If He's Noble (Wherlocke Book 7) (Paranormal Historical Romance) (18 page)

“Nay, I think not.”

All the men opened their mouths to argue, looked hard at her, and shut them. Lilybet nodded and then they all began to plan how they would help Geoffrey and his family not become yet more victims of Augusta’s greed. The man had three children and not one of them doubted that Augusta would have them killed as well.

Bened was not surprised to find himself unofficially made leader of their rescue party. He had been a soldier once and people who had never been soldiers always assumed one who had would be better in such situations, would somehow know every move to make and how to lead. Someone needed to tell them that a lot of the ones who had been soldiers, especially men like him, were little more than cannon fodder.

“Where is Primrose?” Bened asked when he suddenly realized she had left the room.

Simeon looked around the room and cursed softly. “Went after that journal, I suspect. But, at least we do not have to argue with her about going to help Geoffrey. She will be set on that journal for quite a while.”

“I thought she liked this Geoffrey fellow,” said Bevan.

“She does as well as she likes his wife but this journal holds her mother’s words, a mother she lost years ago and which we have had little to truly remember her by.”

Bened nodded, thinking it could work out for the best. Not only did he have to spend time needed to rescue Geoffrey making her understand this was not a fight she should be joining, but it would also allow him to ride away afterward without causing a large confrontation far too many people would undoubtedly observe. He knew it was cowardly but he was feeling cowardly. Bened did not care so much about an emotional farewell, not as much as he feared she could all too easily convince him to stay with her when he knew he should not.

 

 

The sound of something crashing to the floor yanked Primrose free of the spell of reading her mother’s words, of hearing that beloved voice from the past in every written word. She tucked the journal beneath a cushion on the settee she had been sitting in and crept toward the door. Listening carefully, she could not hear any voices and she reached to open the door just as it was flung open from the other side.

Primrose turned to run but was grabbed from behind by her skirts. Seizing one of the pots close at hand, she swung around and broke it against the face of the man hanging on to her skirts. He let go of her to clutch at his bleeding head with one hand and she read her murder in the furious gaze he fixed on her.

She was yanking her skirts free of his grasp when Jenson stumbled into the room, so pale that she feared he was about to swoon. Right behind him stood Mrs. Jakes who looked as angry as she did afraid and Primrose’s heart sank. It did not surprise her when Mrs. Jakes was shoved into the room and Augusta appeared behind her, a pistol pressed hard up against Mrs. Jakes’s back.

“You, m’dear, have been a very great nuisance,” said Augusta.

“I do so beg your pardon for that, Aunt, but I cannot but wish to avoid your plans for me as they appear to be very unpleasant ones.”

“Carl, stop moaning and get her.” Augusta looked at Primrose. “You really do not wish me to shoot Mrs. Jakes, do you, dear? So, be a good child and come quietly.”

Mrs. Jakes let out a soft moan and dropped, her whole body going limp and tumbling to the floor with surprising grace. Primrose almost laughed at the way Augusta nearly fell on top of the woman. Mrs. Jakes was not small and had almost succeeded in taking Augusta down with her. Primrose rushed toward the back door that led out into the gardens, frantically wondering where everyone was for they had to have heard all the noise. Right behind her she could hear the man chasing her down. She yanked open the door and caught a brief glimpse of everyone riding off toward Courtyard Manor and Geoffrey before she was wrenched back against the man called Carl.

He wrapped one arm around her neck and slammed the door shut. Primrose did her best to fight free of his hold, her flailing feet connecting several times with his legs. Then pain exploded in her head and she fell into a black emptiness.

“You better not have hurt her too badly,” snapped Augusta as she watched Carl drag an unconscious Primrose back toward her. “I need to be able to talk to her and she needs to be able to make sense.”

“She will wake. I did not hit her that hard. Where do you want her?”

Augusta looked around the room and pointed to a sturdy chair set by a worktable covered in pots and small gardening tools. “We need to get her to the church. Secure her and then help me get these two old fools locked up with the other servants.”

