. I want to see Margaret.

Pierce returned to Ravenfield House in the late afternoon with an unfamiliar sense of satisfaction settling over him. The business that had occupied his morning had been tedious, but as the carriage approached the familiar iron gates, he found himself looking forward to crossing the threshold in a manner that would once have seemed impossible.

After Augusta vanished, he had spent years convincing himself that home was merely a place where one slept between obligations. Now, he found himself thinking that home could be something more.

He handed his gloves and hat to the footman and glanced towards the staircase.

"Mrs. Norris," he called out, his voice carrying through the entrance hall. "Have Her Grace summoned to me. In the parlor."

The words felt surprisingly natural, and Pierce was still considering that curious fact when Mrs. Norris appeared from the adjoining corridor, her usually composed expression carrying an unmistakable trace of anxiety.

She clasped her hands before her and hesitated, which immediately caught his attention. "Your Grace," she began carefully, "Her Grace has left the house."

Pierce went completely still. For one terrible instant, the entrance hall seemed to disappear around him, replaced by another night, another empty corridor.

And another woman who has walked out of my life without giving me the opportunity to stop her. Just like Augusta.

His mind supplied the name before he could prevent it, and the old wound opened with startling speed. His chest tightened, his heartbeat quickened, and every instinct he possessed demanded that he find out where Margaret had gone.

"Left?" he repeated, his voice suddenly colder. "Where?"

Mrs. Norris hurried to reassure him. "Her Grace said she was going shopping, Your Grace. She left with a footman as her chaperone and instructed me to tell you where she had gone."

The tension in Pierce's shoulders eased by a fraction.

She has not vanished. She has not fled the house in secret.

She had gone shopping and, apparently, considered it perfectly reasonable to leave her husband to discover the fact upon his return. "Very well," he said at last, his expression settling into its customary severity. "That will be all, Mrs. Norris."

The housekeeper curtsied and withdrew, leaving Pierce alone in the hall with his thoughts. Relief quickly gave way to annoyance, although beneath the annoyance was something considerably more dangerous: amusement.

Margaret had done exactly what he had expected her to do. She had ignored his instructions to rest, taken herself into London, and apparently ignored all possibilities of his displeasure. Pierce almost smiled. If she enjoyed breaking his rules, then he would simply have to keep breaking hers as well. It seemed only fair, and Pierce had always appreciated fairness when it suited him.

For the moment, however, he decided to make use of the unexpected solitude by visiting his son.

He climbed the stairs and entered the nursery, where the nanny immediately rose from her chair with Hugh in her arms.