Page 28 of The Duchess’ Second Chance

“But you can’t promise that,” Rose said. “You don’t know what will happen in the future. You might get tired of having us here. You might think that you don’t want to care for a street urchin anymore. You didn’t promise that to your friend.” She said this very matter-of-factly, as though it was a perfectly reasonable thing that anyone might decide.

“That isn’t true,” Sampson told her firmly. “I mean, you’re right that I didn’t make any promises to George that concerned you, but you’re wrong to suggest that I would ever change my mind and turn you away. I promised to care for Amanda, after all, and it’s very clear how important you are to her. I couldn’t possibly turn you out and still claim to be caring for her.”

“And what if I do something that makes you angry?” Rose asked, raising an eyebrow. “What if you decide you don’t want a child in your house anymore?”

“I don’t believe that’s the kind of thing a decent man can take back,” Sampson told her. “I’ve already welcomed you and Amanda into this house. It’s your home now. Even if I did find it troublesome to have you here—and to be clear, I haven’t said that I do—the choice has already been made. You live here now.”

“You’re a decent man, then, I suppose?”

“I try my best to be.”

“You know, Amanda is very important to me,” Rose said. “She was so lonely when we met one another, so I decided that I would always take care of her. She takes care of me too, of course…but you shouldn’t make the mistake of believing that she has no one to defend her. She has me. If you ever make her feel sad or do anything to hurt her, I’ll see to it that you regret it for as long as you live.”

Her gaze was steady and fierce, and Sampson resisted the urge to smile. He knew it would be a mistake while she was being so serious.

“I understand,” he told her evenly. “You don’t have to worry. I would never want to do anything to cause any harm to Amanda. I want her to be happy just as much as you do. But I’ll remember this warning. I’ll remember that she has a protector who will be angry if anything makes her unhappy.”

“You’d better,” Rose said, but her face softened slightly.

“I’m grateful for it,” Sampson said. “I’m glad she has you, Rose. You know…my friend George wanted me to make sure that Amanda was taken care of, and that’s the most important thing to me. So in a way, you and I are partners, aren’t we? We have the same goal. We both want Amanda to be safe and happy.”

Rose’s brow furrowed. “Partners,” she said, as if she was trying out the idea. “Yes…I suppose that’s true. If that’s really what you want, then you and I could be a good team.”

He smiled at her. “That’s a start,” he said. “Being a team is a start.”

She smiled back at him.

An odd sort of thrill passed through Sampson at the realization that he might actually have won the girl over. He glanced at Amanda.

She was smiling too. She picked up her glass and tipped it slightly in his direction before taking a drink.

Yes, Sampson told himself again, deeply satisfied with the way the evening had played out. This is definitely a start.

CHAPTER 14

Amanda stood in the upstairs sitting room, looking around and feeling rather hopeless.

“What’s the matter?” Rose wanted to know. She had begun to dance about in the clear space in the middle of the floor. “I like this room. It’s so spacious!”

“That’s because all the furniture has been covered up and pushed back up against the walls,” Amanda said with a small smile. “But now that Sampson is home from the war and the house is in use again, we’re going to have to change that. We’ve got to get the room ready to be used, and ready to receive guests.”

“Why?” Rose asked. “Why do we have to have guests, if we don’t want to?”

“Well, we might want to,” Amanda said, laughing. “But also, Sampson is the Duke of Mortridge, and receiving guests is a part of his role in society. And now that I’m…a duchess…” the word still tasted strange on her tongue, “it’s a part of my role as well. I need to have a place to see visitors.”

“It seems an awful lot of work.” Rose was frowning, looking around. “Why did they cover everything in the first place?”

“There wouldn't have been any guests visiting the house while Sampson was off fighting in the war,” Amanda explained. “They covered things up to make sure everything would stay nice while he was away.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Rose agreed. “Well, you can ask the staff to put things back in order. You don’t have to do it.”

Technically, that was true. It would be the staff’s responsibility to do this, and hadn’t Sampson been clear that she ought to ask for help any time she needed it? But even so… “They have enough to tend to,” Amanda said firmly. “I don’t need to trouble them with something like this. I can easily take care of this task on my own.” She gave Rose a smile. “Would you like to help me?”

“How?” Rose seemed doubtful.

“We can start by taking the covers off of everything,” Amanda said. “That will be easy enough, won’t it?”

“Oh, yes.” Rose hurried over to a long, low mass beside the window and whipped the sheet off of it to reveal an old-fashioned settee. She frowned. “That’s funny looking. I don’t like the fabric.”