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Stella turned and ran away from him. Silvester was horrified to discover his muscles tightening, not wanting to let her go. This bloody craving was absurd. He never felt this for Yasmin.

But he’d been in love with Yasmin—or next best thing to in love with Yasmin. He adored her. Truly.

He didn’t adore Stella. He craved her, like water in a desert. He’d never actually tried to kiss Yasmin, whose touch-me-not air made her aversion to intimacy obvious. But Stella? The first damn time he got her in private, he couldn’t stop himself from pulling her into his arms, dead mouse or no dead mouse.

The memory of their kisses was like the beat of a drum in the back of his mind. So it was a damn good thing that Yasmin had dropped him for Giles.

He tightened his grip on his sword and padded after Stella, who had dashed behind a tree to confer with Merry, Fanny, and his mother.

“Sir, sir,” Thomas said, running up out of breath. “How many times have you been struck, sir?”

“Once,” Silvester said. “You?”

“Once. They don’t play fair at all. I had to run like the blazes to get away from the dowager duchess, which is not the way someone like that is supposed to play!”

“How should she play?” Silvester asked.

“Well, she’s old. And a duchess. She should be dignified. She’s a lady.”

“My mother never believed that rule, even when she was young.”

“Oh, that’s right, she’s your mother. I apologize.”

“Your mother won’t be dignified at that age, either,” Silvester pointed out. “She’s also a duchess.”

“Look, they’ve decided something,” Thomas said, whirling around and backing close to Silvester’s chest.

Silvester could smell sweaty boy and mown grass. It was surely imagination that made him detect the faint perfume that clung to Stella’s skin as well.

The four women strolled out from behind the tree. Silvester’s body flared to life at a glance from Stella. Merely a glance.

This was a disaster.

“Careful,” Thomas warned. “Your mother may be the only one left alive, but I expect all four of them will try to ambush us. It’s cheating!”

Silvester glanced down at the small, indignant general at his side. “Lady Stella is still alive. Your sister and mother have put down their swords, so they aren’t cheating.”

“We must separate,” Thomas declared.

“Lady Stella is the most dangerous,” Silvester told him.

Thomas blinked up at him. “She is?”

“Absolutely. My mother is, as you said, rather elderly.”

“Lady Stella is a fast runner,” Thomas conceded.

“I’ll chase her away from the others, and you concentrate on taking out the dowager. I can’t strike Her Grace, as she’s my mother.”

Thomas threw him a skeptical glance, presumably due to being the veteran of many battles with his mother. But he nodded. “I’ll draw them to the right, and you can fight Lady Stella. Don’t let her confuse you, sir.”

“Confuse?”

“Girls have ways of doing that,” Thomas said darkly.

“I shall do my best.”

With that, the two Roman warriors split left and right, running toward the opposite army, swords in hand.