Loyalty Or Honour (Book 3)

Chapter Seventeen

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Miss litt and Miss Frith appear in the doorways of the rooms and shake their heads. "She is not here." Mary speaks aloud once she has seen Beatrice's worried expression. Orion pushes down his irritation but a muscle in his neck jumps in time with his heartbeat from how tight his jaw has become. Counting down from ten he slowly relaxes out his fingers and rolls his shoulders. On zero he says, "You are not to leave these rooms until I return with your Lady. Do you know where she may have gone?"

"Of course. She could have gone anywhere, sir. This is the first time she has left without one of us." Beatrice answers, chewing on her lip. Orion looks at her with an element of shock. Out of the two women he expected Miss Litt to show more worry over her Lady being missing. The overconfident younger woman's reaction is a surprise.

Orion nods and marches to the door. He locks the doors behind him, not trusting the two women to remain inside despite their agreement when he requested it of them. He strides down the hall and catches sight of two guards. One he sends back to watch Lady Arabella's door to her rooms and the other he sends off to get others. He shakes his head as he waits for the man to return. He tries to think of the places a Lady would go to but there are multiple options in this castle. The libraries number in the double digits and so do the sitting rooms. She may not even be inside anymore.

He wonders if she had left her rooms before Hunter arrived but... If she had done that then Hunter surely would have found him and told him or waited in her rooms. That must mean they had left the rooms together. Could his brother not follow a simple order?

Staying in these rooms for a short time surely was not a complicated task.

A group of men return and Orion tells them the whereabouts of Lady Arabella are unknown and she needs to be found without the rest of the castle being made to worry. They are ordered to be discreet and to do a thorough search. The men nod in agreement and split up to cover more rooms at a time.

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"Are you serious?" Hunter replies. She laughs and nods. "If my brother wants me to go then I guess I will attend."

"You always obey your brother then?" She teases as she slides a book out of its place on the shelf and examines the writing scrawled across the back.

"Which one?" He responds without thinking. Fortunately she does not notice his slip as anything out of the ordinary. "Orion is used to being obeyed, at the moment it suits me to let it happen."

Her eyes dart over to him briefly then go back to the book reading the last bit of the blurb. "And your other brother, brothers?" She had noticed his question and Hunter wonders how he should reply. His revert back into silence makes her look over at him once more. "You should choose a book yourself; I do not intend to leave anytime soon." She saves him from answering. She takes her chosen book and sits down on a large comfy chair with a high back that she can disappear within.

Hunter strides over to the bookshelf and start to look through. She tries to read but her attention keeps struggling to focus on only the book. Instead it wishes to watch him instead as he moves softly, his brows drawn together in contemplation. He feels her gaze and he glances over. "Is it that really how you would choose to read a book if you were alone?" She blinks and glances down. Her legs are elegantly crossed at the ankles.

"That is irrelevant, I am not alone. This is how I choose to sit and read when I have company." Silence falls again, much more awkward this time. Hunter cringes and chooses a book, grimacing when he reads the romantic description. Her eyes flick up and she catches this look. "You spoke as if you have known a woman who sits differently. Your sister?"