Page 136 of Never Besmirch a Wallflower: Dukes and Wallflowers

“Shoot you,” she replied, planting her feet and pulling back the second hammer. “Twice.”

“You’re being ridiculous.” Humphrey held out his left hand, gesturing with his fingers. “Give me the gun.”

“Now, who’s being ridiculous.” She forced a bitter laugh, her frozen breath floating upward. “I gave you an instruction… drop the rock.”

“You don’t even know how to use a pistol.” Humphrey tossed the stone far enough away that neither he nor the Duke of Lennox, should he awake, could reach it.

“I possess a myriad of talents of which you are stubbornly unaware.” She gestured with the gun. “Move away from him.”

Humphrey took one giant step to his left, aligning himself with the edge of the stone bench. “Why do you defend a man who ended his connection with you?”

She licked her lips. Humphrey had a valid argument. But if the Duke of Lennox didn’t wish to pursue her, then why did she awake to Humphrey choking the life from him?

“If he ended our engagement, then why is he here?” She tilted her head.

Humphrey shrugged and took a miniscule step forward. “Perhaps you owe him money, too.”

“I…” Eveline’s eyes flicked to the ruby ring on her finger.

Following her movement, Humphrey snorted. “Or perhaps, like me, he came to reclaim his property.”

“I’m not your property.” Her gaze snapped back to Humphrey. “Put your foot down.”

He complied but edged closer as he completed her request. “You’re not going to shoot me, Eveline. You’ve never hurt anyone in your life.”

“People can change.”

“No, they can’t.” He smirked and took another step, daring her. “That’s why I knew I’d find you here, preparing to run.”

“I said stop.”

“Never.”

Eveline squeezed the trigger, firing one shot. The recoil forced her arms up, and the bullet zipped past Humphrey’s head, lodging itself in the bark of her neighbor’s beech tree.

“You nearly shot me!” His hand flew to his ear.

“I won’t miss the second time,” she said, leveling her arms with his torso.

Humphrey’s eyes narrowed, and, like a snake, his hand whipped out and slapped the pistol from her grip before she could react. Smirking, he lunged over the stone bench, his fingers grasping at her face.

His entire body jerked as though he were a dog on a leash, and his hands stopped millimeters short of Eveline. Frowning, Humphrey shook his leg, then he glanced over his shoulder, his eyes widening. Before Humphrey could speak, his leg wrenched backward, and he fell, striking his head against the corner of the bench and rolling off the side.

The Duke of Lennox struggled to stand, leaning on the bench for support until he regained his balance. One eye nearly swollen shut, he lifted his arms and glowered at Humphrey as he staggered to his feet.

“We have a grievance to settle,” the Duke of Lennox growled, wiping his arm across his forehead.

“I don’t understand,” Humphrey said, touching his fingers to the cut above his eye. “You’re a duke. You can have any woman.”

“I want that one.” The Duke of Lennox nodded toward Eveline.

“Why? No woman is worth this trouble.”

The Duke of Lennox kept his eyes on her. “She is to me.”

Humphrey swung his fist, but the Duke of Lennox sidestepped the punch, then countered with his left hand, connecting with Humphrey’s jaw. Humphrey dropped to the ground with a grunt. The Duke of Lennox stepped over Humphrey’s immobile body and retrieved the pistol, then strode to Eveline’s side and wrapped his arm around her waist, drawing her against his hip.

“I heard some interesting gossip,” he said, leaning his forehead against hers.