Benedict's Challenge - Carole Mortimer Page 0,23

evening.” He glanced at Jimmy. “Both of you.”

“Maybe,” Jimmy accepted grudgingly. “Whether I remain at the table or not will depend on how many more questions you want answered.”

“Chloe?”

She stared at him wordlessly for several long seconds before nodding abruptly. “Very well. But with the same proviso as Jimmy.” She hurried from the room before Benedict could argue with her on the subject.

“Leave her be,” Jimmy cautioned as Benedict would have followed her. “Could you have been any more of an unfeeling bastard?” he accused.

Benedict flinched at being called that twice in as many minutes. “I cannot help Chloe if she does not tell me the truth.”

“But by being so fucking remorseless about it, her pride is now as wounded and raw as her flesh.”

Benedict felt his cheeks warm at the truth of the younger man’s accusation. He had been remorseless. But not because of any deliberate intent of cruelty on Benedict’s part. He needed to know what Gordon had done to her, because one day, he intended to make it his mission in life to repay every one of the blows dealt to Chloe by Lord Gordon. Her confirmation that Benedict was the reason for that last beating now cut him to the bone.

That day at Lord Gordon’s, Benedict had been so confident of his ability to trick the older man into revealing Chloe’s presence in the house during his medical examination, he hadn’t thought of the consequences there might be to her after he left.

He had now seen with his own eyes exactly what that consequence had been.

He rose abruptly to his feet, crossing the room to pour brandy from the decanter on the side dresser into two glasses before stepping back to hand one to Jimmy. “My first instinct is to go and apologize to Chloe, but my second is to tell you to let your lads loose on the bastard.”

The younger man smiled. “The first I do not advise. The second, if you still feel the same way in the morning after sleeping on it, then I’ll happily oblige. As, I’m sure, will the lads.” His expression sharpened. “Now, if you want to continue in the same vein and annoy your other guest, then you could always return to the subject of your earlier questioning of me.” His gaze challenged Benedict to do so.

He gave the ghost of a smile. “I think not.” Whatever Jimmy’s secret was, it would seem he had kept it for many years. It could remain so a little longer.

“Wise man,” Jimmy approved.

In the meantime, Benedict intended to write to Julius Soames and ask if the earl could look deeper into the lives of Chloe and Jimmy, both past and present.

Benedict knew that having Jimmy’s friends beat Lord Gordon to a pulp would only be a temporary measure, and he needed something, anything that Julius could glean for him that would result in his being able to remove Chloe permanently from Gordon’s house.

Once Jimmy had gone off to his bed, Benedict lingered in the dining room to finish drinking his brandy, as he was still bombarded by a need to go to Chloe’s bedchamber and apologize to her for being the reason Lord Gordon had taken a whip to her. He thought long and hard on the subject, knowing it was a need he felt to salve his own conscience.

But by doing so, would he only succeed in adding to Chloe’s humiliation?

Once upstairs in his bedchamber, Benedict’s thoughts continued to fall over themselves naming the pros and cons of going to Chloe’s bedchamber.

To distract himself, he wrote his letter to Julius Soames, ready to be relayed to the other man in London the following morning. He made special mention of Jimmy’s response to the Earl of Ipswich’s name, and Chloe having mentioned that Henry Gordon was her father’s half brother. Benedict had never heard of Gordon having a half brother, but that did not mean the relationship had not existed.

Even if Benedict’s preference, for Chloe’s sake, was that it did not.

The letter written, Benedict deliberately kept his mind blank as he changed into his nightshirt before climbing into bed and blowing out the candle. But it was impossible for him to fall asleep, his mind once again racing with the memory of how much he had upset Chloe earlier. After only a few minutes of tossing and turning beneath the cover, Benedict rose again and began to pace his bedchamber.

He knew instinctively that, because their earlier conversation had once again brought her