That meant she might have only a week or two more with Leo. She intended to treasure every moment of it. But was she doing the right thing to leave him here with a family that resented his very existence?

The troublesome worry had kept her awake. She had tossed and turned in her bed for well over an hour before deciding to head down to the kitchen for a glass of warm milk. With the nursery maid sleeping in the next room, Leo should be perfectly safe.

Natalie quietly closed his door and wended a path through the darkened schoolroom. The chill in the air made her glad for her old woolen robe. As she descended the steep staircase used by the servants, the feeble light of the lamp barely penetrated the gloomy shaft.

It must be near midnight. The house felt as still as a tomb, the silence broken only by the faint scuffle of her footsteps. The eerie atmosphere raised prickles over her skin, but it wasn’t ghosts that she feared.

Rather, it was the notion of Leo growing up in such an oppressive place, deprived of affection as Hadrian had been. The duke had not precisely said that he’d yearned for love as a little boy, but she could read between the lines.

Having met Lord Godwin, she could well imagine him to be a cold, forbidding guardian. Hadrian would have received no warmth from a stiff-necked man who had sold even a child’s treasured pony. Was it any wonder that the duke wanted to indulge Leo?

The boy had been remarkably well behaved for the rest of the day, talking nonstop about the promised pony. Natalie had decided to subdue her objections. If Hadrian wished to present such a magnificent gift to his young relative, then she had no right to stop him.

After all, Leo had entered a world of privilege. As the grandson of an earl, he would be educated in the best schools and take his place someday among the aristocratic elite. The land of his birth, the parents who had loved him, the woman who had brought him across the ocean, would fade to distant memories.

She swallowed past the lump in her throat. At least Hadrian seemed interested in being a father figure in Leo’s life. But did the duke truly mean to visit Oak Knoll more often? Having been raised with a natural cynicism toward the nobility, she dared not make any assumptions. Especially since he’d given her reason to suspect there was another motive for him to seek their company.

He desired her.

Nearly missing one of the wooden steps, Natalie clutched at the newel post to steady herself. How absurd to feel so addled over an English duke. They were as far apart as the moon and the sun. Nevertheless, her heart beat faster as she dwelled on the memory of him holding her hand to his lips. The hunger in his eyes had been intense and unmistakable.