Chapter 12 #2
He shook his head as he walked quickly down the hallway.
The things he had seen in the past several years …
they would have turned his father gray overnight.
Actually, those things had given his father gray hairs, especially those five lads and wee girl belonging to the Earl of Seakirk, who could have almost passed for Gideon’s twin.
And while Kendrick of Seakirk could have told him quite a few interesting tales, those weren’t the details he needed.
There was only one man belonging to his immediate—er, well, rather less than immediate, but certainly extended—family who could help him.
He ran up the steps to the upper floor and straight into a gaggle of noblewomen.
“Stephen!” was the word he was greeted with, spoken with various tones of reproach and disappointment.
He smiled pleasantly. “Zoe, Brittani, and Victoria, how lovely. Must dash, girls. Perhaps breakfast?”
Spluttering ensued. He made his escape rather daringly by hurrying straight through them and continuing on to his room before they could do anything more than express their disappointment in measured, ladylike tones.
He shut the door, locked it, then faced the first hurdle: Humphreys, who was apparently keeping himself awake by indulging in a good book.
Stephen quickly considered his present state of affairs.
He had been taken over by Winston Humphreys upon his entrance to Eton in his thirteenth year.
Stephen had looked on him as a second father of sorts, learned all manner of lessons from him ranging from how to properly tie a tie to how to pick a winner at any number of tracks running any number of horses.
Along the way, Stephen had also found himself adopting Humphreys’s strict moral code, his love of promptness and good manners, and his uncanny ability to smell a rat.
Humphreys knew, of course, about his activities in Scotland.
He accompanied him there frequently, reputedly finding the society of Jane Fergusson and her brood to be a pleasant reminder of his own children raised before he took over the care of Stephen himself.
If he had questions about exactly what Stephen was doing in Ian MacLeod’s backyard, he had never asked them.
If he found himself troubled by his encounters with Kendrick of Sedgwick, or Zachary Smith, who was married to Kendrick’s rather blatantly medieval sister, or any number of other interesting individuals who managed to show their faces at Artane at various and sundry times, he never indicated it.
But Stephen wasn’t sure what Humphreys would say to his actually taking part in any paranormal activities.
Humphreys rose and tucked his book under his arm. “My lord?”
Stephen pushed away from the door. “I have an emergency which requires absolute discretion and secrecy.”
Humphreys didn’t even so much as lift an eyebrow. “Of course, my lord.”
“I am going to engage in a … paranormal oddity.”
“Indeed, my lord.”
Stephen shrugged out of his jacket on his way across the room, and Peaches’s shoe fell out onto the floor. Stephen picked it up and handed it to Humphreys on his way over to the desk under the window where he’d left his mobile.
“And the other, my lord?” Humphreys asked without alarm.
“That’s the question that needs to be answered.” He found his phone, then looked at his valet, secretary, and keeper of several secrets. “I’m going to call Zachary Smith.”
“The lady Elizabeth’s brother,” Humphreys noted, “the current Earl of Wyckham, and the husband of Mary de Piaget, sister of the Earl of Seakirk, daughter of—”
“Well, no need to get into that genealogy, is there?” Stephen said cutting him off before his eyebrows went up any farther. Just thinking about familial connections had apparently done what Peaches’s shoe could not. “I’m going on a little trip.”
“What shall I pack, my lord?”
Stephen considered quickly. “I think I’ll wear riding clothes. I’ll need my overcoat.” He paused. “And a sword.”
“A sword, Lord Stephen?”
“See what Kenneworth has hanging on his walls,” Stephen said, looking up Zachary’s personal mobile number. “I’ll filch it later.”
“Should it be sharp, my lord?”
“I wouldn’t dare hope for it.”
Humphreys only looked at him before he nodded, then made his way out of the room. Stephen waited until the door had closed behind him before he dialed. Zachary picked up on the second ring.
“The only reason I’m humoring you,” he said, sounding rather weary, “is because I’m pacing the halls with the most beautiful baby ever born in my arms to keep her asleep.”
