Benedict's Challenge - Carole Mortimer Page 0,5

placed on the table had caused her to give another groan.

To answer Carlton’s question, Benedict had no idea what her name was, what possible connection she could have to Lord Gordon, nor anything else about her.

Indeed, there was only one thing Benedict was absolutely sure of as he stroked the tangle of golden hair back from her brow. “She is mine,” he stated emphatically.

Carlton gave him a wide-eyed look before nodding. “Very good, my lord. I’ll have Cook prepare a pot of hot sweet tea and bring it over directly.”

Benedict was barely aware of the older man leaving as he stared in fascination at the young lady who had somehow taken up residence in his heart and soul without the two of them having even spoken a word to each other.

Did she feel that connection too?

Was that the reason, after a mere few seconds of the two of them staring at each other a week ago, she had now sought him out?

Benedict somehow doubted that.

Yet here she was. And once he had examined her and was satisfied she was not seriously ill, Benedict intended to carry her over to the main house and make her comfortable in one of the guest bedchambers there.

“She’s a beauty.”

Benedict turned to see Jimmy standing in the doorway. “But half starved, wouldn’t you agree?”

The dark-haired young man strolled over to stand on the other side of the examination table, with only a slight limp to his gait to indicate his injured knee still troubled him. “I’d say so, yes,” he confirmed, his expression grim. “’Er gown and slippers is silk, and she’s refined lookin’, so starved on purpose, does ya fink?”

Benedict pictured Henry Gordon’s glittering piggish eyes and his bloated and overfed body before nodding. “Yes, Jimmy, I do think.”

“Does ya need me to ask the lads ta pay someone a visit?”

Jimmy’s “lads” consisted of the three equally disreputable young Cockney men who had visited Jimmy here several times during the past week.

“Can I defer making any decision on that for the moment?” Benedict answered slowly. “But let’s keep it in mind as an option,” he added in a hard voice as the young woman groaned again. She tried to roll over to her side but, for whatever reason, found the movement too difficult.

“’Er back’s ’urting ’er,” Jimmy said softly.

A spinal injury would surely have prevented her from walking here. So it must be some other injury to her back that was causing her this discomfort.

“’Elp ’er to roll over onto ’er side,” Jimmy advised. “I’d ’elp ’er meself, but me arms ain’t working proper right now.” He held up those bandaged appendages.

Benedict very carefully turned the young woman and was rewarded with a relieved sigh once she lay on her side facing away from him.

Turning her had revealed the high-backed gown was fastened with a dozen or so tiny pearl buttons down the length of her spine.

Even so, Benedict hesitated to unfasten those buttons so that he could examine her more thoroughly. It somehow seemed like an invasion of her privacy to half undress her when she was not conscious enough to be aware of it. Or protest it.

Which was ridiculous. He was a doctor and examined patients every day. He had actually cut Jimmy’s clothes off him the previous week so that he could learn the extent of the younger man’s injuries, and then had to give the younger man some of his own older clothing when it transpired the ruined clothes were the only ones Jimmy possessed. The younger man now made quite a dashing figure in one of Benedict’s white linen shirts, a silver brocade waistcoat, and fitted pantaloons. A slightly scuffed pair of Benedict’s boots completed the outfit of a gentleman, something that had caused Jimmy to grin cheekily.

Jimmy.

Benedict now realized his reluctance to unfasten this young woman’s gown was because he did not want to do so with the other man in the room.

Again, ridiculous.

Jimmy was hardly in any condition to appreciate this young lady’s body, let alone do anything about it.

Even so, that hesitation remained.

“Want me ta give ya some privacy?” Jimmy obviously sensed that reluctance. “Ya bein’ a doctor an’ all,” he added teasingly.

Benedict gave him a reproving glance. “Me bein’ a doctor an all, I merely wished to maintain this young woman’s modesty.”

Jimmy gave him a boyish grin. “I ’eard ya tell Carlton she’s yorn?”

Mortified, Benedict felt the heat of an uncharacteristic blush in his cheeks. He had said that. And he should not have done