Page 43 of Good Duke Gone Far

“Circles. My favorite shape.” The drunk eyed the inside of the tin, staring at the bottom of it. “Or is it?”

“Let’s go,” Quinn moved to offer his arm to Kat.

Kat stood up, but Quinn would have been a fool to think it would be over that easily.

“Did you do any good with their money?”

“Good? What is good?” He scratched his head and then rubbed a non-existent beard. “I learned a lot. I heard all kinds of secrets.” Nodding to Quinn, “Even the good kinds.” Then he tried to take a slurp from his tin and got only dribbles. He waved to the barmaid, gesturing for another drink. “Hell, I’ve come to think of this job as paying me for doing a completely different job. Life’s funny that way. It has a way of laughing at us. If only we can learn to laugh back.”

A new drink was set before him. “Cheers to me finding you.”

Quinn shook his head and turned to Kat. “The man’s three sheets to the wind. He’s not even making sense anymore. Let’s go. We’ll have better luck elsewhere.”

Kat stood her ground. “That was my parents’ hard earned money, and you just blew it on this.” She flung her hand at the newly placed tin. And though Quinn couldn’t be sure, maybe never could be one hundred percent sure, he didn’t think Kat meant to knock over the man’s gold.

And then, before the gold could leak into the floor, the drunk was on his feet nose to nose with Kat.

“You can come in here and harass me, call me names, call my character into question. Hell, you can fool yourselves into thinking whatever you want about who you really are. But let’s get a few things straight. One. None of us chooses who gives birth to us. Two. Your parents' money isn’t hard earned. I know hard earned. And three. Never touch a man’s drink, you strumpet.”

Quinn was nose to nose to nose with them. “I think you’re forgetting something.”

“What’s that? Respect for a lady, Your Grace?” The man backed up a step and feigned a bow. Upon straightening, he asked, “What are you going to do, call me out?”

Quinn stared him down, rallying his entire body not to fully thrash the man before him. There were several methods he could use to obliviate this filth. Instead of wasting his effort, he made fists with his hands.

The man mocked again, “What am I forgetting?”

“This.”

***

KAT DID NOT SEE the punch coming. But she definitely heard it as it flew right past her shoulder. Thwunk! Dead center in the drunk’s face. The man teetered and then fell to the floor.

She stood staring at the pile of a human. She wasn’t sure if she had ever seen a man punched out. Or knocked out. Or whatever the terminology was for one man pummeling another in one shot.

“For a second I thought you were going to do something utterly foolish like call him out.”

“It’s not that foolish.”

“It’s the dumbest thing a man can do.”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far. There are some pretty dumb things a man can do.”

Kat looked at him with a grin. “I couldn’t agree more. Let’s go.” She raised her hand to take his arm and the two stepped over the fallen man.

“So I’m still your husband, am I?”

“Only when it suits my purposes.”

“Do you have many of them then?”

“Many what?”

“Purposes.”

“Oh, yes. I have many purposes for you.” The words were strung in the air, connecting her to him. Connecting her to him in strength. It was a most bizarre thought, but it was her thought all the same. Connected in strength. Strength and some other thing that caused an intense buzzing and incomparable heat to spread through her body.

She couldn’t wait to return to the carriage. It was a short trip back to the castle, but perhaps it was just long enough.

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