Lords of Honor (72 page)

“Yes, Owen
.
You will.” Grace looked up
at him
.
The idea came to her then
.
He would see her m
uch s
ooner than he thought
.
She had no intentions of remaining behind
.
She
must
make certain they found her baby
.
A
nd that Owen lived
so he could truly
be Alice’s father.
She would follow them
!
It would not be that difficult, surely
.

She walked with him to the door and closed it behind him
.
Grace waited at the door until she heard the pair take the stairs
.
She slipped out of her room and ducked into Lord Wincanton’s room where Owen
had
slept
.

She borrowed a shirt, waistcoat, coat and a hat
.
She realized
as she looked
at Lord Wincanton’s trousers and boots they would not do for her at all
.

She peeked out the window in Lord Wincanton’s room when she heard horses outside
.
She watched Gabriel and Owen leave
as the first pale light of dawn began to show in the sky
.
St. Mabyn rode a large bay
.
Owen rode a big white gelding
.
She
felt
certain she might be able to persuade a stable lad
to find her some trousers and boots
.
She packed Lord Wincanton’s clothing into a small sturdy bag
she found in his wardrobe
.
She a
lso included her reticule
with her notes and coin
.
She threw a
gown,
a petticoat
and a chemise
from her chamber
in
to
the bag with a pair of half boots
.
She dressed quickly into an apricot colored
morning gown
and matching slippers
and left the room
.
Dawn
was just now
breaking
and
soon
the house would come to life
.
She needed to leave now.

She was fortunate to find
a pair of trousers closer to her size than
those of
Lord Wincanton’s
in the back room of the stable
.
She also found a
smaller pair of boots
.
Both items were faded and worn, and looked ridiculous with the fine quality items she removed from Lord Wincanton’s room
.
Grace cared not
.
S
he changed quickly
and
stuffed her morning gown into her bag
.

She
was about to
slip
a medium sized gelding
from his
stall
when she heard
Matthias Halfknight, Lord Sinclair’s
,
voice
behind her
.

“You can’t go, Lady Marston.”

Grace turned to face
Sinclair
.
As with Charlie and Owen, Sinclair
was
a
close
neighbor
to her family
and she
had known
him
her entire life;
just as she had Owen and Charlie
.
“Alice is my daughter
, Matthias
!”

“And she’s Owen’s
daughter
too
.
He’ll find her
.
It’s far too dangerous for you to follow
.
There were Brown Coats watching
the Hall
.
They
follow
ed
them
.
They would take you as they did Libby, Grace
.
They would
u
se you to get Owen
.
They might kill Alice once they had you.
”

“Owen
knew I would try to follow him?” Grace huffed in frustration.

Matthias
nodded
.
“This is for your safety, Lady Marston
.
And Alice’s
.
Even if you caught up to Owen and Gabriel
y
ou would have slowed them down
, Grace
.
It would have m
ade it harder for them to lose the Brown Coats.”

Grace nodded, but she couldn’t stop the tears of frustration and disappointment from coming.

“The ladies are exp
ecting you for breakfast
soon
.
Come
,
y
ou need to change
, Lady Marston.”
Sinclair
offered his arm.

Reluctantly, Grace took
the arm he offered
.
Damn Owen
!

Micah and Libby
walked hand in hand down the stairs to join the
others for dinner
.
Sophia
removed their stitches
that afternoon
and
deemed Micah well enough
to come downstairs
for the evening meal
.
T
he flurry of activity at Horethorne Hall
to prepare the
household
to remove to London
began in the morning and continued throughout the day
.

The house
remained
in uproar the entire afternoon
.
The servants were set to packing
.
All
the staff
believed the entire party was moving to Lyon’s home
,
Shevington Chase, in Wiltshire
.
The ladies knew only they were goi
ng to London because the
Hall was no longer safe;
not the real reason
.
The only
persons
who knew about the meeting
at the Jasmine Star
in Limehouse the next Tuesday
were the gentlemen
.
Micah prayed it remained that way
.
The men were to meet after the ladies retired, and
Micah
was to join them
.

