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Their blades glided against each other with a long, metallic ring. Catching his enemy’s guard, Percy shoved upward sharply, wrenching the weapon from Ravenwood’s grasp. Reaching up, he neatly caught the hilt in his left hand and stepped back.
Ravenwood’s face registered complete shock.
Taking his enemy’s sword, Percy thrust it deep into the earth. “You’ve been disarmed, and your life is forfeit,” he said, his voice carrying on the still air. He stepped forward and laid the flat of his own blade atop Ravenwood’s left shoulder near the base of his neck. “I will spare it, provided you declare the matter forever resolved.”
Percy watched as Ravenwood cast one nervous glance to their right, where their seconds stood. “I yield, and I declare the grievance between us forever settled.”
Lifting his sword, Percy backed away, but kept his eyes on Ravenwood. “Wells, Ravenwood requires a surgeon,” he called. “Best get him to one quickly.”
Montgomery’s warning shout split the air, and Percy dropped and rolled, sword still in hand as the crack of a gunshot echoed in the clearing. Looking up an instant later, he saw Montgomery wrestle Wells to the ground and remove a spent pistol from his hand.
A faint cry behind him made him turn just as Ravenwood sank to his knees, a stunned look on his face. Scarlet slowly spread across his upper abdomen. Running over, Percy helped lay his erstwhile opponent back on the ground.
Ravenwood stared up at him, his gray eyes fever-bright. “I knew he would never let me live,” he gasped, clutching at his middle. “I know I don’t deserve it, but promise me you will seek justice on my behalf.”
“I will,” Percy answered without hesitation. “Now lie still.” He looked up as he heard Montgomery shouting instructions. “Your driver is being sent for a surgeon.”
The corners of Ravenwood’s mouth turned up in a smile that was more a grimace. “I’m already dead. I knew I wasn’t going to survive this. I went to be shriven this morning—something I’ve not done since I was a boy.”
There was nothing he could say, so Percy held his tongue.
“You’ll get the girl out, won’t you? The one in Crown Court?”
He looked down at Ravenwood in surprise.
“You’ve been looking for her,” said the man, wincing as Percy pressed his wound, keeping pressure on it. “I could tell it was important to you the moment I mentioned it.”
“I’ll get her out.” It was all he would say. If by some miracle this man lived, he didn’t want him having any more information than he already possessed. He flinched as Ravenwood clasped his arm, moving his hand away from his wound.
“Don’t prolong my pain.” The man grunted, his breath shallow and accompanied by a faint bubbling sound. “Let me die quickly, free of sin.”
Percy withdrew his bloodstained hand just as Montgomery came running up. Glancing back, he saw his driver holding Wells down and pressing a pistol to his head.
Montgomery knelt beside him. “I gave him my gun and sent Ravenwood’s driver—”
“He’ll not make it back in time.”
“Why did Wells do this?” asked Montgomery. “He was the man’s second, for God’s sake.”
“Because he knew too much. I suspect now he would have killed him even if he’d bested me.”
“You’re right,” gasped Ravenwood. “He’d want no witnesses to—” He coughed, sending out a spray of pink froth, and his eyes went wide.
Percy held him by the shoulders, pressing him against the ground to prevent him further damaging himself, but he knew there was no help for the man. The bullet had punctured a lung and possibly other organs. He was drowning in his own blood. “I’ll see Wells brought to justice,” he promised again. “I swear it.”
Robbed of breath to acknowledge the vow, Ravenwood’s gray eyes sought and held his.
Percy watched the light in them die into dullness. He passed his hand over the man’s face, closing his lids. A muffled curse and scuffling behind him made him turn to see Wells making an unsuccessful attempt to break the driver’s hold. The driver barked a word of command, and Wells ceased his struggles.
Standing, Percy winced as a stinging pain in his leg alerted him to an injury. On looking, he saw blood staining his breeches from a lateral rent in the fabric halfway down his outside left thigh. “Ah, George’s bollocks,” he swore, tearing off a strip from the bottom of his shirt and tying it tightly above the wound to slow the flow of blood. It wasn’t a deep cut—he hadn’t even felt it at the time—but it would likely need cleaning and sewing up. He limped over to where Wells lay.
The burly driver held his captive down with a knee planted in the small of his back and one of the man’s arms locked behind. “Steady, now,” grunted the fellow as his prisoner struggled. He wrenched Wells’s arm up until the man let out a cry of protest and stilled. “I’d only be too happy to break it, milord.”
Wells glared up at Percy as he approached. “Whatever Ravenwood told you, it’s not true!”
Cold fury settled over Percy as he stared down at him. “Then why did you kill him?”
The man didn’t answer.
