Read Online Scandal at Dawn (A Regency Rhapsody Novella) by Elizabeth Cole - Free Book Online Page B

paused, catching his breath. The tip of his sword dipped momentarily, and Crombie saw it. He lunged to press his advantage but found himself fighting a wall of steel. Adrian grinned as he knocked Crombie’s sword aside and, with just a flick of his wrist, finished up with a quick lunge near his face. A lock of hair fell to the ground. Crombie stared at it in shock.
    Adrian quickly recovered his own stance. “
En garde
, Crombie. I don’t see a drop of blood. Yet.”
    Crombie snarled and straightened up. “The only blood you’ll see is yours, Norbury.”
    “I doubt that,” Adrian countered. The exchange had restored his confidence. Crombie couldn’t beat him fairly, so he had only insults to attack him with. Adrian grew calmer. He had only to wait for the right moment, and then he’d skewer Crombie like a cut of mutton.
    The two men continued to feint and parry. Crombie, spurred by indignation at losing a lock of hair, advanced several times, only to retreat as soon as Adrian countered his simple attacks. Adrian moved carefully now, conserving his energy and waiting for the best moment to strike his opponent. He no longer had a desire to harm Crombie, nor did he wish to give the man a scar to boast about.
    Adrian was just deciding where to impale Crombie when all the men heard the crunch of gravel. Another carriage was driving through the slowly lifting mist.
    “Griffin,” Adrian snapped. “Go tell them to duel somewhere else! This patch is taken.”
    Robert and Eberling both started walking to intercept the newcomers. Adrian, who was facing away from the road, kept Crombie firmly in his sights, so he saw when Crombie’s eyes widened. He thought it was a trick, but then he heard a voice he’d know anywhere.
    It was Olivia. She was arguing with Robert; or, more accurately, she was refusing to argue with him. “I am not leaving this field until I speak to Lord Norbury, sir,” she was saying.
    “He’s just a bit busy at the moment, Miss,” Robert answered.
    “I will wait. I have quite a few things to say to him.”
    Adrian’s heart beat faster. Olivia should not be here, for so many reasons. Yet she was here. She cared enough to come.
    He saw no point in wasting more time. He grinned once more at Crombie, and unleashed an aggressive series of thrusts and parries that the other man had no hope to defend against. Within seconds, Crombie was losing ground, gripping his blade with both hands and howling in fury. Adrian was just about to make a tidy slice in Crombie’s left arm with the tip of the small sword when the other man slipped on the dewy ground and lost his balance, stumbling forward to avoid falling.
    Unfortunately, forward meant running into Adrian’s sword, which pierced Crombie’s side. Adrian pulled his blade back instantly, but saw that first blood had most definitely been drawn.
    The surgeon swooped in just as Crombie slid to the ground, his eyes wide. He gripped his wound until the surgeon could swat his hands away to examine the injury.
    Everyone watched, unspeaking, until the surgeon looked up. “A flesh wound. Ugly, but not mortal. With any luck at all, he’ll live.” He then turned back to his patient, intent on his mission.
    With that assurance, the other men could focus on the novelty of female observers. Eberling, the only man with no connection to the women, was the first to recover enough to comment. “Who are you? What are you doing here?” he asked, confused. “Ladies must never see this sort of thing!”
    “There is absolutely no danger of that, sir,” Olivia replied evenly, facing him with her sightless eyes.
    “She’s right,” Emily noted. “And as far as I can tell, there is no duel going on, just a man who had an unfortunate accident with something pointy. Marvelous luck there was a surgeon handy.”
    Adrian wasted no time. Discarding his sword carelessly in the grass, he stepped up to Olivia, taking her hands in his own. “What brings you out so early, Miss