“Would you ignore me otherwise?” Stephen asked politely.
Zachary laughed quietly. “Probably not. I’m always happy to offer a realistic perspective for your latest academic adventure, though I’m probably not the best one to ask. What’s up tonight?”
“Peaches Alexander stepped through a time gate and I need to go fetch her.”
Expletives accompanied a phone down to the ground. Stephen waited patiently whilst Zachary fumbled with a phone, a baby started howling and was taken by her mother, and equilibrium was restored.
“How long ago?”
Stephen gave him the details in as few words as possible, outlined his options for dressing the part, as it were, and asked his most pressing question.
“How do I know where she’s gone?”
Zachary sighed. “That is the question. If I could get there soon enough, I could give you an idea of what the gate is doing, but I don’t imagine you’ll want to wait.”
“I was hoping to go within the hour, but I don’t dare until the house has gone to bed. I need to spread about some story of Peaches having gone home on her own. The last thing I need is David Preston poking his nose in this.”
“I can’t believe you’re at his house at all,” Zachary said with a bit of a laugh. “Following Peaches there?”
“In a roundabout way,” Stephen agreed. “I was invited, if you can believe it.”
“As were all your girlfriends, probably,” Zachary said, “just to provide a bit of entertainment.”
“How did you guess?”
“I read the odd gossip rag in Tesco now and again,” Zachary said. “You rarely make the cover, but it doesn’t take much digging to find the goods on your social life on about page six.”
“The social life I would like to have is being interfered with by one-half of the relationship being slightly out of reach. Now, do you have any useful suggestions on how I might remedy that?”
“So, you’re interested in Peaches Alexander now?”
“Zachary,” Stephen warned.
Zachary only laughed. “I’m honestly not taking the situation lightly. I don’t remember there being a gate near Kenneworth, but let me call Jamie and ask him what he knows. I’ll text you a couple of suggestions for emergency exits, on the off chance the gate shuts behind you and won’t open again.”
“Which won’t happen,” Stephen said firmly.
“Hmmm” was the only reply.
Stephen suppressed the urge to curse. “Well? What else do I need to know about the gate?”
“Generally,” Zachary said slowly, “you just think about where you want to go and voilà, you’re there. It can sometimes be more useful to think about the person you’re following if you don’t have a clue where that person has gone. That’s assuming that the gate is working smoothly.”
“Assuming?” Stephen echoed.
“Well, you know the trouble we’ve had with the gate near Artane. Very unpredictable these days. I’m not sure that it won’t eventually implode and destroy itself.”
“I find myself surprised by how that thought disturbs me.”
Zachary laughed. “I imagine my father-in-law Robin would say the same thing. It’s too bad you’ve never had the chance to meet him. I think you would like him.”
“Please, don’t wish anything else on me,” Stephen said grimly. “Make your call, if you would, then I would very much appreciate a contingency plan or two.”
“I’d have a snack, if I were you,” Zachary advised. “And take food with you.”
“I’m not planning on being there long enough for a meal.”
“Whatever you say,” Zachary said, sounding amused. “I’ll get back to you soon.”
Stephen hung up, then stuffed the phone in his pocket.
He was sure Humphreys would manage his investigations under the radar, as it were, but he would have to be a bit more visible for the moment.
He would tell anyone who would listen that Peaches had been called away on an emergency, and he’d seen her sent off in a cab.
He would then lay the groundwork for Humphreys being able to tell the party that he himself had been forced to leave before dawn for a very good reason he would leave to his valet to invent.
Because the very last thing he needed was Kenneworth sending out a search party for Peaches and having half the group disappear into the center of the garden as well.
It was one thing for members of his family to engage in …
well, the things they engaged in. It was another thing entirely to draw into their exclusive circle of adventurers those who might not be quite as discreet about the places they’d gone.
He retrieved his jacket, put it on, and left his room to set up his part of the subterfuge.