Page 63 of A Lady's Beloved Novelist
Andrea missed dinner. She refused to come out of her room, uncaring if her mother thought it was because she was still upset about her father’s decision. It was not exactly a lie. She was still upset that he was yet to see reason and believe the accusations against Cecil, and so it was also clear that he was not going to do anything to help the situation.
She could not stop reading it, not even for a moment. The writing had her hooked in the way that every other one of his novels had done so in the past. The part about the duel was approaching, and she made sure to sit down by her door so that she could better stop anyone from entering. She was not even letting in the maids so that they could prepare her room for the evening.
Whilst sitting on the floor and reading could not be considered her greatest plan, Andrea was still determined to get through the book by the end of the night. Her back ached from leaning against the hard surface of the wall, and she was sure that the back of her skirt was going to be creased far too much. But all she could care about was the fact that the duel was about to happen.
Francis and Benjamin met at dawn. They both happened to be back in England for some time, where Benjamin was doing more damage by spreading even more rumours about the fact that the stories were really his achievements.
They readied their weapons and warned one another that this was the last chance to back out of it. Andrea found that she was unable to reach for the next page soon enough. She was terrified that one of them was going to end up badly hurt, or worse…
Their swords were drawn, dawn was upon them, and neither of them wavered from the fight. However, it was obvious that Francis was the more experienced of the two of them. He had survived duels in the past, but it became quickly obvious that this was all new to Benjamin.
With one lunge, Francis was jabbing his sword at the man that he had once called his friend. But now Benjamin was anything but his friend. He was trying to ruin his life, his reputation, and trying to stop him from finding love. Francis had had enough.
Andrea took great pleasure in seeing Benjamin squirmed and yelped until Francis’ sword was only inches away from him.
She could barely contain her anxiety as she let her eyes skim through the pages. It was all too clear that neither man was going to back down.
However, what she had not been expecting was to see that the next time Francis lunged forward, he propelled himself until the edge of his sword finally made contact with Benjamin.
Whilst the weapon was a little smaller than the swords he had used in the past, it was sharp enough to create a small cut to one of Benjamin’s cheeks. The man leapt back with a squeal, as though he had been stabbed or sliced much worse than his lone injury indicated.
The cut was no more than a finger’s length, and yet, Benjamin continued to leap back until he was far out of range from his sword. He kept running until he was too far away to still be calling what was happening a duel.
Francis was calling after him, but it was now evident that Benjamin was a coward. No real man would run from a fight after such a small injury. It was all making sense now, and Andrea realised that she had been far too accepting of Cecil too quickly. It was a terrifying notion that she had been too relaxed with her judgement, and now there was the possibility that it was too late to change what she had done.
Francis had been right all along, but Benjamin had been clever with his lies. She grimaced at the thought of how infuriating it must have been for James, but she was determined to show him that she now fully believed him.
She looked up from the paper at the sound of a knock at the door. Andrea froze. So far, she had been lucky to have not been spotted by anyone and to have the luxury of reading in peace for a couple of hours. But it seemed that her luck had finally run out. She cringed as whoever was at the door tried to turn the handle regardless of there being no answer.
With her back against the door, it did not budge much.
“Andrea, what is the meaning of this?”
She faltered at the sound of Lily’s voice. Her friend had been absent as of late, and Andrea had not been looking forward to admitting that she had been right all along about her reservations towards Cecil.
Slowly, Andrea rose to her feet, pushing the pile of papers to one side and getting out of the way of the door. It opened to reveal a confused and concerned Lily waiting on the other side for answers.
“I thought something had happened to you,” Lily said. Andrea could see the relief in her eyes as she spoke.
“I am fine. Well…I have definitely been better.”
At her admittance, Lily quickly moved into the room and embraced her tightly.
“I do not want to say that I told you so…”
Andrea did not even care that her cousin had been right all along, she just wanted the nightmare that she had found herself in to be over.
“I do not know what to do, Lily. He’s trying to get the wedding moved forward, but the things that people are saying about him…I cannot marry him.”
“No, you cannot,” she said in agreement. “It would be awful to have to see you subjected to such a fate. Especially when there is a man on these grounds who deserves your affections so much more than he does.”
Andrea missed James. She missed the conversations and the looks that they would steal at one another. She felt in dismay that he was so close and yet so far.
“I know, and I want to be with him now more than ever. This is all my fault. I know now that I could have stopped all of this. I could have made things so much easier for everyone involved. But I was angry, and I thought that James had simply gone off me. What a fool I have been.”
“You are young, and you have made a mistake,” Lily said to try and reassure her. “You should not be punished with a lifetime of unhappiness because of it though.”
Andrea sat down on her bed, letting her cousin sit beside her.
