Carlos nodded. “One sword for each man. No other weapons allowed. The duel will continue until first blood is drawn.”
“To the death,” Hynes declared.
From his position several paces away, Adrian shook his head. “No. I’m not a killer.”
“Coward!”
Eberling walked over and grabbed Hynes’s arm, whispering something to him. Hynes went a little pale and blinked slowly. After a short conversation, Eberling returned, addressing himself to Carlos, trying to maintain the formality of seconds speaking to seconds.
He said, “We agree that the man who draws first blood is the winner. The loser will immediately drop his sword, and the fight will end. Acceptable?”
Carlos looked at the small circle of men, from the surgeon’s somber face, to Hynes and Adrian, both furious, and finally back to Eberling.
“No objections. Let’s get this over with, shall we?”
Adrian and Hynes took their places opposite each other in the clearing. At a word from Carlos, both men drew swords. At Eberling’s command, they dropped to the en garde position, and the duel began.
Adrian had the advantage. He was the better swordsman, he had rest, and he was on the side of right, damn it.
Hynes, by his expression, knew it too. He hovered just out of range of Adrian’s sword, obviously hoping to tire his opponent and then trick him into making a mistake. Adrian had no intention of letting the fight go that long.
He darted forward suddenly, but slashed only air as Hynes lunged out the way.
“Not as impressive as I’d been told,” Hynes sneered. “But you’re a lover, not a fighter.”
“You’d best focus on my reputation as a fighter,” Adrian warned him angrily. He attacked again, but Hynes scurried back quickly, ending up several paces away.
The man in black smiled, showing shark teeth. “We’ll see. If you love like you fight, no wonder you need to resort to romancing cripples.” He ducked another swipe of Adrian’s blade.
This time, Adrian knew Hynes was deliberately goading him, but he couldn’t stop his rage from boiling up. He hated the idea of Hynes even thinking Rosalind’s name.
He paused, catching his breath. The tip of his sword dipped momentarily, and Hynes saw it happen. He lunged to press his advantage but found himself fighting a wall of steel. Adrian grinned as he knocked Hynes’s sword aside and sliced at his face. A lock of hair fell to the ground. Hynes stared at it in shock.
“En garde, Hynes. I don’t see a drop of blood. Yet.”
Hynes snarled and straightened up. “The only blood you’ll see is yours, Norbury.”
“I doubt that,” Adrian countered. The exchange had restored his confidence. Hynes couldn’t beat him fairly, so he had only insults to attack him with. Adrian grew calmer. He had only to wait for the right moment, and then he’d skewer Hynes like a cut of mutton.
Adrian was just deciding where to impale Hynes when all the men heard the distant sound of hoofbeats and the crunch of wheels on gravel. Another carriage was driving through the slowly lifting mist.
“Carlos!” Adrian snapped. “Go tell them to duel somewhere else! This patch is taken.”
Carlos and Eberling both started walking to intercept the newcomers. Adrian, who was facing away from the road, kept Hynes firmly in his sights, so he saw when Hynes’s eyes widened. He thought it was a trick, but then he heard a voice he’d know anywhere.
It was Rosalind. She was arguing with Carlos, or, more accurately, she was refusing to argue with him. “I am not leaving this field until I speak to Lord Norbury, sir,” she was saying.
“He’s just a bit busy at the moment, miss,” Carlos answered, trying to prevent the two ladies from advancing farther.
“I will wait. I have quite a few things to say to him.”
Adrian’s heart beat faster. Rosalind should not be here, for so many reasons. How did she even know this duel was happening? Yet she was here. She cared enough to come.
He saw no point in wasting more time. He glared at Hynes, and unleashed an aggressive series of thrusts and parries that the other man had no hope to defend against. Within seconds, Hynes was losing ground, gripping his blade with both hands and howling in fury. Adrian was just about to make a tidy slice in Hynes’s right cheek when the other man slipped on the dewy ground and lost his balance, stumbling forward as he struggled to avoid falling.
Unfortunately, forward meant running into Adrian’s sword, which pierced Hynes’s side. Adrian pulled his blade back instantly, but saw that first blood had most definitely been drawn.
The surgeon swooped in just as Hynes slid to the ground, his eyes wide. He gripped his wound until the surgeon could swat his hands away to examine the injury.
