Page 38 of Good Duke Gone Far

“That’s it?” Kat asked.

“That was the sound of an unloaded gun. The real thing would be much louder. And the momentum of the bullet going forward will push the gun back. So you need to hold onto it tightly. Squeeze it and brace yourself for impact.”

Kat pried herself off his lap. “Maybe you could tell me a few of the boring things. Just so I’m a little more prepared.”

Quinn chuckled and then spent the next while teaching her all the gun’s parts, how to load it, and how to properly aim. All the while praying to God that she would never have to put any of his teachings to use.

Chapter 14

THEFINALLEGOFthe journey Kat was engrossed in the craggy cliffs the carriage was clamoring by. If the noise from their conveyance wasn’t enough, the water surging the cliff walls surely filled any silences. There was a permanent misty fog around them as they approached the duke’s residence. It felt as though they were traveling through clouds.

“This has to be the first castle in the sky I’ve ever visited. You?” Quinn tapped the window, pointing to the stoney architecture ahead.

“I’d have to say so,” Kat murmured as she swept at invisible hairs to tuck them behind her ear.

“You’re not nervous are you?”

Although she had already been vulnerable with Quinn, she felt she had been plenty open enough. There was no way she was about to show any signs of weakness now, regardless of whatever tells she had inadvertently shown him.

“Me? No. Not nervous at all.” She knocked lightly on the window. “Heshould be nervous.”

Quinn chuckled. “I’d have to agree with that.”

The carriage rolled to a stop. Quinn rose to open the door, and Kat took a moment to brush her skirts out. She wished she could look more presentable than her current state allowed, but with a sigh, she resigned herself to the lot fate had cast her this time.

“Let’s go,” she said as she alighted the carriage, hand in hand with Quinn.

Together, they approached the front door and knocked.

Before the knock was complete, the door swung open and they were greeted by, well, they weren’t sure what they were greeted by.

In front of them stood a man who was surely not the butler, or any servant of any kind. But certainly he was not the duke either. He was of average build with average brown hair, the kind of averages that altogether usually went unnoticed. And he would have too, gone unnoticed that is, except he was standing in their direct line of sight, and then he belted out a laugh.

Having the doors flung open and being laughed at was not Kat’s idea of a kind welcome. It was not any kind of welcome to be sure. Yet the man was still chuckling to himself. The laughter, thankfully, was fading a bit.

“What are you doing?” Kat broke in when the laughter had subsided enough to be heard.

“I can’t believe my luck.” The laughter trickled out again. “I was just saying, to no one in particular mind you, that I was about dying for my need of visitors. And then just when I go to seek out some company, you two show up. Pure dead brilliant, I tell you.” The man clapped one single, solitary, loud smack between his palms.

“Come right in.”

“You don’t know who we are.” Kat had no clue why she was presenting an argument to oppose entry into the place they had traveled so far to reach.

“It doesn’t matter, does it?” The man shooed them in, ignorant of the the fact that the two remained on the doorstep. “You wanted in, right?”

“We did,” was her tentative reply.

“Right-o. Then in we go.”

If anything, Kat thought she was going to have to barge her way into this place. She was preparing to storm the castle. She had taken lessons on wielding knives and guns for goodness’ sake, albeit not for this specific purpose. Though in one possible hindsight, it could have been for such a reason.

Kat shook her head to clear her thoughts. In so doing, she could hear Quinn’s sotto voce, “Let’s go, Kat. No need to give them reasons to deny us.”

That was when she realized her hand was attached to his arm, and whether she was ready for it or not, they were going in.

“Ah,” the man exhaled loudly. “This is just perfect. Let’s see…shall we settle in the drawing room? The parlor?” The man tapped his chin, deep in thought. “The green room? The blue–”

“Any room will do.” Kat didn’t need to hear the full litany of every room and its color in the castle.

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