Dennis Wheatley - Vendetta in Spain

'Honour! Oh Armand, why must you men make so much of that? Surely love counts for more. You love me. I know you do.' Suddenly raising her arms she threw them round his neck.

'Love you!' Breaking her hold he thrust her from him. 'After what you have done, how can I do anything else than despise you.'

As she collapsed sobbing on her pillow, he angrily kicked the bedclothes aside, jumped out of bed and started to dress.

By the time he was in his shirt and trousers she was sitting up again, watching him with tear-dimmed eyes. In a hoarse voice she spoke. 'Armand. This duel that he insists on fighting. It is I who have brought it on you. Oh, I pray to God that you will not be hurt. If you were killed I ... I'd never get over it. I . . . I. .

He felt calmer now, and quickly reassured her. 'You've little need to let that worry you. I am used to arms, whereas he, poor devil, is only used to handling butterfly nets. There's one chance in a hundred that he might pip me at the regulation twenty paces, but no more.'

Getting out of bed she stood in front of him, naked and as beautiful as Venus arisen from the foam. But her arms hung slack by her sides and her head was bowed. Choking back a sob she said:

'I don't think I am a wanton. I have refused the pleading of scores of handsome men. That I am a wicked woman to have behaved so despicably towards you I confess. But love drove me to it, Armand. From the very first moment I saw you 1 knew you were the only man that I could ever love profoundly. I wanted you desperately - desperately. I did everything I could to get you. I even lied about Jos6.*He was very far from being a satisfactory husband, but I've no reason at all to believe that he really kept a mistress in Madrid. Yet you were too honourable to give way to my tempting. It was then the idea came to me that if I could only free you from your scruples I'd get my heart's desire. My plan succeeded. But it was born neither out of greed nor ordinary wantonness. If I died tonight I'd die happy in the knowledge that for just a few weeks in my life I had had you for my lover. And you returned my love, Armand. You know you did. Can you not possibly forgive me?'

His heart melted within him. He suddenly felt that during the past quarter of an hour he had behaved towards her like a prig and a brute. Softly he said:

T understand. Yes, I understand. And someone once said, "to understand all is to forgive all", didn't they. Anyway, I take back everything I said just now, and ask your forgiveness for it. Oh, my darling, what can I say to comfort you? It was I who, by putting honour before love, drove you to do as you did. That you should have had the strength and courage to carry through your purpose shows the depth of your feeling for me, and I humbly thank the gods that I should have been blessed with a love so great as yours.'

She lifted her face to his and once more her eyes were shining. Gently, he took her in his arms. They kissed, but with all passion drained from them, as two beings who for a little time had dwelt in heaven together, and, whether or not they met again in this life, would forever remain long-time friends.

Two minutes later he had put on his coat and left her. Down in the hall he found de Cordoba agitatedly pacing up and down. Without a word the Conde led the way into the small library. De Richleau followed him in. From the drawer of a bureau the Conde took an oblong mahogany box. Placing it on the centre table, he opened it, disclosing a pair of silver-mounted duelling pistols and compartments that contained cleaning materials and shot.

'These will serve our purpose,' he said tonelessly. 'Be good enough to take your choice, and put a few bullets in your pocket.'

'Surely,' protested the Duke in astonishment, 'you cannot be suggesting that we should fight here and now.'

'No, down in the private bay. One could hardly find a better place to fight a duel than on its flat, firm sands, and it will take us only a few minutes to walk down there.'

'But . . . But one cannot fight a duel without seconds, and a doctor within call.'

'I see nothing against doing so.'

'There is a great deal,' replied de Richleau promptly. 'However intense your resentment against me, Conde, I beg you to exercise a little patience. Put away these weapons for the time being. Although as the challenged party I have the right of choice I am willing to accept them. But allow me to return to my hotel. Send two of your friends to me there and I will ask two friends of mine to make proper arrangements with them. Then I will meet you at any time or place they may decide.'

De Cordoba shook his head. 'No. We will go down to the shore and settle this matter without delay.'

'But why this unseemly haste, Conde? Why?'

'Because I have no mind to allow witnesses at this affair. You have sullied your honour, but mine remains unbesmirched. How could we fight in the presence of others yet prevent them from talking afterwards? Whatever pretext we might give them for our meeting they would suspect the truth. For you to have reached such a degree of intimacy with Gulia, you must first have been a great deal in her company. It will be said that she betrayed me with you and I found her out. I have the honour of my family to consider, and I refuse to submit to the humiliation of having my Condesa's name bandied about as that of a whore.'

'That is the very last thing I would wish, either for her or for yourself,' the Duke agreed. 'But there are other considerations; and most serious ones. A duel is a duel and, although illegal, if carried out according to accepted traditions no serious notice is taken of it by the authorities. For two men to discharge pistols at one another when alone and, as might emerge later, with a cause for anger, is a very different matter. Should one of them have the misfortune to be killed the other would be accounted guilty of murder.'

'That risk can be overcome,' replied the Conde stubbornly. 'I will leave a note on the hall table for my butler, asking him to have an early breakfast ready for us at seven o'clock, and saying that you and I have gone down to the shore to practise pistol shooting at the seagulls. Then, when it transpires that one of us has been wounded or killed it will be taken as an accident.'

De Richleau shook his head. 'Such an explanation would not bear investigation. Is it likely that on returning from a long absence overseas, and before your household even knows that you are back, you would stroll down to the beach to practise with a pistol? And what am I supposed to have been doing here at this hour?'

'I thought that at least you were a man of courage,' sneered the Conde. 'But your cowardice-is in keeping with the character of a wife-stealer.'

The Duke's face suddenly went white and he said softly, 'You shall pay for that. To insist on this is the act of a fool. You are a fool, too, to have challenged me. I doubt if you could hit a haystack, whereas I could put a bullet through your brain at fifty yards. But you shall have your way. Your blood be on your own head.'

Taking the nearest pistol from the case, he broke it, squinted down its barrel, slipped a few bullets into his pocket, and walked out of the room.

De Cordoba followed him and caught him up. Side by side, maintaining a frigid silence, they walked along the path fringed with pines, tamarisks and myrtle that led down to the beach. The tide was going out and had left a quarter-mile-long stretch of smooth, clean sand. As they reached it and halted, the Conde said:

'I have never before fought a duel, so I must request you to state in detail how we should proceed.'

During their walk down to the shore de Richleau's anger had cooled, and he said quickly, 'Then why fight this one? I know that I have done you a great wrong, but for one of us to wound or kill the other cannot undo that which has been done. Will you not. . .'