Page 24 of No Duke of Mine

She found herself under him all too soon, but then Algernon sighed against her throat and became still. “Maggie, what happened between you and your father?”

She was taken aback by the question, which had come out of nowhere, and it poured cold water over her passion. She had not wanted to discuss her scandal with him. He might feel she deserved the ill will that came her way.

He rose up on one elbow, slipped his fingers under her chin, and drew her eyes to his. “What was the cause of your separation?”

Maggie blushed. “This.”

“This?” he repeated, frowning.

“Back then, I thought I was in love. I thought I was being courted.” She sighed and sat up, straightening her gown. “He was one of my father’s students.”

Algernon sat up, too. “You were seduced?”

“He almost succeeded, yes.”

Algernon shifted to sit close by her side and took up her hand. “Tell me everything.”

Maggie rubbed her brow. “He was a year younger than I, and I thought he truly liked me. I thought we were good friends. I thought his interest was genuine. Until the day I heard him complaining about me following him around to his brothers. So I stopped talking to him. I kept to my room and tried to avoid him.”

“Good.”

“But he didn’t like being ignored.”

Algernon’s arm wrapped about her back, and she leaned into his touch. “Did he hurt you?”

“He broke my heart,” she whispered. “He made it seem to others that I was obsessed with him. I found his things hidden in my room. Things I’d never touched or seen before. He would wait for me on the staircases, pull me close, and then push me away just as a servant came along. He made it seem like I was pursuing him, that I was promiscuous. Eventually, the whispers reached my father’s ears.”

“What did he do?”

“Outwardly, nothing until his tenure ended.”

“And after?”

“A lecture for me and then silence for a week. He could barely look at me. He believed I had shamed him and ruined myself. He believed what he’d heard from others before he listened to his own daughter. I still possessed my virtue but he called me a liar.” She burst to her feet. “My father could not imagine that one of his precious students might attempt to seduce his bluestocking daughter without some sort of encouragement. I must have been the one who’d crossed a line.”

Algernon was suddenly behind her, pulling her into his arms again. “You believed him sincerely interested in you.”

“I did.” Maggie patted Algernon’s arms and stepped away from him. “He never had any real intentions toward me, just saw me as a challenge to conquer. In the end, he wanted to put me in my place. To beat me in the only way he knew how. Proving the weakness of my sex.” Maggie drew in a great shuddering breath and let it out slowly. “But it was a long time ago, and I learned my lesson after that. Men are not to be trusted.”

Algernon shuffled his feet, clearly uncomfortable with her statement.

She went to him and patted his chest. “You, I do trust.”

“Why am I trusted and other men are not?” he asked, frowning. He glanced at the settee beside them. “Especially after all that we have done.”

“Because you are Algernon, Duke of Ravenswood,” she said. “I welcome your kisses and affection, but know you would never marry someone like me. I will not be misled, should anything occur between us. And anything that does will always be my decision. Not because you force me into your arms, but because I want to be there.”

Algernon nodded. “As it should always be between us.”

“I’m glad you understand,” Maggie said, looking around. “I don’t expect permanence anymore, or wedding bells, either. Respect is all I hope for.”

Algernon looked ready to protest, but she pressed her finger over his lips.

“Let’s not talk about our affair any longer. Let’s talk about something more important,” Maggie said as she sat down on the settee again and patted the space beside her. “Tell me more about Ravenswood. I want to hear all the changes you have planned for the next five years.”

He sat beside her, though a little farther away than the last time. “How do you know I have plans that far ahead?”

Maggie laughed softly. “Algernon, whenever have you not had some far-reaching scheme in mind?”

“You know me too well, Maggie Black,” he murmured, and began to explain his plans for the site where the maze currently stood.