Lords of Honor (32 page)

“Oh, that’s wonderful
!”
Rowena rose and e
mbraced them both
.
“O
h my
,
Libby
,
we’ve got a lot of work to do before tomorrow
.
Come, let’s go to the kitchen and see Cook
.
We must find Mrs. Clarke and Simmonds
!
You must have a cake, and we must have a breakfast or luncheon
.
We will go out to the gardens and cut flowers
-“

Micah interrupted Rowena,
“You cannot go to
the gardens, either one of you
!
Both
Libby
and Miss Hart were
abducted from
their
gar
den
s
.
I’ll send someone out to cut some flowers, or I’ll go myself.”

“No, don’t you go getting yourself shot again, Micah
!”
Rowena warned him.

He shook his head, “I will not
.”
He smiled.
He paused to kiss Libby’s temple
.
“I’ll
make certain you’ve
flowers
for the church
, don’t
you
worry.”

“Thank you, Micah
.”
Reluctantly, Libby allowed Rowena to pull her from the parlour
.
She turned to see Micah
grinning
after her.

Micah followed them out and headed toward his study
.
Fina
lly
!
Libby would be
his
wife
tomorrow!

Micah
wore a broad grin
when he returned to the library
.
One look at his comrade’s serious
expressions
stopped him in his tracks
.
“What is it?”

“
We found something of interest on the membership roster
.
We acquired a new member last
August
by the name of Nathan Hart,” Harry informed him.

“
Nathan Hart, t
he deceased father of Miss Sophia Hart currently in residence at Alloway House
?”
Micah shook his head
.
It couldn’t be a coincidence
.

“The same
.
Newt has gone to give
Simmonds
his
letter to
instruct
Lachlan
to question Miss Hart about her father’s association to the Avalon Society
, and find out about her family
.
There is the chance she may know something that can help us.”

“From what Newt told us earlier
,
Nathan Hart
’s drinking and gambling came on quite suddenly before his death
.
I suspect someone
purposely led him astray,
as happened to Lyon, and further
fed his addictions to get information
.
” Micah
frowned
.

“It does seem highly possible at this point
.”
Harry sighed, “But Mr. Nathan Hart was a lower ranking member
.
He did not know any of our secrets.”

“True
.
But he was a member
.
And he would have
possessed
a member’s list
.
I believe Newt said he died six months ago
.
If someone studied that list for six months, they would have an opportunity to target certain members
.”
Micah began to pace
.
“Again, I have to ask why did they take Libby
?
Owen is a high ranking member,
one of
our
top eleven,
but he was not
present
at Glastonbury
.
And once they killed Nathan Hart, why take his daughter for Lyon six months later?”

“It appears they are
seeking
people with weaknesses, or something similar
.
But why Libby
?
Why Miss Sophia Hart
?”
Owen spoke up.

“Perhaps because there
were only
Owen
,
Libby, and their aunt at Roseland
?
With Miss Hart, if you’ll remember, it was
only
she and her grandmother,” Charlie offered.

“Roseland Abbey is quite isolated on the Hartland peninsula
.
Where
is
Miss Hart’s home?” Micah asked.

Newt
spoke up
as he re-entered the library
,
“Dorset, n
ear Lyme
.
F
rom
Miss Hart’s description to me her home is
also isolated
.
But she was in London when she was taken
.
Her father’s home there was in a decent but less-fashionable part of Town in a quieter and older area
.
They had very few servants
.”

“Newt, did Miss Hart mention what her father’s scholarly pursuits were
?
His interests?”
Micah asked.

