Lords of Honor (92 page)

Lyon nodded his approval.

“If Libby is not well enough to travel, I will stay behind as well,” Owen said.

Harry nodded
.
“I expected you to, Owen
.”

Harry continued, “All of Charlie’s family is in Kent with
Charlie’s sister’s husba
nd, Marcus Payton, Lord Hammond,
with the exception of hi
s father
, Lord Stanbridge,
who
resides
in London
.
Stanbridge
came an hour ago to claim his
son’s
body
.
He is taking Charlie to Devon where the rest of his family shall meet him
for the funeral
.
M
ost
, if not all, of
our party
will
leav
e
tomor
row at dawn for Devon
.
We will
attend Charlie’s funeral
.
We will be staying at Roseland Abbey as Fitzlewis’ guests
for several days
.
It is but ten miles from Charlie’s home, Swandown Manor
.
We will go on to
Cornwall
from there
.
Everyone prepare to leave and be ready at dawn
.
I sent word to Sinclair to
a
wait
us in Devon
.
As he
is now without a governess,
his
young
daughter will be joining
our party
when we travel to Menadue
.”

“We
expect to be p
lagued by the Brown Coats still
.
T
hough with Davitt and Crow out of the picture, there may be a few days of reprieve
.
We shall still have watch and g
uard twenty four hours a day until further notice,” Trevan provided
.
“We are not entirely certain how Davitt, Crow
and their men slipped onto the grounds of Wychcombe Manor
so easily
.
We don’t want it to happen again
.
Gabriel, Harry, Micah and I will be
surveying
the grounds
here
later
today
.
”

“Meeting adjourned, except I need to see Trevan, Lyon, Tristan and Julyan
.”
Harry rubbed his hands together
.

Harry Bellingham, the Earl of Glaston
,
gave Tristan Chynoweth, Viscount Weatherham, his official approval to court his sister, Lady Caroline Bellingham.

Lyon Ravenscroft, the Earl of Amesbury
,
gave Julyan Trevelyan his approval to court his sister, Lady Sarah Ravenscroft
.

Julyan and Tristan stayed and conversed with the gentlemen for awhile, but left after a time to seek out their sweethearts.

“
We’re almost
family
!”
Trevan grinned broadly at Harry and Lyon
.
He opened a decanter of brandy and poured three glasses.

“I guess we
are
!” Lyon grinned
.

Harry
shook his head
, rolled his eyes
and smiled.
He held up his glass, “To family!”

“To family!” Lyon and Trevan echoed.

When they exited the library it was to see Tristan leading Caroline
out to the gardens
, followed by Julyan leading Sarah
.

“They should not be going outside, it is not safe!” Harry said.

“Their chaperones are my armed cousins who are placed about the garden, Harry
.
I thought the lads would like a little time with their sweethearts away from their scowling brothers.” Trevan grinned at Lyon and Harry mischievously.

Lyon smiled
.

Harry scowled.

Trevan laughed.

Jane Bellingham, Lady Glaston and Mary Ravenscroft, Lady Amesbury approached the trio
.
They were both smiling broadly.

“Oh, Harry,
Caroline is so happy!” Jane stood on tip-toe to give her son a peck on the cheek
.
“Thank you, son.”

Harry’s scowl softened into a smile
.
“You’re welcome, mother.”

Lyon happily accep
ted a kiss from his mother
.
His gaze moved beyond
the open French doors
at that moment
to see Julyan
Trevelyan
lean very close to Sarah
.
He could not tell if he whispered something to her or kissed her
.
Lyon strode onto the veranda
,
resting
his hands on his hips
.
“Julyan, don’t let me see you do that again
.
You are not engaged
.
You are paying your addresses to Sarah
.
No touching
or
no kissing allowed.”

Tristan
, his arm in a sling,
grinned and laughed as he walked the garden path with Caroline on his
good
arm.

“Same goes for you
, Tristan!” Harry pointed a warning finger at him
.

Tristan’s smile faded
.

“Surely you gentlemen have business to tend to,” Jane Bellingham sho
o
ed the three elder brothers away
.
“Mary and I will stay on the ver
an
da
.
We’ll be having lemonade
.
Off with you now.”

Trevan laughed in amusement.