As they left Willow Hill, Lilybet looked back toward the house and thought she saw Primrose attempt to run out of a side door to join them. Then she was gone and Lilybet frowned even as several visions ran through her mind. She looked at Bened, opened her mouth, and then shut it. Instinct was screaming at her not to say anything to him about the danger Primrose was in. She wanted to tell that voice to shut up but she had come to trust it too much. Shaking her head, she decided it was Geoffrey and his family that they needed to save first and then she would warn them all about the trouble Primrose was in.

Once near enough to the manor to finish the trip on foot, Bened led everyone right up to the house. He signaled Bevan whose gift would come in very handy at the moment. “Need to see inside this room. The enemy is in there. We need to know if the family is as well.” While Bevan did what he was so good at and looked into the room, Bened moved closer to Lilybet who stood quietly and scowled down at the ground. “There is one man in the kitchens keeping the servants from escaping. I wish I could tell you how many servants but I cannot feel them as I can someone who is a threat.”

She nodded. “The gifts all have something like that, something you wish they would do but never do. Sometimes they also do things you wish they would not especially if they make you follow what path they want you to and not the one you think you should. Do you want me to go help them?”

Deciding that now was not a good time to ask her what she meant, Bened nodded. “As soon as Bevan is done and we know who is in this room I want you to head toward the kitchens. Once we strike out, if we can, the servants may need help but it is certain the enemy you must seek out will do one of two things.”

“Turn on the servants or run for his miserable, stinking life.”

“Exactly.” She did, he realized, have a somewhat military mind and that made this all that much easier. “We do not want him to do either. Do you think you can judge which way he will turn at the right moment?”

“Aye. Close to the kitchen as I will be, the fear of whoever he has trapped there will give me enough of a connection I may well see what to do or what I am supposed to do.”

“Good. Just do not put yourself in any serious danger.” Because Simeon would want to kill me, Bened thought to himself, but kept silent.

“I have no intention of doing so.”

He shook his head as she slipped away. Lilybet Wherlocke would fit very well into her newfound family. Creeping back to the house, he suddenly saw Bevan crouched beneath the window drawing a square in the dirt. It took Bened a moment to realize his brother was marking out the positions of everyone in the room. Just seeing the five figures huddled near the fireplace made his heart ache. He did not even try to understand how Geoffrey must feel as he sat there and knew that he, the woman he loved, and all of his children were facing death. It was a horror too large for Bened to want to even imagine.

“Bevan, what we need is for you to slide in through the door to this room. Then go after the man closest to you and disarm him or hit him or whatever takes your fancy and allows you the most time to then hurl yourself to the ground. The confusion that will cause will allow us to get in through the window and deal with the others.” He looked at Simeon. “Is Geoffrey the sort of man who will have the wits left to do what is needed to best protect his family when we do this?”

“Without a doubt,” Simeon replied. “Man was a soldier for a while so he will recognize an attack on the enemy and probably guess that they could try to take some of his with them. He will do whatever he can to cover his family even if it is with just his own body.”

“Let us hope he finds a better alternative. Look carefully at the drawing Bevan made so you know what you are headed into. I will go through the window first and take down as many as I can as you come in through the door. The faster we get this done, the less chance any of the family getting hurt.”

Bened watched closely for his brother’s man to fall, guessing that he would take the one right inside the doors. Quick, easy enough, and would surely pull the attention of the others his way. They would see that they had just lost the man watching their backs. The fact that they would not see how it was done would, he hoped, make them afraid enough that they would not be quick to see the more tangible threat coming at them through the window and door, or react to it in time to save themselves.

The man’s head snapped back and he yelled in shock, twisting this way and another to try to see who had struck him in the face. He yelled even louder when his pistol and knife were snatched from his hands, leaving him defenseless against something he could not see. His friends started to yell as well for they could see that their friend was being hit but could make out nothing but the pistol moving by itself, the butt connecting hard with the man’s head at least three times before he started to fold and sink to the floor.

