The Selected Enola Holmes

Chapter 5

It had been a few weeks of Enola "living" in the palace. She had now been subjected to etiquette classes, amongst other things, along with the rest of the selected. Early national polls had been taken, and bets had been made to see which selected girl would win. The results for the polls would be announced tonight after we ate dinner. But since this entire competition started, not only had she found a true friend in Benny, but their group of 35 had also gotten smaller. Seven girls had been sent home, and as Enola had predicted, January was one of the first to leave. Her exit was nothing short of what a girl like January was capable of. Yelling . Swearing . Threats of lawyers being in contact. The works .

In fact, right now, as Reese and Enola had found the time to fence, he had been giving her what she deemed to be a hilarious account of their date. By the end of their conversation, they had both been in stitches. She had hardly been in attire to even get into the sport. Still, she grabbed a sword and fenced in her unceremonious culottes and off the shoulder top without a second thought. Reese had taken off his gunmetal grey suit jacket and had inadvertently given her a peek at his toned chest under his ivory dress shirt that had been partially unbuttoned towards the top. She wasn't about to lose for the sake of distractions. No matter how easy on the eyes said distractions could be. Besides , she could multitask.

"You could have given me a warning about her, you know? aren't you supposed to be my wing-woman?"

He nudged her as they calmed down from the laughter. Enola lunged, Reese parried, then attacked. He tried to knock the sword out of Enola's hand, but she deflects the blade, whirls around, and lunges, securing a point for her.

Chuckling, Enola explained her reasoning,

"I am ! I promise, but the reason I didn't was because I wanted you to formulate your own opinion of her before I told you what I thought. You know, to make sure that she and every other girl gets a fair shot at you before I put my two pennies worth."

Reese seemed to consider what she was saying as he ran his free hand through his silky brunette hair,

"fair enough, but a little heads up would have been great."

Reese got the jump on Enola and came in low, obtaining a point and leveling the two scores.

She lunges, but he sees her trick from a mile away and catches her sword and sweeps it in a full circle pulling them together, chest to chest, face-to-face. Enola softly gasped and tries not to be enraptured by their proximity as she looked up at the tall man who currently had one of her hands pinned behind her back. His dark eyes took her in, and she felt bare to him. He was looking at her with such subtle intensity that had she not been held so tightly to his chest, her knees would have buckled. Enola knew she was passed just simply finding Reese attractive. She could admit that much. And his lithe but muscular body against hers was not helping matters either. She also knew she was reddening as they breathed heavily. He looked like he was conceiving a million thoughts at once, and dare she say it... entranced . Her mind must be playing tricks on her. Anyway, Enola needed to snap out of it and act fast! So she did.

"Sorry in advance," she says, half tender, half mischievous. She sees his delicately chiseled face start to contort in confusion. She stomps once on his foot, frees herself as his grip on her loosens, taking his own sword and disarming him in the process, then sees the same face twist into something of agony. He groans in anguish but recovers, though not swiftly enough to grab her again.

"Agh, you play dirty, Holmes," he says as he straitens himself, no signs of actual annoyance on his features.

"Is there any other way to play? Plus, you should know, I play to win," she quips, tossing her dark chestnut locks behind her, a teasing eyebrow raised and both swords pointing at the heir crossed in the shape of an 'X.'