Brethen 03 - Temptation & Twilight
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“What has this to do with the House of Orpheus?”
“I didn’t know of the club until tonight—when I followed you. You see, the lady you were with, Marie Lalonde, was Lasseter’s lover and fugitive accomplice.
Naturally, when I saw you, I had to discover your connection to her.”
“Marie Lalonde? I’m sorry, Detective, but I’ve never met a woman by that name.”
“I believe she goes by the name of Georgiana Larabie.” Admiration lit Iain’s eyes. “I thank you, Sheldon.
You’ve saved me an evening of inconvenience, for I was planning on investigating the most duplicitous Georgiana myself.”
“Oh, she has raised your suspicions?”
“Indeed.” He’d known the bitch was hiding something, and here it was Nigel Lasseter all along, his enemy. Orpheus himself, the man she had promised to take him to. Obviously, he had played right into their hands. He’d been a fool, and it didn’t sit well with him—not at all.
“Might I ask how she raised your guard, my lord?”
“No.” Taking a sip of Scotch, Iain set the glass back onto the desk and thought through his plan. “I sense a breach of hostilities between us, Sheldon, at least temporarily.”
“Yes?”
“I can only give you my word of honour that what I was doing with Lady Larabie has nothing to do with her time spent in Jerusalem with Lasseter, or any crimes she committed in France. You’ll have to trust me that if I discover anything that might aid your case, then I will share it. Until then, I must keep my own counsel.”
“That’s fair, I suppose. Should I keep my own coun-BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012
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sel tonight, and not share with Elizabeth whom I saw you depart with?”
He wanted to hate this man, but the bloody determination he saw in Sheldon’s gaze made Iain admire him instead. “I know how it looks, but nothing happened.
Elizabeth…” He swallowed hard, thinking of her, thinking of her with Sheldon. “I’d never do anything to harm her. Her…opinion of me at the moment is not very good, and while I will admit that I deserve it, I do not deserve to be labeled for something I didn’t do. I did not betray Elizabeth with Lady Larabie.”
“Fair enough. I believe you.”
Nodding, Iain motioned for Sheldon to continue. “Tell me about Lasseter, and your connection with him. I’m afraid your explanation has been somewhat convoluted and I am left rather confused by the whole matter.”
“Forgive me. I had assumed that you would know. I told Elizabeth the story of my connection to him.”
“And you thought she would spill your secrets? Detective, your opinion of her is rather low, is it not?” Sheldon had the grace to blush. “In my experience, there are few true, honest people in this world.”
“In mine as well, but you will find that Elizabeth York is one of the few good ones out there. She is an angel, and can be trusted with a man’s life. The secrets of his soul.” Sheldon studied him in the gaslight, and Iain had the urge to hide in the shadows. But something shifted in Sheldon’s gaze. A perception. An understanding. He spoke no more of Elizabeth, but instead continued his story.
“My business with Nigel Lasseter, who is a French émigré and wanted for a string of robberies in France, began in Jerusalem nearly three years ago. He made his way to the Holy City, where I was working as an archae-BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012
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ologist at Temple Mount. I was investigating a rebellion plot involving the Turks, while disguised on a British dig.
Lasseter befriended me. He was interested in excavating, and had a real obsession with the Templars. We struck up a friendship because I, too, have a genuine love of Templar lore. At that point I had no knowledge of his past.
We discussed at length the Templars, and their method-ology for hiding sacred relics, money and escape routes.
He was especially interested in those—in the Templar method of building underground crypts and tunnels.”
“Why?”
“I believe it was something I said that piqued his interest. I mistakenly informed him of how the Templars’
preferred mode of hiding their cache was in their crypts.”
“Ah, I see. So he somehow persuaded you to allow him to assist you.”
“Worse,” Sheldon muttered, and Iain saw the anger and shame in his eyes. “I didn’t just allow him to assist, I showed him how to excavate. How to find the gems of the Templars.”
“And then?”
“I came across a cache. Lasseter wasn’t with me at the time, but I brought him later to show him what I’d found.
Along with the treasure there was a scroll outlining the story of three Templars. He became very excited about it. Almost…possessive, I would say. He waited for me to dig up the entire treasure, and when I did, he accosted me one evening in the tunnel, tried to stave my head in with an excavating pitch and leave me for dead. I fought him, and was winning until darling Marie came to save the day for Lasseter. She brained me with a large rock, and I fell to the ground. I’m sure they thought me dead.
It took me months to recover.”
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“So Lasseter and Marie stole the cache and began selling off pieces to fund their return to England.”
“Exactly.”
“You said you told this story to Elizabeth. Why? What interest would she have in it?”
“I was hoping to discover if either you or Sussex had any connection with Lasseter. I already knew there was a very thin connection to Black. I did not learn of your link until tonight, till I saw you with the woman I know as Marie.”
