Flight of the Falcon (Byrdes of York #1)

19. Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

Hugh

H ugh hissed as he moved his arm whilst getting in the shower. He’d wrapped cling film around it to protect the wound from the water. Fortunately, it was his left arm as he was right-handed. It still hurt when he moved it in the wrong way though.

“You okay?” Falcon asked as he joined Hugh, picking up the shower gel to help. “Just a bit sore.”

“I’ll change the bandage when we’ve finished here.” Falcon smiled at him as he spread shower gel over his chest. Only yesterday morning a similar move had led to a make out session, but this morning they were a bit more restrained.

After quickly washing both their hair, Falcon rinsed them both off. Getting out, he handed Hugh a towel whilst he wandered into the bedroom to dry off and get ready for the day. Hugh watched him go, enjoying the view.

Once half dressed, Hugh moved to the kitchen where Falcon had a bandage and other supplies laid out on the counter. Hugh had kept his shirt off ready for his arm to be re-bandaged. Falcon was gentle as he peeled off the old bandage and examined his wound.

“The bruising is starting to come out now,” he said.

Hugh twisted, trying to see the back of his arm where the bullet had exited. He couldn’t quite see, but he trusted Falcon to tell him if there were any problems.

It hadn’t been the first time he’d been shot, but it wasn’t something you ever got used to. He flexed his arm a bit before Falcon wrapped it up once more. Only another day or so and he’d be able to leave the bandage off. The stitches should dissolve as well.

Pouring coffee from the carafe on the side, the couple set about preparing breakfast and getting the day on the go. They’d heard from Lucinda earlier this morning to say that she and Imogen were safely back at her apartment with a gendarme on duty outside the apartment block. They intended to stay only for a few days before heading off to Villefranche-sur-Mer for a couple of weeks. Hugh envied them that part of the proceedings; it had been a while since he’d last visited his villa there. He was looking forward to taking Falcon there once everything had been sorted out.

Gil was still in the hospital, after having been hit by a fever a couple of days after the accident. They’d had to put antibiotics in his IV line to help him. He was getting better, but they wanted to keep him in for a couple more days, to be sure.

Hugh looked up as Falcon’s phone rang and smiled when he greeted the person on the other end.

“Percy! Say you have something for us.” He tapped his phone screen. “Hang on, just putting you on speaker with Hugh.”

“Hi Hugh,” Percy called. “How are you today?”

Hugh replied, updating them on the last few days and confirming that his wound was getting better.

“I’m glad your friend made it to Paris okay,” Percy said. “Are you heading back to York soon?”

“Today,” Falcon confirmed.

“Oh good, any chance you can do a detour?”

“Where had you in mind?”

“Leconfield Hall?” Percy replied. “I’d suggest somewhere in between, but I’m really busy at the moment and can’t leave for too long. It would be great if you could come here. We’ll treat you to a cream tea!”

Hugh laughed. “How can we resist! I’m sure we can make a detour to Leconfield before returning to York. I’d love to see your home.”

Percy laughed too. “Would you be able to get here for 1pm?”

“I’m sure we can,” Hugh replied, looking at the clock to see it was 9.30am. “If we set off in the next hour, we should make it to you between 12.30 and 1pm.”

“Good. I’ll let the others know. Andrew and Walker will be joining us. There’s quite a bit to tell, but I don’t want to get into it over the phone.”

They wrapped up the call then began getting ready to go. Falcon’s car, which Hugh had driven to Manchester, was still parked in the underground parking area of his apartment building. They agreed to take that one to York and leave Hugh’s there for now.

An hour later, they were on the M62 heading towards Hull and then Leconfield. As Falcon drove, Hugh spoke to DI Matlock on the phone. She explained to him about the working group that had been set up between North Yorkshire Police and Manchester Police to work on their related cases.

“Jack Speight, your contact at York,” Matlock was saying now, “has just been promoted to Detective Constable and will be the liaison between yourselves and the working group. I understand you know him from the army, Hugh?”

“I do, Jack’s a good one. I’ll contact him once we’re back in York.” “You’ll be there tonight?”

“Should be, otherwise tomorrow. I don’t think we’ll stay over in Leconfield but just in case.”

“I’ll keep you in the loop. Keep your phone on and report anything strange to myself and Speight.”

Hugh could hear the worry in Matlock’s voice, so he didn’t react to her laying the law down as he would have normally done. Instead, he agreed to keep in touch and ended the call.

