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Chapter 15
Fourteen Years Ago
The dinner going on around him passed Aleksey by in a blur of noise.
He felt as if the two of them were a study in a Vermeer painting: all the room shadowed except for their countenances, where light drew the eye.
He didn’t like it.
Starting to feel the effects of the wine at last, he’d continued drinking heavily. As had Ben, he noted.
He’d thought it one of his more sadistic acts to sit Ben next to his wife, when he could so easily have placed the younger man next to him. Ben only had to look around the room to see that men outnumbered women, and that many were sitting quite happily together, chatting.
Ben was listening politely to something Philipa was saying whilst they were waiting for the main course to be served.
When she turned to engage the man on her other side, Ben leant back in his chair and turned his gaze to him. The table was too wide for conversation, however, so whatever Benjamin Rider was thinking had to remain inside his own head. When Philipa returned her attention to her wine glass, Ben immediately asked her something, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on him.
Philipa then regarded him as well, and after a moment smirked something back to Ben’s enquiry. Ben chuckled and gave him an eyebrow raise.
Aleksey actually saw himself rip the sides of his crate apart and unfold. His entire body trembled on the brink of such explosive fury. All he could do in reality, however, was drain his glass once more. The inadequacy of such a gesture under such extreme provocation only made his anger roil more.
The question and answering went on until Ben nodded thoughtfully and leant back once more.
And resumed his apparently fascinating study.
Aleksey, still picturing the aftermath of revealing himself fully, allowed a slow, sardonic smile to creep over his features.
He couldn’t be sure, it might have been merely the wavering light from the candle flames, but it appeared to Aleksey as if Ben Rider’s expression then mirrored his.
Food arrived. Ben’s attention flicked away as quickly as a cat’s might upon spying sneaky mouse-like movement. Interest in him was apparently supplanted by a platter of mashed potatoes.
The main course was demolished.
It was hard to watch. Even gulag inmates occasionally chewed.
Ben only came up for air once, and this was to look with a mystified glance tohisuntouched plate.
Aleksey saluted him with his glass.
Ben considered this gesture for a moment, still frowning, before responding once more in kind. He polished off his glass, however, with a twitch of amusement on his lips.
* * *
After dinner, they somehow remained the only two people seated at the table. Aleksey indicated for the port to be left and dismissed the staff.
Candles were the only illumination. No other conversations around them, it was now easy to talk. Aleksey couldn’t think of a single thing he wanted to say. But he said it anyway.
“What were you and Lady Philipa discussing about me?”
Ben’s eyebrows rose a little, perhaps at the directness of the question, and he helped himself to some more port before answering. “I asked her how you met.”
“What did she say?”
Ben tilted his head to one side. “She didn’t seem too sure. Said you were…just there one day. And stayed.”
Aleksey almost smiled. “Like a stray dog?”
Ben took a long swallow of the deep amber liquid. “Lost one, maybe.”
