Page 18 of If the Duke Demands

But just as with his marriage, she simply couldn’t imagine that either.

He jabbed the tip of the sword into the ground, leaving it jutting up into the air at his side. “If you truly wish me well, then I ask you to behave yourself when we’re in London.”

Instantly, all her frustration flooded back. She crossed her arms indignantly. “I’m not a child in leading strings who needs a nanny. I’m a grown woman, in case you haven’t noticed.”

“Oh, I noticed.” The heated look he gave her sent electric tingles pulsing through her, and she couldn’t stop the flutter of her silly heart. Or the confusion that swirled through her immediately in its wake. “But you have to admit that trouble has a way of finding you.”

She stared at him, stunned both at his quiet accusation and at her reaction to him. “I don’t know what you mean.”

He arched a brow. “Did you not set fire to the mercantile last year?”

She was aghast! “That was an accident. A lamp was left burning on the floor where anyone could have kicked—”

“Set loose all of Mr. Latimer’s chickens, let the sheep into the barley field, ruined Mrs. Cooper’s prize pie?”

“Those were all unintentional, and you know it.” She couldn’t believe that he was attempting to use such innocent accidents against her, especially when she’d only been trying to help everyone.

He pinned her with a stern look. “Rerouted the creek?”

At that one, she hesitated, a hot blush of embarrassment creeping up from the back of her neck. Well, maybe thatonewas intentional. But she’d done it only to help the farmers whose fields were too far from the creek to water their crops during the drought. She’d had only the best interests of the village at heart. “That was an honest mistake.”

“I’m still picking rocks out of the south pasture.”

She winced. Good Lord, the man could carry a grudge! Was it her fault if problems seemed to pop up in her wake? Problems she had nothing—well,almostnothing—to do with? Certainly, she would agree that when she was younger she was a bit of a handful, always getting into trouble. Or rather, trouble somehow always finding her. But that had all stopped since she assumed oversight for the orphanage and found her path in life, finally having somewhere to channel all her energy. With his head always in the estate books, Sebastian simply hadn’t realized that yet.

And what was the alternative, to ignore the difficulties of the villagers and the neighbors she loved? She’d been too young to help her parents when they caught fever and died, and as long as she had the energy to help others—and it seemed shealwayshad plenty of energy to spare—she would however she could. Oh, how could shenothelp someone who needed her?

But perhaps not again with irrigation.

She took a deep breath of patience. “Those all happened years ago.”

“The mercantile fire,” he reminded.

“Mosthappened years ago,” she corrected. “Besides, no serious damage was done.” When he silently arched a dubious brow at that rationalization, clearly remembering the destroyed bolts of cloth that had been the fire’s only victims when the lamp she’d accidentally kicked spilled oil over them, she added, “I won’t do anything to cause problems for you in London, Sebastian. In fact, I doubt we’ll see each other very much at all when we’re there. So you’ll be free to attend Parliament and court all the ladies you want, while I’m with your mother and—”

She stopped in mid-sentence as a thought popped into her head. A perfectly wonderful, amazingly brilliant idea. Her lips parted as she considered…Oh, it would beperfect!

Sebastian’s eyes flickered in a combined expression of trepidation and alarm at her enthused expression. When her smile widened as she contemplated what she was about to do, his alarmed trepidation only deepened.

She tilted her head thoughtfully. “Will Robert be staying with you in London?”

“Yes, at Park Place.” His face darkened with full-out suspicion. “Why?”

She nearly laughed. Oh, a perfectlyamazingidea! “Then I’ll be on my best, perfectly proper behavior,” she boldly agreed. Her toes tingled at how flawlessly her season was coming together when only a few moments ago she’d been certain it was ruined. And another chance with Robert right along with it. “In fact, I’ll even help you with the ladies if you agree to—”

“How could you possibly help with that?” There was no heat behind the question, only open disbelief. And more apprehension.

She sent him a pitying look. “You have no idea of the true power plays which take place within women’s retiring rooms, do you?”

Sebastian only stared at her, his lips parting slightly and his sapphire eyes widening, obviously having no idea how to respond.

“Bachelor,” she chided with a shake of her head, softly clucking her tongue at his naïveté. “And you men think you run the country.”

“We do,” he replied and folded his arms across his broad chest. “Some of us more than others, in fact.”

She brushed that off with a wave of her hand. “I will behave myself”—although she knew that was an unnecessary promise because she was certainly capable of avoiding trouble for six months, for goodness’ sake—“and I will help you however I can in finding a wife.”

A smile of relief tugged at his lips. “Thank you for—”