Imprisoned at Werewolf Keep (Werewolf Keep Trilogy)

by Nhys Glover

  ‘I know, I know. I cannot forgive myself. But I told her to go. To get away from here.’

  ‘She will be terrified. After what Rathgart did to her, and now you. She knows almost nothing about men. Howard was…’ she stopped herself from going on and changed tack. ‘Did you frighten her badly? I will have to go to her.’

  ‘She was not frightened. It was mutual, I think. I may have misread her, but I do not think so. She is a passionate woman, and I think she returned my feelings. But I had to stop, in case…’

  ‘Dee passionate? No, you definitely saw what you wanted to see. Maybe she acquiesced in her fear.’

  ‘Does it matter? What counts here is the damage I may have done to her. She might turn next full moon!’ Jasper never raised his voice, but now he found himself yelling at his friends in fury and despair.

  ‘Get a hold of yourself, man. It need not be as you fear. It may have to be direct contact with blood.’

  ‘But what if it isn’t? God, I’ve killed and now I’ve possibly turned an innocent woman! All because I couldn’t rein the beast in.’

  ‘I will leave immediately. I have to talk to her. She cannot just go away, Jasper. If there is a chance she is infected, we have to keep her here. I will bring her back, try to explain to her what has happened. Good Lord, I cannot believe this is happening.’ Phil shook her head as if to dislodge the horrifying future she was envisaging.

  ‘If she has turned then she will handle it, Phil. You can help her.’

  ‘If you bring her here, I will have to stay locked up. I cannot be trusted around her,’ Jasper said, raking his hands through his hair, wanting to pull it out by the roots. How had he thought his beast acceptable? How had he thought he could be anything but a monster?

  At that moment, the door to the study flew open and Will strode in, his face ashen.

  ‘A rider just arrived. Your wee friend has been taken from the hotel. Her maid said it was Rathgart.’

  ‘What about the guard I set?’ Byron demanded.

  ‘Gone. Disappeared. Paid off or dead. He had a coach and four, and was heading north.’

  ‘How many men?’

  ‘A driver. That’s all the maid saw. Or so the messenger said.’

  Jasper was out the door before the last words were out of the ex-pugilist’s mouth. He raced out the back way to the stables. By the time he had his horse saddled, Byron and Will were at his side.

  ‘What in damnation do you think you are doing?’ Byron yelled, grabbing his arm.

  ‘Going after Dee. You know what that bastard will do to her, what he may already have done to her.’

  ‘You cannot go. If you cannot get back here before nightfall you will be a danger to everyone you meet.’

  ‘I will be a danger to one man only, or any other that tries to get between me and my woman. That includes you ‘Ron. Now let me go!’ He tore his arm out of Byron’s grip and threw himself up into the saddle.

  ‘Wait, you cannot accost him alone,’ Will said, going to the nearest stall for a horse.

  ‘Catch up if you can, but I will not wait. A coach has to stick to the roads. I can go overland. I can catch up before he has had a chance to … hurt her.’

  ‘Then take this!’ Byron thrust a pistol into his hand. ‘But you have to find a safe place if you cannot get back in time. You do not need any more guilt. What you have is already killing you.’

  ‘Then I will die. But not before I find Dee and kill that bastard who took her.’

  And with that, he dug his heels into his gelding and raced out of the stable yard.

  Phil raced into the stable as Jasper hurtling past, his face a picture of such fury it frightened her.

  Gasping for breath, she stared at Byron and Will. ‘What is happening? Jasper can’t go after them on his own.’

  ‘I am going, too. I am just finalising plans for tonight. You will have to help Jamey, as I am unlikely to be back in time.’ Byron reached for the rifle that stood against the wall of the barn. He checked it for cartridges and then pocketed a handful more for emergencies.

  ‘Who are they for?’ she demanded, her voice squeaking with terror.

  ‘If Jasper does not reach them before nightfall, I will have to be prepared.’

  ‘No! No, you cannot be considering shooting Jas. He is your best friend! He is trying to save my best friend!’ Phil exclaimed, twisting her hands together.

  ‘I know, but he would be the first to tell me to take him down if he posed a threat to anyone, especially Dee. It will not come to that, I am sure. But if it does…’

  ‘I am coming with you. Dee will need me.’ Phil lifted her chin as her eyes sparked fire.

  ‘You are needed here.’

  ‘Will can make sure everything is ship-shape before he takes to his cell, and Jamey is quite capable enough to look after things on his own. He has done it before. I am going with you.’

  Will led her mare out of the stable, side-saddle in place. She looked at him in astonishment. Byron noticed for the first time the horse the Scot had prepared. He opened his mouth to question his choice but then closed it, waiting to hear what Will had to say for himself.