He could not help but notice Libby’s scar appeared a little red and tender after the stitches were removed
.
He knew the scar bothered her
.
She did not speak of it, but he noticed she avoided her mirror unless it was absolutely necessary
.
When she did have to use the mirror, the sight of her scar seemed to upset her
.
She suffered a couple of nightmares
since her return
as well
.
Micah
wished he could make
his wife
feel better about
her
wound
.
He still thanked God
and Archangel Michael upon waking every morning that
Libby
was
beside him, alive and well
.
He leaned down and kissed her temple before they entered the dining room.

“What was that for?”

Micah saw the happiness shining
in her
sapphire
eyes as she looked
up at him
.
“
Just b
ecause I love you,
sweetheart
.”

“I love you too, Micah.” Libby grinned
up
at him.

The gentlemen sat in the large library at Horethorne Hall.

“Sir John has arranged a meeting for some of us with two of the King’s advisors
upon our arrival
.
We will be taking advantage of our countr
y’s
assistance from this point forward
.
Trevan agreed with me in the letter I received from Menadue this afternoon
.
I spoke with Micah, Lyon and Wyldhurst earlier
.
They agree as well
.
It is apparent the Knights of the Brown Order are a dangerous and powerful group
.
Even if we have to give up the scrolls, sapphire and cruets to the Crown in the end, nothing is wo
rth the lives of our loved ones,”
Harry
began the meeting.

All
present agreed with him
.

He continued,
“What is important presently
;
aside from finding the child, Lady Alice
,
and protecting our loved ones;
is finding the identities of the leading members of the Knights
of the Brown Order
and stopping them
.
The King feels the same
as
we do
.
This organization is large, far-reaching, powerful and a threat to King and Country
.
Sir John told me the Brown Knights believe they are purging the world of heretics and harbingers of change that would alter their world and their beliefs
.
They believe they are the law of the land
.
They prefer the world remain a fearful place where a few men control the masses.
”

“
Th
ey are not fond of the new King
or
at present,
the Avalon Society
.
And though they would have the world see them as pious religious men, they own opium dens, gaming houses, brothels and deal in the slavery of women and children
to make the money they use to carry out their violent schemes
.
They use the less fortunate in
contemptible
ways to further their own ends
.
They want to take and hide our treasures away, possibly destroy them
.
I for one feel I’d rather have our treasures locked up and hidden away in the palace than destroyed
.”

There were nods of approval and agreements.

Harry continued, “
Tonight, we will
begin to
formulate a plan to take them down, preferably before Tuesday
next
.
A lot depends on Owen and Gabriel’s success at finding Lady Alice
.
We are fortunate that Gabriel was able to connect with the child.
”

Harry looked to his comrades and friends
.
“Give me all of your ideas, no matter how outrageous they seem
.
We need to find something that will work
.
For we have
been crippled by these miscreants
, and I refuse to let them win.”

“Will the King’s advisors share the names of those they suspect with us, Harry?” Micah asked.

“Yes
.”
Harry nodded
.
“We will receive that information
when we meet
with the
m
.”

“So, once we get those names, we send Wyldhurst and Lachlan to rough up a few of them
.
Perhaps we can f
ind an informant like we did with Whitely in Glastonbury.” Micah offered
.

“Yes, let’s keep that in mind.” Harry paced
between the
ta
ble
s
in Micah’s library
.
“
Pendarves and Carlyon are still in London and
are
help
ing
Owen and Gabriel
search
for
Lady
Alice
.
I’m hoping they will
unearth more information to help us
.”

“The servant situation
.
How can we get around that
?
No matter how we try to keep our location a secret while in London, they will surely find out we are at Wychcombe House at some point,” Lyon asked
.