Page 9 of The Devil's Accidental Duchess
She shouldnotbe watching him so intently.
Not when she should have been focusing on her livid father, who was now attempting to take another man’s life.
And most certainly, not when the said man before them was every bit as dangerous as the pistol he leisurely raised and aimed at her father’s chest.
“No!” Selina screamed in desperation. “Please, don’t! I can explain! I swear it!”
Unlike the Duke of Ashbrook, who had come home from war, she had never heard of her father firing a single shot. The very pistol he brandished about could be rusted, for all she knew. A useless ornament that would not save him.
Her heart thudded painfully in her chest when she caught the gleam in Ashbrook’s eyes. The slightest upward tilt of the corner of his lips.
Her father would not survive a shot from the dangerously handsome man before her. She was sure of it.
Even worse, the Duke knew it. Of course he did, for he had survived battles. What was one measly man with a vendetta?Her father was just a fool who had wandered up to his execution, not a duel.
Oh no, no, no…
The scene before her seemed to unfold with aching slowness: her father fumbling, a fat thumb trying to find the hammer to cock it properly; the Duke just standing there perfectly still, his finger poised on the trigger, ready to fire whenever he pleased. It was almost as if he was taunting her father, waiting for him to prepare himself before he took the fatal shot.
“Would you like some assistance?” Ashbrook asked, his mouth lifted in a faint smirk that would surely end in catastrophe.
Her father glowered at him. “Certainly not!”
“I will not wait much longer,” the Duke warned.
He closed his eyes and seemed to feel the wind, making a small adjustment to the aim of his pistol without even looking. Deadly accuracy, without doubt.
Please… Please, no.
Selina willed the words to come, but they would not.
The Duke’s finger moved slightly on the trigger while her father was still fumbling.
“Ah! There!” The older man managed to cock the pistol.
The weapon wavered in his hand, wobbling where Ashbrook’s hand was so steady he seemed to be carved—a statue instead of a man. Even if her father fired, he would surely miss. And then, he would certainly die.
With a sighing rise and fall of his shoulders, the Duke pushed the hammer into a half-cocked position. It was not until Selina heard the muted sound of something heavy hitting the grass-covered earth that she realized what was happening before her.
Ashbrook had dropped his pistol.
He hadactuallydropped his pistol.
Selina heaved a sigh of relief. At least there was one man in the vicinity with a level head on his shoulders. If he could be convinced to see reason, then perhaps her father might be persuaded to do the same.
However, the next words that came out of those sinfully perfect lips were far more devastating than any shot fired.
“There is no reason to deny it, love. Let’s get married.”
