Page 50 of To Defend a Damaged Duke
I’m in love with a duke in possession of two hunting lodges, Tommy thought.Lord, just strike me down now.
“This one hardly sees much use outside of the shooting season,” Benedict continued.“Not my thing, really, taking shots at defenceless animals.But, come the winter months, I suppose hunting and billiards are the only goings-on keeping us idle men of leisure occupied.”
Theonlygoings-on?Tommy still tasted Benedict’s hot kisses under the shady bower, not an hour since, and how his fingertips had cupped Tommy’s face as if it were precious.
“Let us stable the horses, and I’ll show you inside.”
Whilst as lavish as Tommy expected, for all its grandeur, the place had the empty, melancholic air of a home barely inhabited.Hovering in the entrance hall as if trying to ascertain his bearings, Tommy wondered if Benedict felt it too.While bold and garrulous in the saddle, Benedict seemed to shrink into himself inside the lodge.As if now he had Tommy here, he wasn’t sure what to do with him.
“It’s a lot, isn’t it?”Tommy said quietly.“Bringing a lover home to seduce.”
“I…um, yes.And only now am I discovering it.”He shot Tommy a curious look.“For the first time, we are entirely alone, you and me.And I haven’t a clue what to do next.”
Tommy could compose an entire list.“One’s education, no matter how grand, doesn’t generally include it.”
Benedict smiled faintly.“I’m going to make a cake of myself, aren’t I?”He huffed a laugh.“I assumed I would bring you here and, well”—his face coloured—“do what comes naturally.And I do want to do that, of course.But also, I can’t help feeling saddened that this…this subterfuge and a two-hour horse ride are necessary for us to be alone.”
“Surely it is better than the alternative.”
“Yes, but…” Benedict made an exasperated sound.“I don’t want snatches of you, Tommy, where we…we make love, then hurriedly put ourselves back together.We’ve waited too long.Although, just to be clear, I do want that too.But I also want to laze around my bedchamber with you, or my study.Or your study.Visit parks and friends and my stables and so forth.As good chums, like Francis and Isabella do.As well as…be lovers.”
“Rossingley manages it,” Tommy ventured.
“He does,” Benedict agreed.“Awfully well.But he’s…well, he has… He’s beyond reproach, isn’t he?He has a dead wife, bless her soul, and two sons.Angel hides in plain sight too.Men regard him askance, convinced he’s out to bed their wives, whilst the wives look at him praying for the same thing.And with a sly glance here and a flutter of his eyelids there, he is careful not to disabuse them.”
Benedict made another despairing noise.“Anyhow.Be that as it may.I daresay you’re famished.I…um…if I’m here alone, I fend for myself.”
Goodness knows how Benedict hadn’t expired from starvation, Tommy observed, as he led him downstairs to the kitchen.An inviting, freshly baked loaf sat in the middle of the rough-hewn table, still warm.Platters of cold meats, fruits, and cheeses circled it, enough to feed an entire shooting party.Tommy’s mouth watered; Benedict seemed baffled.
“Cutlery,” he said eventually, gazing about him as if a maidservant might miraculously appear and thrust the correct implements into the correct hands.“And plates.We need plates.”
Such was his bewildered, helpless expression, like a little boy lost, that Tommy took pity on him.
“Sit.”Pushing on his shoulder, Tommy plonked him in a chair.“You can make yourself useful by opening this claret.”
Then, gathering utensils, he fussed around with napkins, dishes, bread knives, and such, passing them to the coddled duke one at a time, tempted to explain their purpose—doing everything but eating the damned food for him.
So, yes.Differences.They had enough to fill a kitchen three times the size of this one.But as they sat opposite each other and exchanged a look, they still had the same beating hearts.
“This is terribly awkward, is it not?”Benedict laughed distractedly; it wasn’t a laugh at all, really.“You must feel as if you are visiting a bedridden maiden aunt or like a child forced to play with another whilst the mamas gossip and drink tea.”
“It’s the most entertainment I’ve had all week.I’ve decided that as payment for my riding lessons, I’ll teach you how to make a pot of tea.And peel potatoes.”
“Potatoes?Really?Do they have skin on them?”With a grin that lit up the room, Benedict poured them both a generous glass of claret.“I have no practical abilities at all outside the stables.I…didn’t exactly think it through, did I?I’m a spoiled, idle Corinthian, and you’re a—”
“An upstart who’s barely set foot outside the borough of St Giles?”
“I was going to say a person with vastly more experience than me in these situations.Boasting many, many more useful skills.And infinitely more desirable.”
“None of those statements carries an ounce of truth, Benedict.”It was funny, but now Tommy had begun using his Christian name, his mouth couldn’t forgo an opportunity to speak it.“Your physical virtues far outweigh mine, and as you know, this is my first trip to ahunting lodge.I’m making it up as I go along.”
“Myreservehunting lodge.”
“You are leaving room for my aspirations.”
Tipping back his head, Benedict took a swallow of claret.Tommy imagined it slipping down his long throat, and he wanted to lick the length of it himself.“Apart from the obvious,” Benedict said, swirling the drink around in his glass, “there’s very little to occupy one in the countryside out of season.”
The obvious was perfectly fine with Tommy.
