Light to Valhalla by Melissa Lynne Blue

.”
    “Paid to kill who? ” Thomas Trent, Viscount Huntfield , strode into the room, considerably more put together in a white shirt and tan trousers than his earlier, shirtless, appearance . “ Charley ? ” Confusion lined every facet of his youthful face as he glanced between his sister and Alex .
    “Yes,” Alex supplied, releasing his wife, and facing the younger man . “Last night Charlotte was abducted and I received a message demanding a 5000 pound ransom for her safe return.”
    Disbelief washed Thomas’s slack jawed face . “Fi-fi-five thousand pounds?” he splu tte red , clutching his chest . “Dear God.”
    “It wasn’t necessary to pay ,” Alex assured him . “Sidney and I rode out and had no trouble tracking the men responsible . Rest assured , n o harm came to your sister.”
    “Except that they weren’t hired to kidnap me ,” Charley interceded . “ They were hired to kill me. ”
    “What? ” Evelyn —with two large dogs on either side— swept into the room next, wide eyed and white as a sheet after Charley ’s outburst . “Heaven above, did I say I want ed coffee?” T he countess turned back to the door . “George, I’ll need a decanter of brandy as well.”
    “ As will I ,” Alex muttered.
    “Mother! ” Charley and Thomas cried in tandem .
    “You cannot drink bran dy at half five in the morning,” Charley protested.
    Evelyn dismissed the twins with a flick of the wrist . “At my age and in the country I can drink brandy whenever I please . It’s a benefit to old age you see.”
    As if old could ever describe Lady Grayson.
    “Now, tell me, w ho would want to hurt Charley ?”
    “Oh, this has nothing to do with Charley . ” Sid interjected from beside the now roaring fire . “ All of this affair is to spite Alex . I’d stake my life on it.”
    Evelyn speared Alex with piercing green eyes much like Charley’s . “What did you do?”
    “Nothing.” He held up both hands , feeling very much t he recalcitrant child , and pegged Sid with a lethal glare . “ I only got home yesterday.”
    “Then who the hell would want my sister dead to spite you?” Thomas stalked forward a fist clenched at his side.
    “Look,” Alex began slowly.
    “ Don’t sugarcoat this , Alex . You know damn well what is going on, ” Sid needled . “Tell them about Witherspoon . Charley nearly died tonight and she deserves to know the truth .”
    Alex turned a roiling gaze to his cousin, suppressing the urge to throttle hi m . “You’re not helping matters.”
    “ Tell them or I will, ” Sidney pressed .
    “Tell us what?” Charley backed away from Alex, crossing her arms over her chest, and shooting daggers through him as only she could . “Who is Witherspoon?  The general?”
    From there any semblance of civil conversation dissolved into a shouting match , everyone bellowing their recollection of events and conjectures at once . Even the damn wolfhounds howled incessantly . Alex closed his eyes and beat back the urge to hurl the incredibly expensive vase sitting on the end table into the side of Sidney’s head . His cousin was intentionally pitt ing him against Charlotte and the Trent’s . Alex hadn’t planned to divulge his suspicions about Witherspoon until he had concrete information to go on .
    “All right, all right! ” He strode to the center of the r oom . “Everyone quiet down and allow me to explain.”
    The roar continued . George slipped into the room with a silver coffee service and took in the sc ene with mild amusement reflected in his wise old eye s . The reed thin butler settled the tray on a table, put two fingers in his mouth and let fly a shrill whistle .
    “ Augh ! ” Groans rolled in unison through the room as everyone clamped hands to their ears . Even t he dogs rolled onto their backs, whining.
    George glanced about the now silent room before bowing to Alex . “The floor is yours, my lord. ” Without another word or sound t he lanky figure stole from the