The Wedding Runaway (16 page)

Lydia went down the stairs and found a lamp-lit carriage waiting for her. Keene studied her as she climbed up the steps and then he followed her in and shut the door.

"
It would be customary to write out your last will and testament now
,
if you haven
'
t already done so.
"
Keene gave her an assessing look. He handed her a portable writing desk
,
complete with recessed inkpot.
"
In case anything should happen.
"

Fear made her hand shake as she lifted the pen.

"
All you have to do is tell Victor why you are here. If it is because of your relationship with your maid...
"
Keene let the words dangle.

So that was what he thought. That Leonard had run away to have an affair with a maid.
"
It isn
'
t because of Jenny.
"

Keene kept his silence as they traveled from the city to the countryside
,
the steady drone of the wheels and horses
'
hooves against cobblestone
,
fading to the crunch of gravel then to muffled thrum of dirt roads.

She descended in the early dawn air in a place that might once have been a drive to a grand house. Two rows of trees stood sentinel on either side of the grass corridor that led to nothing. Bare branches reached overhead like bony fingers ready to snatch her soul away.

Surely
,
it was a reminder that the life she
'
d chosen
,
to live freely as a man would live
,
led to nothing and she would have to go back to her future as Lydia Hamilton
,
daughter of a wealthy American shipping mogul and intended wife of Oscar Sullivan.

While she wouldn
'
t mind returning to her life as a woman
,
if she could manage some means of income
,
she did not want to leave Victor. He may hate her and despise her
,
but as mixed up and crazy as everything was
,
the world felt right when she was around him. Whether he was berating her clothing choices or giving her a quiet aside about the proper behavior of a gentleman
,
she liked being near him.

She
'
d even stifled her fear of horses to be with him that fateful day at Tattersall's. Or perhaps she hadn
'
t been as in control of her emotions as she should have been.

The two carriages and a black hack were parked well away from the combat area. All the men were solemn as the wispies of fog swirled around like ghostly witnesses.

A tall, tawny-haired man with unearthly pale eyes limped toward her and Keene. He held open a dark wood box.

Pistols with barrels a dozen inches long rested inside the red velvet-lined box.

"
Pick whichever one you would like to use
,"
said Keene.

Oh
,
God
,
this felt too real. She pointed to the lower one in the box. One was just as bad as the other. She looked over and saw Victor standing by his carriage. His dark hair lifted in the breeze and his habitual black made him seem ominous. A harbinger of death
,
or at least no stranger to it.

Something inside her shattered, leaving her numb. Keene lifted the gun she
'
d chosen from the box.
"
Have you ever fired a pistol before
,
Leonard?
"

As if she were a long way away, she answered
,
"
No.
"

"
Bloody hell."

The cool metal was thrust into her hand and Keene showed her how to pull the trigger.
"
Practice aiming it
,
Leonard. Sight through this.
"
Keene pointed out a metal grove on top of the gun.
"
Hold your arm out and present your side to your opponent to give him less of a target.
"
Keene grabbed her shoulders and turned her, then raised her arm directly to her right, aiming toward a tree. Her opponent wouldn
'
t be a tree.

The pistol was incredibly heavy
,
much heavier than she would have expected. Her arm shook from the exertion of holding it out.

"
Hold it steady
,
Leonard
,
and for God
'
s sake
,
aim straight for his heart.
"

"
No.
"
She dropped her arm.

"
Yes
,
don
'
t fret. You are more like to miss than not. The pistols are not that accurate
,
and you have no expertise.
"

"
I cannot do this.
"

"
I shall get Victor.
"

She tried again to aim the pistol
,
closing one eye.

"
Do you have something to tell me
,
cub?
"
asked Victor. He
'
d removed his jacket and waistcoat. The breeze flattened the white silk of his shirt against his chest.

Lydia felt her gaze drawn to the firm lean muscled expanse.
"
I don
'
t want to go through with this.
"

Keene took the pistol from her hand.
"
I need to load it.
"

"
Then are you willing to return to the colonies?
"
Victor asked.

Lydia shook her head. A wave of despair wafted through her miasma of fascination. She just couldn
'
t go home
,
now. Not with the way things stood between them. She couldn
'
t bear to leave things like this.

Victor folded his arms across his chest
,
breaking her mesmerized stare.
"
Then tell me why you ran away.
"

"
I can
'
t. I did not think about your wife when I said...what I said. I didn
'
t know you were there when she...at the time. I would never sland—
"

"
Keene told me. Did you leave home because your father would object to your setting up house with your Jenny?
"

Why did he sound so angry? Lydia felt helpless. She shook her head.
"
I don
'
t want to fight.
"

"
If you want to be a man
,
then be a man.
"

"
But
,"
she started. She would have to tell him she wasn
'
t a man at all.
"
I
'
m...
"

Except at that moment
,
the light-eyed man approached with a pistol
,
while Keene brushed against her shoulder
,
the other pistol held in his hand.
"
They
'
re primed and loaded.
"

"
Don
'
t disgust me
,
Lenny. Show me that you have the mettle of a gentleman.
"

"
But—
"
she looked at the two men standing to their sides. She could tell Victor
,
but she didn
'
t know how he would react and telling him in front of his friends might humiliate him. That she had fooled him more than anyone else would insult his male pride.

