He laughed. “Good luck. That might be an empty wish for it rests on the ability of all of those children being well behaved.” He kissed her on the cheek. “This could be a time of madness for you but just remember, you can ask anything you want if there is something you do not understand.”
They walked into the big dining hall and it appeared as if chaos ruled. There was a massive dark wood table in the shape of a huge letter U that appeared to be already full, although Argus waved them over to two seats on his right. In the far left corner there was a small rectangular table where the women caring for the youngest members of the clan sat with those children. She quickly asked for and received Lorelei’s assurances that Boudicca was welcome and her dog disappeared under the table. Primrose could feel the dog draped over her feet but soon some child tempted the puppy away by holding something under the table. A fast look around the table told her that Boudicca was being fed by nearly everyone at the table. All she could do was hope her dog did not end up being sick.
Conversation swirled around here. There was a lot of teasing and the talk revealed to her that there was much about the world that she did not know. The number of gifts the people had told her a lot about the close ties the family maintained. They needed one another if only for a source of people who understood what they could do and help one another through any learning that needed to be done. It was a wonderful thing to see, she decided, and sighed with a strong touch of envy.
“Is everything all right?” asked Bened.
“Yes, fine. I was just admiring your family.” She patted his hand. “It is really quite miraculous, Bened. Mine was not bad—me, my father, and Simeon, I mean—but then there was the side that was my aunt and uncle. Yours is so close, so friendly with one another, so ready to help and that help being treated as the gift it is. As I said—you are a very lucky man.”
He was touched and then thought that he was indeed lucky but it was not his family he was thinking of. Hoping no one was paying too much attention, he lifted her hand to his lips and brushed a kiss over her knuckles. “Yes, a very lucky man indeed,” he murmured.
“Did she spill something on her hand?” asked a beautiful little boy sitting on the other side of Bened.
Bened looked at the boy with his wild, deep red curls and huge green eyes. “And which one are you then, lad?”
“Morris’s boy. My name is Gawain. I can see ghosts and, if you want, I can help you see them, too. My mother did not think it was fun,” he added in a soft voice heavily weighted with sadness. “So, did she spill something on her hand?”
“Yes, I fear she did,” Bened said, and patted Primrose’s hand. “I hurried to lick it clean. I was happy to find that it was something I like this time.”
“That is a good thing. You don’t want to have to lick up something that is evil-tasting like sprouts.”
“God save us all from such a fate.”
Primrose knew Bened had made a face because the little boy giggled so hard he had to put down his spoon. And she realized, right at the moment she watched him take that sad look out of a little boy’s eyes by being silly, that she was desperately in love with this man.
Chapter Eleven
Simeon woke at the sound of the door opening. The knot of fear he had been unable to shake since he had discovered he had been locked in began to ease. He sat up on the narrow bed and watched the young woman who, he hoped, had rescued him. The doubt he now had was because of how she had locked him inside and he wanted a good explanation for that before he even began to trust her. There were several good reasons for her to do that, such as an understandable fear for her own life or fear of a robbery. Despite all her talk of some sort of vision prompting her actions, she did not know him.
Then he noticed she was walking like an old woman, a slow shuffling step and bent over ever so slightly. He quickly went to take the tray from her hands and saw how pale she was. Her eyes were dark with a pain she could not hide from anyone.
“What has happened to you?” he demanded, setting the tray on the table before turning back to her.
“Nothing for you to worry about,” she answered, the firm annoyance in her voice weakened by its unsteadiness.
“Did I say I was worried? No. I worry about my sister, about being locked in here when I do not even know who you are, and I worry about that cursed murderous aunt of mine but I do not worry about this. This, whatever it is, is done and needs tending to. Did you bring that salve you used on me?”
“Yes. It is on the tray. I thought you might wish more of it. And, I am fine. ’Tis but fresh and the pain will soon pass.”
“Then it will do so much faster with the salve. Sit down and undo your gown.”
“I beg your pardon?”
He laughed softly as he went and pulled the wine shelf in place then shut the door before returning to her. “Sit and undo your gown. You will not shock me and you need to help those wounds on your back heal.”
“How do you know I have any wounds upon my back?”
“Because she used to do the same to me, several times before I grew too big for her to easily do it and make me sit still for it. Is she still upstairs?” he asked as she undid her gown and, while holding it close in the front to try to maintain her modesty, tugged it down to her waist in the back.
Simeon winced. Augusta had not lost her touch. The marks of the caning were long, criss-crossing the woman’s smooth, slender back from shoulder to waist.
“Nay,” the woman whispered in reply. “She came looking for answers and I gave her none she wanted to hear. Somehow they knew that you had come into the alley and wanted to know if I had seen you. They did not trust my reply when I said I had not.”
“Did you tell her any of the other things you can see or know about her?”
“Nay, I wanted to. I wanted to tell her she would never win, to describe the twisted evil inside her, and even how the one person she hates more than she hated your father will see to the ending of her but I knew better. She will leave none alive.”
