Mia frowned this time. “I would prefer to start sooner rather than later.”
He nodded. “Of course, I understand. We shall begin training with pistols tomorrow if you are up to it.”
She smiled up at him. “Thank you.”
“Of course.”
No man would ever attempt to hurt her again. If they did, she would be prepared to take action and would have no regrets.
Chapter 7
The next few days started to follow a pattern. Simon would eat breakfast with Mia in the morning room, followed by an hour alone in his study of struggling with the estate books. He still hadn’t taken up her offer of looking over the books. Surely, a woman with no formal education could only muck up the numbers worse than him. After the estate business was finished, they would proceed outside to practice with the pistols.
Today was no different. Mia met him out in the field where they had a large target ready to aim at and two Manton pistols lay on a small table. Simon’s heart rushed when he noticed her walking toward him. Her brown muslin dress matched her eyes and made him smile.
She stared down at the pistols and bit her lip. “Are you really going to make me load one today?”
Simon laughed. She was an excellent shot, but for some reason balked at the idea of readying the gun for firing. “You must learn to do this or what is the sense of this training. A gun is useless if you can’t fire it.”
“I know,” she said with a sigh. “I just can’t remember all the steps.”
He looked away from her for a long moment trying to determine another way to approach this. After a minute he said, “Do you make some of your own preparations for medicinal purposes?”
“Of course. My mother and I make several potions.”
“This is no different. Pick up a pistol.” He waited until she had one in her hand. “Now, just like a recipe, there are several steps. Measure out the powder into the small cup and then into the barrel.”
“Very well.” She took the flask of black powder and put a small amount in the cup, then loaded the barrel. “Next?”
He blinked. “You really don’t remember?”
She tilted her head and looked up at him. “Would I have said next if I remembered?”
“I suppose not. Put in the paper and then the ball.” He sighed as she slowly placed the paper and then ball into the barrel. “Now use the ram in the barrel.”
She used the ram several times. “Good?”
“Yes” He proceeded telling her the next few steps of getting the pistol ready to fire. “Now pull the cock.” Damn, that sounded very wrong.
She readied the pistol and then aimed down the field. She pulled the trigger and smoke filled the air. “I hate this,” she said, waving the smoke away from her face.
“Yes, but you did hit the target.”
“But in the amount of time it took me to load the pistol, I could have been abducted, raped, and murdered.”
He tried not to laugh but failed dreadfully. “I’m sorry.”
She carefully placed the pistol on the table and then crossed her arms over her chest. “This is pointless. I need a better way to defend myself.”
She was right about that. Even a small pistol would take her too long to load in an emergency. And carrying a loaded pistol was far too dangerous. “How about we try knives?”
Her eyes widened. “That has promise. How difficult is it?”
“That all depends on your aim. It’s quite different from firing a pistol.”
“I did throw a knife at Davies and hit him in the shoulder. I didn’t manage to stop him, only delay him for a moment while he removed it.”
“Even a delay can help you get away in a situation like that,” Simon said. He hated thinking about what she had gone through that day. It had been almost a week since he’d found her battered. Her bruises were starting to fade but she would carry the internal scars for years.