Armored Hearts (14 page)

“You think I’m pretty?” Jessamine reached behind her back and pulled out a stocking cap. “I have this, and it’s made of the same fabric. It’s not very sexy, but I will wear it if it means I can come.” She pulled the black mask over her head and down to the top of her nose. There was a cutout for her eyes. “Let’s be off now because the man is either getting away or being eaten by your house pets. Let’s go find out which, shall we?”

Gareth grabbed Jessamine’s hand, and they took flight. The clear sky was full of stars, and the nearly full moon ruled the night. On the horizon was one lone, dark cloud that struck him as odd since it sat so low in the ether. He stared for a moment.

“Did you see where they went?” Jessamine broke through his thoughts. “And how did the dog and cat know?”

He blinked hard and met her eyes. He had wondered that, too. “I don’t know.”

“Which? Where they went or about your intuitive pets?”

“Neither. I don’t see a trail in any direction. Not even a spot where they might have landed. I don’t think the man did. Whoever attacked us tonight can fly as well.”

Jessamine’s breath caught. “Someone else able to fly?”

“I don’t have to worry about you running off with him, do I? We English hate scandal.”

“I’m not so singular about flying that any man who can conquer the sky will do. I wanted a particular man who could fly.” She grew silent as if thinking for a moment before continuing. “Do your pets also fly?”

Gareth shook his head. “I don’t know. They’ve never done anything of the sort before.”

“If you don’t know where they went, where are we going?”

“To Mr. Strong’s house.”

“Why there?”

“I have my suspicions about him. After the last attack, his house remained lit up until the early morning hours. The next day, his house was ransacked, blood pooled on the floor, and Mr. Strong missing. When he returned, he acted as though nothing had happened.”

“So, that is the reason you wanted me away from him at the wedding. I wondered why you had transcended even your own normal rudeness with him.”

“I thought he’d been harmed because of his association with me. If he can fly, as I suspect, he probably knows more about me than I do. My plan was to send everyone away after the wedding and fire the staff so no one would be in danger while I got to the bottom of it all.”

“How did you plan to get rid of me?”

“By being my normal, charming self.”

“You would have failed there. I made my vow before God and man. I’m not going anywhere.”

He glanced her way. She shot him her flirty smile. He grimaced.
Everyone left him eventually.

They landed just outside Mr. Strong’s house. The glow of lamplight peeked around the curtains in the window.

“Stay here.”

Gareth flew as hard as he could through the front door of the house, pushing it off the hinges as he entered. He glanced up, and his mouth hung open at what he saw. A man he didn’t recognize was tied to a chair. Long, greasy, black bangs fell into the man’s dark, sunken eyes. A vein under the pale skin of his temple protruded and pulsed. He wore all black, and one of his lips was split and bleeding. Sarah and Thompton circled him.

“What the bloody hell is going on? What are you two doing here? Where is Mr. Strong?”

Jessamine came running through the door, stopping just behind Gareth. “What are the maid and manservant doing here?”

Sarah clasped her hands and smiled. “Look at that. He knows ’bout her and brought her along. A fine match indeed. I told ye the court’ll be in good hands with the two of ’em.”

The man bound to the chair spit. “Their offspring will be more human than Fae. I pledge no fealty to human filth.”

Sarah lifted her hand across her body before bringing the back of it hard against the man’s face. “Ye speak treason against our king and queen. Ye better recant because the penalty fer that be death. Now, I’ll be askin’ ye again, who sent ye?”

“The true king sent me. One of pure blood. Na the filthy abomination ye seek to put on the throne.”

Thompton stepped in between his wife and their prisoner. He bent over the man in the chair and placed a dagger to the man’s throat. “Ye’ll be spillin’ yer guts or we’ll be spillin’em fer ye.”

Gareth shouted again. “Where is Mr. Strong?

Sarah spun to face him. “Lord Smyth, we’ll be answerin’ all yer questions as soon as we finish with him.”

She turned back to the man. “Yer kind don’t even belong to our court. Yer Unseelie. Who are ye to be callin’ humans filth. Ye feed off their misery.”

The man in the chair stuck out his chin in an act of pride and defiance. Sweat beaded his forehead, and his dark eyes blazed. “The true king will unite the two courts. Bringin’ the strengths of both the Seelie and Unseelie together to form the most powerful Fae court there ever has been or ever will be. Humanity will hide from us, and na the other way around. I sacrifice me self for this glorious cause.”

