Page 33 of Only Scandal Will Do

He nodded and pulled her back into his arms. “I’ll put you through your paces. In fact, you’ll think you’re in training for Father’s regiment before the night is through.”

She smiled and her spirits lifted. They were a team again. “Just leave me enough strength to surprise the marquess tomorrow at ten. That’s all I ask.”

CHAPTER 14

“You’re over-compensating again, Kat,” Jack said. “He’s going to come in under your guard and you’ll be saying your wedding vows before the sun sets tomorrow.” Jack apparently knew what threat would motivate her to heed his instructions. She drew her blade back and executed the parry again, this time with strength and precision. “Better. Now, in tierce.”

Now in the third position, she began a sequence of parries and ripostes, pressing Jack backward down the upstairs hallway, the only place in the house with adequate room for fencing. Attacking him with a series of cuts to the arms, she then targeted his legs, narrowly missing his exposed left knee.

“Kat! You weren’t supposed to do that. We’re drilling in attacks to the upper body.”

Good. She’d caught him off guard for once. She grinned and bent over, breathing hard after two vigorous hours of training. Not having held a sword since coming to England, she was sorely out of practice. And tomorrow she would engage in the fight of her life. “Do you think if I did the same thing tomorrow with Dalbury, make him believe I was only attacking the upper body, I could surprise him with an attack to the legs? I just need one drop of blood, and I’m free.”

“You’ll be lucky if he doesn’t cut you in the first thirty seconds of the duel. You said he was good.” Jack did not usually scoff at her skill with a sword, but she supposed he still smarted because she would be fighting instead of him.

“I have not seen him fight, obviously. But I know his reflexes are faster than yours.” Kat hesitated, then plunged ahead. “I think he may be faster than Captain Perry.” Jack’s eyes widened. “Truly. I tried to get away from him several times and always his arm would come from nowhere, like a snake striking.” She shook her head. “I think my best chance is that he will underestimate me. If I’m truly lucky he will toy with me before trying to make the cut. If he does, then I have a true chance. It only takes--”

“One drop of blood. Yes, I know, but don’t bet on it.” Jack’s tone held a measure of sympathy. “Dalbury wants you too badly. I believe he will try to get it over with quickly.”

“You may be right. But who knows, he may be a bit...distracted. He’s never seen me fence, after all.”

“Not planning to fight fair?”

Kat grinned. “Who said ‘all is fair in love and war’? Well, this is definitely war as far as

I’m concerned.”

Simons appeared in the hallway. “My lady, Mr. Reginald Matthews has arrived,” he announced. “He said you asked to see him.”

“Yes, thank you, Simons. Tell him I will be there directly.” She tossed her sword to Jack. “Will you go down to him while I change? Apparently I need a chaperone any time I am alone with a man, lest I be compromised.”

Jack gave her a withering look, but handed the rapiers to Simons and hurried downstairs. Ten minutes later Kat entered the room and swept over to the fireplace, where Matthews stood in an elegant suit of brushed black velvet with a golden wheat-colored waistcoat, both cut extremely well.

He immediately assessed her in her pale gold silk gown, and smiled. Perhaps because of the bounce in her step and her changed demeanor. She smiled warmly at him in return. “Mr. Matthews, how kind of you to come at such short notice. Pray do be seated, sir.” Kat waved him to the chair opposite hers. Jack claimed his accustomed place on the sofa.

“I am, as always, at your service, Lady Katarina. Although, I must admit my surprise when I received your note. I thought by now you would have sailed for the colonies.” He took her hand as if to kiss it. His lips hovered an inch above the knuckles, then he seated himself, a more welcome occupant than the one seated there a scarce twenty-four hours before. “I am so very glad that is not the case.”

“Plans change, Mr. Matthews. Like the March wind. My journey has been unavoidably delayed.”

“I am sure all of London breathes a sigh of relief at your deferred departure, as do I,” he said. “But I assume this summons means you have remembered something more about your ordeal in March, my lady?” The eager hope in his voice gave her a twinge of conscience. The man prided himself on solving the cases assigned to him, according to Jack. It must gall him that hers remained unsolved.

“Not exactly, Mr. Matthews. Although this meeting is connected to the events of that night. You are familiar with the Marquess of Dalbury?”

Matthews sat up and leaned forward, alert to her every word. “I have indeed met the

marquess, my lady. In connection with your case, in fact. The black cloak you stole from Madame Vestry’s belonged to him.”

“Indeed,” was all she replied. When he made no move to continue, she relented, for she needed his help. And he already suspected what had happened. His outrage at Dalbury might actually make him more sympathetic to her request. She drew herself up and said briskly, “Lord

Dalbury and I have agreed to a fencing match, a wager to settle a debt of honor.”

Eyes widened to perfect circles, brows dipped in a sharp V and mouth puckered, Matthews’s expression would have made quick fodder for the news sheets that circulated caricatures. In fact, he seemed angrier than Jack had been, if that were possible.

She continued before he could question her. “I would like for you to serve as my primary second.”

A full minute elapsed before Matthews collected his wits enough to form a complete, if brief question. “Why me?”

Expecting to hear, But women do not fence she was strangely pleased when he did not say that. Matthews was an uncommon man, and therefore a good one to have as a friend. “Because I trust no one else to make sure our wager plays out fairly, Mr. Matthews.”