Chapter Fourteen
“That was very badly done, Scarsdale.”
“Which part?” Benjamin dodged a fist thrown at him by Elkington.
His friend had found him at their preferred boxing club, Jackson’s, shortly after he left Elysium. Wells stood below the raised ring, leaning between the ropes, berating him.
“All of it, I guess. Principally, abandoning Lady Charlotte to the care of her good-for-nothing brother. Who, inexplicably, seems to be in the thrall of that cursed Lord Deering. The baron clearly has some plot for the earl, and I would not hesitate to wager it includes the fine lady as well.”
Benjamin lost his focus for a moment, and Elkington caught him in the arm.
“I would also wager you said something hurtful to the lady in question as well. She had a wounded look when I mentioned your name, and I can only assume you were an ass in some misguided attempt to distance yourself from her. Though, if I were you, I would be doing everything in my power to have as little distance between her and myself as possible.”
At that, Benjamin snapped his head towards Wells. “How dare yo—” His budding tirade at Wells was cut short as Elkington’s fist collided with the side of his jaw hard enough to make his ears ring.
“Aha! Thank you, Wells. I have never been able to land such a solid hit on him before.”
“Damn it, Elk. That is going to bruise.” He rubbed his sore jaw, making sure it was not dislocated.
“Serves you right.” Elkington swung out from under the ropes to join Wells below.
“Oh, so now you’re against me too.”
“No. You are against yourself. We,” he gestured between himself and Wells, “are firmly in your corner.” He laughed at his unintended pun and nodded at the opposite corner of the boxing ring, “Though not literally.”
“I am not against myself. I just do not want Lady Charlotte getting the wrong idea.”
“And what would the wrong idea be?”
Elkington was now leaning against the ropes beside Wells, wiping sweat from his brow with his discarded cravat.
Benjamin always wondered if Elkington’s valet was prone to fits.
It would take a steeled retainer to be able to put up with the man’s carelessness with his attire.
A byproduct of a carefree existence, he supposed, was a disregard for the fine trappings of such a life.
“That you are interested in her?” Wells asked pointedly.
“I’d say he is more than interested.”
“No one asked you,” Benjamin snapped.
“So you are not interested?” Wells stepped aside to let Benjamin duck between the ropes and join them on the floor.
“Of course, I am. A man would have to be dead not to be.” Saying it out loud made him feel terribly vulnerable. He poured himself a glass of ale from a pitcher at the side of the room and turned back to look at his friends. “I asked her to be my mistress.”
The twin shock on the two men’s faces would have been amusing in any other circumstance. He took a swig from the glass while waiting for them to process the information.
“You what?” To Benjamin’s surprise, Wells sounded appalled.
Angry even. He had not expected such a reaction from the man known far and wide to be a womaniser of the highest order.
“It was not some salacious and unprompted proposition.” Not completely true, he thought. “She came to me wanting to work off her brother’s debts. The services she offered were of no use to me, so I offered an alternative.” He kept his tone as matter-of-fact and business-like as possible.
“You want her to be your mistress to pay off a debt that is not even hers?” Now it was Elkington’s turn to look appalled. “Jesus Christ, Benjamin. She is a lady.”
“Perhaps.” He felt like a cad and did not know what to do to make it better. “But she is also the spinster sister of a man who owes me a great deal of money. I would say she is getting the better end of the deal.”
For a moment, he thought either one of his friends would pull him back into the ring and pummel him to a pulp. He found he did not like being on the receiving end of their disappointment. Still, he was fully within his rights to behave as he had. They were not saints themselves.
“If I had known that was why you were buying up Elford’s debt, I never would have helped you.
” Wells had been instrumental in unravelling some of the trickier accounts with his elite Mayfair connections.
If it weren’t for him, Deering would still have a significant stake in the Elford fortune—or what was left of it.
He had also made the arrangements for the Eton payments. Despite all his London power, Benjamin could never dream of understanding the politics that went into the premiere school for posh toffs.
Feeling defeated and rather disgusted with his behaviour, or at least Wells and Elkington’s perception of his behaviour, he tried to explain. “That is not why I did it. I swear to you. I did not even call the debts in. I did not intend to either.”
