Page 134 of The Secret Love of a Gentleman
‘Give me powder and a bullet,’ Rob ordered the groom as Harry gave Kilbride his weapon back. ‘I wish to test that the pistol fires, and warm the gun so that we are on equal ground.’
Harry charged the pistol for Rob. Rob took it, aimed at a blade of grass and squeezed the trigger. The pistol fired with a flash and a puff of smoke and the shot was true. The bullet sliced through the thin piece of grass, as the birds took flight from trees about the meadow.
He looked at Kilbride. ‘I am happy with the pistols.’ He had only ever gambled with money once in his life, and yet now hewas about to gamble with his life. Caro would be screaming at him if she knew. But this was for his sanity, as much as justice, to defend right and wrong.
Harry filled Rob’s pistol with powder, then replaced the shot, while Kilbride’s groom did the same for him.
Rob took off his hat and gloves and threw them on the ground. Kilbride did not.
‘I will kill you, boy.’
Rob said nothing.
‘I will call the steps,’ Harry said.
They walked a few paces further out into the meadow, the long grass swiping at Rob’s boots.
He would not lose. He knew what he was doing.
‘Begin back to back,’ Harry ordered.
Rob felt his greater height as they stood, preparing to begin. Kilbride’s broader frame would make him the easier target.
‘Take ten paces out,’ Harry commanded.
Rob counted out his strides as Kilbride’s groom watched him walk and Harry watched Kilbride. As Rob turned facing sideways, the sun broke fully over the horizon.
The birds’ song escalated.
Rob hoped he would be alive to see the day.
‘Lift your pistols and aim,’ Harry stated, with the confidence of a man who had done this before. He had not, Rob would swear on it, Harry would have told him if he had, but Harry had always been theatrical.
Rob stiffened his body as straight as it was possible to do. A breeze swept his hair from his brow as he raised his arm.
‘Let my man drop a handkerchief to begin the match!’ Kilbride yelled. ‘When it touches the ground, we fire.’
There was no precise way to ensure they fired at the same time; it made little difference how the duel was called. Robnodded at Harry, who delved into his pocket for a handkerchief and handed it to the groom.
‘Prepare!’ Harry yelled.
Rob’s grip on the trigger firmed, within a hair from firing.
The groom dropped the white square of silk. It drifted down, thenboom. The shot echoed across the meadow. Kilbride had shot early. Of course the man would cheat. A burning whip of pain struck across the side of Rob’s head, but the shot had only scraped him. He took aim. He could shoot the man through the heart – Kilbride had not turned well enough to guard it. Or he could shoot him through the head and watch him fall like a wooden puppet. Or he could shoot and let the man live and know that he had been bested by a man he called a child. Rob lowered his aim and fired, taking a leg for a leg. Kilbride fell.
‘Ah!’ His scream of pain echoed as his shot had done. ‘You bastard, child!’
Rob walked towards Kilbride as the groom ran to help.
‘Take off his neckcloth and tie it about his leg to stem the bleeding!’ Rob called.
Kilbride was writhing on the floor, gripping his left leg, where Rob had shot through his thigh and most likely broken his bone. Certainly, that had been Rob’s intent.
‘I would not shout too much,’ Harry stated, staring down at Kilbride while the groom unravelled his neck cloth. ‘You will have everyone come running to see exactly how you were shot by a child.’
Rob knelt and took the neckcloth from the groom’s hand, before tying it about Kilbride’s thigh to stop the flow of blood. There would be a lot more pain when the bullet was dug out, and still more as he recovered and tried to walk again. ‘If you think this is in revenge for what you did to me, it is not. It is for the harm you did to Caro.’
The neckcloth tied, he stood to leave Kilbride and his groom to it. ‘Be damned.’ Rob turned away.
