But Jack was used to kiai shouts in his taijutsu training and didn’t overreact. Instead he made a feint to Akiko’s hip. She parried his sword and immediately responded with a riposte. Jack countered with a beat parry, knocking Akiko’s blade aside and leaving her open to a thrust to the heart. He lunged forward. Akiko leapt back, recovering with a deflection, followed by a glide along his blade. His rapier forced off line, Jack missed his target as she retaliated with a jab to his face. The leather tip almost caught his eye, but Jack ducked at the last second, whipping his sword under hers and fending off the assault.

‘What a conversation of blades!’ exclaimed Signor Horatio, his eyes wide as he followed the action. ‘Did you see that prise de fer? How she took Jack’s blade with a bind and forced it on to a different line?’

Rose nodded as if she knew what the sword master was talking about.

Panting from his exertions, Jack retreated across the courtyard. After numerous bouts, he and Akiko were now familiar with each other’s personal fencing style. While she had beaten him in every duel so far, he was learning her tells and becoming wise to her tricks. He was no longer fooled by her every feint, or beaten by every riposte she made. Sometimes he could gauge just by the angle of her lead foot the attack she intended, at others by the way she held her head. Occasionally, though, he had no clue at all –

And there it was! The twitch near the hilt. He knew she was about to lunge, but this time he’d get in first. Jack thrust with his rapier a moment before she did. Their blades passed each other, flying like silver arrows for their targets. Yet Jack felt the leather tip of Akiko’s rapier press against his throat first … his own sword still an inch short of Akiko’s slender neck.

‘Touché! Akiko wins … again,’ Signor Horatio declared, as Rose applauded the outcome.

His rapier still held out straight, Jack studied his sword arm against Akiko’s and frowned. ‘How do you always manage to hit me first when your arm is shorter than mine?’ He narrowed his eyes in suspicion. ‘Are you using a longer sword?’

Akiko shook her head. ‘Of course not.’

‘Then how do you do it?’ asked Jack, exasperated.

‘Pommelling,’ she replied.

Jack looked to Signor Horatio; he’d clearly missed something during their lessons. ‘What’s pommelling?’