Page 19 of To Defend a Damaged Duke
“Bodily fluids?”supplied Rossingley.“Don’t be coy, Ashington.You’re not the first duke to swive a pretty molly boy.”
Swive?Back then, naïve Benedict hadn’t even understood swiving another man was anatomically achievable.And now that he knew—for many a good year he had fantasised of little else—he was still no closer to having ever done it.
“And if the molly was willing and eager,” continued a blasé Rossingley as if this was the most routine of conversations, “then it’s nothing to be ashamed of, despite what our precious society and the English lawmakers wish us to believe about ourselves.Anyhow, back in 1813, you weren’t much more than a boy yourself.”He pulled on one rein, steering the curricle smoothly into a bend.“You were going to tell me you don’t think this person is our culprit.For what it’s worth, I happen to agree.”
If he wasn’t so preoccupied with trying to conceal the fierce brush of crimson cantering from his neck to the tips of his ears, Benedict might have paused to wonder how Rossingley had drawn the same conclusion as himself regarding Tommy’s sealed mouth.
“Y-yes,” he stuttered.“I don’t believe it is him.”
“Good.”Rossingley threw him another careful look.He jerked the reins, and the horses sped up again.“So, what we need to do henceforth is discover the identity of our potential blackmailer and teach him or her a lesson they won’t forget.”
He laid a hand on Benedict’s arm.“A word of comfort, Ashington.People like them tend to underestimate men like us.They imagine your shame isolates you—it’s a standard bullying tactic, is it not?But we are kindred spirits, and men like us stick together.Just because we are inverts doesn’t mean we aren’t still men, strong and capable and with fire in our bellies.Leave me to chew on things for a day or two, and I’ll come up with the beginnings of a plan.”
Chapter Eleven
“TOMMY, DARLING.FORGIVEme for barging in like this, uninvited.”
“You’re a spoiled aristocrat.”Marking his place in the column of figures with his fingertip, Tommy added, blandly, “It’s what you do.”
“Precisely.I knew you’d understand.Alas, far too many don’t.”Rossingley flopped into the spindly seat facing Tommy’s desk.Under his nimble frame, it made nary a squeak of protest.“But, more pertinently, I’ve discovered the identity of your lordling.”He pulled a face.“Gadzooks, you don’t do things by half, do you?A duke?Wasn’t a common or garden baronet or a mere viscount, good enough for you?You had to tumble a damned duke?”
Tommy laid down his quill to properly regard his visitor, amused despite the seriousness of his growing predicament.“I assure you, Lordy, he wasn’t very ducal at the time.He was gauche, clumsy, and spewed like a volcano the second I laid my hand on his prick.”
And I loved him with every fibre of my being, regardless,he could have added, but Rossingley already knew that.
“And yet,” murmured the earl softly as if reading his thoughts.
“Precisely.”Tommy allowed himself a small smile.“I knew you’d understand.Alas, far too many wouldn’t.”He set aside the fat ledger.“My innocent lordling has grown into a beauty, has he not?”
“Albeit a petrified one, yes,” agreed Rossingley.“Mind you, he’s always been a timid chap.And someone out there is determined to ruin him.”Adjusting his impeccable cuffs, he eyed the pot of barley sugar candies on the corner of Tommy’s desk, reserved for the earl’s consumption alone.
With a shake of his head, Tommy pushed the jar towards him.“I am already apprised of the situation.He came to see me in a state of great distress.How did you find out?”
“I chanced upon him trying to behave normally at Tattersall’s.”
Selecting a sweet, Rossingley untwisted the wrapper, then popped it in his mouth.“The man could barely piece a sentence together,” he continued around the bulge in his cheek.“You know, I’d always fancied Ashington shared ourunnaturaltendencies.Since he was a boy, in fact.He used to trail around after me in the stables whenever his family came to stay.I’d build up a sweat brushing down my father’s favourite mare and then strip to my undershirt and amuse myself by watching the poor boy becoming increasingly bewildered.”
He crunched the sweet noisily.“Anyway, I digress.Seeing as he was so miserable, I invited him for a ride.Once I’d insinuated that we were both of a similar persuasion, he couldn’t wait to offload his weighty burden from those broad, ducal shoulders.And may I just say how deliciously broad they are.”He flapped his slim hand in front of his face, “Nothing beats a duke in danger to get the juices flowing, Tommy.Don’t you find?”
Tommy sighed heavily.“You are irredeemable, you know that, don’t you?”
“Gadzooks, yes.”A second sugar barley disappeared the way of the first.“Kit encourages me daily.”
A sense of unease plagued Tommy’s mind, worst-case scenarios unfolding.“Have there been any new developments?Is he being blackmailed?”
Rossingley shook his head.“Calm yourself, dear.Not yet.He’s shaken up, nothing else.So far, our unknown friend has merely signalled his or her malign intent by sending Ashington a list with his name on it.”He gave an elegant shrug.“But I can’t help thinking it’s only a matter of time.”
Tommy selected a crumpled scrap of paper sitting on the top of his pile of correspondence, holding it up by his finger and thumb.“You mean this list?My own copy arrived this morning.”
The earl squinted at it.“I imagine so.What ghastly handwriting.Though at least we can narrow our search to illiterates with black ink stains on their cuffs.”His shrewd gaze travelled back to Tommy.“Our perpetrator is demanding five hundred pounds from you but not from the wealthy duke.”His brow wrinkled.“That’s a little odd, is it not?”
Tommy nodded.“More than.”
“And yet you don’t appear as perturbed as His Grace, despite the blackmail.”
“Mostly because I’m bloody livid,” answered Tommy calmly.“That’s why.”
“Hmm.”Rossingley pinched his lower lip in thought.“For yourself or for…?”The delicate question hovered between them.
