ROOK AND RAVEN: The Celtic Kingdom Trilogy Book One (27 page)

Sebastian considered the man before him who looked more pugilist than butler and nodded his satisfaction.  Loyalty and determination radiated off the man like an aura.  He could trust this man would guard Jessy with all he had.  His quick work today had proven he would stand between Jessy and danger, but (and here Sebastian sighed to himself) his girl had never been a shrinking coward.  He was still seeing all too clearly her battling a priest of Odin with a damned parasol of all crazy things.  Now he had a servant who loved her telling him pretty bluntly he knew he had been in Jessy’s bed last night.  Ordinary servants would never dream of acting this way. Leave it to Jessy to have such an unconventional household.

“Yes, well my apologies to you
and
the trellis and while some might say it’s none of your business, I see you take your duty to Mrs. Powers seriously and so I will give you the respect you deserve.  I have nothing but honorable intentions toward her, not that she wants to hear that yet Mick, but there it is. 

You can count on me as another to guard her with my life.”

Mick met him eye to eye taking the Earl’s measure and nodded his head once.  He’d always had a nose for smelling a lie and whatever it was that lay in their past, this man now meant to do the right thing.

“Are you and Lord Carvell going to take that body off our hands then?”

Mick got to the more immediate point.

“You will take care of that and I will tell you how shortly.  Did you see anyone else in windows or out on the street when this happened Mick?”

“It happened fast and the street was empty.  This isn’t a society street Redsayle,” and Sebastian smiled to realize that this was a man with absolutely no social deference and he found himself liking this gruff, unconventional “butler” more and more.  He wasn’t a slow top either.

“No one peering through curtains or windows going up?”

“Mostly merchant or lower rung society families here.  The kind who obsess about their respectability.  They won’t report nothing if that is what you are getting at, it might involve them in scandal they don’t want.”

“Excellent,” Sebastian smiled widely. “Jessy chose her home’s location well then.”

“Can I assume you have a handcart and a tarp of some kind?” and Mick nodded in the affirmative.

‘Get the cart and tarp ready then if you will.  I have some arrangements to make but I will let you know shortly where to go with the body.  You will be
met and someone else will take over disposing of the priest.” With that he headed down the hall to the parlor on the right where he heard voices in earnest discussion only to pass on by to the kitchen stairs.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

A startled cook was shooed off and reaching into the pocket of his riding jacket he withdrew a small bag.  He wanted to hold onto Jessy and assure himself she was alright but Tim had told them she was whole and he had to do this first. Inside the bag was a fine clear shimmering crystal.  He held it in front of the kitchen fire for a moment before letting it go, but instead of dropping to the floor it spun quickly before hovered in midair reflecting the firelight.

“Rook to Bishop, response needed immediately,” he spoke to the crystal.  He turned to look about the kitchen and make certain no one else was watching. Satisfied he was alone he sat back to wait, never knowing how long it might take depending on how long it would be before Bishop could be alone.  He got up following his nose and found a fresh tray of scones and helped himself as well as brewing a cup of tea from the kettle hanging over the fire.  He was just licking the crumbs of the scone off his fingers when Bishop’s face appeared in the reflective crystal. 

In a few succinct sentences he informed Bishop of the attack, the death of the priest (which raised Bishop’s eyebrows impressively) and the need for someone to meet Mick to make the body disappear.  There was no way of knowing if Olav’s raven had been able to communicate to him what had happened but they had to go on as if it had.  It had clearly been the
hrafn
of Olav himself as confirmed by the multiple eyes.  It concerned them both greatly that the head priest himself seemed to want whatever was in that satchel.  They had expected him focused on the plans and movements of the king, not on a London actress.

“Keep me informed and get everyone out of there. We also need to know what the hell is in that satchel that is so important Olav sent his own eyes and ears to oversee its theft.  I was a bit angry at you for using this form of contact considering the risks of detection, but now I can see why you had to do it.  Once you have more information meet me where you last saw me and leave the notice for the meet in the place we agreed.  If you can’t then I suppose you will have to use the crystal again.  I have to get back to the Prime Minister.  Protect the contents of that bag Rook.  If Olav wants it, then so do we.” Bishop winked out abruptly.

Once Sebastian found out what it was the Gooar wanted so badly as to attempt a theft and commit a murder in broad daylight, he would leave a leaf pinned to the underside of a particular bench in Green Park setting a meet at Emrys shop.  If he could manage to get there.  The idea of leaving Jessy alone at this point went against all his instincts.  He may just have to use the crystal again when he had more to report.  He certainly was not letting her out of sight again until he knew he had her somewhere absolutely safe and there may not be anywhere in England that qualified.

