Daring the Duke by Anne Mallory

maid down, maybe with her arm pinned behind her back, and have a little talk. The girl had been hired by Travers a week past, and her insolent attitude was wearing thin.

    Only the manners' she learned from the tutor Flanagan had hired stopped her from teaching the girl a lesson now. "Sarah, go down and inform Mr.
    Maddox that I will be with him presently."

    As soon as Sarah's footsteps retreated, Audrey removed a floorboard, withdrew her specially made garters, and slipped them in place. She flipped one of her knives, testing its balance, and slipped it in the leather-and-lace sheath on her right leg. The hall clock chimed. She quickly encased the others while cursing the short sleeves of the dress. She grabbed her favorite hairpin and slipped it into the coil on the back of her head.

    She checked her reflection in the cheval glass. She was ready.

    Audrey stepped heavily on every loose riser on the way down the steps, causing irritating creaks. The noise annoyed Maddox to no end.

    "Girl, get in here."

    Someday. Someday one of her knives was going to slip from her hand.

    She entered the study. "ls something wrong, Maddox?"

    "Go back and change. I'll make your excuses. Travers won't like it. He won't like you going out at all." Maddox was standing behind the desk holding a letter opener. A note lay open on the desk.

    She shrugged and moved forward. "Is that all you have a care for—what Travers likes?"

    He glared at her and pulled the flat side of the letter opener across his palm. "Remember your task."

    "I know my task." She picked up the split missive. "Travers will cope. At this juncture, he doesn’t have much choice in the matter."

    "No, I ain’t gonna allow it. Being with the duke is too risky." Some of the accent he had worked so hard to extinguish came through. Very upset then. Audrey nearly shook her head in exasperation.

    "You ain’t goin' with Chalmers."

    She gave him a steely gaze and leaned forward. "Don’t think you can suddenly act like a real father, Maddox. It doesn’t work that way Besides, you’re the one who instigated this farce."

    He assumed the pouty look that used to work so well on her mother and whined. "Now Audrey you know what needs to be done. Stop trying to befriend the duke."

    "I am not trying to befriend the damn duke. How many times do I have to repeat that statement? What part of it do you not understand?"

    His eyes narrowed. "Don’t sass me, girl. I’m still stronger and larger. It’s not too late to take a strip
    off you." He unconsciously fingered his right forearm. The scar was a lasting reminder of the final time he had ever tried to whip her. Her thirteenth birthday the day she had taken control of her life.

    Well, to a certain extent. She wasn’t exactly living a free-and-clear existence at the moment.

    There was a knock at the front door.

    She lifted the message from Travers and tossed it in the fire grate. In his stupor, Maddox would have probably left it lying around for one and all to read.

    "You’re not going. I’ll tell him so right now. "

    Audrey didn’t respond; she waited several minutes, then followed him into the hall.

    Chalmers was leaning nonchalantly against the door, but he straightened and smiled when she entered. Maddox looked desolate. In contrast to Chalmers’s healthy, lightly tanned complexion and devastating smile, Maddox was sullen, his face blotchy and red.

    "Good evening, Your Grace," she said.

    Chalmers stepped forward and took her hand. "Miss Kendrick, how lovely to see you."

    Maddox halted Audrey’s progress by grabbing her arm. “Your Grace, I cannot allow Audrey to travel without a chaperone, and I’m afraid I’m too ill to attend."

    "Not a problem, Maddox. The Marchioness of Angelford is accompanying us. She is waiting in the carriage."

    An unholy spark lit Maddox’s eyes, but Chalmers brushed further conversation aside as he smoothly freed Audrey from Maddox’s grasp and tucked her hand into the crook of his