Dating the Duke (The Aristocrat Diaries 2)

“Either tell me why she’s in your bedroom, or I’m going to tell your dad when he gets back.”

“Oh, no! Don’t tell him!” She dropped the cat, and I quickly shoved the door shut behind me.

I did not need to be chasing a cat around this manor, thank you very much.

“You have one chance to tell me the truth.” I folded my arms across my chest. “I thought they were supposed to be leaving with Granny this morning. They were going back to the she—her friend’s house,” I quickly corrected myself, remembering the story she’d been told.

“They’re still here, Addy. In the bathroom. All three. But I like this one.” She sat down on the floor where Phoebe crept out from under the bed and accepted her pets with a very loud purr. “She’s soft and cuddly.”

“She’s also not supposed to be here, sweetheart.” I walked slowly to sit on the edge of her bed. “As lovely as she is, your daddy would be quite upset that you’ve broken the rules and taken her out of the bathroom where she’s supposed to be.”

“Are you going to tell him?”

I sighed. “No. But I do have to take her back to the bathroom.”

“Now?”

“I’m afraid so. He could return at any minute.”

“Okay.” She looked sadly down at the cat, and it broke my heart to get up and take Phoebe from her arms.

“I’m sorry, Oly. But I don’t make the rules here, you know that. I’d let you keep her if I could?”

“I know.” Her voice was tiny, and she didn’t look up as I carried Phoebe out of the room and shut the door behind me.

Gosh, I felt so cruel. It wasn’t as though she’d done anything wrong, but I couldn’t in good conscience allow her to keep the cat in her room when Alex hadn’t permitted it.

Things were weird enough between us as it was. He’d left before I’d come downstairs this morning, and I had no idea where he was all day.

Not that it was any of my business.

But the way he’d kissed me last night… Well, you didn’t kiss someone like that if your life wasn’t any of their business.

I needed to talk to him. We needed to talk and clear the air, because it wasn’t going to work out otherwise. Obviously the clearing needed to be that it was a one-time mistake and couldn’t happen again. It was a stark overstep in our relationship, and it didn’t matter how much I’d regretted stopping it.

It didn’t matter that a part of me wished I’d taken him into my room instead of pushing him away.

No.

Not at all.

It’d been a terrible mistake to even let that go along for as long as we had, and now a line had to be drawn.

A big, thick, black line. In permanent marker. So permanent that not even your great-great grandmother’s fool-proof stain remedy could fix it.

“What are you doing?”

I jerked at the sound of Elizabeth’s voice and pressed my hand to my chest. “Jesus, you scared me.”

“Why do you have Phoebe?”

“Isn’t that an excellent question?” I shot back, adjusting my grip on the feline. “Why is she still here, hmm?”

“My friend wasn’t home.” Her eyes sparkled. “Why is she out of the bathroom?”

“Ask your granddaughter,” I replied dryly, handing her the cat. “And on that note, I’m out. Mrs. Berry had to take her daughter to the hospital since her water broke, so she had to leave.”

Elizabeth frowned. “Angela’s in labour? Isn’t she early? Wait. Hold on for a moment, dear.” She hurried down the hall and disappeared into a bathroom with the cat and re-emerged two minutes later. “Had to fill their water bowl,” she said by way of explanation. “Alexander doesn’t know about the cats, does he?”

“No idea. I haven’t seen him today.”

“Oh. What’s this about Angela?”

“Her water broke. Mrs. Berry said she’s only thirty-five weeks.” I summed up the rest of what she’d told me.

“Oh, dear. Poor thing. Of course she had to leave.” She preceded me into the kitchen where she looked around. “Where is Boris?”

“Here, ma’am.” Boris appeared from the pantry with a box of teabags in his hand. “I was about to finish the tea canister.”

“Ah, perfect timing, then. We’ll take a pot in the conservatory, please.”

“Of course. Hello, Adelaide.” He nodded at me.

“Hi, Boris!” I replied brightly, passing him on the way to the conservatory off the kitchen. “How’s your day been?”

“Satisfactory,” he returned. “And your own?”

“Surprising.”

He gave me a curious look but didn’t ask me to elaborate.

“So let me get this straight,” Elizabeth said, sitting on one of the sofas and resting one hand on top of the other on her knee. “Angela is early, her husband is stuck on the motorway, and Sylvia might not be back tomorrow.”

“That about sums it up,” I replied, sitting on an armchair opposite her. “She said she couldn’t contact you or Alexander, so she asked if I’d pass the message on. I think her not being here tomorrow might be more about her watching her grandson than anything else, though.”