Thunderbird - B. Bridgerton

18

„Selim, stop! He's not worth it!", Sofia shouts, trying to rush to the three fighting man, but Anthony is still holding her tight.
„Colin, stop being so childish and help me separating them", Benedict calmly states, while trying to drag Selim out of Karan's way.
„Childish?" Selim shouts while trying to free his arms from Benedict, „you do realize that this is the guy who.. who did this to Sofia?"
Sofia, who was still trying to free herself, suddenly stops and gets very very calm. Anthony looks at her, rather surprised, but she has only eyes for Selim. Without even realizing it, the farmer's boy had broken his vow of never taking her name in his mouth again. Sofia realizes just now, how much she has missed this.

„Yes, yes I figured out that he's that guy", Benedict answers, to everyone's surprise.
„You knew that and let her go out with him?!", Colin freaks out, being so confused about it, that he forgets to punch Karan, who takes advantage by kicking Colin away from him and finally being able to stand up.
"He was about to follow them, I stopped him", Anthony answers instead of Benedict.
„I wanted to talk to him in private, without you guys", Benedict explains, still calmly, „and I saw Colin observing you two carefully, so I was sure that nothing would happen."

„Can we now let Thunderbird get inside again and kill this bastard?", Selim asks.
„Definetly", Colin answers, but Anthony strictly disagrees. „Even if he's from Turkey, he's still a duke. We would get a lot into trouble, when we killed him."
„Do I look like I care?", Selim intervenes.

„Oh you should care", Karan finally states. Blood is running down his mouth, but otherwise he seems to be rather fine for a man who just got attacked by two strong, healthy enemies. „I am not only a duke, but also a distant relative of the Queen herself. I don't think that she'd be too happy about me being killed - oh, and I might or might not have already told her that I'm going to visit her in England these days."
„The Queen happens to be a good friend of us, too", Sofia lies, „and she's definetly a very fair deciding person. If we were to go to court, I'm sure we would win."

Karan just laughs at her. „You know that I'd win, Thunderbird. We were destined to marry from birth, after all."
„What?", Benedict and Selim burst out simultaneously.
„She didn't tell you", Karan says, still smiling, „but I can actually officially proof that Sofia and I were involved in an arranged marriage from the very first day of her birth - signed from the Queen herself."
„I am already married!", Sofia remembers him, „and with child! The Queen wouldn't annule our marriage just to make me marry you."
„She would not", Benedict confirms, putting his arm over his wife's shoulder.

„We could still settle this tomorrow at sunrise, if you'd prefer it this way, Mr. Bridgerton", Selim offers.
„I would definetly prefer that", Colin answers.
„No!", Sofia shouts at the same time.
„He was actually talking to me, brother", Benedict calmly states, as he slowly moves away from his wife and closer to Karan. Sofia starts following him, but to everyone's surprise it's Selim who stops her. „This is his decision to make", he states, holding her arm in case she might still want to follow Benedict, who by the way, just started to walk a little bit farer away from the crowd with Karan.
„He can't have a duel with him", Sofia disagrees.

„He can, it's about his honour at last", Colin states.
„He won't duel Karan", Anthony declares. Everyone looks at him surprised. Anthony continues talking ad if nothing happened. „He won't duel Duke Şen, because as the head of the house, it is my job to do so."
„Anthony!" Sofia can feel the anger and nervousness blocking her mind. „I would never let anyone of you risk his life for me. Not my husband and neither of my brothers!"

„Why wait for a fair duel?", Selim suddenly asks. He suddenly takes out his gun, pulls the trigger and directly points at Karan's back. „Let me settle this now."
„Selim!", Sofia shouts once again, making Karan and Benedict turn around. She immediately steps a few steps further and makes sure to stay exactly at where the gun is pointing at. Selim doesn't even hesitate and immediately puts the gun away. „You're going to get hurt!"

„Are you insane?", Benedict asks in fury, while approaching to Selim. „Are you trying to kill my wife?"
"I would never hurt her", Selim insists.
„I won't let you murder anyone because of me either", Sofia intervenes.
„No one is going to kill anyone", Benedict explains.
„We're not going to kill him?", Anthony asks, obviously confused.
„No", Benedict explains, „Duke Şen and I have come to an agreement. There's no duel going to happen."

„What kind of agreement?", Colin asks.
„I still don't understand why I can't kill him", Selim intervenes.
„Let's head home and have dinner", Benedict says in his most careless voice, but Sofia can see how tense he actually is.
„Oh, and Selim", everyone is quite surprised, because this is the first time that Benedict adresses the farmer's boy directly, „hence the duke is living in Lord Aras' mansion now, I think it's the best for us all, if you stay with us. My wife and I would be more than happy to call you our guest."
Would we?, Sofia thinks, but she somehow manages to not say it out loud.

Anthony and Colin can sense that something is very odd, but they decide to play along, at least until they're alone with Benedict.
Benedict in the meantime puts his arm around his wife again and slowly, but fiercly, drags her inside. Sofia tries to turn around to have a final look at Karan, but Benedict prevents her from doing it.
„Just trust me", he whispers to her, as Selim, Anthony and Colin follow them, still a bit confused, „He will never harm you anymore. I would not let him. You are save now."

„I know", Sofia reassures him, „I'm not afraid of anything, as long as I'm with you."

It's a rather short chapter for now, because I decided to split it. İ hope you still enjoy it. What do you think did Benedict say to make Karan stop insisting on a duel?