The Second Shot (The Dueling Pistols) by Katy Madison Page B

lineage. I can't get them to leave by fair means or foul."
    "And how does that concern me, Felicity?"
    "I'm asking you to pretend a private engagement to me. They will trust that I am in capable hands and go home."
    Perhaps she hadn't understood him the first time. "No. I have no intention of marrying. I will not enter a sham engagement, either."
    She clenched the lapel of her pelisse in one hand. "You owe me at least that, Tony."
    "No, madam, I believe you owe me. Did you ever intend for us to marry, or was I just bait so you could land a bigger fish?" He gestured around the opulent room.
    She stared at him and finally shook her head in a bewildered way. "How could you doubt that I intended to marry you? After what happened, how could you doubt that?"
    "Lying in a hospital for six months, battling with surgeons daily to let me keep my leg, wondering if I would die from the gangrene, leaves a lot of time for doubts when you had already married another man."
    "What was I to do?" Her anger was back. She stood and paced across the room. "You told me to stay in England, that you didn't want me there with you."
    "Spain was no place for you. I couldn't have taken care of you, protected you. It was a bloody war, damn it. You wouldn't have been safe there." His voice had risen to a shout.
    She snapped back sarcastically, "I'm sorry, I wasn't that strong."
    He continued leaning against the chaise and watched her stalk across the room. She was angry, fuming. Was she hurt when he told her not to come to Spain?
    "If your answer is no, then good day, Major Sheridan. Please do not return."
    "I'll consider it on one condition."
    She stopped and waited, her back to him.
    "That we pick up our 'pretend engagement,' exactly where we left our real one." He pushed away from the back of the chaise and willed his leg to behave. He wanted to see her face.
    "You mean an affair."
    "Just a few months and I'll be out of your life." And God help him, she'd be out of his dreams forever.
    Her arms hung at her side, and her shoulders slumped.
    "It is fair, Felicity. You want something from me. I want something from you."
    He reply was the merest whisper. "No, I can't go through that again."
    He had almost reached her. The room was far too large. Her response confused him. She had given herself to him long ago, enjoyed their one night of passion. He'd seen it in her eyes, in the delicate flush of her skin, tasted it in her kisses. What had happened to make her reject the hope of experiencing that bliss once more?
    He put his hands on her shoulders and felt her shudder. Had her husband been cruel? Leaning close, he spoke in a low, soothing voice. "It's me—Tony—and you know I would never hurt you, misuse you, or force you to do anything you don't want to do." He rubbed his thumbs in soothing circles. "Your promise would be enough for now."
    She spun away from him and swiped her gloved hand under her eye. "You already did hurt me, misused me, forced me—oh nevermind, just go."
    His gut churned. What had he ever done that made her think that?
    The door to the room cracked open. Felicity's lips trembled as she forced them into a small smile.
    "Mama?" The word was plaintive. "Are we going? The carriage is waiting."
    "In a minute, Charles. We are almost done."
    Charles saw Tony and scooted in the doorway. "Oh, did you bring your dog?"
    The little boy stood, a touch of blue in the green room. His short jacket was blue. His long pants down to his buckled shoes were blue. His eyes were a pale, pale blue—not of infancy but of the kind that stared back at Tony from his shaving glass every morning.
    For a second Tony forgot how to do simple arithmetic. But his brain quickly added it all up and there was no avoiding the obvious answer.
    His leg faltered, and he sat down hard on a couch with reclining-lion arms. "You're not yet six, are you?"
    "Almost," said Charles as he skipped into the room. "I have a loose tooth." He opened his mouth and waggled one of his lower