Read Lords of Honor Online

Authors: K. R. Richards

Lords of Honor (3 page)

“I do not think she is completely resigned to th
e
idea
that your fellows
regard
me as a sister
.
This
bodes well for me
to accompany you to Cornwall
in September.

Libby smiled
knowingly
.

“Ah, and Micah is planning to come for a long visit in the next few weeks,
Libby
.
That will give you something to look forward to
.
He mentioned it in a letter to Charlie
, and asked that he pass along the news to us
.

Libby smiled
.
“Wonderful
!
Micah hasn’t
been to Roseland
for
six months or more
.
I
will be happy to see him
.”
She
realized
the thought of
Micah coming to
vis
i
t
Roseland
gave her a warm feeling inside
.
The fluttery excitement she felt surprised her somewhat
.
She wondered
if
her secret
crush on
Micah Wychcombe
would
ever leave her
.

“I will tell him you and Owen
look
forward to his visit!” Charlie smiled at Libby.

They talked for awhile and n
o more mention was made
of what transpired
in Glastonbury
.
Libby sensed C
h
a
rlie wished to speak privately with her brother
about the happenings there
.

She excused herself,
“I must cut some flowers to take to the Church tomorrow
morning
.
I’ll be in the garden
.
You
wi
ll be staying for luncheon,
won’t you,
Charlie?”

“Of course, Miss Libby!”


I will see you in the dining room
shortly
.”

She picked up
her basket she left
behind
on a table
in the
long, narrow
entry
h
all and
walked
toward the back of the house
.
She went outside and began filling her basket with some of her favorite May blooms
.

She
had
just cut some pale pink lilacs
from a bush near the
large herb
garden when she heard someone walk up behind her
.
She turned to see a rather unkempt man in a worn out
brown
coat
and hat
standing there.

“Excuse me, Miss
.
Would you be the Lady of the house
?
Lady Elizabeth
Darrington
?”

“Why do you want to know?” Libby asked cautiously
.
She
did not recognize this man
.
He could
not be local.

“I was supposed to give her a message
.”
The man nodded his head in a short bow.

“You may give it to me.” She
said in a superior tone she rarely used
with anyone in Hartland
.
She
removed her gloves and placed them in her basket
along with the shears
.

“I can only give it to Lady Elizabeth
Darrington
.”

Libby rolled her eyes
impatiently
.
“I am
Lady Elizabeth
.
What is the message?”

She heard someone approach her
from behind
.
A cloth was held
over her mouth
by a strong hand
.
She inhaled a sickly sweet smell
.
She c
hoked
as she tried to get a breath
.
Libby
tried to break free
.
She kicked and struggled
.
She felt the
basket ha
ndle slip through her fing
ers
.
She
h
eard the
shears fall
to the ground with a thud
.
Darkness came over her
.

 

When she woke, she felt
groggy
.
Libby tried to remember where she was but her mind seemed fuzzy
.
She felt movement
.
She h
eard
the squeak of
w
heels
and a steady c
lop
of h
orses

hooves
.
She must be in a carriage
.
She
tried
to
lift her arm
but could not
.
Why
?
She didn’t know
.
She heard male voices
.
They were unfamiliar to her
.
As her eyelids began to flutter open, the blinding light
hurt
her eyes
.
She closed them quickly
.

“She’s awake
.
Get that laudanum down her again
, Cobley
.”

Libby remembered
.
She’d been through this before
.
T
wice
, maybe three times
.
She would open h
e
r eyes;
try to sit up only to have
laudanum forced down her throat
.
One man
held
her
down
while the other forced her mouth open and poured the vile liquid in
.
Once she tri
ed to spit it out, and they
forced even more down her
.
The larger of the two men
held her nose
and
clamped her jaw
closed
with a
beefy
, smelly
hand until she swallowed.

“It’ll be the last time
.
Mr. Crow said he didn’t
want this one
un
able to walk
.
He said it was too
hard to
get t
hem
t
o
their destination in
London if they’re unconscious
.
She needs to be alert when we hand her over at the White Hart in Andover
.
We want every bit of our payment
.
That’s
to
night
, Rawson.

“We’ll see,
Cobley
.
If
she gets saucy or causes trouble, we’ll drug her again
.
No matter what that Mr. Crow wants
.
We could hang for taking a Lady
from her home
, t
he sister to an Earl, no less
.
It’s n
ot like the job we did f
o
r him a couple of weeks ago
.
That
chit
wasn’t so high born
.
No one would miss that one much
.
This one, she’s a different story.

Libby
kept her eyes
closed and pretended
to
sleep
.
Perhaps they would not drug her if
they thought
she
still
slept.

“False alarm
, l
ooks like she’s out again.”

“Good
.
This has been easy so far
.
I want to keep it that way.

“What do you suppose
Crow will
do with her if that brother of hers doesn’t get those old scrolls
from that Avalon Society
for him?”

“What else can he do
?
She’s the sister to an Earl
who is a prominent member of the Avalon Society
and Society at large
.
She comes from
a
well known, well respected family
.
He hasn’t made his plans known to me
,
but
Mr. Crow
has two options
if he does not receive the scroll
, sell her to the slavers or kill her.”

Libby realized upon hearing those words that she
must
get away
.
She tried to stay awake and alert, though she could not
.
Libby
drifted
back
into
a restless
slumber
.

This time
upon
a
wakening,
she remembered not to open her eyes
.
If she could make it long enough without
laudanum being forced down her
again, she might have the strength to get away
.
Wh
at were thes
e scrolls the men mentioned
?
Did it have something to do with
the Avalon Society
?
P
erhaps
it involved
the
ir
find in
Glastonbury
?

“Wake up, g
el
,” a
deep, raspy voice commanded
.
“Wake up!”

She felt rough hands on her arms
.
The man shook her
.
She felt suddenly
dizzy and
ill
.
Her stomach knotted up
.
This time Libby did open her eyes
.
She fought the nausea that threatened her
as she was roughly pulled to a sitting position
.

The light nearly blinded her
.
It took some long minutes before she could fully open her eyes
without feeling pain
.
She was in a carriage
.
Two men were with her
.
Oddly enough, both were dressed in long
, worn
,
brown coats
.
Her throat
felt
so dry
.
“May I have some water?” she croaked.

“Ain’t got no water
.
I’ve got some Gin
.
You
can have a swig of that.

“No
.”
She
grimaced and
shook her head.

“Suit y
e
rself
.
We’ll stop up ahead
.
I’ll get down and get you
something to drink and eat.”

“I’ve need of some privacy
.
To take care of necessities
,

Libby
’s voice came out as a hoarse whisper
.

“We’ll get a private room
.
We can’t take any chances
.
We’ll stop for a
half
hour
.
We need to make Andover by early afternoon.”

Libby
gave
the man a
curt
nod
.

The larger
of the two
m
e
n
took hold of her
arm otherwise she could not stand
without weaving
.
It was an effort to walk
.
H
er limbs felt
so
heavy
, l
ike lead
.
Libby’s
head
pounded
, she felt weak and nauseous
.
They were led
into a dingy parlour
that held a musty odor
.
The food wasn’t fresh or tasty, but she ate
a few bites
because she knew she
must
.
Libby hoped the food would
absorb some of the drugs
,
and
give her more
strength
.
She drank
a full glass of
water
.
All the while her mind raced
.
She
must find a way to escape these men!

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