If He's Daring

by Hannah Howell

  “You are very fortunate that we did not find your shattered body in the road,” he said when he reached Giles. “Sneaking a ride on a carriage racing down country roads is not the same as doing so on one winding through crowded city streets.”

  “I know it,” said Giles. “I took care, but I will never do that again. Too fast, too unsteady, and too long a journey for such a game as well. They are in there.” He pointed to a large window on the side of the house and then tensed when Iago, Bened, and Gethin joined them.

  “My cousins,” Orion told Giles and introduced the men to his son even as he moved closer to the window Giles had pointed out to him.

  “Window is open so we need to be very quiet,” said Giles, staying close to Orion so that he could speak softly yet still be heard. “When Catryn and Alwyn first came here they were in there for a while, and then they were taken to the cellar, but I could not find a way inside. All I could do was let them know I was here. Morris had just sent for them again when I saw these fellows”—he nodded at Bened and Iago—“and waited to see if they were a new threat.” He looked at Bened. “You are a big ’un.”

  “That I am,” said Bened and smiled.

  “And calm. So much calm in you,” muttered Giles. “Is that a gift?”

  “I have long thought so, or possibly just a necessity provided by my gifts to ensure that they can work as they should.” Bened studied Giles for a moment. “I believe I know what your gift is, and it is quite strong already.” He looked at Orion. “Planning for him to spend some time at Elderwood with Modred and Aunt Dob?”

  “The time may come when it is needed,” Orion replied. “Giles knows that.” He tensed. “I believe Alwyn and Catryn are back in the room.”

  “If one of you can raise me up, I might be able to peer in and see something worth seeing,” said Giles as he eyed Bened.

  “Can you make certain you are not seen?” asked Bened.

  Giles looked offended. “Of course I can.”

  “Then come along,” Bened said as he moved to press himself up against the wall.

  Orion watched as Giles climbed Bened like a tree. By the time the boy was standing on Bened’s shoulders he was just out of reach of the window. Before Orion could express his disappointment, Bened, after a quick whispered exchange with Giles, grabbed the boy by the ankles and slowly raised him up until he could grab hold of the window ledge. Although he knew Giles was just a skinny boy of eight, Orion had to marvel at the ease with which Bened steadily held the boy over his head. It was a long, tense few moments, however, before Bened lowered Giles back down to the ground.

  “You were right,” Giles said to Orion. “They just brought Alwyn and Catryn back into the room. There are two men with them and they are standing guard at the door. Inside the room. Morris is sitting in an ugly chair to the right of this window. I know there are two more men at the back of the house, but I am not sure if there are any more inside.”

  “We will take care of the two at the back,” said Bened and disappeared into the shadows with Iago.

  “Once they are done with that, perhaps we could go in through the back of the house,” said Orion.

  “A good idea,” agreed Gethin. “Once those two rid us of the guards back there we would only have to deal with whatever servants might be in the kitchen. From what you have told us of this man, I do not believe we will have to fear that the servants will be compelled by loyalty to risk anything to warn him.”

  Orion nodded and cautiously started toward the back of the house, Gethin and Giles following him. It did not surprise him to find Iago and Bened already finishing the binding up of the two unconscious guards.

  “We are going in through the kitchens,” Orion told them.

  Bened nodded. “That will work. Let me go in first.”

  Before Orion could express the opinion that sending the biggest man in first might not be the best plan, Giles nodded. “He will make them all calm,” he said, looking at Orion. “He has so much calm in him it just comes right out and touches people.”

  “Oh, aye, there is definitely a visit to Elderwood and Aunt Dob in your future,” murmured Bened before he went down a short stairway to the door leading into the kitchens.

  It astonished Orion when Bened simply knocked once and then walked right in. No one cried out in alarm, despite the sudden appearance of a large, dark-haired man in their midst. There was some murmuring, and then Bened briefly appeared in the doorway to signal them all to join him. Inside, Orion found what had to be all of Morris’s servants seated at a table, obviously having been in the midst of eating a meal when Bened had walked in. They eyed him and his three companions a little warily but there was no outcry, no sign of any fear, just curiosity.

