Lords of Honor (39 page)

“A rival group then
?
Surely not the Royal Society
of Antiquaries
.”
Harry shook his head.

“If it is a rival group,
I would assume they want our find for the money or prestige it would bring to them
.
That is not the Royal Society’s style
;
they need neither the money
n
or the prestige
.
Nor would a rival group wish to hide away what has been found
.”

“It would help if we knew who
we were dealing with,” Charlie
mumbled
in frustration
.

“The only thing we do know is that they wear brown coats and hats, steal women, enable addicts and shoot at us all
.”
Newt rose and stopped before the window
.
His green eyes flashed with anger
.
He ran a hand through his rich brown hair that was lightened with streaks of gold.
“
They’re out there right now, they’ve got a plan, and we don’t know what it is
.
If any of us leave, we’ll
no doubt
be killed
, a
t the very least shot at
.”

They talked about possibilities of who the Brown Coats were and what they could be planning for the next twenty
five
minutes.

Micah
frowned
.
He
removed his watch and noted the time
.
“I must go check on Libby
.
S
he should have
come
down
stairs
by now.”

Owen rose
.
“I’ll go get her.”

Rowena rose as well, “I’ll join you, Owen
.
Perhaps she need
s
assistance
.”

Micah nodded
and returned his attention to the conversation
.
“What sort of attack did Menadue suffer?”

“About twenty five Brown Coats stormed the place
.
Kicked doors down, broke some windows and jumped through
a couple
,” Harry offered grimly
.
He asked, “Have you
been able
t
o interpret more of the scrolls?
”

“I spent time on them the week in between my return from Glastonbury and leaving with
Jack
to
hunt for
Davitt
.
I w
as
away
f
or three weeks
.
Since that time I have been otherwise occupied.”

Harry grinned
.
“Did you enjoy your brief matrimonial sojourn, Micah?”

“Very much, thank you,”
Micah said with crisp politeness.

“Since Owen is gone, I shall
put
a question
to you
;
for I believe you might have forgotten
a very important fact
.
Are you aware that your
rooms are directly above th
e library
?”
Harry struggled
to keep from laughing.

“Oh
.”
Micah
frowned
.
He s
hook his head
.
“I was aware
but
I
did not realize..
.
s
o you are
saying
you could hear
, um,
things
while in the library
?
”

By the snickers erupting around the table, Micah didn’t
need an answer
.
“My apologies,
”
Micah said quickly
.

“None needed
.
Owen suggested we
re
move to the
Great Hall
.
We just returned to the library this afternoon when we knew you wo
uld be dressing to come down
.
So we will not ask if you enjoyed yourself, for we all know the answer
to
that
particular
question,
”
Harry grinned
broadly
at Micah.

“How much could you hear
?”
Micah demanded, aghast.

“Don’t worry Micah, we could not hear too much of your voices, with the exception of one or two loud, um, exclamations shall we say
.
Mostly the, ah, thumping of furniture against the floor, bed creaking, and that sort of thing,” Charlie provided
in
an amused tone
.
“
From what I heard Trevan
tell
while
in

Glastonbury, we did not hear nearly as much as you did of Harry
and his wife at Stonedown
!”

“
I g
uess we’re even,” Micah
raised a brow
toward
Harry.

Harry nodded
.
“Yes
.
And now you know
, when there are people downstairs
in the library
, you might want to keep your trysts with your wife less
, shall we say
,
athletic
.”

Micah nodded
.
“Not a word to Libby
.
She would be mortified.”

“No, o
f course not
.”

“Owen
!
Rowena
.”
Libby smiled happily as she opened her door
.
“I was just on my way downstairs
.
My hair did not want to dry
.
It’s so heavy when it’s wet, poor Martha had a time with it.”

“
Y
ou look lovely, pet
!”
Owen didn’t mean to
peer
into her chamber but
he did
.
He
saw the rumpled bed
through the open door leading from
the
sitting room to the bedchamber beyond
.
There were
pieces of clothing strewn about
here and there
in the sitting room
behind her
.
He found it
hard to believe his baby sister wasn’t a girl anymore
.
She was a woman
, n
ow h
is friend’s wife
.
It would take some getting used to
.
Owen forced his attention
back
to his sister.

“Thank you, Owen
.
Micah said there are some new developments
.”
Libby took her brother’s arm
.
Rowena walked along beside her
.

Owen’s tone turned serious, “Yes, Libby we seem to be surrounded by Brown Coats
, a
nd the Chynoweths at Menadue are as well
.
They were attacked yesterday
.
Thankfully,
enough of
Trevan
’s relatives were
gathered
by that time
to fight them off.”

“And, Lyon,
and Lord Templeton
and
Lord
Gryfe, along with Miss Sophia Hart
, who is now Lady Amesbury,
are en route to Horethorne Hall
for they were being plagued by Brown Coats
at Alloway House
in London
as well
,” Rowena added
in a solemn tone
.

“We are outnumbered?” Libby asked.

“Counting the servants here, probably not
.
But without their number, then yes we are outnumbered.”

“Oh
.”
Libby frowned.

“You and Lady Rowena shall remain safe
.
I want neither of you worrying
.”
Owen
nodded
to each of them
.
Both the ladies’ expressions were grim.

“You must realize, Owen, Rowena and I worry for all of you as well,” Libby offered.

“We shall get through this,
” Owen stated confidently.

Rowena and Libby
exchanged concerned glances.

Lyon Ravenscroft, Earl of Amesbury
,
studied
his wife of one day who sat
next to him
in the carriage
.
She
slept
.
Sophia
was a beauty, of that there was no question
.
And tiny
.
In truth, when he gazed upon her he was reminded of a pixie, or fairy
.
S
mall
, slender
and petite
,
Sophia
was endowed with
the curves of a woman
.
Lyon
could fit both hands about her waist and his fingers
almost
touch
.
He d
id do
just that and often,
weeks ago
.
Her hair
resembled
the color of copper,
fiery and warm
.
H
er
e
yes were
cat-like,
an intriguing combination of green and gold
.
Mostly they were
vivid
green with anger, perhaps even hatred,
when she looked at
him
.
They were strangers to one another
.
If h
e
were to guess, he would say
she detested him
.
Why would she not
?
He was a monster, after all.

He remembered being in the opium den
for days on end
in his d
rug induced haze
.
When the laudanum and alcohol hadn’t abated the pain in his injured leg, he turned to opium
.
He was swindled
by a man known as Crow, a man who
used
him
, t
ook
advantage of his addiction, fed it and extracted information from Lyon that now endangered his colleagues in the Avalon Society
, a
nd their families
.
And his wife
.

He remembered hearing of Lady Elizabeth, Owen Darrington, the Earl of Fitzlewis’
younger
sister
,
being kidnapped
.
Micah Wychcom
be, Viscount Wincanton,
recognized her and
intervened, but because of the consequences, had to
offer for and
marry Lady Elizabeth
.

And Sophia Hart, now his own wife, Lady Amesbury,
was forced
to accept his hand due to his weakness and
his
own degraded and perverse actions
.
Both in
cidents were his fault
.
He
made a mess not only of his life, but so many others.

Crow
told him he
arranged
a surprise for him
that night, a
superior woman waiting upstairs for him
at Madame Rosier’s establishment
.
When Lyon entered the room
the fae-
like beauty lay upon a bed of red satin
, wearing only a black transparent nightgown
.

Filled with shame,
Lyon remembered
what transpired
.

“She is highly skilled, Amesbury
.
Notice
her legs are al
ready spread for you
.
Take her
.
S
he is yours for the entire evening
.
I will come for you in the morning
.
Use her as you will.”