In the parlor that Jessamy had designed to match her mother’s own sitting room back at Pemberly, David was ransacking the satchel he’d brought
back downstairs.  The journals could be a fount of information and it was time someone told Jessy the truth about her parent’s activities as agents for Celtica and England.  She had already told him the nearly heart stopping news that what appeared to be the treasury of Celtica was sitting in a bank vault in London.  No one had ever been sure if it had been taken by Ulrich or stolen never to be seen again.  The jewels of that treasury were legendary and none had ever shown up anywhere in Europe in all the years since the coup.

As far as the journals were concerned he felt they should be Jessy’s to read as they seemed to be more personal diary than business.  He was uncomfortable with prying into the private life of a lady he had loved and respected as a second mother.  Who knew what kind of personal details there might be? But in honesty, there were too many that needed to be read too quickly and when there was time they would have to be divided up for studying.

Jessy hung over him nearly mad with anticipation now that she had recovered her nerves, helped by the stiff glass of brandy David had nearly forced down her throat.  She actually felt a bit tipsy but much warmer if a bit fuzzier headed. At least her legs had stopped shaking and she had snapped that parasol over her knee and thrown it into the fire.  When the black blood

(and what she tried to ignore was brain matter and eye bits) had hit the flames it had spit as if the fire would vomit it back out.  She had stepped back quickly
to avoid sparks setting her skirts on fire and had to stamp out the ones that managed to land on the carpet.

“For the third time Jessy! I am
not
opening the boxes until Sebastian is here to do it!”

“But why him? What does he have to do with any of this? In fact if this is all about Celtica and things belonging to the House of Llyr the last person to know about this should be someone related to the people that took the throne!” She nearly stamped her feet in frustration.

“Do you trust me or not?  If you don’t then I am not sure why you sent for me,” he said sternly only to see her stick her tongue out at him like a five year old. “That’s him coming now and you have every reason to trust him my girl. Can you not listen to your heart again for goodness sake?!” he said exasperated just as the double doors swung open.

“All locked up Mick?” Sebastian asked over his shoulder as he entered.

“Aye locked
and
loaded my lord.  No one getting in this house without a few bullet holes to pay for it,” Jessy could hear the respect in Mick’s voice and felt a momentary irritation.  This was her home and her people and, despite what had happened between them last night, she wasn’t wild about his involvement here.  In fact she had rather thought to have some time to digest exactly what had happened, why she had let it happen and her fingers nervously touched the comb that had stayed in her hair when every other pin had been knocked loose.

Sebastian strode into the room and, before she could even think to move out of the way, found herself lifted off her feet and soundly kissed.  He set her down gasping and suffused with an undeniable sense of pleasure, while she saw Birdie trying to hide a smile from the chair she sat in by the fireplace.

“Parasol Jess? Really?” he eyed her like he wanted to shake her and she tried to take a step further back, only to be pulled close again and see his smile when he spied the comb in her hair.

“It was all I had and it worked,” she said tartly.

Then he startled her further by saying “I understand you are better armed now.  Use a pistol next time if there is one.  I think the chances of being successful with a parasol may be limited.  You’re a dead shot and it would make me feel a lot better.  I’ll make sure you have silver coated bullets from now on.”  He saw her eyes go wide at that.  

Sebastian let go of her and turned to stare at the satchel suspiciously.  It was hard to imagine what Clara Baroness Pemberton could have possibly left for her daughter that could get her killed despite what he knew now about the work the Baron and Baroness had continued to do on Celtica’s behalf.  They had certainly never planned to both be dead and their daughter in the dark and unprotected by either of them.  He wondered, briefly, if they would have ever
told her about their work and if this bank box had been the unfortunate back up plan, now left as a troubling legacy for Jessy.

“Anything else I should know before we dig in?”

“David he is a
Viking
who has spent the last seven years living with Ulrich and the Black Axes,” she saw the injured glare from Sebastian and was hit with guilt, “I just don’t think this is a good idea,” Jessy protested more weakly.

She saw David and Sebastian exchange a loaded look.

‘Tell her
now
Sebastian.  It’s too late to worry about secrecy don’t you think?  She needs you, we need you, and until you sort this out she’s just going to continue to fuss.  The plan has gone to rot and obviously you two decided you didn’t need to have full disclosure before resuming your…
relationship
… so just
tell her
,” David sighed in exasperation.

Sebastian took a swing about the room before coming to stand before her. “Sit down Jess,” he ordered.

“Why should I?” she demanded.

