He slowly turned round, just in case she changed her mind. She had readjusted her dress so that the torn section was caught up under the padding, ensuring that she appeared demurely dressed once again.
“Now.” She paused and picked up the sword from the floor. “Where were we?” she asked, pointing the foil at him as she took up the lunge position.
This time, Francis couldn’t control the smile that took over his features as he returned his helmet to his head.
“On my count, lunge three. One, lunge…” as he walked her through the stances once more, he found his admiration for Lady Ridlington growing by the second.
At first, she had denied wanting to learn such a skill, but now was not only picking it up more ably than he’d seen many a man could do, but was also keen to carry on, even after a rip to her dress. It was either testament to her determination to master the skill, or a testament to the fear that resided in her, about her husband coming for her.
He hoped it was the former reason. The latter made him feel cold to the bone.
They parried for a long time, until she was nearly up to speed with the maneuvers before he called a halt to their practice.
“Well, I think that should be enough for one day,” he said as he pulled off the helmet. Lady Ridlington pulled off her helmet next. Her expression was different to anything he had seen before, with the eyes more alight and a softer expression on her face. “I think you enjoyed that.”
“Would it be bad if I said that I did?”
“Why would that be bad?” he asked as he beckoned her over to the racks where he placed their swords and their helmets.
“I can just imagine what my father would say now to such a thing, if he knew I had done it.”
“What would he say?”
“That it wasn’t a woman’s place to be sword fighting. It would give her confidence to argue with her husband when she should have known.”
“What?” Francis was so startled by the words that this time he was the one to drop something. Well, nearly. As the helmet slipped out of his hands, he had to swipe it from the air to catch it and managed to toss it back up into the air before catching it cleanly. “Your father said such a thing?”
“He did,” she said, avoiding his gaze as she fussed with a few of the tendrils that had fallen loose from her updo and were now trailing down her neck, pretending to be interested in them.
“No wonder such a man chose the Viscount to be your husband,” he muttered angrily as he placed the helmet into the rack with such a clatter that Lady Ridlington flinched at his side. “I am sorry. I didn’t mean to make you jump, it is just…hearing your father said such things, I cannot tell you how angry it makes me.”
“Truly?” she asked, looking up at him, giving him her full focus.
“No man should want a woman to be afraid of him,” he said with animation. “All ofthis–” he gestured to the racking around them “– it is for protection and sport, nothing more. I wouldn’t ever use such a thing against a woman, and the fact that your father –”
“Your Grace?” she cut him off.
“Yes?”
“You are getting quite red in the face,” she said softly.
“I am?” he asked, patting his cheek as though he could make it go away.
“I haven’t seen you as angry as this before,” she said, still looking up at him.
“I apologize for it.”
“No, do not apologize, please. It is a good thing!” she said with a smile that surprised him. “For a while when I was little, because it was the way things had always been, I thought it was the way it had to be. That I would always do as my father said, because that’s what he told me to do. I thought I was the aberration, for wanting a life that was different. It took me a while to realize I was not.”
“Believe me, you are not.” Francis could almost imagine his heart cracking in two at her words.
How could anyone grow up so frightened? Forced into that kind of subservience? It’s not the way it’s supposed to be!
“I cannot tell you how relieved I am to see you agree with me, Your Grace,” she said, turning her eyes upon the rack again. “All of this, it is a simple thing, really, but it means a lot.” She gestured toward the swords.
“I am glad,” he said, taking a step toward her, unable to stay away.
For a brief minute, he thought he might take her in his arms, then he remembered the distance between them, the legal obligation that she was another’s man’s wife, and the promise he had made never to pursue a woman so. Wouldn’t that be what he was doing? If he caved to Lady Ridlington and embraced her?
