“We do,” the girls said in unison.
“That’s good.” Phaedra ate another biscuit. “You can be whatever you want to be so long as you go about it cleverly.”
“What would you have liked to be if you weren’t born a lady?” Macy asked.
“Mmm,” Phaedra said, tapping a finger on her lip. “I’d probably be a spy.”
The girls erupted into a fit of laughter.
“But that’s a man’s job!” Maddie exclaimed.
“Yes, and I wouldn’t be able to be one unless I did so cleverly, like wearing men’s clothing or not caring what other people thought of me.”
“That is brave,” Macy said. Her eyes brightened then. “Areyou secretly a spy?”
“I still want to be a lady,” Evie piped up. “A lady detective!”
“If I were a spy, I would never reveal my identity to anyone. Not even to pretty girls like you. But I’ll tell you another secret that you should never let the men in your life know.” Phaedra smiled and leaned closer to whisper. “Women have always ruled the world.”
“They have?” Maddie asked with wide eyes.
Phaedra nodded. “Just read about Queen Elizabeth and Catherine the Great. They are women who ruled empires.”
“I shall have Mrs. Plum read it all to us at once!” Macy declared.
“What if we don’t have the book?” Maddie asked.
“Then I shall have to give you one,” Phaedra asked. “Just ask Mrs. Plum to write to Deerhurst.”
“Absolutely,” a deep, gravelly voice said. “And also an excellent point about Elizabeth and Catherine.”
Deerhurst leaned against the door, arms crossed over his chest, powerful and confident, an indescribable look on his face.
Her breath seized.
Phaedra thought herself to be a strong woman. She had just referenced two of the most powerful females in history. And yet, at that very moment, she could have laid an entire empire at his feet.
Her empire.
He suddenly looked different to her, which was utterly preposterous since he was still the same man that she had dashed through the city with an hour ago. Though, somehow, he resembled a knight, or a saint, or something beyond even that a little bit more each time her gaze found him.
Dear Lord, she couldnotbe falling for this man. She had dreams of spinsterhood and cats.Cad, he had no wish to beleg shackled.
No.
Absolutely not.
She could not be falling for Deerhurst.
*
Christ, he wantedher.
Deerhurst thought he might just go mad from want. He stared at Phaedra, still reeling from the sight of her whispering conspiratorially to the girls, her laughter and teasing doing things to his body that no woman before her had ever accomplished. He had made many mistakes in his life. Far too many to count. Some of them horrid enough to bury deep in the bowels of his mind.
But bringing her here was not one of them. No, this had been right.
For it liberated him.