"
Why won
'
t you just tell me? We can end this now
,"
said Victor in a low voice that radiated with exasperation.
"
Or at least tell me your real age that we may quit.
"

She straightened her shoulders.
"
I am one and twenty.
"

Victor shook his head as if frustrated with her.

"
If I do this
,
will you stop being angry with me?
"

"
I cannot say. I am sure I should be proud of you.
"
With those cryptic words he turned toward the field.

"
Might I hold your jacket
,
sir?
"
Keene asked.

She shook her head and followed Victor out into the soggy grass. When they stood back to back in the middle of the field she would whisper her secret to him. She had to
,
but as she backed against him she savored the feel of his shoulders against hers. He was just enough taller than she to make her want to lean against him.

Then Keene or the other man was calling from the sideline to take their ten paces.

"
Take long strides
,
cub. It
'
ll be over in a trice
,"
whispered Victor.

How could he still be offering her advice on the proper comportment of a gentleman when they were about to point pistols at one another?

Their ten paces passed in seconds of nothing
,
over too fast for belief. She faced him and raised her pistol. He stood his body squared toward hers
,
where she was sideways as Keene had told her. His gun pointed straight at her. Fear thrust through her resolve. She couldn
'
t do it. She couldn
'
t shoot him. She couldn
'
t even point the pistol at him.

Keene yelled deliver. She squealed and ducked to run.

She heard a click.

She took one step.

"
No!
"
Victor shouted.

Two steps.

She heard the blast of a shot just before a force slammed into her left shoulder, spinning her around. Through the fog of surprise she heard the click of her own pistol. Oh
,
Christ, she had squeezed the trigger after all.

A deafening roar spit out of her pistol with a dragon
'
s breath burst of flame. Then the kick of the gun lost what was left of her balance as pain seared through her shoulder.

Out of the corner of her eye
,
she saw another fall as she hit the ground. Where had her shot gone?

"
Hell and damnation!
"
yelled Sheridan from the sidelines.

Victor
'
s veins filled with ice. When Leonard dove to the side
,
the shot that should have missed hit the boy. Leonard
'
s pistol had fired wildly
,
hitting Sheridan. Victor had already pulled the trigger when he saw the boy balk.

Victor
'
s knees went weak as he stumbled across the field toward Leonard.

Although his focus was on Leonard
,
out of his peripheral vision
,
Victor saw the blossoming red stain on Tony
'
s thigh.

Leonard moved. Oh, thank God.

Finally Victor reached Lenny and dropped to his knees. The surgeon knelt beside Tony. Of course he would go to him first
,
he was nearer to him. Damn
,
they should have brought two surgeons.

"
Where are you hit
,
cub?
"

Leonard moaned and gripped his left shoulder.

"
How bad is he?
"
yelled Keene.

"
He
'
s conscious.
"
Please let him be conscious.

Victor shoved at the coat
,
popping buttons in his haste to get at the wound.

Leonard struggled against him
,
holding his arms across his chest.

"
I have to see the wound
,
cub. The surgeon will be here in a minute as soon as he stops Tony
'
s bleeding. Don
'
t fight me
,
you could make it worse.
"
Victor strived to keep his voice calm.

Leonard
'
s struggles were too puny to be effective
,
as Victor yanked open the jacket and waistcoat and loosened the boy
'
s neck cloth. He grabbed the shirt at the hole made by the bullet and ripped it open. Did the weakness of the youth
'
s struggles indicate serious injury?

Victor
'
s heart beat frantically in his throat.
"
I wish you hadn
'
t moved. The bullet would have missed elsewise.
"

Leonard
'
s squeak of alarm penetrated Victor
'
s sense that more than a bullet hole was the matter with Leonard.

In fact, an odd bandage was pinned about his chest as if he
'
d cracked a rib.

A neat hole penetrated the fleshy portion between the boy
'
s too-delicate collar bone and his slender neck. An inch to the left and the bullet could have ripped through his throat
,
killing him instantly. An inch or two lower and he would have been lung shot. Yet
,
blood pooled and oozed
,
and Victor pressed Leonard
'
s cravat against the wound and yanked at the binding to use it to tie the pad down. A bullet wound held more urgency than cracked ribs.

Leonard covered his face with his hands and moaned.

Was it to cover tears?

"
Don
'
t worry
,
cub. It
'
s not bad. You shall be—Bloody hell!
"

Victor blinked and stared at one perfect rosy-tipped breast. Leonard was a girl.

Oh, hell
,
he
'
d shot a woman.