Page 37 of No Duke of Mine

“I trust I will not wake tomorrow morning to find you gone again,” Algernon said.

“Where would I go?”

“You could go home,” he suggested after a long moment.

She shook her head. “I have no home anymore.”

He rose up onto his elbow, staring down at her with a sharp, indrawn breath. “I don’t understand. You came from somewhere.”

She glanced away, spotting her father’s battered old trunks sitting on the floor by the window, with her solitary one on top. Embarrassment set in. “My father always settled some funds on me to pay for the little cottage he rented. Lately, he sent them in a letter. That’s how I knew something was wrong. The money did not come last quarter. When I could not pay, the landlord evicted me. Everything I value, all I could carry, is in my traveling case,” she whispered, humiliation making her face warm. “Though now I have my father’s trunks to cart about as well, I suppose.”

She would have to sort through her father’s things, lighten the load, before she left Algernon, but she did not want to do that alone. Perhaps he could help her sort through Papa’s things when he had time to spare. If he ever did, now he was in London to court his future wife.

“Oh, God, Maggie,” Algernon whispered, pushing her hair back from her face. His fingers were gentle, and he refused to let her look away from him. “You should have told me.”

He settled back beside her and brought her into his arms again, holding her tight against him once more. Maggie nearly cried for the warmth and comfort of his embrace, however temporary it would be. Somehow, Algernon could chase her worries away, at least for a little while.

“The last thing I want from you is pity.”

He kissed her brow. “Good. Because I am not offering any.”

She looked up at him, and then at his lips that had recently kissed her brow. They pursed as she studied them.

Maggie felt something twitch inside her, and she glanced down at his chest rather than examine her reaction or admit her feelings for him. Algernon was handsome and charming. Her only friend in the world, and she, foolish girl that she was, felt drawn to him in hardly proper ways.

Algernon cupped the back of her head, unaware how that action made her pulse race. “You’ll stay with me until we figure something out.”

“I cannot do that. People will talk.”

“You will stay with me, and we will discuss it when you’re able to think more clearly,” he insisted. He dropped another kiss on her brow. “For now, all I want you to do is stay right here in this bed with me.”

She glanced at the trunks, and the thought of their contents caused her to tighten her grip on him. She did not want to consider what might lie inside her father’s trunks. She did not want to smell her father’s cologne. She inhaled Algernon’s scent instead, a cologne that pleased her senses better. “Why would you want to help someone like me?”

“Because I like you.”

She moved her hand on his chest, toyed with a button of his waistcoat. There was more to it than that. She remembered how he was before he’d learned her identity. He’d flirted and kissed her openly without knowing her name. And after, he still wanted to kiss her. “Do you find me attractive?”

“Without a shadow of a doubt.”

“Would you kiss me again?”

“I would like to, yes,” he said, but it sounded like she was being warned away. “But given the circumstances, I should not.”

“I would like to be kissed,” she whispered, before glancing up at him. “It would take my mind off everything I don’t want to think about.”

“Maggie…”

“Please.”

Algernon sighed and moved toward her until their lips brushed. He drew back, as if a brief kiss was all he could manage.

She dropped her chin, embarrassed. “You did better when you didn’t recognize me.”

A short bark of a laugh left him. “I did not wish to presume too much by your request, not with the upset you’ve suffered today.”

“Forget I asked,” she said, and attempted to draw back from him.

“I can’t let you go now,” he whispered, and kissed her again, but this time with a great deal more enthusiasm than the first fleeting attempt.