The de Valery Code Read Online Free

have come at all? “Well, since you are here, why not let me make my full assessment? You do want to know more about it, don’t you?” He watched the battle behind her eyes. This book wasn’t hers, but she wanted it to be. Why were her aunts selling it if she wanted to keep it so badly? Because they likely didn’t have any other choice. They were in a perhaps desperate situation—one that he could turn to his advantage if necessary. Not that he wanted to cheat them. He was prepared to compensate her fairly for the book.
    “Yes.” She cleared her throat. “I should like to hear what you know of it.”
    Thomas came in with the tea tray. He stopped short at seeing them at the table instead of at the window. “I’ll just set the tray over here.” He indicated where Mrs. Edwards perched on the settee near the window. Thomas knew better than to serve refreshment on Rhys’s sacred workplace, where spilled tea or an errant cake crumb could cause irreparable damage.
    Rhys nodded. “Thank you, Thomas. I’ll ring if we require anything further.” He doubted they’d get to the tea tray at all, not when Miss Derrington looked as if she was going to snatch the book up and dash back to Gloucester.
    The sound of Thomas departing was accompanied by the clink of dishware as Mrs. Edwards saw to her tea. “Will you be having tea?” she asked them.
    “I won’t, thank you,” Rhys answered. He turned back to Miss Derrington and noted that her gaze was pinned to his hold on her book. Rather, her aunts’ book. He exhaled, his fingers tingling as he realized anew what he was touching. The lost text by Edmund de Valery, which some scholars doubted existed. Clearly it did—but did it contain the secret code that supposedly led to an Arthurian treasure?
    A sense of alarm slammed into him. “Does anyone else know you have this?”
    Her brows drew together. “No. At least not that I’m aware of.”
    He relaxed against the back of his chair. Good. If certain others knew that this book had surfaced, they’d go to great lengths to possess it. Just as he was prepared to do.
    He turned the page to an illustration of several knights battling a giant. “These tales are a series of tasks that a knight—Gareth—had to complete in order to win the hand of his true love. He obtained several items, which her father demanded as her bride price.” He pointed at one knight in particular. “This is Arthur.”
    “Yes, I’ve read it.” She leaned closer, and once again her scent assailed him. “Is that Excalibur? It doesn’t say.”
    He shook his head, turning another page. “This story is before Arthur purportedly found that sword. Every tale is a bit different.” And based on pure fantasy. There was no actual Excalibur and no King Arthur.
    “Why is this book so special?”
    He felt her eyes on him, wondered how she’d detected that this book was indeed special. He had no plans to tell her about the code, particularly when it might not even exist. “It’s an excellent piece. I assume you’ve studied it intently.”
    Her brilliant eyes met his. “Every word, every stroke, every color.” Her passion for the book was palpable. Perhaps equal to his own. But no, that couldn’t be possible. His entire life had been dedicated to books like these, and this was the discovery of a lifetime. A discovery that would do much to establish Rhys as a leading scholar outside of his father’s shadow, even without the code or treasure.
    Rhys flipped ahead, though it pained him not to linger over each page. There’d be time for that. He’d pay any price to make sure of it.
    There were more stories. An illustration of men around a table.  
    Her hand fluttered over his. “The round table.”
    “Mmmm.” He turned the pages faster, using great caution so as not to damage the aged vellum, eager to reach the final page to confirm that this was, in fact, the treasure he believed it to be.
    Finally, the last page. And there it was, in the corner,