“Services coming up. Do you want to stop?” Falcon asked as they approached the Ferrybridge services on the M62.

“Quick pit stop for coffee,” he replied, and Falcon flicked the indicator on to come off at the next exit. Hugh could do with the caffeine and maybe some carbohydrates as well.

Just over an hour later, they turned left into the long driveway towards Leconfield Hall. The entrance was just opposite what had been RAF Leconfield years ago and was now an army driver training base.

They drove down close to the house. Falcon bypassed the public car park and continued to a small visitor and staff car park.

Standing out on the driveway waiting for them was a teenage boy. Falcon pointed him out to Hugh, telling him he was Pollie’s nephew, Bertie. The young lad grinned when he saw Falcon and waved at them.

“Uncle Fal!” he exclaimed as they got out of the car and walked towards him. “Percy said to take you to the café and he and Walker will be with you soon. I’m to buy you whatever you want for lunch.”

Hugh grinned at the enthusiastic, lanky youth. Falcon introduced them and they followed their guide to the café where they were greeted by Phil the chef. Once they were settled, Bertie left them to their lunch, and they enjoyed the ambience of sitting in the old conservatory. Falcon explained the changes that had been made in the last couple of years, including the conservatory entrance way becoming the café.

“Here they are,” Hugh said as Percy and another man walked up. Falcon stood up to greet him.

“Walker, great to see you again.” He shook the other man’s hand then introduced the red-haired man to his lover.

“Hugh, this is Walker Brown. He’s a medieval scholar, but also our go-to when we need any historical research carrying out.”

“It’s great to meet you, Walker.” Hugh said standing up and shaking his hand, and then Percy’s. “No Andrew?”

“He’s waiting for us in the conference room. We thought we’d let you get lunch out of the way. If you’ve finished?”

“Yes, we’re done,” Hugh replied.

Falcon

Falcon followed Hugh into the conference room and grinned at Andrew who was sitting at the table waiting for them.

“Hey,” he greeted, shaking his hand as he got up. “How are you doing?”

“I’m okay, thanks,” Andrew replied, sitting back down after shaking Hugh’s hand as well. “It was the shock of my two worlds colliding that affected me the other day. I’ve had some time to put everything into perspective since then.

“We were sorry to hear about your friend, Hugh. How’s the arm?” he went on to ask.

“Not so bad,” Hugh replied, grimacing slightly. Falcon watched him carefully, aware he didn’t always admit to being in pain. “It catches every now and again, but it’ll be okay. I’ve just taken some more painkillers.”

Andrew nodded and took the bottle of water Walker held out to him. Hugh and Falcon shook their heads when he offered them bottles as well as they’d both just had a big pot of tea between them and didn’t feel the need for more liquid.

As they all settled at the table, Falcon looked around the room. He’d never been in the conference room here before and was interested in some of the boards from old exhibitions that were propped against walls. He’d also noted several documents and a couple of old books on the table in front of Walker as well. He hoped they had good news for them.

“Any luck?” he asked, indicating the books and documents on the table.

Walker grinned at him. “Yes, for once we’ve managed to track down a couple of things that we think will be of interest to you and might even help you with your vampire problem.”

Falcon laughed at that. It was great to see Walker so enthused; he did love his research. In recent years, he’d worked at York University in their history department. Before that, he’d been in demand as a visiting lecturer all over the world.

“It’s good to have you on our side.” Falcon grinned back at him.

Walker nodded and picked up a slim volume from the table. “We got lucky with this volume. It was in a collection we acquired a couple of years ago.”

The small volume was obviously old, and Walker held it out for Falcon to take. He looked it over and opened it up. The frontispiece declared it to be On the History of Vampires and it was dated 1755. He flicked through the pages, but a lot of the writing was old and flowery, and he had difficulty making sense of it.

“Here.” Andrew held his hand out and Falcon passed him the book. “This section is the bit we found interesting.” He passed the book back.

Falcon took it and with Hugh looking over his shoulder, he read the chapter title:

On Sleeping Vampires. He drew in a breath and looked at Andrew. “Is this what I think it is?”

“Yep. We believe this is where Gilead got the spell from that put the vampire in the tunnel room to sleep. There’s also one further on that talks about forcing an already sleeping vampire awake.”

