Page 71 of Burning Secrets of a Lady's Pen
Romeo’s distracted gaze swung from the earl up to him, his hand gripping Corin’s forearm as he blinked. And then blinked again.
“I’m uninjured,” he muttered, sounding as if he didn’t believe his own words.
Corin looked over his body once more, relief blooming in him.
God, he was. Not a scratch on him.
The sound of footsteps behind them had him straightening his back, the terms of the duel too well remembered.
He’d be damned if he stepped aside this time. Propriety be damned. Honor be damned.
The earl would have to shoot him, too.
He turned to say as much, only to find both lords walking with their hands empty, a look of murderous intent still etched across Lord Medbourne’s face.
“I withdraw the terms requiring death,” the elder gentleman grunted as he stopped only a few paces away. “We both missed. I will leave it at that.”
Romeo shifted in Corin’s arm again, feeling as if he were about to topple right over it with the way he seemed to have suddenly acquired sea legs on land.
“My lord,” Romeo started plaintively, but Lord Medbourne held one hand up derisively.
“I don’t want to hear it, Salthouse. You are very lucky that your brother chose to speak for you. Very lucky that he insisted there be speaking at all. I would not have heard you on your own. I would not have suffered that further injustice. However, I want to make myself abundantly plain. Should I hear that you even so much glanced in my wife’s direction again? I will flay you on the spot, dueling will not be an option.”
Romeo nodded, gripping Corin’s sleeve tightly.
“Do not, either, think that there are many men in my place who would have listened,” the earl continued silkily. “You may not be so lucky next time one of your little transgressions goes poorly.”
He didn’t bother to wait for Romeo to try to reply, or even look at Corin.
With a grace that left Corin staring after him, he swept off, pulling his friend along in his wake.
The earl, for all of his ‘advanced years’ still moved as though he were walking onto a battlefield. And Corin knew, in that moment, that there had been no misfire or poor aim. He had chosen not to shoot Romeo.
“Blazes,” Romeo breathed out as the two men disappeared, his body sagging until he dragged both himself and Corin down to the damp earth beneath their feet.
“He isn’t wrong,” Corin murmured, letting go of Romeo’s shoulder as he brought his knees up and ran both hands down the front of his face. “Next time—”
“There won’t be a next time,” Romeo said emphatically. “I wasn’t kidding, Corin. I have no interest in living my life as I have been. I do not seek to remain the thorn in your side for the rest of my life, or live with Sybille crying as if my ghost already haunts her. I want…” he cut off, staring up at the sky as the stars began to poke through the cloud cover above. “I want to be a different man.” He finally sighed.
Corin, looking at him, was struck by how much he already was.
He had thought, when entering the park, that there was no way that Romeo would leave it the same person. It had been a pessimistic vein of thought at the time. But, looking at him then, his features set and a determination there that Corin had never seen before, he thought that maybe it might be a good thing.
“You do not have to do it alone,” he offered quietly, his lips twitching as his brother’s gaze reconnected with his.
Romeo snorted. “I think, on this one, I do.”
Corin wanted to trust him.
A part of him already did.
But more than anything, Corin wanted to be out of St. James Park. He wanted to be home, to end this night and all the calamity that could have come from it.
He wanted to start fresh. And he knew just what the first step to that was.
Chapter 25
“A red sky in morning, sailors take warning.” The words were whispered ominously from the window as Imelda watched dawn begin to break over the far horizon.
