Page 94 of A Potion for Passion

There was more circling, and some feints from Lawrence which Barnabas ignored. Then Lawrence leaped in with impressive speed and brought his knife slashing across his adversary’s bare chest. Blood beaded along the cut. Not deep, but a distraction. A sign, she hoped, that Lawrence had the upper hand.

Once again darting out of reach as Barnabas surged forward, and then parrying a blow with his forearm, Lawrence said, “If you yield, I won’t kill you.”

“I’ll die anyway, if I yield,” Barnabas snarled back. “But I’ll take you down with me when they put me on trial. I know more about you, Dr. Campaign, than you’d want anybody else to know.”

“A pity, then,” replied Lawrence levelly, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, “that I’ve already received a full pardon.”

“You traitor! You’ve traded in your fellows for thirty pieces of silver? Or was it just to impress that Jezebel with you, that oh-so-innocent-looking trollop?”

Lawrence paled. “Don’t you dare talk about her like that. You’re not fit to breathe the same air.”

He mustn’t get angry! He had to keep control, or Barnabas would triumph.

Sally started to lift her head. Not taking her eyes off the fight, Flora pressed the blade of the knife harder against her cheek, then whispered in what she hoped was an implacable tone, “Move again, and I’ll cut off your ear.”

Ah, well. It rather looked as if she and Sally were not going to be partners in the millinery shop, after all.

Barnabas made another slash at Lawrence but overreached himself. As his arms flailed wide in an effort to regain his balance, Lawrence somersaulted past him, leaped to his feet, and seized him from behind, pressing his dagger against his foe’s neck.

“I should slit your gizzard right now for threatening and insulting my woman,” he said. “But I’ll let her decide your fate. Flora?”

She struggled to concentrate, terrified the battle was not yet done, every nerve stretched to breaking point lest the peddler find some way to escape Lawrence’s grasp.

All at once came the heavy tramp of feet on the stairs, and Corporal Triggs burst in, followed by three other redcoats and an out-of-breath Jud Creasey.

“Flora?” Lawrence still held her gaze, his eyes burning. “What shall I do with this miserable excuse for a human being?”

“Send him to the assizes, to answer for his crimes,” she managed to say. Murder was not an option, as much as she now hated the man who’d threatened her life.

Would Lawrence really have killed Barnabas for her? A man whose heart was set on curing people, not taking lives?

She didn’t get a chance to ponder the question. In a blur of movement, Lawrence thrust Barnabas into the clutches of two soldiers.

A third stomped over to point his rifle at Sally. “What’s the woman done?”

“Harbored a fugitive,” Lawrence said as he lifted Flora off Sally and into his embrace.

“You are so brave, my angel,” he whispered in her ear, his voice cracking with emotion. “I’d do anything for you. I’d give you the earth if it were mine to give. At the very least, I’ll give up my wandering life, and find another way to provide for you, if you’ll only promise to marry me.”

She could barely speak past the lump in her throat. “Of course, I’ll marry you! A life without you in it would not be worth living.”

Sally, now swathed in a sheet and in the grip of Corporal Triggs, said in a voice dripping with vitriol, “He’ll never be true to you. He’ll break your heart. I’ll watch him do it and applaud.”

“They won’t be able to hear you. The colonies are a long way away. Assuming the magistrate don’t choose to hang you,” Triggs said gruffly. “Thank you, Dr. Campaign, for capturing this piece of scum and his trull. Though we weren’t far behind you, having decided to try our luck in East Town.”

The two were hustled from the room, leaving Flora with just Lawrence and Charley.

“Well,” he said, spinning her to face him. “I suppose we’d better start making plans.”

Were they really going to be married? She could hardly believe it.

“Lucinda will be horrified,” she said with a smile.

“She may choose to disown you altogether,” Lawrence said somberly.

“One can only hope,” Flora said, her smile growing larger.

“The Daniells will be appalled,” he said, and grinned.