“It could be just what we need to help the vampire in the sarcophagus,” Hugh spoke up, his eyes alight with the possibilities. “Have you read through it? Does it seem as though it would work?”

“We think it should.” Walker sounded more cautious than Andrew had been. “But you’ll need to enlist the help of another vampire. Since you have Francis around that should be no problem.”

Falcon sighed with relief. Yes, Francis would help and he and his brothers plus Hugh should have enough magical resonance between them to work the spell.

“Here.” Walker handed him a print-out of the chapter in question, with the two spells outlined. Falcon thanked him.

“I’ll also email it to you,” he added.

“That’s just brilliant, Walker, thank you so much. Do we know how Gilead got hold of the spell in the first place?”

“We do,” Andrew answered. “When we got back from visiting with you in York, I was determined to find out what happened to Gilead after I met him. It’s a bit of a sad story. I told you he was being blackmailed about his homosexuality by the Hispana Nonus ,” he recapped. “It turned out they weren’t the only ones. A young man with a grudge against him turned him into the police in Hull after a night spent together in one of the inns there. He was sentenced to 14 months hard labour.

“He died not long after his sentence and left his considerable collection of antiquities and documents in the trust of his long-term housekeeper. Unfortunately, she didn’t long outlive him, and it reverted to his nephew, who put it all up for sale. It was sold off in lots and went to various corporations and private collectors.”

“How sad,” Hugh muttered.

“It was,” Andrew agreed. “The bright side is that a lot of his collection is in the local History Centre in Hull and the East Riding archives in Beverley, for people to be able to see. This volume though…” He held up the small book again. “This came to us by a different route. Gilead was a member of the Hull Literary and Philosophical Society and also a member of the subscription library that was based in Albion Street in Hull. It had a large collection of books, including a good collection of magic theory history and practical volumes. We believe Gilead found it there and copied out the relevant information on the spell. After the library got into financial difficulties at the beginning of the 20th century, many of their books, including this one, were sold off.”

“Wasn’t that the place that was destroyed during the 2nd World War?” Hugh asked, sitting forward.

“It was,” Percy agreed. “In 1943. Lots of artefacts were buried, though some were recovered on a dig in 1989, called appropriately enough The Phoenix Project . They were able to recover several artefacts and return them to the museum’s authority.”

Falcon could tell that Hugh was fascinated by this history and he promised himself that they’d follow up on it a bit more when they had more time. For now, he needed to get the spells to Francis to see what he thought.

“I’ve forwarded your email to Francis,” he told Walker. “We’ll know what he thinks when we get back.”

“I guess that means we should start making our way to York,” Hugh grumbled.

Falcon laughed. “I promise you that when we’re not involved in a situation like this, you can come back and discuss history and research with Walker all you like.”

Hugh grinned at him, leaning in for a kiss. “Thank you,” he whispered against his lips.

Falcon returned the kiss, then checking his phone, stated that they really must be going. Francis had sent him a quick text to thank him for the email and inviting them to a family dinner the following night to discuss next steps. He showed Hugh who grunted in reply. Falcon smiled internally, he knew his brothers would love Hugh, and he’d already met two of them.

They stood up and Percy was called away by his assistant Manon to help her with a query, so Walker and Andrew walked them out.

“Don’t be strangers.” Walker grinned, shaking Hugh’s then Falcon’s hands again. “I’m sorry you didn’t get to see Pollie and the baby, but she’s over visiting Cris’s parents with Nathan. They love her and baby Emma but have difficulty getting their heads around our relationship, so only Cris and Nathan go with them now.”

Falcon nodded. He could see where some people might have problems with a harem relationship, but to him if everyone was happy, that was good enough.

“Maybe next time,” he replied as he and Hugh got into his car. He turned round and waved at them as they made their way down the long driveway to the main road, before heading to join the A1079 to York.

“You okay?” he asked Hugh who had gone quiet.

“Hmm, what? Sorry,” Hugh replied absently. “Just thinking about meeting all your family in one go tomorrow night.”

“You’re not nervous, are you?”

“Just a bit.”

“Don’t be.” Falcon rested his hand on Hugh’s knee. “I’m sure they’ll all love you.” “Yeah, yeah,” Hugh replied. He reached over and switched some music on.

Falcon knew that though Hugh’s parents were still alive, he was an only child and didn’t have any siblings, or from what he could gather, any cousins either. He determined that Hugh could share his siblings, he certainly had enough to go around.