Thompton stood behind the man. “By the power granted to me by King Tristan of the Seelie Court of Ansleigh, God rest his soul, I pronounce ye guilty of attempting to assassinate the rightful heir to the Seelie throne. Have ye anything to say for yerself?”

Two drops of sweat trickled from the man’s forehead into his narrowed, dark eyes. He blinked the perspiration away. “The line of Ansleigh died with his whore daughter’s betrayal of the court. I serve the true King.”

“And who is yer true King?” Thompton asked, pressing the knife into the man’s throat.

Suddenly, the man raised his head and flung his Adam’s apple onto the knife, sending it deep into his flesh. Blood spilt out around the hilt of the knife and over Thompton’s hand. The man’s dark eyes met Gareth’s with a defiant light which faded slowly as the life drained away.

Gareth looked away as Jessamine turned into him, but the sound of the man’s gurgling last breaths could not be kept out of their ears.

Sarah broke the silence, her voice quiet and somber. “Well, he was loyal to the false king to the end, just like the others. We still have no idea who be after the throne.” She turned to them with distressed eyes. “Allow us to clean up this mess, and we will answer all yer questions, Lord Gareth.”

The two servants Gareth had thought he’d known for years started their work. He thought he’d known them, but as they drew knives from their belts and began the task, he felt he watched strangers. They worked with the utmost efficiency to unbind the man’s body from the chair, laid him on the rug, and rolled him up in it.

“Wish we’d had a rug last time. The rug was a grand idea, sweetings,” Sarah said to Thompton as they gathered the ends and headed for the backdoor with the man’s body.

Jessamine removed her stocking cap and leaned into Gareth. “Did you know your housekeepers were capable of this?”

Gareth pulled off his helmet, deciding there was no point in it at the moment since it seemed they already knew who he was. His mind felt blank. “Not a clue.”

A few moments later, the two were back, only this time they were flying, buzzing about the room putting the furniture to right. Once the door was returned to its hinges, they called Gareth and Jessamine to the settee and stood in front of them.

Sarah grinned, “Would ye care fer some tea before we get started?”

Thompton, who was already seated in the wingback chair, pulled Sarah down to sit on the armrest. “They just watched us interrogate a man and dispose of the body. They’ll not be interested in tea.” Thompton directed his attention to Gareth. “Ye have questions, I’m sure, lad. Go ahead and ask them.”

Gareth’s heart raced as a million questions, both new and old, filled his mind. “Where is Mr. Strong?”

“Long dead. Killed by me spice cake on that first visit. The spices were enchanted to kill anyone with plans to harm ye. The moment he started choking, we knew he was an enemy. We just didna know who had sent him. I’m sure ye noticed I fed that cake whenever we had company. We needed to check anyone who was to come in close contact to ye.” She grinned at Jessamine. “Even to ye. But I could tell early on, ye’d be good fer Lord Tristan.”

“Then who has been tutoring me all these years?”

“That was me.” Thompton leaned forward. “I’d been looking fer a way to start makin’ ye ready to take the throne fer years, but having the role of stable hand never gave me opportunity. As yer tutor, I could teach ye everything ye’d need to be ready when King Tristan passed, God rest his soul. We knew with the loss of his wife and daughter, he’d not be around much longer.”

Gareth shook his head. “Who is King Tristan and how have you passed as Mr. Strong? Some kind of sorcery?”

Sarah smiled. “Nay, na sorcery. Thompton and I are mimics or changelings. We can take the shape of any living thing we choose, both man and beast.” She glanced at Thompton. “Let’s show him how we best kept tabs on him and those in the house.”

He nodded and with a swirl of air and a flash of light, Tabitha’s cat and dog stood where they once were. In another swirl and flash, they returned shape to Thompton and Sarah.

Jessamine pointed at Sarah. “That’s how you knew about me. You were always with us in the bonnet room.”

“Aye, I loved seeing you girls getting’ close and whisperin’ your praises of our Lord Tristan. He’s such a handsome boy with a good heart. Ye could see it, and it warmed me heart toward ye, even if yer na Fae.”

“Is that why I can fly? I’m Fae? And you keep calling me Tristan and named a King Tristan.”

Sarah smiled. “Aye, yer Fae by yer mother, well, half-Fae. But yer as fair of heart as any whole Fae could be, even more than some. Yer mother placed ye in me arms herself and asked me to watch over ye. And I have. Her father was King Tristan, of the Seelie Court of Ansleigh.”