“His
obsession
is how Miss Hart described it
to me
.
Mr. Hart was interested in what happened to the treasures accumulated by William Paulet during the dissolution of the Abbeys
.
Paulet kept many of the treasures
in
Basingstoke
at Basing
House
.
Some were never heard of or seen again after
Oliver
Cromwell sacked Bas
ing House
in 1645
.
There was something in particular Mr. Hart was searching for
.
Miss Hart
told me
it was
a piece known as the
Holy Rood
and was
made of black flint
.
Her father called it the Black Cross
.
It
was believed to contain a piece of Christ’s Cross
.
It was found and
taken from
a hill near Montacute
centuries before the dissolution
and sent to Waltham Abbey
.
It was believed to predict the defeat of Harold, and in later years many miracles occurred in the presence of the cross
at
Waltham
A
bbey
.
It disappeared at the dissolution.
”

“Interesting
.
Treasures from the dissolution
, a
nother Holy treasure
.”
Harry rub
bed his chin
.
“Can you have Cleve ask Miss Hart
for any details of how detailed her father’s research was and if she might
still
have it
?
I think we’ve
possibly
found a connection
.
If it proves to be one, this may help us better understand who exactly these Brown Coats are, and why they want our treasures.”

It was unanimously
decided
by the Avalon society members
not to tell the ladies
,
until after the
wedding
ceremony
,
that Brown Coats
were now in
Templecombe
.
More importantly,
they were
seen
up
on the grounds of Horethorne Hall
.
If the ladies noticed that Matthias Halfknight, Lord Sinclair or Newton Lambrick, Lord Alloway remained outside the small
medieval
chapel
during the short ceremony,
they
said nothing
.

The
small
chapel was decorated with white roses and an assortment of oth
er white and pale-
colored flowers available in Horethorne Halls May garden
along with generous bunches of fern fronds
.

Libby and Micah stood together be
fore the altar
.
Wearing
her
new airy,
silvery-blue gown
, she was a vision of loveliness
.
Her bouquet
contained
white roses,
airy and delicate Bishop’s lace
, and white lilacs.
Tiny
cream
-colored
rosebuds were tucked into her topknot
.
Micah wore a blue coat of superfine with buff trousers
.
As he did on H
arry’s wedding day, Micah wore a cream rosebud with his own special white feather on his lapel
.
The couple
smiled
adoringly
at one another while
exchang
ing
their vows
.
After the Vicar announced them man and wife, they
kissed
, s
ign
ed
the register
along with their witnesses
and
were
hastily
escorted by their friends out of the church and into the
waiting phaeton
.
Lord and Lady Wincanton
led the procession back to Horethorne Hall
.

Owen felt certain his little sister would be very happy in her marriage
.
If dan
ger did
not loom over their heads, he might
be more at ease
.
He kept his mount close to the phaeton, and made certain he and his horse prote
c
ted his sister from any Brown Coat marksmen
.
The knowledge that Micah and Harry’s
younger
sister
,
Lady Caroline
,
were
both wounded
immediately after Harry and Rowena’s wedding remained fresh
in
his mind
.

As it was
, their party arrived safely to the
Hall without incident.

Micah hardly strayed from Libby’s side
.
Most often their hands were entwined or her hand rested on his arm as they conversed with the happy members of their party in the
richly paneled Great Hall
.

The room was an Elizabethan showpiece, truly the only formal room
i
n Horethorne Hall, with an intricately carved
and ornate
paneled
gallery entrance with
twin
arched doorways
.
The ceiling was supported by massive beams and decorated wi
th carved wooden tracery
.
T
wo rows of tall mullioned windows
, took up one entire wall of the Great Hall
.
The massive fireplace was original
.
The
white
marble frontispiece
was tall, reaching almost to the ceiling
and showcased four
large
knights in armour
.
All four of the marble knights held a shield; one was emblazoned with the Wychcombe family crest, another
with
the Wychcombe coat of arms, the third
held
the crest of the Viscount Wincanton, and the last shield
showcased
the crest of the Earl of Chilcompton
.

Colorful Flemish tapestries and large paintings of
ancient and
notable Wychcombes
decorated the walls
.
The furniture was ornate
,
original
,
high Elizabethan décor. Dark rich colors of garnet, sapphire and emerald were used
in the upholstery
throughout
.
Colorful carpets broke the solid white marble of the floors
.