Page 70 of Burning Secrets of a Lady's Pen
“I sullied not only your reputation and your wife’s but my own and my wife’s as well,” Romeo continued desolately. “I understand your thirst for vengeance, my lord. I did not come here to feign innocence.”
“Romeo!” Corin hissed.
“No, Corin. You do not need to protect me.” Romeo stared ahead, his eyes hard despite the despondency in them. “I made the mistake. I must pay the consequences of my actions. If there was any other way to satisfy you, Lord Medbourne, I would gladly pay the price.”
Corin had never imagined he could be so disappointed with the emotional growth of his brother. Nor could it have come at a more inconvenient time. He needed him to beg for his life. To plead with the earl. Not…whatever resolute acceptance this was that he was displaying now.
“There is nothing that you canpayme,” Lord Medbourne bit out, his voice a low rumble in the night air. “Now, Lord Salthouse, moveaside.”
Corin wanted to argue.
He wanted to demand that the earl listen for just a fraction of a second more, but Romeo’s hand was at his shoulder, moving him away, and the choice was out of his hands.
He had never felt more helpless as he stepped back, watching his little brother walk to meet his fate with his head held high. He offered his hand for Lord Medbourne to shake, but the elderly gentleman took one look at it and turned his back, gesturing for his second to continue.
“One.”
“Two.”
“Three.”
“Four.”
“Five.”
“Six.”
As Lord Illyria counted, Corin felt each word resonate in his chest. He should have said something else. He should have told Romeo that there was no dishonor in running, the truth be damned. As much trouble as Romeo brought to him, he was still his brother, and Corin didn’t think he could stand to watch what came next.
“Twelve.”
“Thirteen.”
Corin’s fists balled at his sides, his breath coming quicker with each new number added.
“Nineteen.”
“Twenty.”
As one Romeo and Lord Medbourne turned to face one another, both of their hands lifting their pistols.
The fury in Lord Medbourne’s eyes was visible as he leveled his gun, his lips pulled back in a sneer. As was the resolution in Romeo’s—whose pistol was very obviously cocked off to one side so as not to aim directly at the earl.
Damn him and his sudden moral compass.
The dual shots fired from the pistols were deafening, echoing around the park and silencing all nightlife that had been commencing within it.
Corin felt his eyes blur, his ears ringing as he peered through the darkness and the smoke with a heavy heart.
Only to find both men still standing.
His eyes scanned Romeo quickly, frantically, waiting for the bloom of red, but Romeo didn’t falter on his feet. His free hand lifted, patting down his front as if he, too, were surprised to find himself unharmed.
To the death, Lord Medbourne had insisted, and yet he lowered his gun as Romeo staggered back, leaning off to one side too far.
Corin forgot all the rules of the duel as he rushed to his brother, his heart in his throat as he looked over him again, trying to see what injury he had missed.
“Where is it, Romeo?” he demanded sharply as he caught Romeo to keep him from falling fully over.
