‘Duncan, just think!’ The words could have been from Bex, but it was Lorna who shouted them now out from behind the bar. Three patrons were trying to subdue this single Australian, but somehow he kept slipping an arm free. If they didn’t get a better hold of him soon, he’d be on Duncan again.
‘It’s fine, lads,’ Duncan said. ‘It’s my fight. I’ll deal with it.’
Thankfully, the locals ignored Duncan and kept a good hold on the Australian.
‘We should leave,’ Bex said. ‘Come on. You can come up to my room. Wait there.’
If Duncan heard her, he didn’t show it. Instead, his attention remained fixed on the man who continued to struggle against the hands that held him in place.
‘Just give up,’ Duncan said, sounding the most sober she’d heard him all night. ‘I’ve had a rough day. Rough couple of months, actually. I dinnae need this.’
‘I’m gonna kill you,’ the man spat back.
Duncan’s sigh was heavy and whisky-filled as he shook his head.
‘I doubt it. But hey, the lads can’t hold you forever. They’ve got pints gettin’ warm. So here’s what’s gonna happen. They’re gonna let you go now, and I suggest you make for the door. I’m sayin’ this as a favour to you. Just leave. Take my apologies, and go.’
The man scoffed as he continued to writhe and struggle for just a moment or two longer, before finally dropping his head and groaning.
‘You really think nothing happened?’
‘With the amount I’d drunk, best I’d have given her was a headache with my snoring.’
Bex wanted to laugh, but she couldn’t. It was still far too raw for that. Besides, she knew Duncan was only saying it for the man’s benefit. Well, maybe hers too, but that didn’t make it true.
‘All right. All right, mate. You’re right. Soz. Seriously. I’ll go.’
He looked to the men on either side of him, offering a single nod to each. Cautiously, they released him.
For a single heartbeat, Bex thought that was it. That the man was going to keep his word, accept Duncan’s apology and leave. But while he took one measured footstep towards the door, his second movement was a lunge, straight towards Duncan. His fist was back in the air, ready for a second collision with Duncan’s jaw, but this time was different. Because this time Duncan was expecting it.
The man’s lips were curled up in a snarl, but his knuckles were still a good two feet away from impact when Duncan’s hand flew through the air. A single thud to the man’s left jaw saw his entire head spin ninety degrees. His eyes widened in shock before rolling to the back of his head, just before he fell straight back onto the ground with a bang.
A series of gasps rattled out around the pub as Bex looked on, frozen, her heart hammering against her ribs. She’d never seen a fight in person before and wasn’t exactly sure what she’d expected. But this? The man out cold from a single punch… She wasn’t sure whether she was proud of Duncan or if she wanted to throttle him. Quite possibly both.
She turned to look at him. To see if he was okay or whether the earlier hook to the jaw needed tending to, but before she could, a voice spoke over by the door.
‘Well, Becky Boo. It seems we’ve turned up at a very exciting time.’
17
‘I’m really sorry, Mrs Barker, Mr Barker.’ Duncan slurred his words as he apologised for what had to have been the fiftieth time since he saw Bex’s parents standing there, jaws on the floor. ‘I’m really sorry I’m so drunk. And that I hit him. And that I’m so drunk.’
It certainly hadn’t been the type of greeting Bex had intended on giving her parents, but at least the pub was quiet now, even if people did keep looking in their direction. The Australian, who Bex had since learned was called Craig, had thankfully come around almost immediately and had been given a corner table and an ice pack. Duncan, on the other hand, had got a bag of frozen peas.
‘I really don’t think you should talk, Duncan dear,’ Bex’s mother replied to him. ‘Just keep the ice on.’
‘Looks like you’re going to have a bit of a shiner there,’ her dad agreed. ‘Though it looked like you could have a career in the ring if that’s what you can do half cut.’
‘Yes, we do like to watch a bit of boxing now and then, don’t we, Becky Boo. And we don’t have things like that happen at our local very often.’
However much Bex wanted the floor to swallow her up, from the way Duncan was clutching his pint of water, she could tell he was feeling exactly the same. If not worse.
‘Just so you know, he really didn’t start it. He asked the man to leave. He was defending himself, that was all.’ Bex had made the comment to her parents almost as many times as Duncan had apologised to them. But she needed them to know it was the truth.
She wasn’t sure whether her parents had actually arrived at the pub in time to hear Craig’s comment about Duncan sleeping with his girlfriend, and whether Duncan deserved to be punched or not was still very much up for debate, but regardless, she didn’t want her parents to think badly of him. They had always been so fond of him. The last thing she wanted was for them to think the Duncan they had met all those times in London had been an act, and that he was really some drunken thug who constantly sought out fights. Not when that couldn’t be further from the truth.
‘Do you know, if you had just told me you were coming, I could’ve arranged for a taxi to pick you up,’ Bex said. ‘The lanes around here are horrible when you don’t know them. In weather like this, they’re dangerous.’
