Page 83 of His Accidental Duchess

He turned abruptly, striding over to the table. Gathering up handfuls of the scandal sheets, Theodore crumpled them into a big ball and strode back to the fire. He stuffed in sheet after sheet of thick paper until the fire was stuttering and smoking, and the stench of burning newsprint filled the room.

“You’ll put out the fire if you go on like that,” Anna remarked, but Theo didn’t even flinch. “I can tell you now that your behavior only makes it more clear that something is up. You’re hiding something.”

“That remark,” Theo ground out at last, “should never have appeared in print. I’m deeply curious to know how the author of that particular journal heard such a comment. I think I shall have to conduct my own enquiries.”

He turned back to the table to get more scandal sheets, oblivious to the guttering fire. Anna slapped her hand down on top of the journals, forcing him to look at her.

“What happened?” she repeated. “I’ll keep asking, you know. Whatever scandal you’re afraid of, it can’t be anything too bad, can it? Did you murder someone?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Well, why can’t you tell me? You didn’t turn a hair at Henry’s revelation, and you saw that I didn’t either. You can trust me.”

He let out a bark of laughter. “My dear, I trust no one. You’d be wise to follow my example.”

That stung.

Anna blinked, loosening her grip enough to allow Theo to snatch the scandal sheets out from under her palm. In a flash, he was back at the fire, stuffing more paper into the flames. As she’d anticipated, the fire gave a smoky sort of cough and died.

Theo cursed under his breath, picked up the poker, and began angrily stirring up the embers. Pieces of half-burned paper came fluttering out of the fireplace, caught on unseen breezes and drafts.

“I am not prying into your business out of idle curiosity,” she snapped, standing up as straight as she could. A duchess wouldn’t shrink nervously in front of anyone, not even her own husband.Especiallynot her own husband. “I am trying to tell you that I care about you. I care about you, and I care about Kitty.”

“What about my reputation and my title?” he spat, not looking at her. “Do you care about that?”

“Well, of course I do! Maybe… maybe not as much as other things, but…”

That was the wrong thing to say.

Theo rounded on her. “Anna, I am telling you to drop this matter. It doesn’t concern you.”

She fought back a groan of frustration. “But itdoesconcern me! Can’t you see? I don’t want to know this sort of thing because I’m a gossip, but because it’smyfamily we’re talking about!”

“Barely.”

She flinched at that. “And what is that supposed to mean?”

Theo straightened up from his feverish task, at last. His eyes were glittering, and there was a sheen of sweat on his forehead. In the newly revived flames, which were now licking up the chimney, his face was thrown into an odd, fiery shadow.

He wiped his forehead with the back of his hand.

“It means that you are overstepping your boundaries, Duchess,” he said, his voice low and menacing.

“But… but I thought…”

He turned to face her. Even though he took no steps in her direction, Anna found herself edging backward.

“You thought what?” Theo said, his voice cool and even. “You thought what, exactly, Anna?”

She swallowed. The facade of a calm and regal duchess was quickly cracking, and she found herself faced with reality.

A girl out of her depth.

“I thought that… that after last night…” she trailed off, not quite able to look Theo in the eyes.

He didn’t laugh, which was a mercy, but the taut pause said enough.

“What was it that you thought, then?” he said, betraying no emotion. “As I recall, it was in our little contract, was it not? Hardly a surprise.”

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