He didn’t want to kill anyone, even this overprotective and misinformed brother. But if someone was to die here today, Lucas didn’t want it to be himself.

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 9

“You’ve a talent for this, Miss Douglas,” Henry Angelo said approvingly as he blocked a thrust from Kendra’s small sword.

“You flatter me, Signor Angelo,” she said, smiling back. “But I do remember how much I enjoyed the lessons I had from my cousin, and how good it feels to exert myself physically.”

Angelo moved in with a teasing series of thrusts. “Your divided skirt works well for this exercise. Some of my regular ladies wear pantaloons and find them very good for fencing.”

“Pantaloons?” Kendra rather clumsily warded off her teacher. The idea of wearing male clothing was startling, but she could see the advantages. “I would like to meet some of your regular ladies.”

“There are usually several here on Wednesday mornings and . . .” Angelo stopped, frowning as he listened to raised voices from the main salon. “If you’ll excuse me, it sounds as if someone’s enthusiasm has gotten out of hand.”

Kendra followed him out of the small teaching room, then caught her breath in shock as she saw Lucas engaged in fierce, metal-shrieking combat with a burly man who had murder in his eyes. And their sabers had bare, lethal points.

The other patrons of the academy had gathered around to watch, some visibly uneasy about the fight, others ghoulishly excited. Angelo hesitated, perhaps considering the safest way to end the out-of-control duel.

Kendra gasped when the burly man slashed Lucas’s shoulder and spurting blood saturated the white linen of his shirt. She instinctively darted forward, but was stopped when a hard hand clamped onto her upper arm. Simon.

“Don’t distract him,” Simon said in a tight voice. “That could be lethal. Lucas is a first-class fencer and he’s trying to end this without anyone getting killed.”

“Someone needs to end this!” she retorted as she tried to yank her arm free. Maybe a woman trying to intervene would cause both men to back off? Or maybe she’d be cut to ribbons, but she could not stand idly by.

Simon wouldn’t release her, and in the next moments, Lucas did end it. With a movement too swift for Kendra’s eyes to follow, he knocked his opponent’s saber down and to one side while surging forward himself, reversing the saber and smashing the pommel of the weapon into his opponent’s jaw with an audible crack. The man pitched backward, dropping his saber as he lost consciousness.

Lucas swept his gaze around the circle of men, his aquamarine eyes blazing. “By the rules of duello, the matter has been settled in front of witnesses. Presumably my victory over this Patrick person proves right was on my side. Does anyone else want to try to kill me without knowing the facts of the situation?”