Moment of Truth by Michael Pryor Read Free Book Online

out of the way and then embark on action. In dire times like these, actions were necessary.
    He sat up and took out his pocket watch. He didn’t want to look at the time. He wanted to remind himself of the Fitzwilliam legacy.
    He was at a cusp, he realised, a time where many futures beckoned – but only one was the way forward.
    Set in the cover of the watch, the Brayshire Ruby glowed like a drop of blood. The ruby had been handed down through the generations, each owner having the responsibility to set it in a way that they chose. When Dr Tremaine took it from Aubrey, he had been distraught at losing a part of his family heritage. On a whim, Dr Tremaine had returned it. Suspicious, Aubrey had spent some time investigating it, using multiple magical techniques, probing with his magical senses to see if Dr Tremaine had invested the watch with any malignant surprises.
    To Aubrey’s puzzlement, the watch had proven totally clean. Which made him all the more puzzled about the ex-Sorcerer Royal’s motives.
    He cradled the watch in both hands. Fitzwilliams had been prominent throughout history and he was fully aware of the challenge of living up to the family name.
    And where the family name was involved, he knew the perfect person who could offer advice.

    Lady Maria looked up when Aubrey entered and frowned over the letter she was reading. She wore a mauve gown with long, black sleeves, and was sitting in a huge leather chair in front of a window in her sitting room. It looked over the potting shed and glasshouse, which Aubrey had once thought odd, as it wasn’t the most picturesque vista Maidstone had to offer. His grandmother explained, however, once he asked her, that she liked watching people at work. She approved of busyness – and she also managed to overhear some interesting gossip at the same time.
    â€˜Aubrey.’ Lady Maria’s hair was bright silver, almost white, but her face was smooth and unlined. She held out her hand and Aubrey took it while she studied him. Although she was well into her eighties, Lady Maria had lost none of her acuity. She noticed everything.
    â€˜Grandmother.’ Unbidden, he pecked her on the cheek and she studied him even more closely as he took a chair opposite her.
    â€˜You’ve heard the news?’ she asked.
    Aubrey didn’t expend any effort trying to guess how Lady Maria knew. She hadn’t been present when Lady Rose read Sir Darius’s letter, because of her recent habit of taking most of her meals in her room. Her information network – which she preferred to call her ‘many correspondents’ – was extensive and very well credentialed. Aubrey was sure that Harris had no secrets from her, for instance, and her friends on the Continent included many prominent figures.
    â€˜I have. War has been declared.’
    â€˜Again.’ Lady Maria sighed. ‘It was inevitable, but it is never good. Which is exactly what your grandfather said last time, and the time before that.’
    â€˜He did?’ Aubrey’s grandfather was a military man through and through. He’d commanded regiments and been important in bringing about changes which had modernised the army. He was a cavalry man at heart. Aubrey had always thought of him as bluff and straightforward, a man who loved the headlong charge at the enemy.
    â€˜Whenever Albion embarked on a war, he wanted it over and done with as soon as possible. What he saw as efficiency, others saw as ruthlessness.’
    â€˜The Bloody Duke,’ Aubrey murmured absently.
    His grandmother stiffened. ‘I do not like that name.’
    Aubrey could have kicked himself. He knew that. Everyone in the family knew that, and they avoided using it at all times, despite it being in common parlance and even featuring in history books. Lady Maria’s view of her husband, Aubrey’s grandfather, did not include such unsavoury aspects as nicknames. ‘Sorry, Grandmother. I was