“You will not find more than that, Sheldon. I personally guarantee it.”
“Well, when I woke from my extended sleep, I informed Special Branch of what had happened, alerting them to the fact that I believed Lasseter to be on the run, and most likely headed to London. Where else can one get lost in the throngs of humanity?”
“And they separated,” Iain mused. “They knew Scotland Yard would be looking for two people, a man and a woman.”
“It would appear so. And in the meantime, Marie found a new persona, and was able to dupe poor old lecherous Larabie into marrying her. No doubt Larabie is unwittingly supplying Lasseter with money to keep afloat.” Sheldon sat forward and peered into Iain’s eyes.
There was an implacable determination in his gaze. “I want him, Alynwick, and Marie, too. I want them to stand trial, to suffer for their crimes.”
“I want him as well, but for something very different.”
“Tell me.”
“I can’t.”
“Is it illegal?”
“No.” How could he confide in Sheldon about the Brethren Guardians? He couldn’t. Absolutely could not BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012
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betray Black and Sussex, no matter the cost. But he did need to know how Lasseter knew so much about them, and what he was planning on doing with the information.
“You will have to take my word for it, Sheldon,” he said at last. “My reason for wanting him is my own. If I get him first, I’ll hand him over to you after I’m done with my questioning. If you manage to get him before me, I ask only that I am allowed to interrogate him—in private.”
“And you swear to me that there is nothing more to it than that?”
“The matter is a long one, Sheldon. A matter of family, and secrets. But as far as I know, nothing illegal.
And nothing
to do with what he did in France, or what he did to you.”
Sheldon sat back and studied him thoughtfully. “I’ll let you keep your secrets, Alynwick. For now. But at some point I fear that they might all come tumbling out.”
“Then I shall have to deal with it, won’t I? Until then, I will keep them to myself.”
Rising from his chair, Sheldon stuck out his hand. “To a temporary truce—in this matter.” Iain accepted the handshake, knowing they shared a truce in the business of Lasseter and the House of Orpheus. But the matter of Elizabeth, he knew, was far from settled.
“HAVE A CARE, Elizabeth. The steps are uneven and crumbling. There now,” Sheldon said, clasping her hand carefully. “Two more steps and you’ll be standing on the floor, which is really quite uneven, so you’ll have to hold on to me.”
The smell of earth and mould burned her nose. The sound of water tapping against stone echoed in the distance. Jack’s bark ricocheted off the walls, which she BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012
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imagined were curved medieval arches carved into the stone. Here she was, beneath the Templar church, where no soul had ventured in hundreds of years. What secrets awaited discovery? What treasures were to be found?
How she wished she possessed sight so that she might see the great arching caverns, the crypts made of stone, complete with effigies of knights who had served hundreds of years ago.
Jack barked again, only this time he took off running down the corridor, his paws scratching against the dirt and stones.
“Jack!” Sheldon growled, then called, “Jack, come back here!”
“Oh, dear, has he run off?” Elizabeth asked. She heard the whoosh of the flame from Julian’s torch, knew that he had lifted it high in the air to illuminate the passageway. The atmosphere was damp and close, heavy with the scents of earth and mildew. Elizabeth held her free arm out to the side and found her fingers touching a slick stone wall.
“It’s very narrow, isn’t it?”
“Indeed, typical of Templar buildings. Designed to take only two abreast,” Sheldon murmured as he carefully led her along the uneven dirt floor. “But the etch-ings are incredible, Elizabeth. Preserved and intact from the sands of time. It’s as if they were entirely forgotten.
And maybe they have been, for all we know.”
“I can hear your excitement,” she said, smiling. “I can feel it.”
“Discovery. There’s nothing like it.”
“No, there isn’t. I can almost sense what it must have been like for you when you discovered the Templar cache in Temple Mount.”
“Nearly as exciting as this.” He held her hand tighter, BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012
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moved her gently to the left to avoid an object on the ground. “I’m so glad you allowed me this. I know it’s early yet in the day for calls, and with your brother’s wedding this afternoon, well, I thought there was no better time, especially since you’ll be leaving for Yorkshire. I knew you wouldn’t have another chance to visit Temple Church.”
“Oh, no, I was most happy to be invited.” She had needed this diversion. She hadn’t slept well last night, with her thoughts focused on Iain and what he had done to her in her room, before the mirror. And worse, what he had made her feel. Try as she might she hadn’t been able to stop thinking of him, not even when she had attempted to concentrate on the diary, and recall the passages that had once kept her so amused. When a few of the entries did come to mind, they only made her think of Iain, and their past, and the things he had whispered in her ear. Things that might become their future, if she allowed herself to fall once more.
“How long will you be gone?” Julian asked, drawing her from her memories.
“Oh, I’m not going to Yorkshire. I’ve decided to stay in town.”
“Indeed?”
