Page 92 of Give Him a Chance

“Good God,” came a voice from the doorway. “And here I was, living in ignorance, thinking that ladies never swore!”

Lucy could not help but grin as she looked up. “You’re escaping scandal here, then?”

“Afraid so.” Her cousin Benjamin chuckled, leaning against the doorframe with a sardonic grin and a twinkle in his green eyes. “Missed me?”

It’s hard to miss Benjamin, Lucy thought dryly as he walked into her father’s study and helped himself to the chair opposite her,because he seems to be perennially around.One of the more roguish of her cousins, the man had almost as bad areputation as Cousin Zander had once had, and that was saying something.

Though she had to admit, being the second son of the Dowager Marquess of Aylesbury had to be wearing, after a while. The man was perhaps bored.

Perhaps she should get him involved in the Prison Reform Society…

“Ah, I know that look.” Her cousin snorted, leaning back and putting his boots up on the desk.

“Benjamin!”

“Well, I do,” he retorted, though he did look a little shamefaced as he returned his boots to the floor. “That is your ‘I have a plan’ face.”

Lucy nodded and leaned toward him. “Maybe.”

“Frank has the exact same expression,” Benjamin said with a laugh. “Funny how these things work out, isn’t it? Things that run in families. I suppose it’s a good thing we all have so many siblings and cousins; we get to see family traits pop up all over the place.”

“Oh?” It was considerably difficult to find such a lighthearted conversation amusing at a time like this, but Lucy was game to be distracted.

After all, if it could keep her mind from thinking too much about Bernard Dixon…

Oh, bother!

“Yes, I often wondered whether certain habits or preferences could be traced through a family line,” Benjamin was saying casually, picking up one of the unused pens from her father’s desk and twirling it about his fingers. “Like… I don’t know. Musical ability. The talent of hat wearing.”

“‘Hat wearing’?” Lucy snorted, despite her misery. “You do talk rot, Benjamin.”

Her cousin sat up straighter. “Some people just look better in hats, and you know that’s true.”

Oh, now she understood. He had been sent on a cheering-up mission, Lucy realized with dawning comprehension. That was, he had probably planned to escape Town and his latest scandal and spend some time with her brother, and finding Percy out and hearing all that she was in the doldrums—she could only hope her family hadn’t told him why—he had been sent to dispel her gloom.

Well, she couldn’t blame her family for the attempt. Of all her cousins, Benjamin was the one who was always so cheerful, never taking anything seriously.

That was why he had been involved in so many scandals…

“Though I suppose we would have to try to account for upbringing,” he was saying lightly.

Lucy smiled weakly. “You sound like my mother, working out the odds.”

“Well, it could make a big difference, couldn’t it?” Benjamin shrugged. “Your preferences must change after certain events in one’s life. Like… Like a drowning, for example.”

Lucy froze.

No. It was a coincidence, nothing more. The man had picked an idea out of the air, she rationalized wildly, and they were in Brighton—it was natural to think of the sea. Perhaps he had noticed the mentions of transportation, of drowning in the letters—but no, there were no finished letters on the desk between them.

Her tears had prevented her from completing any of them.

“You’ve always championed a cause, haven’t you, Luce?” Benjamin said quietly.

It was not the use of her old childhood nickname that drew her notice, but the way he was speaking. This wasn’t likeBenjamin. He was never that serious, had never taken anything seriously in his whole life, as far as Lucy could remember.

This wasBenjamin, second son of the Dowager Marquess of Aylesbury, now brother to the new marquess, the sort of cousin you wanted at a ball but couldn’t rely on to post a letter.

Lucy frowned. “What’s all this about, Benjamin?”