‘Oh stop being so bloody minded and sit!” and with a hand on her head shoved her into the chair behind her. How like him! She fumed and had to repress an urge to kick him in the shin.

“Your parents were agents.  When your grandparents took the position with the Embassy to Celtica with Tamworth’s father your grandfather was more than just an undersecretary for the Embassy.  He was placed to keep an eye on certain movements and interactions.  We already knew something was in the wind and there had been intercepted letters between the French and Ulrich and the Gooar.  It was his job to find out the lay of the land.”

He looked to see if she had any ideas about interrupting him but, she seemed struck dumb, so he hurried on before she found her voice back.

“Your parents, young as they were, took over the work when your grandfather was killed in the initial coup and found themselves strongly allying with Celtica.  Largely it was through fears that the English families here with strong Black Axe blood ties could end up working to support the Viking takeover of Celtica and their alliance with Napoleon. When it all went bad and the Llyr’s lost the throne, your mother and father managed to make it back to England.  It was nothing but strange happenstance however that my family, Viking allied, and yours with Celtica, were neighbors. But it worked out as they were especially tasked with keeping an eye on my dear mother.  You need to understand I only learned this very recently, since I have been away.”

“It was very open minded, or maybe something trickier, that your parents encouraged our relationship.  At the time I knew none of this or that either of our parents were involved in espionage.  I look back and wonder if that was one of many reasons our mother’s played at being friends.  It’s always true to ‘keep your friends close but your enemies closer.’  Those two women were playing a deeper game than we may ever know.”

Jessy opened her mouth to speak and found herself shutting it again.  Her mind’s eye was filled with a swish of familiar skirt at the top of a staircase, she had convinced herself she had imagined, when her mother had taken her fatal fall. The long, elegant curve of the staircase was so clear again.  She had blocked that image for years, of her mother, limbs at wrong angles, neck twisted, laying like a broken bird on the marble of the hall floor. She clamped down on the visual and tried to concentrate on what everyone was saying.

“Mother somehow found out we were going to elope and that last night you saw me, she had me kidnapped, literally bound and gagged, by her thugs on my way home.  She shipped me off the Celtica and to Ulrich with strict orders to keep me there.”

A squealing shout of “
What
??!!!” shot out of Jessamy before she could stop herself.  She looked to David for confirmation and he nodded his head.

“I tried to escape and ended up spending three months in a dungeon.  By the time I was let out I realized the only way to survive was to pretend to play their way.  It’s not like I had friends there to help me escape or could swim back. Considering the plans they had to marry me off to a Viking girl of Harald’s blood, I set about pretending to become the most useless and dissolute young man possible.  It was my only defense to make myself look as unsuited to their needs as possible. You see Ulrich is not able to get any woman with child and the succession is in question.  Mother had aspirations I could be named heir,” he snorted with disgust.

“I grew angrier at the conditions I found in Celtica, at not what the average Viking man or woman was like or how they lived, but at the actions of those who follow the Gooar Odin.  The Black Axe families are utterly ruthless, racist and full of hate. Most of the Vikings families are not that way at all, but they are afraid of the Gooar and Black Axes.  Living under the rule of those pure blood occultists and fanatics has destroyed not just Celtic and British lives in the Kingdom.”

“The Gooar and their followers, the Black Axe families will settle for nothing less, even after all these centuries, than to turn Celtica into a Viking pureblood kingdom devoted to the Norse gods, and Odin in particular.  Of course I have learned their version of worshipping Odin has twisted beyond anything any Viking a thousand years ago would recognize.  I think the Gooar was nothing more than an extreme cult from the beginning.”

“To finish this long story,” he paced scrubbing his hands through hair already the worse for wear, “I was recruited by an English agent on Celtica several years ago and have worked for their interests ever since.  So don’t ever again call me
Viking
in that tone Jessamy Powers for I have risked everything over and over again to see Celtica free of this bloody, twisted priesthood.  I am an Englishman who supports freeing Celtica from the unholy horror that has taken the throne. I
am
of Viking blood but a sworn enemy of the Gooar, though they know it not.” He stopped and came to stand over Jessy, staring down at her hard.

“I never, not for one day, no matter what I did to survive, no matter what

I did to fight for Celtica, ever stopped loving you,” he finished fiercely.

Jessy had taken it all in but the one thing that kept resonating with her over and over was that he hadn’t left her of his own free will.  He had become the man of his true heart, a good heart as Birdie had always believed, as she had once believed.  He hadn’t left her; he had been taken from her.  He had been taking wild and courageous risks to free the kingdom her mother and father had loved so deeply, the kingdom that for unknown reasons haunted her dreams.