Lords of Honor
Authors: K. R. Richards
LORDS OF HONOR
by K. R. Richards
Book Two of the
LORDS OF AVALON series
Copyright © 2012 by K. R. Richards
T
o my dear friend, Kerry
My rock, and my North Star, always constant, never fading!
I could not have made it on this Lords of Avalon journey without you
!
Thank you for all the HOURS of help, support and laughter you’ve given me
.
Thank you for my beautiful covers you’ve designed
.
I OWE YOU BIG TIME!
Thanks to David too! (Kerry’s husband
)
s
LORDS OF AVALON SERIES CHARACTER LIST
Excerpt from Lords of Retribution
R
oseland Abbey,
near
Hartland, Devon,
May 1834
“Lady Elizabeth!”
Elizabeth “
Libby
” Darrington
turned to see her A
unt Priscilla standing
below
in the entry hall
.
She
cringed
.
She
almost made it up the stairs
.
“Yes, Aunt Priscilla
?”
Libby
asked sweetly
.
Dear though she was,
her aunt
did not approve of Libby’s custom of a long morning ride
along Hartland Quay’s cliffs and beaches
.
“You must change and have Meggy fix that hair at once
!
Lord Silverley
is here
.
He’s with your
brother
.”
Priscilla Graham
clucked her tongue in disapproval
.
“I shudder to think what you must do
every morning
that results in your hair being a tumble every
single time you return to the house
.”
“Charlie is here?” Libby smiled happily.
“Wonderful
!
I’ll change and be down in a momen
t
.
And you know Aunt Priscilla;
my hair is heavy and falls from its pins with
even
just a walk in the garden
.
It
certainly will not
stand up to the
winds
along the coast.”
“Humph
.
I do not understand why your brother allows you to ride every morning like a
wild
hoyden, and alone
at that
!”
Priscilla complained.
“I’m not always alone
.
Sometimes Owen joins me.”
Footsteps could be heard coming
down the hall
from the direction of the
study
.
Libby heard her brother’s voice as well as Charlie’s
.
Aunt Priscilla would be in a fine snit if Charlie saw her with her hair down
.
She tu
rned and rushed up the stairs.
“Charlie
!
What brings you to
Roseland
today
?”
Libby
asked cheerfully
as she spotted her brother’s friend, Charlie,
seated across from
Owen in
the library
.
With he
r hair properly coiffed
and wearing
a simple, light blue gown
,
Libby happily greeted her brother’s guest
.
“Miss Libby!” Charlie stood.
“
I came to te
nd to business affairs in H
artland, and of course to visit you and Owen
.
What are you about
this fine morning
?
Let me guess, you were riding along the Quay.
”
Charlie Inwood, Lord Silverley
,
smiled
, winked
and accepted her hand
.
He gave her fingers a quick squeeze and released
them.
“
Yes,
I just returned from my ride
.
How are Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday
?”
Charlie’s mother and father
obviously had
a preference for days of the
week when it came to naming their daughters.
“My sisters are in fine health, Miss Libby
.
I daresay
Tuesday and Wednesday
keep my mother
on her toes as
you do your poor Aunt Priscilla
!
And dear Sunday is kept busy with her growing brood
.
If
little
Marcus and Leo weren’t enough at ages two and four, she’s another babe due in the fall
.
I daresay she’ll have her hands full by Michaelmas.
”
“Are they
in Dorset for the summer?”
“Oh, yes
.
I heard directly from Marcus that it will be some time before they return to London with the little ones.”
Charlie was the only one
of
their
acquaintance
who called her
Miss Libby
.
He and Owen
were childhood
friends
, and Charlie
started calling her
Miss Libby
early on
.
He continued to call her that to this day
.
Charlie lived not more than
ten
miles away
.
He visited often
.
Libby’s
age
was close
to his
younger sister
s
’,
Tuesday and We
dnesday
.
She enjoyed the Inwood
s
’
company tremendously
.
The
ir
families spent much time together
.
Both Owen and Charlie were members of the Avalon Society
.
The
two
men
spent hours cloistered in Owen’s study or the library
talking of the S
ociety’s current finds, acquisitions and business
.
As Libby was also interested in such
historical matters
, they often included her in their conversations and research
.
“I see Aunt Priscilla caught you and
sent
you
to
change and
have
your hair fixed before Charlie could see you
.”
Owen
grinned
at her
.
“Yes,
”
Libby sighed
.
She
smiled
as
s
he sat in a chair
situated
between Owen and Charlie.
Charlie and Owen both
gave her amused grins
.
Aunt Priscilla was forever trying to mold Libby into a proper young lady and marry her off.
Owen Da
rrington, the Earl of Fitzlewis
,
kept
an informal house
,
m
uch to the chagrin of
his
Aunt
.
In all truth, Priscilla loved her nephew and niece dearly, and they her
.
But she was a stickler for decorum and always tri
ed
to bend them to her views o
n
things
.
She constantly told
Owen that Libby, or rather Elizabeth
,
as she insisted on calling her, was a wild hoyden, and there would be disaster come to the family because of it.
Their father spoiled Libby much the same as Owen, especially after their mother
, Alice’s, d
eath some
ten
years before
.
Aunt Priscilla insisted
Elizabeth
have a come out and be presented to society, yet her father and brother never s
aw
the need for such
.
T
hree years ago,
their
father died
suddenly
.
Reginald Darrington’s
death was hard on both Libby and Owen
.
To this day, Libby
insisted she
did
not desire the society of London
, and Owen refused to force it upon her
.
She preferred to ride, walk, and read
.
She loved Roseland Abbey and staying with
her brother
.
Ow
en
preferred
Libby
to be happy and smiling
.
He refused to force her to London so Aunt Priscilla could introduce her to Society and make a good match for her
, even though she was five and twenty
.
He no longer allowed their Aunt to take Libby to London or
to
house parties with
out his presence
after an incident
several years ago
where a young fortune hunter tried to je
o
p
a
rdize Libby’s reputation
to fo
rce her into marriage
.
Owen decided to joi
n them at the house party
.
Owen
had
a feeling h
is presence might be
needed
.
His
feelings
were always to be taken seriously
.
He stepped in and took the situation in hand and scared the bounder off
before any damage could be done
to Libby’s reputation
.
As
Libby
did not
desire to marry, Owen
assured her he would never force
her to
.