  Giles was right. There was something about Bened that worked to calm people, even in situations where calm was the last thing they should be feeling. Then, too, Gethin was probably also right. The servants had no loyalty to Morris, for the man had done nothing to earn it.

  “If what you are doing is going to make de Warrenne leave,” said a thin young man in a footman’s livery of the same colors as Morris’s carriage, “can you make certain he pays us what he owes us first?”

  “We will do our best,” said Orion, “but I fear that might take time, even if he agrees to do so.”

  The man shrugged. “We can wait. Got nowhere else to go.”

  And that, Orion thought, was probably why Morris still had servants. They would have left him long ago if they could have found other positions. By the looks of the very fine meal laid out on the table, they had found at least one way to gain some compensation for their work.

  Leading the others, Orion started to make his way toward the room where Catryn and Alwyn were being held. As he moved along as cautiously and quietly as possible, he made and cast aside several plans. The last thing he wanted to do was to put them at risk with a fumbled attempt at rescue. Morris might not be a real threat to them, but the two men guarding the door might not care who got hurt as they fought to escape any punishment for their crimes.

  A man half-asleep in the hall caused them no delay. Iago had him unconscious and securely bound with an efficiency that made Orion decide to request a few lessons. Once at the door to the room they sought, they all hesitated. On the other side of the door were two guards, and it would be necessary to take them down as quickly as possible. Then Morris’s bellowed words caused Orion to stop worrying about the guards. He had to put all of his concentration to the matter of fighting the urge to barge into the room so that he could immediately, and violently, shut the man’s mouth.

  “That brat is no de Warrenne!”

  “I begin to see that,” said Catryn, and Orion had to get closer to the door to be certain he heard her clearly. “Just who was Aeddon Vaughn, Morris? You knew him. Tom knew him. And now my son knows him.”

  “He cannot know him,” protested Morris in a voice that shook as much with fear as with fury. “The bastard is dead! Dead and rotted, damn his eyes!”

  “I know he is dead, but who was he? Why does my son believe the man is his father?”

  “Because he was. He was, and that is why the title and all that goes with it should be mine.”

  Orion could only imagine how Catryn must feel. It was a truth he had begun to suspect, but he could not bear her having to hear it from Morris. Signaling his companions, placing Bened at one of the doors and himself at the other, he counted to three. The moment he raised the third finger, he and Bened slammed open the doors. It did not work as perfectly as he had hoped, but well enough that there was only a brief struggle before both men were secured.

  When Orion looked up from binding the hands of one of the men, his heart sank. They had not been quick enough. Morris held Catryn tightly against his front, a pistol pressed into her side.

  “Let her go, Morris,” he ordered after sending Gethin a look he prayed the man read correctly.

  “No. You have no right to interfere here,” Morris said. “She is my f
amily, not yours. Just because the two of you have been rutting like rabbits as you chased me all over the countryside does not change that. You are not her family so you have no say here at all.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, Orion watched his relatives slowly begin to encircle Morris while Giles went to Alwyn and tugged the boy back, further out of Morris’s reach. “You have to know that your plan can never work.”

  “It can if I can shut her father up.”

  “We have the boy now, so you have nothing left to make Catryn do as you want or, I suspect, to make her father obey you, either.”

  “I can make the boy come back to me.” Morris looked at Alwyn. “He would not want his mother to get hurt, would you, Alwyn?”

  “No.” Alwyn took a step toward Morris but Giles held him back.

  “You will come here, boy, or I will put a bullet in her.”

  “Then you will have no shield,” Orion said quietly and watched the way Morris’s eyes narrowed as he tried hard to think of a way out of the mess he was in.

  “I will get the bugger to let her go,” said Alwyn.

