believe I made a fool of you, sir.”
“I am angry,” he said, “but mainly at myself for being such an unobservant lump. Aside from my wounded pride, I can’t deny that you are one of the hardest workers I employ, so it isn’t as if I didn’t get good value while I was being a fool.”
Benna wasn’t quite sure what to say to that.
He snorted and shook his head. “I suppose I should look on the bright side.”
“Er, the bright side, my lord?”
“I saw how Lady Catherine was mooning over you; at least I don’t have to worry about you being alone with either of my nieces, now.”
Benna couldn’t help smiling. “Yes sir, she is safe as houses with me.” She lifted her empty glass to place it on the end table but somehow misjudged the distance and gave it a good crack against the edge of the marble top. When she tried to catch it, a shard of glass stabbed into her palm.
“Blast and damn,” she muttered.
The earl was up and across the room in an instant and dropped to his haunches. “Let me see.”
“It’s nothing, my lord.”
He gave her an exasperated look. “As I am a doctor, why don’t you let me be the judge of whether it is nothing. Or is medicine something else you’ve been trained in?”
Benna’s face heated under his glare and she held out her hand.
He gently cradled her hand while he examined it. “You’ve jammed it in there good and deep. Hold still, this will smart.”
Benna gritted her teeth, not making a sound.
He put the shard inside the broken glass and cut her a wry look. “Tough, aren’t you? Now, let me make sure there isn’t anything smaller still in there.” He bent his head, gently prodding at her palm. “Just as I suspected,” he murmured, and then finished his digging and dropped a second piece into the glass with a soft clink. “It will need to be properly cleaned to avoid infection.” He looked up, the action bringing his handsome face only an inch or two from hers.
His smooth brow was wrinkled with concern—for her—his eyes once again soft, gorgeous, and velvety.
Don’t do it, Geoffrey warned her.
But Benna didn’t listen.
Instead, she did what she’d been wanting to do for weeks; she leaned forward and pressed her mouth against the Earl of Trebolton’s.
Chapter Eleven
Leeds
1815
Two Years Ago
“I won’t go,” Benna said, and then tugged off Geoffrey’s boot hard enough to almost jerk him from the chair.
Geoff clutched at the armrests, glaring down at her. “This will be an exceedingly profitable endeavor, Ben—you know how downy Lord Jevington is. Surely you recall last year, in Bristol?”
Benna recalled the four-day massacre very well. She must still possess an iota of conscience because she squirmed to remember the thorough plucking Geoff had given the witless young nobleman.
“You didn’t leave him a feather to fly with,” Benna, retorted, reaching for his other boot. “I find it hard to believe that he is so lacking in sense as to sit across a table from you again. Even if he is that stupid, I doubt he’ll have the blunt.”
Geoff scoffed. “Listen to you! Haven’t I taught you anything? The silly gudgeon is panting to give me his money. I’d insult him if I didn’t take it from him.” His eyes narrowed accusingly. “And why do you care, anyway? Did you fancy the idiotic young lordling? Is that why you’re refusing to go?”
Benna opened her mouth to deny it, but Geoff wasn’t interested.
“Don’t waste your sympathy on him, Ben, his father is Lord Stonehaven. The only Scottish family more well-larded than the Jevingtons are the de Montforts.”
Benna jolted at the familiar name, but Geoff didn’t notice.
His expression shifted from sharp annoyance to fondly nostalgic. “I won quite a packet off the last Duke of Wake. Bloody shame about his passing. I hear that his cousin, Norland, is a different kettle of fish.”
At the sound of Michael’s name Benna clenched Geoffrey’s foot so hard he yelped.
“Good God, Ben! Must you maul me so savagely with those brutish paws of yours?”
She muttered an apology and carefully pulled off the boot, placing it beside its partner before removing Geoffrey’s stockings.
“Get over your foolishness and prepare yourself to leave first thing in the morning.”
“I’m not going.”
“You bloody well will, Ben.” Geoff shoved the words through clenched teeth, his expression murderous.
Benna had caviled about fleecing certain punters in the past, but she’d never refused to accompany him on any of his trips before. Still, she could