Page 79 of His Arranged Duchess
Lucien abruptly shrugged his shoulder, dislodging Benjamin’s hand. “Don’t touch me. You deliberately told her something I told you in confidence. You did it to put a wedge between Frances and me. How can I ever forgive you for that? It was cruel, Benjamin, cruel. And you never used to be cruel.”
Benjamin flinched, blinking. “That’s not fair.”
“Not fair? I think it is. It is certainly true.”
Benjamin stared at him for a moment, brow furrowed. At long last, he sighed, shaking his head as if Lucien were a particularly troublesome toddler refusing to eat his vegetables.
“You’ll feel better soon enough. Now, the club I want to take you to will cheer you up. You won’t think of that pallid little thing a minute more, I can promise you that. If only you’d bedded her straight away, you wouldn’t be so miserable now, and I daresay thatshewould be in a better mood, too.”
Lucien was barely aware of his fist whizzing out from his side, catching Benjamin a cracking blow on his cheek.
The smaller man went sprawling out across the opera box, his feet all but leaving the ground. At once, he scrambled into a sitting position, visibly dazed. A bruise began to redden on his cheekbone, and a streak of blood began to descend from one nostril.
“You struck me,” Benjamin gasped. “How dare you? Howdareyou?”
A red-faced usher appeared in the doorway, breathless and mortified.
“Your lordships, please! This behavior…” he trailed off when Lucien held up a peremptory hand.
“Get out,” Lucien ordered shortly, anger seething in his voice.
The usher shifted, agonized. “Your Grace…”
“Out! Get out!”
The poor man whimpered faintly and withdrew, leaving Benjamin and Lucien alone.
“How dareyou?” Lucien hissed, taking a step forward. Benjamin scrambled backwards until he leaned against the inside of theopera box’s front. “You have disliked Frances since the moment you met her. Again and again, you have slighted her and made your feelings known. You’ve made it plain that you wished to get between us, and at last you have succeeded. Congratulations. Why did you do it, Benjamin? Why?”
Red-faced, Benjamin scrambled to his feet, coming almost nose-to-nose with Lucien.
“Why do you think?” he snarled. “Because I wanted my friend back! Since the moment you met her, it was as if we were not friends. Everything changed. Am I a monster for wanting things to be the way they were before?”
Lucien groaned aloud, covering his face with his hands. “Life is not like that, Benjamin. Things go forward all the time. Sometimes change comes, and we simply can’t undo it. And the plain fact is that even if you did do all of this to keep me as your friend, you’ve lost me now. It’s over.”
The color drained from Benjamin’s face. “Don’t say that.”
Lucien turned away. “I think perhaps you and I are on very different paths, old friend.”
Benjamin scrambled after him, hurrying to put himself between Lucien and the doorway.
“Now, hold on a moment. You cannot simply end our friendship now, Lucien. Not after all I’ve done for you.”
Lucien stared at him. “And what have you done for me?”
He gave a harsh laugh. “What have I done? What have Idone?”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake. Get out of my way.”
A hundred pairs of eyes bored into Lucien’s back. He didn’t want to risk turning around to look at the audience, lest he discover that more people were staring at him than at the stage. He was vaguely aware that the singing was continuing. A man and a woman were singing now, a choral accompaniment in the background. The music swelled, reaching a climax.
Benjamin waved a shaking finger in his face.
“That man your duchess was going to marry. Lord Easton. He intended to make you trouble, a good deal of trouble. I won’t bother to hide it from you, but I discovered the little secret your duchess is hiding, and needless to say, she should never have become a duchess at all.”
Fury boiled up inside Lucien, hot and simmering, and he took a threatening step forward. Benjamin gave a yelp and danced backwards into the hallway outside the box, holding up his hands.
“Don’t you dare hit me again!”