  Orion started toward the boy, fearing that Aeddon might be pushing the child to do something that could get him killed. He had just put his hand on Alwyn’s arm when the strangest feeling flooded his body. The combination of being too full and a chilling nausea nearly brought him to his knees. The last clear thought he had, the last one that was solely his own, was that he really did not like ghosts.

  Catryn stared at Orion when he turned from Alwyn and glared at Morris. There was such hatred in his eyes, such a dark murderous fury, that she barely recognized him. The snarling smile on his face actually frightened her, yet she had never believed she could be frightened by Orion. Then she noticed that his eyes were wrong. They were no longer blue but almost black.

  “Orion?” she whispered as he stalked toward where Morris held her.

  “I will give him back to you in a moment, m’lady,” Orion said. The voice was not his, but rougher and deeper. “I but need to have a little revenge on this mewling piece of scum.”

  “Aeddon?” she asked in a voice she could not keep steady, for she was awash in shock and utter fascination. “Is that you?”

  “Aye.” Orion/Aeddon looked down at Orion’s body. “A fine man you found yourself, m’lady.” He looked at Morris, all that furious hatred returning to harden and twist his features. “Let her go now, you bastard.”

  Catryn realized that Morris’s hold on her had loosened and the man was shaking so hard he was making her body tremble from the force of it. She lunged forward, breaking the last of his grip, and ran to where the three men who had come in with Orion now stood watch over Giles and Alwyn. They looked an odd mix of intrigued and concerned.

  “Can ghosts do that?” she asked them as she watched a panicked Morris run around the room like a fool while the Aeddon-possessed Orion easily blocked all escape. “Can Aeddon truly possess Orion?”

  A handsome man with thick black hair and hazel green eyes smiled at her. “I am Iago Vaughn, Baron of Uppington, and Orion’s cousin. And, to answer your question, I rather have to say yes, although this is the first time I have ever seen it done.”

  “Gethin Vaughn, m’lady, and I have to agree in most ways,” said the man with beautiful silvery blue eyes. “Did see what might have been a possession, but I fear all the smokes and potions used to bring it about affected me enough that I cannot say with certainty that that was what I saw. This certainly appears to be Aeddon borrowing Orion’s body for a while.”

  “He will give it back, will he not?”

  “Aye,” replied Lord Uppington. “He cannot hold it for long, as it takes more strength than a spirit has to spend. I can feel it weakening him even as we speak.”

  “Best be ready to deal with Morris if need be,” said the biggest of the three men and then he smiled at Catryn. “Bened Vaughn, m’lady.”

  “Papa has him now,” said Alwyn.

  Catryn put her arm around Alwyn’s shoulders and sighed. “By the look coming out of those eyes, I suspect he is about to kill Morris, and then I will not have all the answers I seek.”

  “Morris, stop running around like a headless chicken,” snapped Aeddon/Orion as he grabbed Morris by the front of his shirt and slammed him up against the wall.

  “This is not right, not right at all,” Morris babbled. “Tom! Kill this abomination.”

  “I am tied up, you idiot,” said Tom.

  “Go away!” Morris screamed as he sank to the floor and pressed himself into a corner. “You are not real. That is it. You are not real. That bitch gave me something because she was mad that I never returned to her bed after taking first blood. Or one of you witches has done something. Ha! I know what you all are! I understand the joke, too. Calling yourselves Wherlockes. Ha! Warlocks and witches. Sorcerers.”

  “You are a pathetic pile of goat droppings, Morris. I would kill you now, but it would leave a problem for this man.” Aeddon/Orion slapped Orion’s chest. “Cannot have that. But I just want you to know I am watching you, you murdering bastard.”

  “I did not kill you! Henry did. Well, he had those men do it.”

  “You did not even look to see if I was alive when you and those bastards tossed me in the river. I was, you know, just a bit. Doubt I would have survived all those cuts and the throat slitting, but it was just damned cruel to then leave me to drown. And what you are doing to this poor lass is sickening.”