“I have guessed that myself. You are lucky she left you alive. And so am I for there was no way for me to escape from here without you and the key to the door.” He caught the sound of her soft gasp as she looked over her shoulder. “I would have died in here, slowly, if anything had happened to you.”
“I will not lock it again.”
“Thank you. Just why are you still alive? You have become a witness to the fact that Augusta is not the genteel lady of the manor she pretends to be. No matter what you told her she may still think you have some knowledge, and that would mean you have to join the rolls of the dead she has left in her wake.”
“She left her men to tend to the finishing of me. I scared them away.”
Done treating the cane marks with the salve, Simeon moved to sit on the table facing her. “You scared them? How?”
“I told them how they would die.”
“Then they will go and kill Augusta. That would only be a help to us.”
“Nay, not yet. I did not tell them it was she who did the killing, although they believe she will in the end. She only orders it and then she will end the killer last. I did not tell them that. I only told them how they would die in great detail.” She turned sideways to keep her modesty as she redid her gown. “It near to made me vomit to do it as their deaths could be bloody and vicious, but I did it. They ran.”
“And I think that is what you should do. Run. As far and as fast as you can.”
“That is my plan. We head to your uncle George’s on the morrow before the sun fully rises. I just need to collect a few things.”
“I truly appreciate what you have done for me, except for locking me in of course, but I can get to my uncle’s on my own.”
“Nay, we cannot change what I have seen. I saw me with you so be ready.” She stood up and started to open the doors.
“I will try to be but I can promise nothing. There is so much to pack for the journey, you know.”
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��You are behaving very badly, my lord.”
Simeon laughed. He waited to hear the locks turned but there was no sound and he breathed a sigh of relief. Then he sat at the table to eat the meal she had brought him and tried not to think too much on all the mistakes he had made concerning his aunt Augusta, mistakes that may have cost him his father.
Bened groaned his disappointment when he woke to find himself alone in the bed. After last night he had hoped to enjoy a romantic morning, to have some time to show Primrose that he could actually be romantic instead of just a rutting goat. Bened knew what others thought of him. Big and strong, a man of few words and little humor. He was the one they all called on when they needed someone to watch their backs, protect someone they loved, or help them hunt down the enemy. He was dependable, the protector, occasionally the hunter.
Lying on his back and lightly scratching his belly, Bened now wanted to be seen as a lover, as someone who knew how to laugh. He wanted people to see his strength but also his softer side. The trouble was he was not all that certain he had one. What he was sure of was that he wanted a touch of the courtier at the moment. He wanted to be able to woo Primrose with sweet words, the kind of words that touched a woman’s heart.
“And is that not worth a hearty laugh or two,” he muttered as he got out of bed and faced the day, the warm glow from the night’s lovemaking fading quickly.
By the time he had finished his breakfast and called for their horses to be brought round, Bened decided it was past time to settle the matter of what help he might need and what he might be able to get from his family. He had seen Primrose briefly at breakfast and told her they had to keep moving so he knew she was getting ready. She understood the need for that as well as he did. The longer Augusta Wootten ran about free to create havoc, the more people died. It might be true that a lot of them deserved the fate they got, but anyone who thought they had the right to coldly take a life could not be allowed to run about free.
Argus walked out to wait for the horses with him. “I should go with you.”
“You have guests,” Bened said, “and I do not think I have need of an army to get to Elderwood.”
“I would say we could watch your back but none of us can do that as well as you can. What I will do is set out a watch for her, try to stop her here. Best I may be able to do is slow her down, though.”
“That would be most helpful. She has been a step or two behind us all along, close enough to send someone out to try to kill us on the road. The last time she tried that, she nearly succeeded in killing Primrose.” He nodded when Argus cursed. “A day or two of travel without some dangerous confrontation with her hirelings would be a blessing.”
Argus shook his head. “All this blood spilled for a barony. There must be a very fat purse that comes with it.”
“I have no idea,” confessed Bened. “Society is mostly a mystery to me and I’d never heard of the Woottens or the Baron of Willow Hill. They have land, a manor house, her father could afford to support himself and his children as well as his brother and the man’s murderous wife, and both Primrose’s horse and her attire are not those of a poor person. That is all. Never asked her if there was a lot of money for her aunt to get her bloody hands on.”
“For that woman to go to all this trouble there has to be some money. Or, that woman knows how to use something the baron has to get a lot of money. I think I may look into that. Although it does you no good at the moment, it may be of use afterward. If the woman does not end up dead, she will need to be tended to by the courts.”
“Oh, Aunt Augusta will never allow herself to be taken before some magistrate,” said Primrose as she stepped up beside Bened. “The humiliation of being treated like some common criminal would be more than she could bear.”
“So, what? Do you think she would end herself?” asked Bened.
“The more the possibility seems possible, the harder she will fight. And then she will wash the blood from her hands and become the foolish vain woman who fooled us for so long.”
