ROOK AND RAVEN: The Celtic Kingdom Trilogy Book One Read Free Page B

covered his heart. What pleasure the thought of whose heart beat beneath his scarred breast brought him.  It also thrilled him to look at what he had made of the old queen’s chambers.  The man escaping would be sickened indeed to see the bones, the blood, the fire and Norse runes that had transformed what had been his mother’s elegant chamber into a room of dark and sacrificial magic.
                 

CHAPTER TWO
     
    London, One Week Later
    The streets around Covent Garden were already crowded with the evening’s theater goers.  No self-respecting play would raise its curtain for another hour or more at least, but London’s elite, its riffraff, and its demimonde were all here to stake claim to their seats, their own stage on which to  preen and be seen.  
    Sebastian St. Just, Earl of Redsayle, had no clear idea what devil had prompted him to agree to attend this of all theaters.  He was no longer just a gentleman of leisure, but an agent (and sometimes assassin), secretly known as Rook.  Doing anything without a clear, rational reason was no longer how he operated.  The foolishness of his youth was behind him, or so he thought. 
    The play bill posted by the doors plainly stated that this evening’s entertainment showcased the talents of Mrs. Jessamy Powers.  The last woman he wanted to see.  The woman he had not stopped thinking about for the last seven years.  He supposed he would be anonymous enough in his box beyond the footlights.  She would never know he was there, he hoped.  But why was he here? Could he even afford, for the sake of his current mission, to be here? 
    What did he think he was doing?  He silently groaned with frustration.
    A soft throat clearing interrupted his thoughts.  “Care to step out of the carriage Sebastian?  It’s a bit odd to have the footman standing about like that.”  David, Lord Carvell drawled.
    “Oh yes, now I remember why I’m here,” Sebastian told him rather nastily.
    “Yes, indeed.  This is your introduction back into the ton .  A little entertainment and society can get a good look at you. You have been gone a long time.  We need to break the Upper Ten Thousand in gently to your shocking re-emergence. It’s just the ticket.  No one will have a chance to question you too closely about your absence just yet,” David smiled because they both knew it wasn’t about the ton or the play. 
    The two men, both in the black and white dress attire prescribed years before by Beau Brummel, and now standard, sauntered toward the crowded entrance and up the impressive stairs. The satin, silk and jewel bedecked throngs around them wafted perfume and gossip in equal measure.  David’s ebony and silver tipped cane kept cadence with his graceful step.  Both were fine looking men, each dark haired and of an equal height.  The similarity of height and hair color was where the resemblance ended.
    Lord Carvell was best known for owning a stud of growing renown and a fine hand with the reigns.  He could also drive to an inch.  His black hair was a bit longer than that of the usual sporting gentleman, but no woman had ever been heard to complain about the waves of silky Welsh darkness.  They contrasted very interestingly with his sleepy looking blue eyes; eyes that pretended to be disinterested but, rarely missed anything.  He was, in fact, a man of rather extraordinary intelligence and scholarly interests.  He enjoyed observing his fellow humans and studying their actions and possible motives.  
    Therefore, he was far from missing the fact that his companion was knotted with tension.  He was equally aware of the amount of feminine interest that Sebastian was arousing.  He gave an inward sigh. Some men really were just born with it, this ability for every woman in a ten miles radius to sense his presence and powerless to resist his allure.  He was certain of what was going through Sebastian’s mind at the moment, and he had no sympathy at