Lords of Honor (87 page)

Micah
spent a great deal of time at
Wychcombe House
during his youth
.
He knew exactly where he was in the gallery
,
even in darkness
.
He knew where Davitt retrieved the sword
.
He heard another swoosh. Seeing a
small
glint
of moonlight reflecting upon steel
, h
e
quickly
jumped
away, out of reach from the weapon
.
He
backed against the wall, reached behind him and took down
the one remaining
sword that was displayed
up
o
n the wall.
The
weapons
were a matched pair
.

Unfortunately, one sword was in good shape; t
he other
broke
decades ago
.
It
was forged back together
for the sole purpose of hanging it on the wall
.
It was weak
.
It
might
break
.
In the
darkness
he could not tell which
sword
he held
.
He inched to
a nearby
window and flung open
one of the heavy
drapes allowing
a little
more
light
into the room.
Micah lunged away
and
to the side
as Davitt forged toward him
.
He noted Davitt limped heavily
on his left side
.

Still
Micah
could not tell which blade he h
eld in his hand
.
The light was
just
too faint to
see
if he
held
the once broken sword
.

The moon came from behind clouds and offered a little more light
.
Micah
watched
as Davitt
rushed
toward him,
sword outstretched
.

Sword in one hand,
Micah
raised his pistol
in the other
.
He f
ired
.
He saw Davitt
move
to the side
as he squeezed the trigger
.
Damn, h
e
missed
!
There was only
one shot
in that pistol
.
Bloody Hell
!
He threw the empty pistol at Davitt
.
It hit him in the forehead and bounced off
.
He heard Davitt grunt as the pistol fell with a thud to the floor
.

Micah watched as Davitt once again charged him with his sword held high
.
Davitt was no
swordsman
, but
possessed
a great deal of strength
.
Micah
reached down into his boot and retrieved his knife
.
He
took careful aim and threw
it at Davitt
.

Davitt faltered
,
his
sword
waver
ed
in the air for a few moments
.
He continued onward toward Micah
.

Micah could better see his opponent
as he stepped into the moonlit area of the gallery
before the large window
.
The knife appeared to be lodged in
Davitt’s
upper arm
near the shoulder
.
He
aimed for Davitt’s heart
, but his aim proved to be off
.
Davitt
’s
gaze moved from the
knife
in his shoulder
to
Micah
.
He moved forward with an angry growl
.
“You’re a dead man, Wincanton
.
I’ll
carve
you into pieces
.
I
wi
ll cut
your w
ife
up so no one will ever want to look upon her
, a
fter I
use
her
, of course
.”

Davitt swung his sword at him
.
Micah moved
in with his weapon
to block the blow
.
The meeting of steel upon steel caused sparks
to fly
.

Micah knew when
he met Davitt’s blow that he held
the weak blade
.
He felt the metal give
.
The sound of
steel
clang
ing up
on the floor
echoed in the room
after
Micah’s sword
broke
.

“Micah?” Libby sat up
.
Oh, God
!
Micah and Davitt were fighting with swords, just like in her dream!
“Stay focused, Micah
.
Don’t get angry!” Libby called out in what she hoped was a calm voice
.

Micah turned
his attention
momentarily
toward his wife
who sat
beyond Davitt at a safe distance.
She was trying to
get to her feet
, and appeared to be having difficulty
.

At the same
moment
, Davitt bent to retrieve a pistol
from his boot
.

Micah
caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and
kicked it out of his hand
.
It skittered across the floor close to where Libby tried to raise herself from the floor
.
She began to crawl
to reach
the pistol
.

Davitt removed a
larger
pistol from his coat and pointed it at Libby
.
“Leave it, bitch!”

Libby stilled.

Micah moved forward to try and get the pist
ol from Davitt’s hand
.
Davitt leveled
his
sword to point at Micah’s chest.

Micah had
only
one weapon left
on him
.
He
must
make
his next move
carefully
.
Quickly, he
stepped back,
bent and slid his fingers in
to
his
other
boot to retrieve his
larger
knife.

He was out of
sword’s
reach from Davitt now
.

Davitt swung the pistol
back
to aim at Micah.

“No
, Wincanton
.
I
think I
will kill you first
.
Know that
I will fuck
your wife
, beat her
and cut out her eye, after I carve her face so no one shall ever look upon her again
.
She will live her life in sorrow remembering the only man who would have her is dead.
”

“No you won’t
, Davitt
.
I’m going to kill you first,” Micah said calmly
.
He carefully watched
his opponent
.
He forced himself to remain calm and collected
.
His life and Libby’s depended upon it
.

“I’ve a sword and a pistol and you’ve a knife
and the stump of a broken sword
!” Davitt
’s evil laughter echoed in the long gallery.

“You’re still going to be dead.”

“What kind of imbecile are you?
I’ve just to pull the trigger
.
And
you
are dead
.”
Percy aimed
his pistol at Micah’s heart
.

A shot fired
.
The boom reverberated through the long, high-ceilinged room.

Davitt jerked
.
His pale green eyes grew large
.
The sword dropped from his hand
.
He loo
ked down at the sword
upon the floor
.
He made a strangled sound as he
raised his arm
to aim
his weapon
at
Micah
.

Micah knew Davitt was hit in the back
.
Libby must have
reached the pistol and shot him
.
Micah
kicked
at
Davitt’s arm
.
His pistol went flying
.
Micah slashed his knife deeply across Davitt’s cheek
.
“That’s for Libby.”

Davitt sank to his knees
.

Micah looked
across the room
to see Libby crawling toward
the kneeling
Charlie
.
Charlie held the
smaller
pistol Micah kicked from Davitt’s hand
earlier
.
Charlie
remained where he was
,
arms extended
,
still
holding the pistol
.
It
had been
Charlie
who
Micah saw
crumpled
on the floor
beyond Libby
when he first entered the gallery
.

In the moonlight
Micah saw a large
,
dark
stain covering Charlie’s chest
in the area of his heart
.
He could not miss the long knife handle protruding from his friend
’
s chest
.
A handle that large, meant a long blade
was
thrust into Charlie’s chest
.
He was badly wounded, possibly fatally.

“Did I get him, Micah?” Charlie’s voice was raspy.

“Yes, Charlie
, y
ou got him
.
Thank you
.”

“Good
.”
Charlie fell
back to crumple
into a heap on
the floor
.
Clutching her torn nightgown and wrapper to her, Libby scrambled
faster
to
ward
Charlie
on her hands and knees
.

“Charlie
!
Oh,
Charlie!” Libby called
frantically
as she reached him.

Micah looked
down
at Davitt, still on his knees before him.
Davitt lifted pale green eyes
upward
to
meet
Micah
’s
.
Blood dripped from his mouth
.
He tried to speak
, but merely made
a gurgling sound
.

“
This
is for Charlie.” Micah
let his knife glide through Davitt’s throat
.

Micah
heard the
dull thud
of Davitt’s body hitting the floor as he
threw the broken sword
aside
and
ran toward Charlie and Libby.

Libby lifted her tear-stained face upward as Micah bent over her and Charlie
.
Libby held one of Charlie’s hands in both of hers.

“Charlie?” Micah called
softly
.