Lords of Honor (5 page)

H
e was weary of travel
.
He spent over two weeks in Glastonbury in April
.
He
remained
at
home
a little over a week
.
F
or
three weeks in May
he and Jack were
on and off the Great Northern Road, scouring northern England for
the elusive
Percy Davitt
.

Micah
truly
did not mind
searching for Davitt
.
Rowena,
Harry Bellingham, Lord Glaston’s
,
new wife, deserved to be at peace
,
where Percy Davitt was concerned
.
Micah
became
at
tached to Rowena in Glastonbury;
in fact they bec
a
me
close
friends
.
Q
uite honestly
, there
was nothing
Micah would not do for
Rowena
.
Since Harry
c
ould not leave
his wife,
mother and sister at Abbey Grange while they might still be in danger
to search for Davitt
;
Micah and Elveston volunteered to
see if they could find
him
.

Micah
made the decision
in Glastonbury
that he would no longer live the life of a
recluse
.
F
or the past seven years
Micah closed himself off from being
much
in company
.
S
ince his beloved wife Lucy and their son died during the birth
, he
did
not desire to be among society
.

He
was
privileged to watch Harry and Rowena fall madly in love with one another
while in Glastonbury
.
Rowena was a scholar, beautiful and the perfect match for Harry
.
Micah
realized he
wanted the perfect woman, the perfect match for a wife for himself
.
After
the
seven long years
since Lucy died
, he wanted
a
companion
suited for him
.
For, as much as he lo
ved Lucy, their
union
had not been ideal
.
He loved her
,
nonetheless
.

Micah
prayed to
the
Archangel Michael in the tower
of St. Micha
el atop
the mysterious and magical
Glastonbury Tor for
assistance in
find
ing
the perfect woman
and wife who would
fit into his life
.
Micah wished for a woman
who would happily share her
life
with him
.
Absently he touched his coat pocket where he
always carried
the snow white feather he found at his feet after praying to the Angel
in the tower
.

Aside from visiting his grandfather, Lord
Chilcompton, h
e and
Jack
attended
two social gatherings while in
London.
Micah already knew the perfect woman for him could not be found in
the ballrooms of
London
.
The women he met there reminded him of his first wife, Lucy
.
They were set to land a wealthy, titled gentleman to find their place, and make their mark i
n society
.
Micah wanted to find
his soul mate
.
He would prefer an intellectual equal
.
He wanted a love match
.

Being among society
again only
confirmed that
he would not
find the woman he
searched
for
in London
.
Once he returned to Templecombe, he would
reintroduce himself into the local society
.

H
e
planned
to travel to Devon in two weeks to visit with his friends, Charlie Inwood,
Lord Silverley and Owen Darrington,
The Earl of
Fitzlewis
.

More impor
tantly he would be able to spend time with Lord Fitzlewis’ younger
sister, Lady Elizabeth
.
The two of them always rubbed along together
very
well when Micah visited Devon
.
Truly the only young lady whom he felt an attraction to in the past years was Owen’s younger sister
.
He found her lovely, quite sweet and extremely intelligent
.
Micah did not know
how
she
felt about
him
, however
.
He only knew
he
was attracted to her.
If
the visit
produced no results, Harry told him
in his letter
three weeks ago
that
his wife,
Rowena
,
was chomping at the bit to do some matchmaking for him.

Micah rather hoped Lady Elizabeth held a tendre for him, for he thought of her often recently
.
He found himself eager to be in her company again
.

Lady Elizabeth
Darrington
was tall
, s
lender
, g
raceful
and
physically active
.
Her hair was
dark and
her eyes were the color of
sapphire
s
.
He remembered her lips were more red than pink, for at first he suspected she rouged them
.
But spending an entire two weeks at Roseland Abbey with her brother Owen and his friend, Charlie, Lord Silverley
,
six months ago,
Micah realized her lips were just that color
naturally
.

What he most liked
about
Lady Elizabeth
was her intelligence
.
She
possessed
a keen mind and
enjoyed expanding her knowledge
.
She loved history and
seemed
very much interested in whatever the Avalon Society was investigating
.
He rather liked her smile too
.

She was genuine,
sincere,
just “Libby” as her brother called her
.
She possessed n
o womanly wiles, no
r
did she use the
machinations
so commonly used
by
many
women
in society
.
She was merely
happy, sweet, friendly, smart
Libby
.
Oh,
Micah found her
physically
beautiful
!
He remembered
when once in her company, he wondered
what it might feel like to have her long legs wrapped around him while he
moved inside her
.
He remembered
the incident
distinctly
, for since Lucy’s death, he rarely
thought
about such things
.
It
surprised him at the time
.
So much so
,
he
promptly
excused himself
from her company
and t
ook
a long walk alone
in the wood
near Roseland
Abbey
to clear his head of such
musings
.

He took another sip of ale
.
Where was Elveston?

Slightly raised voices at the
entrance to the inn
suddenly
drew his attention
.

“I told you get her up the stairs quickly, Cobley
!
She’s
causing a scene
.
If you can’t control her
I’ll get her up there myself
.”
The man roughly grabbed a tall, slender woman’s arm.

Micah
not
iced
the
two very lower class, and rough looking individuals
escorting
a
pale
young woman
. H
er
dark
hair
fell
in a
tumble down her back and she wore
a wrinkled
,
but finely
cut
,
blue gown
.
It was the gown of a lady, as was her regal bearing
.
She
seemed
vaguely
familiar
, though he had only a quick glimpse of her
before h
er loose hair fell to cover the side of her face
.

He watched as the woman pulled her arm from the man who held on to her
.
The hair that previously hid her
features
was thrown back with the movement.
“Get your hand off me
!”
She spoke with the disdain and hauteur of a well bred young lady
.
Her voice
sounded
familiar as well
.
Very familiar
.

Micah watched as the young woman noticed him
.
She
stared
at him
.
He saw her
sapphire
eyes widen as she recognized him
.
At the very same moment, Micah re
alized the woman was
Owen
’s
sister,
Lady
El
izabeth
!

“Lord Wincanton, Help me
!
Please!
”

He rose instantly
.
He knew something was terribly wrong
.
He could feel it
.
Crackles of energy
raced along his shoulders
.
By the look of relief lighting Lady Elizabeth’s beautiful features, Micah knew she needed his help
.

“Lady Elizabeth
!
Where is your brother
?”
He rushed to her. He
reached out and took the man by the arm who tr
ied
to push her back out the door.

“You’ve made a mis
take, guv,
”
t
he
shorter of the two men
said.

“There has been no mistake
.”
Micah removed a pistol from his coat
and
held it to the man’s head
.
The man stilled
instantly
.

“
Lord
Wincanton, I’ve been kidnapped!” Lady Elizabeth wrenched her arm a
way from the man
.
She
slammed the heel of
one
half boot up
on the toe of the other and rushed the few steps to Micah
.
Unsteady as she was, she literally fell
against him
.
His free arm
wrapped around
her
.
He
h
eld her
tightly
against him to steady her
.

Micah quickly pushed her behind him
.
“Hold on to me
tightly
, Lady Elizabeth
.”
He felt Lady Elizabeth’s hand
s
clinging to his coat at his
back
.
She leaned heavily against him
.