from the streets, and no ladies and gentlemen, dressed in their finery, taking the air. Which was hardly surprising, he decided, ripping the kerchief from his neck and putting it to good use by placing it over his nose and mouth.
The air was foul, polluted by filth and grime which oozed from the tightly-packed hovels, and half-starved children, dressed in rags, or nothing at all, were grubbing round in the dirt. What it must be like here when the weather became warmer he dreaded to think. Little wonder these areas of the city harboured the constant threat of typhus. To the poor wretches living here disease and starvation were commonplace, a way of life from which there was little hope of escape.
He knew, of course, that it was the height of folly to remain in these noisome streets, where vice and corruption abounded on every corner, and yet he found his interest well and truly captured. So engrossed did he become in the heart-rending wretchedness surrounding him that it was not until almost noon that he ventured back to the more affluent part of the city, and was greeted none too politely when he did eventually return to his brother’s house.
“Where the deuce have you been?” Nicholas demanded to know. “Figgins informed me that you left the house hours ago.”
“That is correct.” Benedict joined him at the table, and helped himself to a cup of fresh coffee. “I decided to occupy my time while waiting for you to rise in exploring the capital.”
“Expect you discovered some changes, eh?”
“Can’t say I took much notice of the area round here. Whitechapel, Bethnal Green, Shoreditch and Smithfield certainly proved most interesting, though.”
“Good gad, Benedict!” Nicholas was beginning to wonder whether those years spent under a tropical sun might not have had some adverse effect on his brother’s mental state. “What on earth possessed you to venture to those spots? They’re all notorious havens for every form of low life. Even the Runners won’t enter those places alone, not even in broad daylight.” A disturbing possibility suddenly occurred to him. “Dear Lord! You didn’t go there to find a woman, did you?”
One ducal brow arched. “Credit me with some intelligence. Not that I didn’t receive several offers, but I have far too much respect for my health.”
“Well, thank the Lord for that!” his graceless brother responded, audibly sighing with relief. “Though I’m rather surprised you managed to return totally unscathed.”
“Dressed as I am, I no doubt appeared one of their own and, therefore, not worthy of accosting.”
This candid response returned Nicholas’s thoughts to what for him was the most pressing problem besetting him at the moment and, after hurriedly finishing his meagre repast, he wasted no further time in taking the first steps in putting his brother’s deplorable appearance to rights.
It rather amused him to see the appalled expressions on those famous Bond Street tailors’ faces when his brother entered their superior establishments in his wake. Benedict did not appear to take offence at the unenthusiastic reception he received wherever he went, and certainly displayed praiseworthy self-control when he was pulled this way and that, and measured with ruthless efficiency. Nicholas soon discovered, however, that beneath that veneer of complacency was an iron strong will, for nothing would induce Benedict to have his coats made fashionably tight, nor tempt him to select anything other than the plainest of colours for his clothes.
“Damned unimaginative! That’s what I call it,” Nicholas remonstrated, as they emerged into the sunlight once more. “Yellow-and-black-striped waistcoats are all the fashion this Season.”
“I do not doubt you are correct, brother. But I have no intention of going about the capital resembling something that spends most of its life collecting pollen.”
Nicholas was about to cast further aspersions on what he considered a deplorably unimaginative taste, when he caught sight of one of his degenerate friends on the opposite side of the street, and took evasive action by concealing himself in a doorway.
“I have no intention either of wearing coats so close-fitting that one cannot breathe, or breeches so tight that they’re in danger of splitting every time one sits down,” Benedict announced before he realised he was conversing with fresh air and, glancing round in an attempt to locate his sibling’s whereabouts, promptly collided with something soft, slender and totally feminine emerging from Hookham’s Library.
Benedict was powerless to prevent several books cascading from slender hands and ending up on the pavement, but managed to prevent the lady herself suffering the same fate by reaching out a steadying arm to encircle a very trim waist. “I’m so very sorry,” he apologised, silently cursing his clumsiness, and was about to relinquish his hold when the head beneath the fashionable bonnet was suddenly raised.
For several moments it was as much as Benedict could do to stop himself gaping like some lovelorn fool as thickly lashed eyes, with a spark of mischief in their beautiful green depths, twinkled up at him, and perfectly moulded lips curled into the sweetest of smiles. Beauties he’d known by the score, but never before had the sight of a lovely face and trim figure held him so totally captive, mind and body under some hypnotic spell, quite unable to function. The sights and sounds around him slowly began to fade, and he was conscious only of her, and the ever-increasing desire never to relinquish his hold.
Nicholas, on the other hand, stepping out from the convenient hiding-place, was instantly aware of the interest his clumsy brother was arousing in several passers-by, and promptly took command of the situation by treading none too gently on one roughly shod foot. “Don’t just stand there like a dolt!” he ordered, sublimely ignoring the flashing look of annoyance he perceived in a pair of masculine eyes. “Help this lady’s maid to pick up those books!”
Very reluctantly Benedict did as bidden, and Nicholas wasted no time in escorting the young lady in question to her waiting carriage. “Can’t apologise enough. The clumsy brute might have done you a serious mischief. I trust you’re none the worse for the encounter?”
“No, not at all, sir,” she assured him, her gaze momentarily wandering in the tall man’s direction as he handed her maid the books. “And please do not blame your servant. It was as much my fault as his. I was not attending where I was going either.”
Out of the corner of his eye Nicholas saw Benedict approaching, and hurriedly helped the lovely damsel into the carriage. “You are too kind, ma’am,” he responded, stepping to one side to enable the maid to enter, and then wasted no time in closing the door.
“Why in heaven’s name didn’t you introduce me?” Benedict demanded, aggrieved, as he watched the carriage move away.
“What!” Once again Nicholas very much feared those years spent beneath a Caribbean sun had taken their toll. “When I’ve done everything humanly possible to keep your identity secret since we left the house? You might have no pride in the name you bear, brother, but I most certainly have. Do you imagine I’ll permit London to see you going about looking like that? Why, it would be the talk of the clubs for months to come if your identity ever became known!”
Catching the eye of a passing jarvey, Nicholas hurriedly bundled his troublesome brother into the hired carriage before Benedict could draw more attention to himself. “I don’t understand what’s come over you, Ben. You used to take such pride in your appearance, and yet now you don’t seem to care a whit that you look more like a didicoi than a duke.”
More interested in the lovely image his mind’s eye was conjuring up, Benedict had listened with only half an ear to his brother’s strictures.