Bened slipped into the room as the men searched for what had knocked the fourth man down. He hoped they could not hear Bevan’s heavy breathing as easily as he could, then briefly caught Geoffrey’s eye. Something in the way the man looked at him told Bened Geoffrey could be trusted to get his family out of the dangerous situation breaking out all around them.

One by one they took down the four men. It had not been as easy as he had hoped. Bened and each of the others in his crew were bruised and battered, but they were soon tying up the enemy. Augusta had chosen truly hardened men this time, and ones with the kind of skills that hinted their training came from some of the king’s own officers. He walked over to where Geoffrey was settling his still-trembling wife and three children in seats near the fire, noting that at some point in the battle he had scraped his knuckles against someone’s face.

Geoffrey glanced at his knuckles and smiled, a hint of satisfaction in the look. “One decided he should end us. Less to worry about as he fought whatever the bloody hell took the first man down.”

“That would be my brother,” said Bened as he looked toward where he could see Bevan sitting in a chair and dabbing at a cut lip with a handkerchief. “Odd that bloody lip did not give him away,” he muttered.

“I did not see him,” said Geoffrey. “How could he have just walked in and taken down that man and I not see him? It looked as if the pistol was slapping the man senseless all on its own.”

“Because he did not want to be seen so he was not.” Bened shrugged at the man’s confused look. “Have no way to explain it clearly.”

“Not sure you could even if you had time to do so.”

“There is that to consider. Are any of you hurt?”

“No, just a few bruises. This is because of Augusta, is it not? She obviously did not want to wait to see if she could just evict me.”

“She wanted to but the Wootten man of business said she could not.”

“I threatened her with going to him and to the magistrate. Feared I put her in the position to do this. ’Tis a bit of a comfort to know I was not the only one telling her that, although I suspect Sanders was less blunt, more gentlemanly and evasive.”

“Probably. I need to go see how our compatriot is doing in the kitchen. Lilybet may need some help.”

“You sent a woman in there?”

“Not my first choice but Lilybet is no timid lass. Did Augusta come in with her men? Did she speak to you?”

“Just for a moment to make certain we knew what was to happen to us and why.” He sighed. “I had thought my too-ready mouth had just cost me my whole family.”

Bened slapped the man on the arm. “Not you, Geoffrey, but Augusta’s greed.”

After assuring himself that the family was fine, if still somewhat terrified and upset, Bened headed for the kitchens. He was not surprised when Bevan fell into step beside him. The split lip had probably come from one of the man’s fists as he had flailed around trying to fight off what he could not see.

“Geoffrey does not seem particularly concerned about how you did that without being seen,” he said.

“Good. ’Tis best that few people give it much thought. While having his family saved might make him more acceptable, it does seem as if most people do not like to think someone can play such tricks on their eyes and even their mind.”

“I can understand that.”

Once near the kitchen door Bened started to move as silently as he could. Bevan did as well, and Bened was pleased that his brother had learned their father’s lessons well. He could not hear anything in the kitchen and that made him fear he had sent Lilybet into a danger she could not overcome.

Cautiously opening the door, he peered into the kitchen and sighed. Lilybet was seated at the table, a battered unconscious man tied to the chair next to her, as she ate what looked to be some very nice little cakes a beaming cook set in front of her. He stepped in, ignoring the fear the servants showed, and looked across the wide table at Lilybet.

“You did not think we might like to know that you managed to accomplish this?”

“Was not sure you were finished and thought I would just wait here until I was certain it was safe out there,” she replied.

“It is safe. Geoffrey and his family are well and he has sent for the magistrate. So, I believe I am done here.”

“Are you now.”

“Aye, Lilybet, and I believe you saw why.”