Harry and Lyon glowered at him.

“Let’s go to the study and drink to the eminent joining of our family trees, shall we
?
Let the lads have a little kiss from their sweethearts, eh?”
Trevan laughed heartily.

“What did the physician say
?”
Harry approached Lyon and Micah as they came down the stairs.

“They both have head injuries, Harry
.
The jostling of the carriage might make them quite ill,” Micah offered.

“With Sophia being so badly bruised, Dr. Josephs feels she
will be in quite a lot of pain
.
He feels it is much too early for her to travel,
” Lyon added.

“We cannot leave you without a guard and a watch
.
I’ll talk to Trevan and see if some of his relatives will be willing to stay
.
The rest of the Avalon Society members will want to be in Devon, I’m certain.”

“Of course
.
Lyon and I want to be there, but we can’t leave our wives alone
.
Libby has insisted that Owen go to Devon
.
He was Charlie’s closest friend
.
Libby has known Charlie
all her life
.
She felt one of them should be there
.
So Owen has agreed to join you tomorrow morning, albeit reluctantly
.
Lady Marston and Lady Alice will be accompanying him
.
They’ll be in one of my carriages
.
Rowena will have company for the journey.
”

“Very good
.”
Harry nodded
.
“How long until the ladies can travel?”

“Three, maybe four more days
.”
Lyon shook his head, “We don’t know for certain.”

Harry frowned
.
“We will work something out
.
You cannot be left with too few
here
.
Though if we pull out they may not realize you were left behind, but we can’t take chances with your safety
.
Are the ladies resting?”

They both nodded
.

“Join us in the library
, will you
?
I specifically came to inquire about
the ladies traveling status
and to bid you to join us
.”

Gabriel and fifteen of the Cornishmen would stay with Micah and Lyon at Wychcombe House and would escort them to Menadue when the
ir wives
were ready to travel
.
With everything in order for the Avalon Society’s departure the next morning, brandy was poured
.
Even Lyon partook, though Micah gave him only a splash in his glass.

“To our fallen comrade and good friend
.”
Harry raised his glass
.
“To Charlie
.
Charles Inwood, Viscount Silverley
.
He will be missed.
”

The words echoed all about the room
.
“To Charlie.”

“To revenge,” Newt lifted his glass
.
“That we wipe out the Knights of the Brown Order
.
For Charlie!
”

“Here, here,” Wyldhurst said
.
“And for Lachlan
.
He’ll be recovering a long, long time
.
They messed him up bad.”

“Yes,
for
Lachlan
.
And
for Charlie
,” Micah softly said the words
.
He remembered the last time he said
,
for Charlie
.
It was as he
slit
Davitt’s throat.
Oddly, he felt no remorse.
He took a long draught of brandy
.

“That Light prevails,” Owen said.

“Agreed!” Trevan said.

“To our success
in defeating these miserable bastards
!” Jack
added.

“So we can finish this, live normal lives and go back to our homes.” Lyon raised his glass.

“Amen
.
I think we’re all a little weary of being hunted and stalked like game
.”
Gabriel r
aised his glass and swallowed
.

“To
victory for the Avalon Society, t
hat we are successful in this endeavor
.
Once we reach Menadue, we will train
.
We will plan
and
be
prepared
for them
.
We’ll draw them into our net
.
T
his time
we will
crush them
.
There will be no mercy
.”
Trevan set his empty glass down
.
“In honor of
our fallen comrade
Charlie
.
He was
truly
the best of all of us.
”

“In honor of Charlie,”
the somber words
echoed
throughout the
room.

Micah went back upstairs after he saw his comrades off at dawn
.
He was surprised that Libby
was not only awake, but
s
itting up.

She wiped at tears on her face.

“What’s wrong, Libby?” Micah rushed to her.

“
I
was th
inking about
Charlie
, a
nd his mother and sisters.”

“I know, sweetheart.”
He sat beside her and gathered her into his arms
.
He kissed her temple
.
“It’s very difficult for me to think of as well
.
But I remember the type of person Charlie was
.
He was always happy
,
forever
helping other people
.
His friends, colleagues, even strangers
.
He was always kind
, t
o everyone.” Micah entwined his fingers with Libby’s.