Page 50 of No Duke of Mine

She winced. “Lady Kent was his choice?”

“No. His choice eventually married for love, which I had discovered was on the cards sooner than he did, and I applauded the match. My father was furious when he found out and threatened to cut off my brother’s allowance.”

“All of them?”

“No. Just Stratford. Father knew where to hurt me most.”

“I remember Stratford well,” Maggie murmured. “He kept wanting me to carry him about or read him to sleep.”

“I suppose that must have been a regular occurrence, thanks to your father’s many employments.”

“More often than I liked, to be honest,” she answered. “My father’s employers viewed me as an extra pair of hands they did not have to pay. I learned to be difficult to find whenever the family had very young children,” she confessed. “The bothersome creatures never gave me a moment of peace.”

He glanced at her in surprise. “You don’t like children?”

“Not particularly,” she admitted with a shrug. “To be honest, I should be happy to never have the care of one again.”

His stomach pitted. His other reason for marriage was also to get himself an heir. Algernon was fond of all children, but he longed for his own most of all. “What about when you have your own?”

“I won’t.”

She could hardly avoid it if they married. “But if you did?”

“I cannot answer that,” she said, shrugging again.

He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I’ve always imagined a small army of offspring running through Ravenswood’s halls, bellowing at their cousins.”

Her smile grew pained. “That sort of noise would be something to avoid, I should think.”

A chasm opened up between them, small but significant. The first obvious difference of opinion since their reunion. Algernon had imagined Maggie longed for a family of her own, just as he often did. But if that was not the case, then…he was glad they had not been intimate yet.

He cleared his throat and hurried to change the subject. “What else is on my agenda for the coming days?”

She rattled off a list of things Algernon did not want to do, but he nodded to every single one.

“You should have those gowns for your sister-in-law by the end of the week,” she murmured. “Should they be sent off to Ravenswood immediately?”

“No, keep them here,” he informed her. The gowns and other items he’d ordered, a full wardrobe, were all for Maggie anyway. She would learn their true purpose only after they arrived, and he would not let her refuse a single thing.

He let his fingers caress her waist, feeling the coarseness of her current gown. “There are other fabrics I want to purchase later for my other sister-in-law. Materials better suited to an evening on the Town. We’ll be in London for the season next year.”

“I haven’t the faintest idea of what is considered fashionable for ladies of the ton,” Maggie argued. “I’m sure you do, though.”

He grunted. She had a point. Maggie had not partaken of the season or spent any time among the cream of society in London during her life. Her current gown was serviceable but hardly first-rate. A fact he blamed squarely on her late and absent father.

Her current gown was nothing like what he’d want her to wear when she mingled in society as his wife. Something had to be done about her wardrobe before they wed.

Not if this time.

When they married.

Even if there would be no children.

He took a moment to consider his decision and knew that he’d grown into the idea of making Maggie his duchess on their journey. He’d always believed in love matches. Didn’t he deserve one of his own?

He rubbed a hand over his mouth, hiding the smile that came with finally admitting—he meant to make Maggie his duchess.

He would have to make a few adjustments to his priorities for the next few years, discuss everything with his brothers, and find some more money somewhere. He could certainly sell that town house Maggie had found the deed for fairly quickly, he suspected.

And with his marriage plans fixed now, he could devote the rest of his days in London to increasing Maggie’s happiness. Her grief for her father would not go away just because they married. He’d probably have to wait out a period of mourning as well before he asked for her hand. In the meantime, he would continue to behave as usual. Turn her mind from plans of finding employment and keep her busy here with him.

“Please add a night at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens to my schedule for this week. You will study what the fine ladies wear there, and what women of lesser status wear as well, so you are better informed when you return to the modiste.”

She regarded him steadily. “You would be better off visiting Lady Kent instead, while I endeavor to find out what other invitations she accepted for the coming week.”

“I do want to see Lady Kent but at her home,” he decided, reminded of the scandal he’d witnessed with his own eyes. “But I will require my secretary to expand her knowledge of society and the ton in keeping with her new role while I’m doing that. We will visit Vauxhall together soon.”

“You’re being high-handed again,” she complained, crossing her arms over her chest and scowling at him now.

“Of course I am. That is what the nobility does,” he warned. “I will have my way on this, Maggie, and reap the benefits in the end.”

She shrank a little at his warning, and he did not like that.

“So will you, if you trust in me,” he advised. “But, Maggie, I don’t plan to stop being high-handed anytime soon, so you will have to accept that about me.”

It would be a delicate line he’d have to walk, giving nothing away about his change of heart too soon. Maggie’s life had been turned upside down with her father’s death, and she believed herself unworthy of marriage. She could not see the happy future that he could yet.

Perhaps it was a mistake making Maggie his secretary in the interim, but doing so kept her close. Love had found him, and Algernon would not let Maggie and happiness slip through his fingers.