Chapter Twenty-Three
“We have tospeak to Cousin Harry about this,” Mims said. They were sitting on the bench in the tack room with a confused Archie, whose face still resembled a beetroot.
Lissy took pity on him. “Why don’t you go and finish your sweeping, Archie. If you don’t your pa will be angry. We mustn’t keep you from your work.”
Mims and Megs nodded. “No, we mustn’t.”
Archie departed, perhaps glad to escape their persistent inquisition that had elicited what he and the other servants knew about the coming duel—which of course was everything as servants always know everyone’s secrets. And of course, it was Archie’s own father who was to be one of the seconds, whatever they were. None of them were sure of that.
“What are we going to say to Cousin Harry?” Megs asked. “Just ask him not to do it?” She didn’t sound all that convinced, and as she probably still thought it was a romantic thing to happen, despite them now knowing that the other duellist was Sir Julian, she was not to be trusted.
Lissy frowned. “I don’t think that would really work.” She scratched her head. “But Mims is right that we need to speak to him. Perhaps if we take him back to see Mama, she might be able to persuade him to rescind his agreement to the duel.”
Megs frowned too, and wrinkled hernose. “I’m not at all sure how these duels work, you know. Is one allowed to just back out of them?”
Mims huffed. “They’re against the law, so yes, of course you can back out of them if you have any sense. Sir Julian challenged Cousin Harry, but why he did it, I have no idea.”
“Because he wants Mama for himself,” Lissy said. “Horrid man. Haven’t you noticed how often he’s called since Papa died? And the way he looks at her. It makes my toes curl.” Which was quite true.
“I’m just puzzled why it was Sir Julian that challenged Cousin Harry,” Mims said. “Because it sounds to me like it was Cousin Harry who was insulted.”
Lissy shook her head. “I doubt we know the whole truth. He won’t have divulged everything, that’s for sure. But the thing that worries me most is that Sir Julian was the challenger.”
Her sisters regarded her with interest. “What does that signify?” Mims asked.
“The one thing I know about a duel is that the challenger gets to shoot first.”
Mims clapped her hand over her mouth. “They don’t both shoot at the same time then?”
Lissy shook her head. “No. One at a time. Challenger first. And I have a strong suspicion that Sir Julian is not the sort who will fire into the air just to indicate his honor has been restored.” She paused. “Not that he has any honor.”
They sat still for a long minute in silence.
Then Megs jumped off the bench. “In that case, we must go now and speak to Cousin Harry and then make him come home with us and talk to Mama. I’m sure she can persuade even the most horrible of people because she’s so nice, and by that I mean Sir Julian, that he’s made a terrible mistake.” She beamed. “And if he won’t, then I volunteer to shoot him dead myself and not in any silly duel. We’ll need to get Papa’s pistols out of the gun room.”
Lissy frowned at her gun-happy youngest sister but said nothing.For once she was as one with her and would herself consider shooting that awful man if it came to it.
Mims jumped up too. “Never mind Megs volunteering to do the shooting. We need to hurry.”
Lissy regarded them both for a moment. It was all right for them to think this was something that could be sorted out by talking to Harry and Mama, but she had a nasty feeling it couldn’t. However, they had to try. She stood up. “Very well. Come on. We’ll go and find him right now.”
Harry was sittingin his study cleaning the duelling pistols he’d inherited from Sir Geoffrey and which Crawford had fetched from the gun room when a knock came on the door. He looked up as it opened a crack without him inviting anyone in. Lissy’s anxious face peeped around it, and just below, Megs’ face appeared as well.
He smiled. “Come in.”
It seemed Mims was there too. They came inside and Lissy closed the door behind them. A veritable deputation.
For a moment, they all stood looking at him in silence before Mims dug Lissy in the ribs as if she was their delegated spokesperson.
“Yes?” he said. “Can I do something for you?”
Lissy nodded. “You most certainly can.”
Now he was intrigued. “Pray go on.”
“You can come back to the farm with us and speak with Mama.”
He raised his eyebrows. He would like above anything to do exactly that, but he wasn’t quite sure why it was so important to her daughters that he should do so.
