Selena leveled a glare at her brother. “Shall I shoot you in the other arm?”
“You shot your brother?” Warrick strode over to her and took the pistol from her hand, a finger brushing over the fringes of her palm before she could evade him.
Shivers.
“As your second,” Selena breathed, half-succeeding and half-failing to sound stern. “I stepped up in your stead. The duel is over.”
“Who made you my second?” he asked in a shushed voice. “What possessed you to do such a thing?”
She pointed at her brother. “That devil possessed me.”
“The duel isnotover,” Saville bellowed. “Are you not even going to look at me? I demand satisfaction!”
“Enough,” Avondale said. “You’ve already been shot by your own flesh and blood. Do you want to die today?” He turned to Selena. “I’ll bring him home. You head out first.”
“What? I should be troubled by this little wound?”
Selena watched as her brother withdrew his hand from his wound, bringing the bloody palm to his face. “This... This...”
His body dropped to the ground.
“Honestly!”
All eyes turned to her. Selena shrugged, almost helplessly. “In the past, once or twice, he has fainted at the sight of blood.”
Avondale, hunched down, almost having dropped along with her brother, motioned Deerhurst over. “Collect Saville’s pistols. I’ll send a man for the doctor.”
Selena nodded. “Don’t worry, he’ll be fine. He survived almost removing his finger with a knife dining one evening.”
“That’s good to know,” Deerhurst muttered, placing a hand at her brother’s neck to feel for a pulse.
Would it be appropriate to roll her eyes at the moment?
“Come,” Warrick said. “I’ll escort you home.”
She was about to decline, but when she met Warrick’s gaze, those unnamable emotions again flashing in their depths, Selena thought better of it.
She nodded.
Back straight, she marched to the carriage Warrick had leaped from. Her brother might display his feelings all over his face, but Warrick carried them a bit deeper. Having seen all the men’s looks and “not” looks when they all were on the scene together, it was what true friendship—no,commitment—looked like.
She wanted that.
But between them? Between Warrick and Saville?
Had she only made things worse?
*
Warrick stared atthe rows and rows of books that lined the shelves of the Savage library before reading a passage from the one he selected,The Starry Night—a book he’d already read three times. What a hell of a morning it had turned out to be. He cast a gloomy look toward the window. It had started rainingafter they returned from the proverbial battlefield between brother and sister.
He didn’t want to think about how he could have prevented this particular mess had he been more on guard, but also could help but wonder if this was what was meant to happen. With Selena taking charge in such a bold way, Saville ought to settle down.Ought to...though he could never tell with this friend of his.
“Oh, there you are.”
Warrick lifted his head to meet Selena’s gaze as she strode over to the sofa and plopped down next to him. “Saville’s wound has been taken care of?”
She nodded. “The doctor gave him a bit of laudanum when he woke up, and he fell asleep again. I’m sure he’ll be up and shouting in no time, however.”
