Benedict's Challenge - Carole Mortimer Page 0,13

with Mrs. Underhill, and she will show you to your bedchambers and see you are provided with refreshment,” he instructed briskly. “The two of you look as if you are in need of a rest after our journey,” he added after a glance at their pale faces.

Jimmy, Benedict believed, because he had called the younger man by the more formal name of James. Chloe, because no matter how brief their hours of travel, she would not have been comfortable with the injuries she had and where they were situated.

“I will come and check on your dressings before dinner,” Benedict told her.

“Oh, but—”

“It was not a request, Chloe,” he cut in softly but firmly.

Her lashes lowered. “Very well, my lord.”

Benedict watched Chloe and Jimmy as they followed his housekeeper up the wide staircase to the bedchambers, not wholly convinced by Chloe’s air of obedience.

But for the moment, he had another matter in the east wing urgently in need of his attention.

Benedict hurried through the house and then up the wide staircase to where the private rooms were situated on the first floor, He tapped lightly before opening one of the doors and stepping into the sunny room.

A young woman seated in front of the window now turned to look at him. Her face instantly lit up with pleasure as she jumped to her feet and ran to him “Benny!”

Benedict caught her as she launched herself into his arms in total confidence he would not let her fall.

Because he never had and never would.

Benedict was not, as Jimmy had surmised, hiding his wife, the “mad Lady Winter” up here, but he was keeping someone very precious to him hidden away from prying eyes and hurtful mouths.

Chapter Five

Chloe felt slightly apprehensive as she waited for Benedict to come to her bedchamber later that evening. Not because she was afraid of him, but because he had not questioned her too deeply as yet regarding how and from whom she had received the wounds upon her bottom and thighs. But he did not seem the type of man who would continue to avoid the truth nor fear confrontation. A confrontation she could no longer avoid when Benedict came to dress her wounds.

As such, Chloe knew he would want more answers from her, sooner rather than later, other than her name and where she was born. What and how much she could tell him was her current dilemma.

Lord Benedict would have no choice once he knew of her true circumstances but to send her back to live in Lord Gordon’s household. Having once escaped, Chloe would now rather die than return to that prison of cruelty.

But to lie to Benedict was equally as unacceptable to her, after he had been so kind as to take her into his home and now bring her away with him to the country, out of harm’s way.

Not only had he done those things, but the trunk that had been waiting for her in her bedchamber not only contained new gowns but also new undergarments and bonnets, as well as pretty shoes and sturdy boots. There was also a box containing several small items of jewelry, such as earbobs and hairpins. She was, even now, wearing one of the gowns, fashionable and high-waisted and made of rich red silk. She also wore pearl earbobs and matching pins in her hair.

Yet more kindness from a man who declared himself to be bereft of that emotion.

Perhaps there was a middle ground where Chloe did not actually lie to Benedict but managed not to be exactly truthful either? Except Chloe could not think how best she might do that.

A knock on the bedchamber door ended her musings, and she quickly crossed the room to open it.

One look at the determination in Benedict’s expression after she had bid him enter told her that her thoughts were wasted because her time for prevaricating was now at an end.

Benedict looked magnificent in his black evening clothes and white linen as he stepped into the center of the bedchamber. He carried a familiar black doctor’s bag in one hand. “Pretty as the gown is, and however beautiful you look in it, it will have to come off,” he stated without preamble.

Chloe’s heart leapt, and a wave of arousal swept through her whole body at the suggestion of her being half naked in Benedict’s presence. It caused the hairs on her arm to rise and her nipples to tighten beneath her chemise before that heat then settled and centered