Benedict's Challenge - Carole Mortimer Page 0,11

him if Lord Gordon seemed about to visit Surrey any time soon.

Julius was enough of a friend not to have asked for too many details.

Which was as well, because Benedict did not have them to give.

Chapter Four

Chloe could not believe how much her life had changed in such a short time.

Her escape from Lord Gordon’s house.

Locating and then collapsing outside Lord Benedict’s home.

Waking from her faint to find herself cozily ensconced in a bedchamber inside Winter House.

Having hot broth and freshly made bread and butter to eat.

Being allowed to sleep through the night, warm and safe, in that comfortable bed.

In the morning, after she’d been served a delicious breakfast in bed, a large box had been delivered to the bedchamber by Benedict’s butler. Inside it, Chloe discovered a new gown and undergarments. Not of the same blue silk Lord Gordon always insisted upon Chloe wearing, this gown was a deep violet, which seemed to give her eyes a similar hue. There was also a matching bonnet and cloak, the latter having a warm black wool lining and the same violet silk on the outside. Soft black leather gloves complemented these outer garments.

A cloak, bonnet, and gloves which Chloe now wore for the carriage journey into Surrey. Seated with her in the carriage was Lord Benedict Winter and a young man who had been introduced to her as Jimmy Brown.

Chloe had no idea what the relationship could be between the two men when they were obviously so different in circumstance and speech. Although the fact the younger man wore a bandage upon each arm would seem to indicate Jimmy was another of His Lordship’s patients.

Lord Winter remained mostly silent during the journey, and Chloe appreciated Jimmy’s conversation to fill some of that silence as they traveled farther and farther into the countryside.

A second carriage had left London shortly ahead of them, conveying both Lord Winter’s valet and the luggage.

Their own carriage eventually turned down a long driveway, where deer grazed on the grassland either side of them. The large and majestic house at the end of that driveway, with its turrets and two wings off the main house, was beyond anything Chloe had ever seen before, and she could see that Jimmy was equally as awestruck.

Chloe had lived with her parents in a small manor house, a quarter the size of this one, until their deaths two years ago, after which she had been consigned to the attic of Lord Gordon’s London home.

The changes in her circumstances now were due to Benedict, as he continued to insist she call him.

She knew that some might think his silence was due to him being either taciturn or disapproving of his present company. But Chloe had witnessed his genuine affection for the irascible Jimmy as the two men chatted with Benedict’s valet this morning while the first carriage was being loaded to go ahead of them.

She was also completely aware of Benedict’s continued and many kindnesses toward her. Not only had he taken her out of London, well away from Lord Gordon’s reach, but Benedict had told her that one of the trunks being loaded into the other carriage contained more new gowns and clothes that he had purchased for her to wear.

Benedict might deny it all he wished, but she knew him to be the kindest gentlemen she had ever met.

The magnetic draw of this man, which had so affected Chloe the previous week she had forgotten everything else and so been caught by Mrs. Tailor as she stared down at Benedict from the gallery, had also returned and deepened the longer they were enclosed in the carriage together.

He smelled so clean, of pine trees and sandalwood, along with that male and enticing spice which added to his allure. His mere presence made Chloe’s pulse pound and her heart sing.

“Mrs. Underhill will show you where you are both to sleep,” he informed Jimmy and Chloe once they were all standing in the cavernous marble entrance hall of the house. “You may enter all parts of the house except for the east wing.”

“Is that where ya keeps ya wife, the mad Lady Winter, locked away?” Jimmy came back cheekily.

Benedict’s gaze turned icy. “It is enough that you have been told not to go there.”

“Right. Sorry.” Jimmy looked suitably chastened. “Understood. No goin’ inta the east wing.”

Benedict instantly felt like an arse for behaving in such a cold and arrogant manner toward his friend. Not that he did not wish both Jimmy and Chloe to