Don’t let him take our future from us, too.”
“He already has your future. Part of it, at least. I saw the way you reacted when he entered that ballroom. I felt it. As long as he’s alive and connected to your family, you’ll never be free of him.”
“Can’t there be some other way? Why must it be a duel?”
He gave her a wry smile. “I swore you’d marry nothing less than a gentleman. Dueling is the gentleman’s way.”
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t want a dead gentleman. I’d prefer a living bastard, thank you. And what about George? You have a goat now, and he’s depending on you. If nothing else, think of your kid.”
“Penny.” He touched her cheek. His eyes brimmed with tenderness. “I’m only thinking of you. If I don’t defend you, I’m not worthy of you. Not in the world’s eyes, nor in my own.”
“We have to do something,” Penny said firmly. “Ideas?”
She looked around at her friends. After Gabriel left, she’d sent for Ash and Chase, and they’d all adjourned to her house for an urgent strategy session. In the most direct and matter-of-fact of summaries, she’d relayed the facts of the situation and the imminent danger. Considering the formidable amount of wits and determination represented in her drawing room, surely they could come up with a brilliant way to avert disaster.
Unfortunately, no one was quick with a suggestion.
She turned to Chase and Ash. “Can’t you go after him? Punch him in the jaw, or tie him to a chair, or hold him at knifepoint until well after dawn?”
After conferring with Chase by eye contact, Ash rubbed the back of his neck. “As delightful as that all sounds, I don’t think we can.”
“Surely the two of you put together can overpower him.”
“It’s not that.” Chase sat across from her and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Perhaps we could restrain him. But I’m not convinced we should.”
“Why not?”
“Because we agree with Gabe, that’s why.” Ash crossed his arms. “In his position, I’d do the same. In fact, I’d be tempted to call Lambert out myself if he hadn’t already. The man deserves to die.”
Chase reached forward and took her hand. “Penny, what he did to you … I can’t imagine what you suffered. But I believe I can come uncomfortably close to imagining it, when I think of Rosamund and Daisy. I can certainly understand why Gabe feels the need to defend you.”
“I don’t need defending,” she protested. “It’s in the past. And while I’m sure you do have strong emotions, aren’t my feelings and wishes more important right now? Perhaps Lambert deserves to die. But we all know it’s far more likely that Gabriel will be the one wounded or worse.”
Nicola joined her argument. “Dueling is an archaic, barbarous, stupid practice in which men pretend to defend a woman’s honor by robbing her of any self-determination.”
“Is that so?” Ash looked at his wife. “Emma didn’t mind it when I snuck through her despicable father’s window at night and made him piss the bed with fear.”
“That was different!” Emma said. “There were no bullets involved.”
Alexandra spoke up. “I was highly put out with Chase when he punched a man on my behalf.”
“At the time,” Chase argued. “Looking back, would you rather I hadn’t?”
Alexandra went silent.
“See?” Chase said.
Penny jumped to her feet. “Listen, all of you. This isn’t a matter of punching or climbing through windows. A duel means life and death, and considering that Lambert spent every autumn shooting partridges with my father, I have reason to believe he’s the superior marksman of the two. I love Gabriel. I mean to marry him, have a family with him. In order for that to happen, he needs to not die tomorrow morning. And if you care about me at all, you’ll do everything you can to prevent it.”
After a moment of quiet, her friends mumbled and nodded in agreement.
Chase rose from the chair. “Ash and I will go after him. We may not be able to stop the duel, but there are ways of settling these things without bloodshed.”
Penny exhaled with relief. “Thank you.”
“Besides, he’s going to need a second,” Chase said.
Ash nodded. “I’ll do my best to negotiate a resolution that doesn’t involve black powder.”
“Hold a moment,” Chase objected, pulling on his coat. “Who said you were the second? I’m the second.”
“You can be the third.”
“The third? There’s no such thing as a third.”
Ash groaned. “We’ll sort it out on the way.”
After the men had left, Penny paced the floor. “There has to be something more we can do,” she told Alex, Emma, and Nicola. “I can’t simply sit here and sip tea all night.”
“If I could move,” Alexandra said, “I’d be a great deal more help. Perhaps you could set me rolling like a giant pumpkin, and I could mow them down?”
“Tempting.” Penny was grateful for the smile that image brought.
“To be truthful, I’m not certain we can stop them,” Emma added. “Nicola’s right when she calls it archaic and stupid, but these are men we’re talking about. Wounded male pride has caused the world more destruction than the Black Death and the Great Flood put together.”
Nicola’s eyebrows lifted. “Are we entirely certain men’s bruised feelings weren’t to blame for the plague and the deluge, too?”
“A fair point,” Emma conceded.
“If men are bent on destroying the world, we women must be the ones holding it together,” a newcomer to their gathering said. “The earth hasn’t crumbled yet.”
Penny turned toward the familiar voice. “Aunt Caroline.” Tears welled in her eyes, and she rushed to her aunt and clasped her in a hug.
“Oh, Penelope.” Her aunt patted her on the shoulder. “That’s enough.”
Penny drew back.
“Now”—Aunt Caroline sat in the nearest chair without even inspecting it for cat hair first—“tell me everything.”
In St. James Park, fog swamped the new shoots of grass and wound through the budding tree branches. At the opposite end of the green, Lambert and Bradford