Bened cursed. “And some magistrate would never believe her capable of what she is being charged with. Nor, I suspect, would a jury of her peers.”
“She is quite good at playing the vain lackwit whose only concern is the style of her gown and if she is going to get the right invites to the right events. And, sad to say, since that is what so many expect such a woman to be, they believe that is just what she is, who she is. That woman could never do the things we would be accusing her of. She lacks the intelligence and guile. Or so they would believe.”
“What you are saying is that she must die before this can all truly be over with,” said Argus.
Not hearing any condemnation or disgust in his words, simply acceptance of a fact, Primrose nodded. “I can see no other answer. It truly is her or us. I would feel worse about it except that she does have a lot of blood on her hands and some of it from people I cared about.”
“Are you thinking there may have been others you might not even know about?”
“I am. If this is how she is rid of barriers to her dream of being an important person in society, then what did she do to anyone who blocked her from making that rise?”
Nodding, Bened frowned in thought. “It is also another thing that would be very hard to prove.” He took her by the arm and escorted her to her horse. “We had best be on our way. Argus and the others are going to try to keep Augusta off our trail for a while.”
“That would be lovely.”
Primrose was still thinking of how nice it would be to travel for a while without having to fear her aunt was close on their heels when they gave everyone a final wave and rode off. It was a pleasant day for riding, cool yet with a bright sky and a lot of sun. Unfortunately, it meant it was a good day for her aunt to travel as well. If the woman caught scent of their trail, there would only be Bened’s family and whatever interference they might be able to cause to slow Augusta down.
How had her aunt hidden this monster for so long? she wondered. Worse, how had she, her father and brother who were both very smart men, missed seeing it? There had to have been signs. No one could contain so much anger, envy, and murderous jealousy without there being some hint of it bubbling beneath the surface of their smile or hidden beneath their polite chatter.
The other thing that puzzled her was why her aunt had waited so long to act. They had all been so blissfully ignorant of who she really was, so why had the woman not taken advantage of that years ago and just killed them off one by one? She thought of her father and then her mother and shuddered. There was the strong chance the woman had been trying to, had just been far more cautious than she was now. Since the baron was dead and few in society had ever met her or her brother, Simeon, Primrose suspected the woman believed there would be no real outcry into their abrupt disappearance.
The fear and anger churning inside her suddenly began to ease and Primrose glanced over at Bened. His face was free of any real expression and his gaze was fixed too intently upon the ground in front of him. Primrose frowned as she thought about all the times he had been near her when she had grown calm, very reasonable fears or concerns fading away to just a thought.
“It is you!” she said, and pointed at him.
“What is me?” he asked, sensing her fear and anger were gone enough so that his gift backed away.
“You are doing something. When I start to get all tied up and twisted with a very reasonable fear or anger or even when a memory hurts so bad I wish it gone, you do something to soothe it all. How do you do that?”
He studied her closely and saw no fear or even anger over the fact that he might have actually done something. “I do not make it happen. There is something inside me that just does it. The moment I am around someone caught up in some strong, and bad, emotion like fear or anger or the like, it wakes up, reaches out, and calms the person, or people, down.” He shrugged. “It can be helpful. It just does not allow me to ask the person if they actually want to calm down.”
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“Well, I certainly do not mind. Such emotions are very uncomfortable. Yet they do have their uses. Fear can be very useful when one is in actual danger.”
“I know and I do fight to tamp it down but it is as if it has a mind of its own.”
Primrose frowned. “You might wish to find a different way to explain that. It makes it sound a bit too much as if you have some creature inside you.”
He laughed. “It can feel that way at times when it just starts to stir to life as if it was called.”
“But it was. That emotion it was created to soothe called to it.”
“I think I like that explanation a lot better than the ones I try to explain it with.”
She laughed softly and looked around. “How long to get to your cousin’s?”
“We go to your uncle George’s first.”
“Well, that is very near your cousin’s so much the same time to get there. I was just curious as to how long your cousins had to try to divert Augusta. It will not be easily done.”
“No, but even an hour will be a blessing. That would put her a farther distance back and she might miss finding us today.”
He just grunted in reply and Primrose sighed. She did not have all that much hope either.
“We are being followed, m’lady. Watched.”
Augusta looked up from her breakfast and frowned at Carl, a man she knew she should never turn her back on. He had cold, dead eyes. Since she had used him and his two men to kill one of her previous employees, the original intention having been to kill all of three of them and start anew, he had to know how she dispensed of any of the men she hired when they were no longer of use. It would not surprise her to find out he was watching for her to obtain her goal or draw near to doing so before he killed her. She would have to kill him first. For the first time since she had made use of the criminal class to claw her way into society, after looking into Carl’s eyes, Augusta had doubts about her ability to come out the winner in a fight for power.
If He's Noble (Wherlocke Book 7) (Paranormal Historical Romance) Page 14