  “What I am doing?” Outrage gave Morris a moment of courage and he sat up to point his finger at Aeddon/Orion. “You are the one who bedded her for money, slipping in to do the deed with no frills and then sneaking away, night after night.”

  “That was a debt owed, and you know it. If I had guessed my throat would be cut the minute she was with child, I would not have agreed. Least then I would have met my death with no new sins on my soul.” Aeddon/Orion glanced back at Alwyn. “Although, I have no regrets when it comes to the boy. He is a good lad and will be a far better man than I ever could have been. Not a bad legacy.”

  “He is stealing what is mine!” Morris squealed when Aeddon/Orion grabbed him by his neckcloth and shook him where he sat.

  “Not yours. Never yours. Never will be yours. Heed me in this, Morris. I would like nothing more than to use this body to rip you apart, but not the best thing to do. I will come back, however, if you do not cease this plaguing of the lady and my boy.”

  “And we will help him keep that promise,” said Iago as he, Bened, and Gethin stepped up to look down at a quivering Morris.

  “You are more of them. I can see it,” whispered Morris, his fear widening his eyes as he looked at the four men.

  “Lady Catryn and her son are now under our protection. You would be wise to always consider what that would mean for you if you decided to trouble her again.”

  Morris looked at the men and vigorously nodded. Aeddon/Orion let go of him and turned toward Catryn. She watched as he walked toward her and realized that even the way he moved was different. Aeddon had clearly spent a lot of time as a sailor. She started when he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her.

  “There. That should keep me happy for a while. Never had the chance before.” He frowned and staggered a little. “Will have to go soon. I am sorry, lass. It was a bad thing I did to a good woman, but at the time I thought there was no choice. There was. I just did not have the courage and honor needed to make it.” He gave her a faintly roguish smile. “If things had been different, with ye aware of all that was happening, and Henry, may he rot in hell, not standing near to kick me out in but minutes, I might have given ye a little pleasure to remember.”

  “Most of the blame lies with Henry, sir,” she said and realized she meant it.

  “You are a fine mother to my lad,” he said.

  The next thing she knew she was moving as fast as she could to catch a falling Orion. The Vaughns rushed over to help her get him situated comfortably on the floor. She gently stroked his
brow, worried about how pale he was, and watched until he opened his eyes. Catryn was relieved to see the dark blue she so loved had returned.

  “No, do not move me yet,” Orion said when Iago attempted to help him sit up. “I need to allow my stomach to stop roiling.” He reached up and placed his hand over Catryn’s. “You and Alwyn are well?”

  “Yes,” she replied and then blushed so fiercely her cheeks burned uncomfortably as she recalled all these men had heard. “I thank you most kindly for all you have done,” she began.

  “Hush, pretty idiot. We heard, but no shame lies with you. The shame is all on them, on Henry, Morris, and even cousin Aeddon. He admitted it.”

  “You know what he said?”

  “I know what he said and have been left with a good idea of what he was and why he did not live to a ripe old age.” Orion cautiously sat up but knew he was in no state to go anywhere under his own power. “I was rather looking forward to being the hero in the end, but Aeddon took the laurels. A shame he is only a spirit. I have a strong urge to punch him in the nose.” He eyed her mouth. “He had no right to kiss you.”

  “I believe it was an apology, for all he made light of it. I could see the regret and shame in his eyes, Orion.”

  Orion cautiously nodded, still not certain he could hold everything in his stomach if he moved wrong. “And I could feel it in him just as I could feel his need to confront Morris and to end this trouble that dogs his son.” He took her hand in his and kissed her palm. “Catryn, this has left me feeling as if I have been run over many times by a drunk driving a carriage. You need to get home and reassure your father that you are well and that this is over. He missed you at Radmoor and must be deeply concerned despite letters sent to reassure him. Go home, love, and once I get some matters settled, I will come for you.”