Page 40 of No Duke of Mine

“I’m sorry if you were disturbed.”

“In a good way, Maggie dear, and when have I ever denied you the opportunity to explore my home? I’m not about to start now.”

“I was just…”

“Looking around my bedchamber. Peeking into my dressing closet,” he teased, and then pointed around them. “My father did this, by the way. Removed any trace of Mama from this room as soon as she passed. Both here and in the country.”

“That was cruel to you,” she said, remembering Algernon’s fondness for his mother.

“Oh yes, that was his intention. Sentiment has no place in the life of a duke, he’d always told me.” But then Algernon smiled and nodded toward her hand. “What have you got there?”

She thrust out the deed. “Oh, I found this.”

“What is it?” he asked, and held the pages up to the light. “Well, I’ll be damned. Wherever did you find this?”

“Over there, I opened a drawer, heard it fall, and there it was.” Maggie smiled quickly. “I gather it was nailed inside somewhere.”

Algernon hurried over to the piece of furniture, pulled out all the drawers to look inside for himself, and then turned the bureau over, too, but there was nothing else to discover.

He sat back on his heels. “Sneaky, Mama. Very sneaky of you. I had forgotten my mother often hid things she didn’t want Papa to have. This property was part of her dowry. Without the deed to it, he couldn’t sell it to spend the profit.”

Maggie nodded.

“Luckily, I have you to solve my mysteries.” Algernon tucked the deed away in his pocket and held out his hand again. “Come, since you have regained your will to live and your boundless curiosity has solved a mystery for me, let’s explore the town house together, so you won’t get lost when I’m away.”

Maggie was keen for something to do, and hurried to him. They toured the upper floor, but not the attics. “We’ll save them for a rainy day,” he promised, and then they descended to the first floor. “My study to the left, drawing room to the right. Other reception rooms farther back and below.”

He let her take the lead, and laughed softly when she entered his library and gasped at all the books around her.

“I know where I’ll find you, should you disappear,” he teased.

“Or at any hour of any day,” she warned. “Such wealth. A book-lined room has been something I’ve always dreamed about having. A room where I would never be bored or lonely ever again.”

He drew close. “Is it odd that I knew that?”

“Not when you know me best of all,” she said without thinking, immediately regretting admitting so much. Her life had been quite lonely until she’d met Algernon again. And on her darkest day, when she’d thought he was better off alone, he’d come looking for her instead of going on with his plans.

She faced Algernon, but he was already looking at her.

His hand rose to cup her head, and he tilted her face up higher. “I am unworthy of the honor, Maggie.”

She smiled quickly. “Don’t say that.”

“It’s true. I kissed you, knowing all the reasons I shouldn’t. I brought you here because I could not leave you behind, and I risk your reputation every moment we are alone. And yet I don’t feel the slightest bit of doubt about my decisions.”

She smiled softly. “Then you are exactly the same as the boy I remember so fondly from my childhood.”

“I am not the same, Maggie. I know what comes after kissing in a way you do not,” he warned.

“Do you think to scare me?”

“I doubt you’ve ever been truly scared of anything I asked of you in your entire life, and that’s what scares me the most.” He sighed. “Maggie, I must go out for a while.”

“You don’t have to explain.”

He nodded. “Will you be all right without me?”

Would she? “I will read.”

“All right. Try to eat something while I’m gone, and don’t wait up for me.”

“Yes, Algernon,” she promised, knowing full well she would remain awake until he returned to the town house.