Benedict's Challenge - Carole Mortimer Page 0,41

accuse us of entrapment.”

“No doubt,” Julius confirmed, unabashed. “And to ensure Gordon stays entrapped, I will ask the solicitor of Chloe’s parents, a man with whom my investigations mean I am already acquainted, if he would agree to come to Club Venus tonight. Once I have explained the situation to him fully, and purely as a representative of the law and an independent witness of Gordon’s lies and deceit, of course. That knowledge alone should prevent Lord Gordon being able to insist on Miss Gordon immediately being returned to his guardianship.”

“He can insist all he pleases, but it will not happen,” Benedict assured harshly.

Julius had revealed that his investigation had shown, while his men continued to search for Chloe, Lord Gordon had resumed his own nightly visits to Club Venus.

Armed with this knowledge, Jimmy had suggested that rather than them all descending on Gordon House, where Lord Gordon’s household staff would no doubt deny all knowledge of Chloe’s presence there, that instead Chloe confront and so disarm her step-uncle in the last place he would think to find her.

Club Venus.

Coming from anyone else, involving any other woman, Benedict knew he would not have objected quite so strongly, that the plan was sound. But even the thought of Chloe entering such an establishment was abhorrent to him.

If he felt that way, then perhaps it was, as Julius suggested, time for Benedict to sever his own professional connection to the club.

But not today.

If Chloe intended to put herself in danger—and she was being surprisingly stubborn on the matter—by confronting Lord Gordon at Club Venus, then Benedict had every intention of being there too.

Did that mean he had accepted the plan?

Did he really have a choice, when Chloe herself was so determined to see it through?

“I do not understand what was wrong with the gown you arrived here in.”

Chloe and Benedict were alone in a room off the main salons of Club Venus, with Chloe now valiantly trying to repress the laughter wanting to bubble free at the disgruntled expression on Benedict’s face as he glared his disapproval of her appearance.

Because, once at Club Venus—a large and garishly furnished establishment with three main rooms and a dozen private salons downstairs, the ladies’ own bedchambers up on the second floor—several of those ladies had taken Chloe away to change her appearance so that she looked the part.

In one of the rooms upstairs, they had applied powder and rouge to her cheeks. There was also a ruby-red pigment on her lips such as Chloe had previously only seen on actresses upon the stage, and yes, prostitutes walking the streets.

Her hair had been loosened from its fashionable style and now had several long and curling lengths brushing her back and shoulders left bare by the gown the ladies had chosen for her. A gown they considered to be more suited to their surroundings.

More suitable to the ladies, that is.

Benedict appeared to be scandalized by not only the color of the gown—a bright red to match the pigment applied to her lips—but also a neckline so wide and low, it left her shoulders bare and the tops of Chloe’s nipples visible. To shock him even further, the ladies had applied rouge there too.

Chloe gave Benedict a calming smile. “The gown I arrived in was more suitable for a respectable young lady of Society.”

“That’s because you are a respectable young lady of Society!”

“I cannot be that tonight,” she soothed. “This evening, my step-uncle must believe that I have become one of Club Venus’s ladies. It will alarm him as much as incense him not only to see me here, but to know that I am now free to speak with whomever I wish and on whatever subject I want. We came here to encourage him into confessing his sins, Benedict, not only of his treatment of me, but also to having ignored my parents’ last wishes when he claimed I am dead,” she reminded gently as he continued to look unconvinced.

His nostrils flared. “I shall remain close all evening, in case you have need of my assistance.”

Chloe touched his arm lightly. “Would that not cause Lord Gordon to think this might be a trap?”

Benedict stepped close enough to take her in his arms, his eyes having become so dark, they appeared like twin pieces of glittering obsidian. “I apologize for my language in advance, darling Chloe—but the truth is, I do not now, nor shall I ever, give a fuck what Lord Gordon does or does not think!”