Smiling, she reached out and smoothed her palm over the rough edges of the stone wall. “Yes. I didn’t want to be a killjoy to Lucy and Adrian on their honeymoon.”
“How could you ever be that?” the earl asked, and Elizabeth heard the way his voice dropped, became husky in the quiet. Suddenly she was nervous. And uncertain.
“Here, move your hand over an inch.” She jumped like a startled doe at the contact of his warm fingers.
She should never have come today, but she had wanted to escape the house, her room, her thoughts of Iain. And BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012
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Sheldon’s offer to tour the crypts of Temple Church had seemed like just the thing to take her mind off her worries. But now, having him so close, feeling his hand guiding hers over the elevated carvings, seemed far too intimate and disturbing.
“It’s an image of a Templar,” he murmured. “No name, but the etching is fully intact. There’s even an emerald in the hilt of his sword.”
“Beautiful.” She breathed the word as her fingers came into contact with the emerald, which felt as large as a grape.
“Yes. It is. Come, there is more to discover by the looks of it.”
Lizzy followed, holding on to Sheldon’s arm as he led her deeper into the cavern.
“While we walk, tell me more about this diary you have, Elizabeth,” he suggested as he took her hand and began guiding her once more down the dirt path of the crypt. “I’ve been most fascinated by the opportunity to aid you.”
And here it was. The time had come. There was nothing to be done but to lie to Julian. It was the only way she could avoid arousing his suspicions, keeping him from making a connection with her family and the three Templars.
“As I said, I found the diary in a little shop. There is nothing to identify the knight, other than he was a Templar away on Crusade. It outlines an affair with a woman he met while over there. Very little is given about her identity other than she was a great beauty, and a lady of renown and influence. He writes that many men bowed to her.”
“Could it have been the King of Jerusalem’s sister?”
“Baldwin IV’s sister, Sybilla? Why would you ask?” BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012
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“She was known to have had many lovers, and was often intrigued by the Knights Templar.”
“I hadn’t thought of that, although I feel it unlikely.
The diary does not explicitly say that the woman escaped the Holy Land with him, but there are accounts in the diary that led me to believe the writer had occasion to see the woman throughout his life. It was a great source of agony for him, as they were forced to endure separate lives, their love a secret.”
“It cannot be her then, for her story is well docu-mented. She did not leave the Holy Land during her lifetime.”
“A very good guess, however. I do think that the woman was from the East, because he often praised her olive skin, ebony hair and dark eyes. At the very least, she dressed in the Eastern style.”
“Perhaps one of the king’s concubines? He had a favoured one, Marguerite. Her father was of the French aristocracy, her mother a beautiful Eastern houri who became his lover. It is said that Baldwin’s love for her was the most perfect love, for he never touched her, only watched her dance. He was a leper, if you recall. And to have had…well, carnal knowledge of her would have condemned her to his fate.”
“Such a horrible disease, and rather kind of Baldwin, considering the times. Women were merely pawns then, even more than today.”
“Empires were born through the female line back then.
And Jerusalem’s kings were no different.”
“You
know, now that you mention this Marguerite, I’m reminded of how the knight met his Veiled Lady.
He claimed she appeared first in a dream. He dreamed of her for three nights, and then one evening, while supping with the king, he saw her, behind shimmering veils BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012
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and a golden screen. He had pleaded with her to remove her veil, but she would not.”
“We shall have to do more work to uncover this mystery. But it sounds as good a place as any to start.” Julian reached for Elizabeth’s hand once more, and helped her over a bit of crumbling stone. “Now that you are not leaving for Yorkshire, perhaps we might meet to go over this diary.”
“Yes, that would be lovely.” Strangely, she no longer felt any excitement for it. She could not invite Sheldon in to look at it, could not let him discover Sinjin’s name. Not only that, but every time she thought of Sinjin’s romance, she could not help thinking of Iain and their own affair.
Despite how dangerous it was to be near him, the only person she could imagine sharing the diary with was him.
What a fool she had been to tell Sheldon of the book.
So impulsive, so…stupid. She hadn’t been thinking clearly, hadn’t thought through anything. She’d been mad, and sulking over her banishment from the Brethren. And this, she thought with disgust, was the reason Iain had been right to suggest that she be kept away. She was a hindrance. If Sheldon discovered their secret, she’d be the cause.
“You’re trembling. Are you cold?”
“It is quite damp down here, isn’t it?” She hated lying, but could not reasonably admit the truth—that a sudden image of Iain, his lips caressing her shoulder, had come into her head, leaving her trembling.
“Lizzy.” Julian halted her, turned her slightly with his hands on her shoulders. “Do you wish to leave? I understand if you do. The place has a peculiar feeling. One of dread and oppression, I think.”
“Yes, there is an ominous feeling, isn’t there?” BOUND GALLEY EDITION March 23, 2012
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