Chapter 180: Benjamin the uninvited guest
The next morning, the manor hummed with a suspicious kind of peace, the kind that always came before a parade of fashion, clashing matriarchs, or urgent palace summons. Lucas sat in the sunroom with his legs tucked beneath him on the chaise, a book open but thoroughly ignored in favor of sipping iced tea and pretending the world didn’t exist. He wore loose clothing, his hair damp from the garden breeze, and his eyes narrowed slightly like someone who had survived battle but not its paperwork.
The butler’s soft knock on the glass door announced the arrival of something worse than responsibility.
"Your Grace," Windstone intoned with dry precision, "Lord Benjamin is here to see the Grand Duke."
Lucas didn’t look up. He simply took another long sip of his iced tea, the kind that spoke of summer rebellion and a refusal to entertain drama before noon.
"Trevor’s upstairs," he said at last, lazily flipping a page he hadn’t read. "Tell him to come back in an hour. Or never. Whichever fits his outfit."
Windstone, to his credit, didn’t even twitch. "He said he came early on purpose."
Lucas narrowed his eyes at the glass. "That sounds like something he’d say before unveiling a jacket that costs more than a state-funded opera."
A beat.
"He also brought pastries."
Lucas paused. Considered. Then sighed and closed the book properly, setting it aside like one would a beloved but demanding child. "Let him in. But if he’s wearing sequins again, I’m invoking diplomatic immunity."
Windstone inclined his head and disappeared like smoke. A moment later, the door creaked open, and in swept Benjamin LaVierre, no sequins this time, but he wore cream trousers, an embroidered collar, and sunglasses that were absolutely unnecessary indoors.
"Good morning, Your Grace," he announced, as if the room needed narration. "You look devastatingly bored. I approve."