June 24th, evening: Having dinner with the Engineer

"Even if it was pitch black I would have been able to tell where you were just by listening to the ruckus you make," George grinned in return, still keeping his distance, dancing lightly just out of Torrington's reach.

Edward grinned.

"Since you seemed to have decided that you would leave all the work to me, I thought ..."

He circled some more, not at all trying to dance. Rather, he tried to project just a hint of stiffness, easily attributable to the camp beds. He paused minutely before his next attack, as if he had ever so briefly to think about it, then delivered a low slash.

Again Hunter used his body rather than his sword to make sure that Torrington's blade did not connect with flesh. This time though he only moved sideways, not backwards. His blade connected with Torrington's, Hunter putting just enough force to try and beat Torrington's blade downwards.

Now this was more dangerous, and Edward's instincts urged him to pull back to saftey, but that would have been at odds with the style he wished to project. He couldn't simply give in either - that would probably be too obvious. So instead he he pushed back - harder than Hunter did, but not with his full strenght.

At the same time he readied himself; he rather thought that Hunter's attack might be rather explosive when it happend. And if Edward could manage it, that would be the perfect moment for his real attack. But until then he would try what boring, solid fencing would get him, and watch Hunter. If nothing else, it was a pleasure to study what he did with that high guard of his.

Hunter felt the pressure on his blade and decided to try an attack, perhaps not a fully committed one, but to see what Torrington's true speed was. He twirled his sabre around Torrington's blade, the absence of guard making the action easy and swift, at the same time stepping to the outside of Torrington's blade and in, his sabre thrusting forwards into Torrington's right flank.

He had been right ... But that was secondary. At the moment he needed to get out of the way and launch his counter-attack. Prepared as he had been, the first was managed easily enough with a dodge to the left and inward, and the second profited from the fact that his own sabre was still near Hunter, who had obligingly also stepped closer.

He brought his sabre sharply up. If he hadn't miscalculated, he should catch the underside of Hunter's fencing arm. To make certain that he didn't wounded the other man, he turned the blade to the side and outward, so that he would connect with the broadside instead of the sharp edge.

If he was wrong, of course, if he wasn't close enough to Hunter or if he didn't managed to catch the arm severly enough, then he would have to do some very fancy footwork very quickly, or he would end with Hunter's sabre in his side.

Hunter wasn't waiting to be struck. The moment he knew that his blade would not connect with Torrington's, he dropped his sword arm down, the area from shoulder to elbow pressed against his side, the sabre pointing almost vertically upwards and then he threw out his left arm, trying to land an open-palmed blow on the elbow of Torrington's sword arm, so as to make him if not spin to the left, than at least bat his arm out of the way.

When Hunter dropped his arm, Edward immeditaly disengaged and leaped back. Hunter's sabre was much to close to his chest for comfort. He got his elbow out of the way by this sudden retreat, too, and brought his sabre back between them, trying halfheartedly to slice Hunter's left hand in the process.

Getting his hand out of the way easily enough, Hunter settled back into his initial guard, he twitched his sabre a couple of times, not really feinting, just trying to keep Torrington's attention on the blade. He'd seen a bit of what Torrington could do with a sword, it was time to see whether he could use his hands, his legs and his body as a whole as a weapon.

Edward fell back to circling, feignting now and again to keep Hunter's interest. The next attack would be Hunter's, he decided.

Hunter lunged forward delivering a high powered slash from his left shoulder.

Edward neatly sidestepped and intercepted the slash with his own blade, deflecting it outward, then quickly disengaged again.

"Not good enough!", he taunted.

Hunter pressed Torrington slashing furiously and with intent, but just enough strength to make Torrington's blade stall should they bind.

Edward didn't cooperate - he parried quickly and precisely when necessary, but otherwise he kept out of Hunter's reach as far as possible, using his agility and speed to good advantage. What attacks he made were quick and skillful, but hardly commited.

He had given up on playing dumb - it didn't suit him anyway. Instead he carefully worked to drive and entice Hunter closer to the river, where larger, slippery stones were. It was time to raise the stakes.

George followed Torrington still keeping distance, he could feel the ground changing under his feet, but thankfully he was sure footed enough to keep his balance. He slashes at Torrington again and again, keeping the man's attention on the actions of his blade.

Edward had settled on a new tactic: He parried whatever Hunter was throwing at him, then every once in a while nimbly sidestepped one attack and closed in, quickly pressing an attack of his own, but the moment Hunter reacted, he withdrew, much like a snake. It was an impressive display; it might even have been effective, if he hadn't taken the trouble each time to make sure that his blade wouldn't by intent or accident wound Hunter more deeply than the rules of the game permitted.

George sought an opening, just a small one would do. And then it was there: Torrington closed in, attacking him. Hunter parried the blade to the side and slammed his whole body into Torrington.

Edward, a good deal lighter and smaller than Hunter, did the only thing he could do to keep from slipping: He twisted to the side and caught Hunter reflexively around the shoulder, trying to utilize some half-forgotten boxing trick his brother had once tried to teach him to make the opponent's force work against him.

He hadn't quite anticipated the move - mainly because he could not see how it would benefit Hunter if their game was fencing.

Torrington's move caught Hunter a little off guard: he could've kept his balance and avoided falling into the water, but instead, grinning madly at Torrington, he let the gravity do its work, while adding momentum of his own body and holding on to Torrington with one hand.

Being grabbed and pulled along had not exactly been Edward's plan, but even twisting like an eel could get him only sofar if the other had taken hold of his uniform. He managed not to get under Hunter and to get his sabre well out of the way, but ultimately ...

With a splash and a very quiet curse, Captain Torrington took an unnecessary bath in the cool waters of the river. His only satisfaction was that Captain Hunter followed only an instant later.

Hunter did not hold on to Torrington once they hit water, instead making sure to get his sabre out of the way and to get on his feet in surprisingly deep water, which reached just above his waist. He rose, snorting, laughing and shaking himself like a cat.

Edward spluttered a moment before he found solid ground. But then he got a good look at Hunter's bedraggled dress uniform, his mind immediatly supplied a picture of his own, including the sodden white cravat with the elegant sapphire pin askew, and he doubled over in laughter.

"Oh, lord. If Sir Arthur would see us now..."

He laughed so hard, he could only gasp the words.

"What the...?" There was a splash from a few yards away, down by the river, and Vickery crossed the ten or twenty yards at something of a run, to find Captains Hunter and Torrington in the water, dressed in their best uniforms and soaking wet.

Torrington scrambled to the bank before Vickery got there, and was doubled over in laughter.

"What the devil...?" he began, cutting himself off in mid-sentence, and offering a hand to Hunter, to help him out of the water.

Hunter grabbed Vickery's hand and got out, slipping a little on the muddy river bank. "Good evening to you too, Captain." Hunter sat down a little heavily so that he could pull off his boots and shake out the river debris. "I take it you've never seen men enjoying a late night swim." He smirked up at Vickery.

Vickery couldn't help raising an eyebrow at that. "No, I have not when the men concerned are dressed in their best uniforms and holding sabres." He looked between them. "I presume you both slipped?" he enquired, and raised his voice to call for Torrington's batman.