“So what was this? A charity case with an unexpected bonus?” Wells still looked unimpressed, but Benjamin could tell he was softening.
“No.” Although, at the core of it—yes, that is exactly what it was.
“It was not my plan. I don’t even know how she figured out it was me.
” Liar. Once he paid off the youngest Astons’ school fees, he had known she would realise it was him—had hoped for it.
In fact, he had expected her to figure it out from the start—though that was not why he did it.
The admiration he felt for that strong warrior of a woman, along with the lifelong contempt he had for the injustice of someone suffering for the misdeeds of others, had driven him to help.
She deserved to be free of her brother’s foolishness, and he had the means to free her.
There was never a second thought about it.
“It was just—” He struggled to find the words to justify what he had done in that moment. “It came out before I had even thought about it. She was sitting across from me, and she looked so—”
“Unwell?”
“Feverish from infection?”
“Shot in the shoulder?”
Benjamin gave them a quelling look. At least they had recovered their humour.
“Beautiful.”
It was not an adequate word for how she had looked in that chair illuminated by the glow of the fire.
No word could describe the pure gravitational pull she had exerted on him in that moment and every other moment he had spent in her presence.
Even when he was not with her, he felt the same draw to her—possibly even stronger in her absence.
“You horse’s ass.” Elk stared him down. “Beautiful or not, that is no way to approach an innocent lady!”
“She is not.” The words slipped out before he could clamp his mouth shut. Some perverse need to justify himself and the undermining of his usual control. God help him.
The two men stared at him in stony silence. “I trade in secrets.” He spoke in a flat, matter-of-fact tone, doing nothing to hide his weariness.
Wells’ dark blue eyes were cold as granite, the full force of the duke present and menacing.
“I say this as your oldest friend and as perhaps one of the few people in the world who knows you are not this man. But in the absence of her family—as her brother is even less honourable than you pretend to be—I will say this: another insult like this will not go unanswered. Not because of her virtue, not because of her status, but because that woman does not deserve to be toyed about by one single man more.”
Benjamin felt a deep, abiding respect for the man. “I agree.”
The words were quiet and full of apology. Wells stared him down a moment longer and, apparently satisfied he had made his point, backed down. Silence stretched between them.
“All that aside, why in the world would you proposition her?” Elkington still looked mystified.
Benjamin scraped a hand over his face, unable to explain the longing that was already far beyond lust. The fear he had felt when she was thrashing through the fever that went far beyond guilt. “I just…have to have her.” The words were paltry.
Elkington gave him a fond but pitying smile. “Why not just marry her then? You have money. She needs security—and certainly to be removed from her brother’s purview. Matches have been made on less.”
It was Benjamin’s turn to stare in shock. “Out of the question.”
Elkington pursed his lips. “I just don’t understand how you could make her your mistress like that. Especially after your mother—”
“Don’t. Do not speak of my mother.” Benjamin felt like his body had become encased in a block of ice.
“But—” Wells stopped Elkington with a hand on his arm, shaking his head. Elkington had only known Benjamin since he had fought his way off the streets. While he knew the story of Benjamin’s past, Wells had actually seen it firsthand.
“You know how we feel on the subject, and ultimately, it is Lady Charlotte’s decision—though she should be allowed to make it of her own free will and not some misinformed impression of obligation.
” He gave Benjamin a pointed look. “Though if you even try to play one of your sordid games of secrets and blackmail, it is you who will have a bullet hole in your shoulder. And I will not wait to meet you on a damp field to put it there.”
Benjamin was relieved to have the matter dropped and his friendships still intact, but he did not leave the boxing club feeling any lighter than he had when he had gone in.
∞∞∞
Charlotte sat beside her brother in a loaned Elysium carriage.
It had been sitting waiting for them as Freddie escorted her out one of the various side exits of the club, ready without a word to carry them away to their townhouse.
Had that been where Benjamin had rushed off to?
To arrange a carriage for her departure after kissing, insulting, then abandoning her?
No, that was too dramatic by half. He owed her nothing and thus, could not abandon her.
“Where is Rowley Calthorpe?” Charlotte found it odd to see her brother without his friend. They had been attached at the hip since they were in school.