Lords of Honor (2 page)

Occasionally
Owen traveled
on estate or
Avalon S
ociety business
.
Sometimes she and
Aunt Priscilla accompanied him
.
Other times
they stayed behind at Roseland
.
They did go to London on occasion, but Owen made certain Aunt Priscilla did not have enough time to launch his dear sister into the whirl of
London
society
.
Libby knew Owen hadn’t the heart to force
an unwanted
marriage upon her
.
She
was thankful to have such an accommodating and understanding brother
.
As Aunt Priscilla often bemoaned, Owen and Libby were as thick as thieves
.

Libby
loved helping Owen
with his
research
.
She enjoyed helping h
im
and Charlie
when they worked on projects together
.
She researched many things on her own
just because s
he loved the sub
jects
.
She loved
to read about
the Arthurian
,
Egypt
, t
he Cathars
, t
he Templars
, and
Roman Britain
.
She
was
tutored in
French
.
Owen
t
aught her Latin and Greek
.

She
knew
most of the
Avalon S
ociety members
, having met them
at one time or another
,
either
here at Roseland or while accompanying her brother to visit his fellows
.
Charlie Inwood, Lord
Silverley and Matthias Halfknight,
Lord
Sinclair were Owen’s closest friends
and neighbors.
Several times a year, Micah Wychcombe, Lord
Wincanton and Harry Bellingham,
the
Earl of Glas
ton, and Lucian Saintmaur, Lord
Wyldhurst did visit for they were not so far away
from Devon
in Somerset
.
Jack Drayton, the Earl of Elveston also visited frequently for he lived
close to Lord Wincanton
in
nearby
Dorset
.

Libby never met a member of the Avalon Society she did not like
.
Charlie and Matthias were like brothers to her
.
As was Trevan Chynoweth
, the Duke of Penrose
.
Owen and Libby visited Cornwall often
.
The Duke and his brothers were so lively to be around
.
Of course, Libby
and the
Chynoweth sisters, Tressa and Tamsin
were very close
.
She loved going to Cornwall for visit
s
.
The Ducal seat, Menadue,
was loud and busy
, always f
ull of laughter and fun
.

Libby
found Micah Wychcombe to be the most intriguing
of her brother’s acquaintances
.
She
thought
him
quite handsome
.
T
hough quiet
, he was genuinely kind to her
.
He always s
eemed very interested in their conversation
s
and her ideas
.
He was polite, and though Owen and Charlie said he was eccentric and reserved, Libby
found Micah to be
quite friendly and interesting to
converse
with
.
She guessed she might have taken an interest in
him
, but Owen and the others always
said
Micah, a widower, loved his first wife so much that he would never ma
rry again
.
His
beloved
wife
died long ago giving birth to their stillborn son
.

Libby
ran Roseland Abbey
.
Aunt Priscilla
taught
her
to manage the household
at age fifteen
.
Her aunt
made certain she started early
in hopes she would be married by age seventeen or eighteen
.
Libby was now five
and twenty
.
Aunt Priscilla
still
held hope
that
Owen
would
realize the error of his ways and marr
y
Libby off
.

In fact Priscilla Graham
thought
Owen might marry her
niece
off
some four years
before when
she
believed
Owen
would
marry Squire Brackenridge’s daughter, Grace
.
Priscilla told Li
bb
y at the time that a new Countess would not want an unmarried sister-in-law in the house
.
But Grace
,
to everyone’s surprise
,
married Lord
Marston
while Owen was in Italy for
five
months on Avalon Society business
.
Owen
hadn’t
spoke
n
of marriage
in the four
years
since Grace married Lord Marston
.

Libby
helped with the
o
rphanage
in Bideford
and made certain
St. Nectan’s
Church
near
Roseland
Abbey
was decorated with
flowers
twice a week
.
She
moved in
society with their neighbors
both
in
Hartland and Bideford
.
Libby knew she was very well accepted and looked up to within their local society
.
She
behaved
politely and in
a perfectly upstanding manner
, as a genteel young lady should
.
She was a lady, born and bred
.
With the exception that she loved her freedom
.
She l
oved exercise
, e
specially to ride
.
She p
referred to be active rather than embroidering, playing music, or painting.

The only thing untoward anyone could say about her was that she did ride about Hartland
Quay
with her hair wild and free
.
But truly, was it her fault her
t
h
ick and heavy
hair would not stay in its pins
?
Did that make her a hoyden
?
She thought not.

S
atisfied with
her life at Roseland Abbey just the wa
y it was
, Libby had no complaints
.
She liked being free
.
Her f
reedom
was something she
w
ould not give up
.

Though lately, she
did think
about love
.
What would it be like
?
What
kind of
man could
she fall in
love
with
?
He would have to be as intelligent as her brother and his society fellows
, a
nd as pleasant in looks as the lot of them were
.

She smiled to herse
lf when she remembered the nick
name she
heard them called when last in London
with Owen
.
The L
usty Lords of Avalon
!

Oddly, when she thought about marrying someone, the conjured up
image of a
husband in her mind
greatly resembled
Micah
Wychcombe, Lord Wincanton
.
Knowing
s
he
was attracted to
Micah,
Libby
told herself that her ideas were foolish
.
She
could not deny that she found
Micah
terribly handsome, even with his spectacles
.
He was tall and lean
,
but very muscu
lar
.
He loved to walk and ride;
t
hey
did
so together many times upon his visits to Roseland Abbey
.
Always
polite and kind,
she also knew him to be
sincere
.
Libby enjoyed
talking with him because he was
always
interested in what
her opinions
and feelings were on many subjects
.
In fact, he encouraged
her
to speak her mind about
anything
.
He often
ask
ed
her how she felt about many of the current topics of the day
.

S
he would remember that Micah Wychcombe did not
desire
to marry
again, a
nd since no other man ever interested her, she was left without a dream
.

Libby
thought
of
her home,
Roseland
Abbey
, and Owen being left alone
.
She knew
she
could not leave her home or her brother
.
Besides,
Aunt
Priscilla would surely
be
come
excessively bored without her to chase after and scold
.

“Owen
told me
much went on in Glastonbury re
cently
.
He said you were there!
”
Libby
mentioned
enthusiastically
as she returned her attention back to Owen and Charlie’s conversation
.
She wanted to hear a first-hand account
of the Avalon Society’s recent business in Glastonbury
from Charlie.

“Yes
.
A lot did go on
.
Unfortunately, I cannot tell much o
f it until after we meet in
Cornwall
in September
.
We shall meet at Menadue
a
nd be there a full two weeks
,” Charlie offered
.
“The Glastonbury find is highly important.

“May I go with you when you go
to Cornwall
, Owen?”
She asked
, actually, she
pleaded
.
“I so love Menadue and the Chynoweths
.
I have not seen Tamsin and Tressa in
eight months
at least!
”

“Of course,
pet,
if you can talk Aunt Priscilla into
joining us
.”
Owen
raised his brow at her
.

“She will
accompany us
, and only because I will remind her there will be so many titled, eligible
gentlemen
in one place
.
She could never say no to that.
”

Charlie and Owen laughed
.

“Pet
!
Surely Aunt Priscilla knows by now the Ava
lon Society fellows
see
you as a little sister,
and a bratty one at that,
” Owen teased her
.
H
e knew for a fact
his colleagues would never trifle with his
sister
unless they were serious
about courting her
.
So,
he trusted them when his sister was in their company
.