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“Does that work with you and Lady Rosalind?”

To his surprise, a reluctant smile touched Knighton’s lips. “Not once in our entire marriage.” Then he scowled again. “Did Juliet get the pistols from you, too?”

“No! I’m not insane, for God’s sake,” Sebastian said hotly.

“They’re your pistols, Griff,” Lady Rosalind put in. “Don’t you recognize them? I got them out of storage last night and had one of the footmen clean and oil them.”

Knighton groaned. “Now she’s got the servants working against me.”

“She’s good at that,” Sebastian said.

“I know.” Knighton cast him a searching glance. “By the way, it seems I have you to thank for my tepid baths at Charnwood.”

Clearly Lady Rosalind had confessed all her secrets. But he couldn’t tell whether they’d softened Knighton toward him or made him only more furious. Sebastian weighed his words carefully. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have meddled in your private affairs.”

“You bloody well shouldn’t have,” Knighton said, but his tone lacked conviction.

The doctor stepped forward and cleared his throat. “Gentlemen, if there’s to be no duel today, I should like to return to my bed.”

Sebastian looked to Knighton. So did everyone else.

With so many eyes upon him, Knighton stiffened. “We’re fighting, make no mistake,” he said. “My honor has not yet been satisfied.”

Somehow Sebastian wasn’t surprised by that answer. Knighton was the proudest, most stubborn man he’d ever met.

But Juliet glowered at her brother-in-law as if he were the devil incarnate. Lady Rosalind merely frowned and told her sister, “Load one of those pistols for me, dear heart. It seems you and I shall be dueling, after all.”

Knighton glanced uneasily at Sebastian. “They’re just bluffing, you know.”

“I know.”

All the same, it was rather unnerving. As the seconds went on about their business, measuring off the paces and setting the lines for where the men would stand, Lady Rosalind and Juliet did the same only a few feet away, mimicking all their movements.

Knighton was either an idiot or made of stone, if he could ignore his wife checking her weapon while her sister practiced aiming at a nearby tree. Bluffing or no, they were certainly making a good show of it. Did the man really think to have a duel with all that going on?

Apparently he did, for his second told them both to take their places. Resigning himself to his fate, Sebastian did so.

“Wait!” Juliet cried suddenly and ran into the line of fire.

“Damnation, Juliet, get out of the way,” Knighton growled.

She tilted up that stubborn little chin of hers. “I will when I’m ready. But first I want a word with Sebastian.”

Griff sighed. “Very well. Only a moment. I want this done.”

Handing her pistol to Lady Rosalind, Juliet ran over to Sebastian. Without hesitation, she took his face between her hands and kissed him squarely on the mouth. Her display of affection ought to mortify him, especially with four men looking on, but it didn’t. Not when he saw her tears.

She pulled back, but only enough to say, “Listen to me, Sebastian. I know you’ll do the right thing.”

“Then you’ll have to tell me what the right thing is, sweeting, because damned if I know.”

“You do know,” she said earnestly. “In your heart, you know. And whatever you choose to do is the right thing as far as I’m concerned. Because I trust you. Now show me that you trust me, too.”

After that enigmatic comment, she started to walk away, but he caught her arm before she could. “I do trust you, Juliet,” he said. “And I…I love you.”

She flashed him a sad smile. “You’re only saying that because of this silly duel.”

He shook his head. “I’m saying it because it’s true.” Ignoring the impatience of Knighton and the seconds, he decided to tell her everything he’d realized last night, while he still had the chance. “I was always afraid that allowing myself to love would mean giving up control over my life as my parents did. I figured that without my control, disasters would be set in motion.”