She shook her head. “And I think you are just being a man, an idiot man who thinks he knows what everyone else wants when he cannot even make up his own mind about what he wants.” She smiled at the cook who handed her a tankard of cool cider. “Thank you, Mrs. Jasper.”

“How did you do it?” asked Bevan.

“Peered in all the windows until Mrs. Jasper caught sight of me. Then I made some noise at the door. He hurried over to see what it was and Mrs. Jasper grabbed the fry pan and swatted him on the back of the head. Brought the man to his knees but he was still trying to aim that fool pistol at me, so I rushed in and told her to do it again. Then we all worked to tie him to that chair.”

“That was embarrassingly simple.” Bened shook his head. “Well done. Before I leave I wish to suggest that you go to Elderwood, spend some time there to get as much information about your family as you can, and have Dob teach you a few things.”

“I just might do that. Want to know what I think you should do?”

“Nay,” he said, and walked out.

Lilybet looked at Bevan. “Are you not going to tell him not to be such an idiot?”

“Nay,” Bevan replied, and grinned at her look of annoyance. “He has made up his mind. Best thing is for him to see his mistake for himself.”

“I was hoping he would see it right now for then he could be the hero that rides to Primrose’s rescue.”

“Primrose needs to be rescued?”

“She does.”

“You saw this?”

“Just before we got here.”

“Why did you say nothing?”

“Because it was meant for us to come here where a whole family was being threatened.”

Bevan grimaced. “I should go tell Bened.”

“No, because then he will not have made a decision about this leaving idiocy. He will go rescue her and then leave. You are right to say he needs to know his own mind and come back because he knows he has to, for her, not just to ride to the rescue.” She finished off her cider and stood up. “But we best get everyone else back to Willow Hill. And see if your cowardly brother even stopped to tell the others what happened here in the kitchen.”

When Lilybet reached the room where the others were, she found Bened saying a few final words to the magistrate and his men. With Bevan at her side she moved to stand with the others. There was an anxiousness building inside her and she knew they would have to take care of Primrose’s problems soon.

Simeon looked her over. “You look hale and that pleases me.”

“Something I strive to make sure of every day.” She looked at Simeon. “While you men were all here congratulating yourselves, I dealt with the fool in the kitchen. There was a moment where I thought I might get shot but”—she looked at Geoffrey—“your cook swings a frying pan like a true champion. Not sure you will be getting any answers from that one for quite a while, if ever. Think I heard something crack.”

“Are you saying you just walked into the kitchen to face down an armed man? A man quite ready to kill a group of innocents for a madwoman?” Simeon asked, his last word almost a shout.

Lilybet stared at him for a moment and then blinked slowly as she replied, “Aye, I believe that is what happened. And it worked.”

“Lilybet, cease,” Bened ordered quietly, seeing by the expression on Simeon’s face that it was not a good time for her to goad him and certainly not in the way she was doing.

He did not flinch when she stared at him and almost laughed when she finally looked away and moved toward the woman and children to see if they needed anything. It pleased him that neither she nor Bevan said a word about his plans to leave for he wished to tell the others himself. For a moment all he could think of was that day when he had stared down Primrose’s silly little dog and carefully explained to her how he was making himself head of the pack. Bened looked around and decided his pack needed to get back to Willow Hills and lick their wounds, small though those were.

At that moment he knew with utmost certainty, one that had hardened even in the short walk from the kitchen to where he stood now, he could not go back there. He could not see Primrose there in the place that so clearly marked how above his touch she was. It might be cowardly but he also prayed the quick, clean cut would be better for her. He stepped over to Bevan.

“I will be riding out for my lands now,” he said, ignoring the puzzled look on Bevan’s face. “I might stop by at the parents’ if you care to ride with me.”

“But . . .”

“There is no but. I am the son of a farmer, a man who was given his rewards because an idiot’s father gave them to him for taking a bullet for the fool. No history, no great battle, and, I doubt, no fortune to even closely match what she has. Doing this quick and clean.”