“My mother’s name was Ansleigh.”

Thompton shook his head. “Yer mother’s name was Princess Seyraed of the Court of Ansleigh. She sold her birthright to an Unseelie sorceress to make your father enamored with her, but she took the name as her first. I think it was a way to preserve some part of her birthright. King Tristan saw it as she sold
her
birthright, but not yers. He sent us to watch over ye and keep ye safe until time to take the throne. When the claymore arrived, we knew our sovereign was no more. Ye be our king.”

Then Sarah and Thompton, together, fell to their knees and bowed. “We are at yer service, King Tristan the second, of the Seelie Court of Ansleigh.”

Gareth stared at his house servants kneeling before him, their words and actions sinking in. In an instant, he pulled away from Jessamine and leapt back, hovering on the other side of the room. “I’m no king. Stand up, now—this instant! I demand it!”

Sarah stood first. “Ye very much be our king, grandson of King Tristan the first. He and his nephew, Tinkton, assigned us to yer protection and trainin’ when ye were just a wee lad. We’ve done our job to ready ye fer this day and now it’s here. The Court of Ansleigh’s claymore was delivered to yer door pronouncin’ ye the new king.”

Gareth shook his head, his eyes wide with fury. “I don’t want it. I don’t know anything about being a king or being Fae. I’m the crippled grandson of a penniless lord whose only wish, my entire life, has been to be left alone. Find yourself another king because I’m not him.”

Thompton stood and moved to his wife’s side. He brushed a hand through his brown hair. “There be no one else. Ye be the heir. If ye don’t return to the Seelie Court of Ansleigh with us, we will be overthrown by whomever it be trying to kill ye and claim the throne. And dona think by turning away from yer birthright and yer calling that ye will na be in danger. Whoever the false king be, he willna stop ’til he be sure ye are out of the way. He’ll na leave any chance fer ye to change yer mind and come after the throne. As far as what ye know or dona know about being king, I’ve taught ye a great deal and will continue helping ye, if ye allow it.”

Gareth only considered the man silently.

Thompton shifted his weight from one foot to the other and then hovered just above the floor. “Yer a natural protector. That’s yer instincts from yer Fae half. Ye don’t see the elder Lord Smyth concerned about the people of the village. When ye were just a lad, ye knew ye had to save a girl falling from a tree. I watched ye from me porch. Then later, ye felt it yer duty to protect the townsfolk from vandals. Yer meant to protect the people under ye, just not here in this shire.”

Jessamine moved to where Gareth hovered. Her face had lost color, and her wide eyes showed she was as stunned as he was. She took his arm protectively and spoke to the couple. “I think this is a bit much for all at once, don’t you? Perhaps we should go home and get some rest and discuss it further tomorrow. The decision doesn’t have to be made at this moment.”

Gareth’s chin jutted out. “There’s nothing more to discuss now or tomorrow.”

Sarah nodded in agreement before turning to Thompton. “It’s their wedding night. We should send them home and talk more about it when Lord Smyth, Tabitha, and the guests be gone.”

Gareth replaced the helmet on his head and pulled Jessamine to him. This was too much, and he’d had enough. He headed for the door.

Thompton blocked their exit. “Sir, I’m afraid I can’t let ye leave alone. We will escort yer majesty and yer bride back to Waverly Park. After two attempts on yer life in one week, we can’t allow ye to travel about at night by yerself.”

Heat rose to Gareth’s cheeks.
How dare he?
Gareth hated the idea of an escort when all he wanted was the freedom to be alone. He shook his head and spoke through clenched teeth. “I can handle things myself, thank you.”

The worried look in Thompton’s eyes gave him pause. And the man servant held out a hand with a slightly bowed head.

“Mi’lord, I know ye be very capable and strong. After all, I had a hand in yer trainin’. But the Unseelie fairies be cunning and harbor knowledge of the dark arts. If ye and the lady were to be attacked, it would be far better that the four of us were at hand to defend.”

Gareth swallowed. The man was right. He didn’t know anything about how to fight Unseelie fairies should he and Jessamine be attacked. It seemed he knew no one, not even himself. People he thought he knew were not as they seemed and neither was he. Sarah and Thompton had been in his household his whole life, and he never realized anything was off about them. Mr. Strong wasn’t even real. With a nod he acquiesced, more out of numbed shock and simmering irritations than true agreement.