Page 32 of His Wicked Secret
“The left hand guards, and your dominant hand, the right, is your weapon.”
“I see,” she said, nearly bouncing with excitement. She already felt more confident. “How do I punch?” she asked.
His low chuckle was both simple and delightful. “So bloodthirsty.” She was struck again by how playful he was acting, not cold and aloof.
This was the man I wanted to be with.
“We will discuss striking in a moment. But first I must teach you to block. Your first instinct will be to try to respond to my attack with one of your own. That leaves you open. Your goal should be to redirect the arm coming at you, not stopping it.”
“I’m not sure I understand.”
Jonathan faced her and raised his fists. “Slowly extend your hand as though to punch me.” She did as he commanded. When her fist got close to his face, he pushed his own arm up between her fist and his face and then pushed her hand away using his strong forearm. “That is how you block. If I simply just caught your fist, it would have knocked me backward, hurting me and still giving you have the upper hand. Does that make sense?”
“Yes!” She couldn’t contain her excitement at this revelation. If they had taught this to her instead of dancing lessons before she came out last year, it would have been a very different first ball experience.
Jonathan came around to stand in front of her and reached for her right hand. “Now, to strike you have several options.” He gripped her wrist and pulled it slowly to his nose.
“The nose is best. You can break it, and it will bleed. Never worry about blood—”
The thought of blood made her suddenly dizzy.
“Audrey, are you all right? You’ve gone pale.” He caught her by the hips, steadying her. She only used him for support as long she had to before she could stand again.
“I’m sorry. I’m a bit squeamish around blood.”
“And apparently just the thought of it as well.” Jonathan chuckled, though he didn’t seem to be laughing at her. “Let’s not use that word then. Striking the nose can also make the eyes water, which will effectively blind a man during a fight, so think on that instead. Now, arms up…” He let go of her. She raised her fists again, and once more he took her wrist, guiding her hand.
“After the nose, you may strike any number of places, but the most effective are the chin, throat, and ears.”
“Why those?” Audrey studied his face, for once not as a number of distractingly handsome features, but rather as objects to hit.
“They are vulnerable. Chins and jaws can break with enough force. The throat can stop them from breathing, and the ears…well, if you’ve never had your ears boxed, you can’t imagine the pain. If you ever have a chance to hit a man’s ear, go for that.”
Audrey could not believe she was learning such useful information for the first time in her life. Jonathan made her feel inexperienced, yes, but not inferior. He was taking these lessons seriously, and that made her feel… How did it make her feel?
Important? Relevant? Equal?
In her time as Lady Society, she’d exposed herself more and more to the social injustices of her world, from the casual to the criminal. And the more she did the more part of her had wanted to run away from it all. To hide at home and let her brother smother her with his overprotectiveness, just to keep those realities at bay. But she’d fought on. And now, with Jonathan, it felt as though that will to fight was neither irrelevant nor futile.
“You know, if I had these lessons in my first season, I might’ve been more effective at stopping wandering hands. I had to kick Lord Willoughby between the legs, which I don’t recommend. Skirts make kicking most difficult.”
Jonathan’s eyes glinted. “Viscount Willoughby?”
“Yes. He took me to a veranda at my first ball. I didn’t understand the risks of letting a gentleman escort me outside. Cedric was never good at giving us advice, putting the burden of our protection entirely on his own shoulders. Horatia and I were quite unprepared for our coming-outs.” Losing her parents as a child meant her life as a young lady had been more unconventional than most. Cedric and his friends had always been there for her, but older brothers were no substitute for mothers and fathers.
“And what happened? With Willoughby?”
“He tried to move me to a secluded part of the alcove, just off the veranda. I got pressed into a rather unpleasant and prickly hedge as he did his best to kiss me. The bounder managed to get one hand halfway up my skirts. Of course, then I was free to give him a good sharp kick to the—”
“Yes, I see,” Jonathan interrupted. Audrey giggled when she noticed he’d angled his body away from hers, as though to shield his groin from a surprise demonstration. “How about I show you an alternative to kicking a man in the bollocks should you want to vary your defenses up a bit?”
She quickly nodded, eager for more instruction.
“Very good. I will demonstrate a defensive action, and then you will have a chance to use it.” He waved for her to give him her hand. When she held it out, he gripped it with both of his and began to gently bend her palm back. She winced, but he stopped just before it would begin to truly hurt.
“This is one I taught myself. If you do this quickly, you can snap a man’s wrist, break it, or you can hold it on the edge of pain and threaten to break it. So for any wandering hands, that is a move to employ.”
“And now we can act out a situation?” she asked.
