“You ignored the warning,” she noted.
“Naturally. I was walking along the battlements—quite carefully, I should add. The moon was just rising, and nearly full. The stones looked as if they were alabaster, all glowing white. And I heard this strange sound. A clashing.”
“What was it?”
“The duel. The same duel you read about, and that Fitzgerald retold so amusingly. I’m not joking. I looked over toward the sound and saw two men fighting each other to the death.”
“Did you think it was real?”
His eyes looked far away. “I didn’t think at all. I was mesmerized. It happened much as Fitzgerald told it, except at the end.”
“What happened?”
“One of them turned. He gave up in disgust. He began to walk away. He considered the duel over.”
“And?”
“The other wasn’t done. He moved fast, like a thief, and he ran the other through. Through the back. No warning, no reason. It was murder. Even a child could see that. I saw it.”
“It must have been terrifying.”
“Oh, it left quite an impression.”
Camellia suddenly inhaled. “It has something to do with what happened to you during the war, didn’t it?” She shook her head. “I don’t know how it could. But—”
“You’re right. It does.”
He paused, and Camellia stopped and turned to face him. “Do you wish to tell me?”
“I have told almost no one what truly happened to me there. I knew no one would believe me.”
“You think I will, though?”
“I would never ask you to, seeing as you hardly know me.”
“I am listening,” she said simply.
“It’s an easy enough story to tell, but a hard one to hear, since you have no reason to believe my version. I have no proof for it.” He shrugged. “Anyway, it happened during a minor skirmish in the summer of 1814. It was hot as hell where we were stationed, and everyone was on edge. We kept getting hints of the enemy, but no engagement for weeks.
“Men were bored in the camp. There was more drinking, more cards, and more”—he gave her a quick glance—“let’s say…diversions.”
“Women,” Camellia filled in. She knew that every army had camp followers. Some were wives and family of the soldiers, and some were less virtuous.
Finn continued, “One evening, after a bit of drinking, I interrupted a diversion.”
“So you embarrassed a fellow soldier by seeing him with a woman?”
He cleared his throat. “There are aspects of this story that are not appropriate for a lady to hear, Miss Swift. It was my superior officer, who I’ll call William. And it would not have been an issue if I saw William with a woman.”
“But if not a woman, then…oh,” Camellia said suddenly, even as her cheeks grew warm. William had been with another man. She knew that such relationships existed, but she also knew they were not to be discussed, and certainly not by young ladies like her. “That would be awkward, I suppose.”
Oddly, Finn laughed a bit. “Awkward doesn’t begin to cover it. I acted a lot drunker than I was, and I left again, pretending that I hadn’t noticed anything odd. But I made William very nervous. I could tell he was worried I’d say something. And how could I tell William that his secret was safe with me, without revealing that I’d indeed learned his secret? Myself, I don’t care a whit who someone loves, but society is not so forgiving. He’d have been hounded right out of the Army if his preferences became known. The military is not kind to those who do not conform to expectations.”
He went on, “Early one morning, before dawn, we finally got orders to march. The battle lasted longer than most. Have you ever seen the smoke from a gun? Multiply that by hundreds. Within moments of the first attack, everything was surrounded in smoke. We could barely see.
“I was fighting as best I could. One of my fellow officers joined me. I wasn’t sure who it was, but I saw the uniform. I didn’t think too much about it. But then the man suddenly took a swipe at me with his sword. He missed, going right past me. I yelled a warning, thinking that he’d mistaken me for a foe. But then I saw it was William. We just stared at each other for a moment. Seemed as if time stopped.
“Then I turned around and saw that he actually hadn’t been after me. The body on the ground was a soldier from our regiment, dead. In fact, it was the other man in the tent that night.” Finn paused. “I didn’t know him well, but I liked him. Everyone did—he was that sort of soul that was friendly to everyone, and a very trusting man. Perhaps that was why he never suspected William would not trust him.”