  ‘What? You dinna ken I know you, lassie?’ Will looked at Phil cynically. ‘You wouldna stay locked up safe when you’re wee friend needs you. I ken it and so does ‘Ron.’ He grinned at her cheekily, trying to cover up his frustration and fear that his heavy brogue made apparent.

  Byron opened his mouth to countermand his decision, but then he looked at his wife.

  After a fraction of a second, he nodded. ‘You have to obey me without question. And if I shoot, you have to be prepared for that. Can you do that, Phil?’

  She nodded too, unable to find the words to reply.

  Then Byron was swinging up into the saddle of his huge hunter and Will was assisting Phil into her side-saddle.

  ‘We will stop at the front door and get warm coats and hats. The weather is mild now, but by tonight it will be freezing.’ Byron turned his mount and cantered out the door.

  ‘Be careful, lass. The roads will be treacherous.’ Will handed Phil her reins and stepped out of the way.

  ‘You never cease to amaze me, Will, you really do. Thank you for siding with me.’

  ‘No thanks needed. You canna afford the time to be arguing the rights and wrongs of this. Just donna make me sorry I did this.’

  Without another word, Phil urged her mount into a canter and followed closely on her husband’s tail.

  Fidelia was numb. She’d sat crammed in the opposite corner of the bucking, rocking carriage from the villain who had kidnapped her for hours. Up until now he had done nothing to hurt her beyond manhandling her into the vehicle. But as the hours passed and they changed horses at one way-station after another, Fidelia couldn’t help wondering where he was taking her and if there was any hope of rescue.

  When the afternoon turned to dusk, she could stand the silence and mystery no longer. Not knowing her fate was far worse than discovering what he planned for her. At least, if she knew, she could find some hope in the scenario. Sticking out her chin, she looked her kidnapper in the eye.

  ‘What do you plan to do with me?’ she demanded with as much confidence as she could muster. The look he sent her almost took the wind right out of her sails. It was a look designed to belittle her, relegating her to the position of mere stupid woman.

  ‘We are going to Gretna Green,’ he said with an arrogant sneer, as if granting her the gift of his plans.

  ‘Scotland? Whatever for?’ But she knew already. There was only one reason couples headed for Gretna Green: A hasty marriage.

  ‘So that we can seal our love, of course.’ The absurdity of his words baffled her. Surely he didn’t think he could make her marry him, even in Scotland.

  ‘What love? I do not even know you. And even if I did, I would never marry a man who killed my husband. A man who tried to ravage me in my own morning room.’

  ‘I caused your husband’s accident so that you co
uld be free from that oaf. Do not tell me that you are not gratefully for that freedom? To imagine you beneath that old man, his flaccid cock barely able to breach you…It disgusts me, as it must you.

  ‘You need a young stallion in your bed, Lady Montgomery…Fidelia. Once you have felt my cock inside you, there will be no thought of any other man.’

  ‘You speak most crudely, sir. Have you no finer sensibilities, to speak thus to a lady?’ Why was she intentionally needling him when he was so obviously a mad man? But beyond the numbing fear she felt, there was fury for what he had done to Howard. What he had done to her step-daughters by taking away their home and family. No, she would not sit meekly by and let this man say and do whatever he liked to her.

  Rathgart lunged toward her and grabbed her face between his thumb and forefinger, pinching her chin as tight as a vice. His breath reeked of rotting teeth and the onions he had consumed with his midday meal. ‘I will speak to my wife in whatever fashion I choose. Ladylike ways are acceptable when dealing with underlings or social inferiors, my dear, but they are not acceptable when addressing your lord and master.’

  ‘You will never be my lord and master. You expect me to agree to a marriage in Scotland? I would rather die!’ She spat back directly into his face.

  He jerked away, a pleasing degree of shock registering on his unpleasant face. Then his eyes narrowed and he smiled nastily. ‘You may rather die before I am finished with you. I do not think you fully comprehend the nature of your intended. I have been of service to some of the most important men of the realm. When there is something that goes beyond ordinary measures or requires a firmer, subtler hand, such men turn to me. Even your dear husband did so at one time.

  ‘Did you know he got a young lady with child not long after he married you? The lady in question threatened to out him in society. It is one thing to have bastards by lower class women, but for a married man to have taken the virtue of a lady of class…well, it was not acceptable.’

  ‘Howard would never do such a thing!’ she denied furiously. But, even as she did so, she had to wonder. He had indicated that she did little to raise his ardour. Maybe turning to another young woman achieved that end. But the story was not finished. What call did Howard have for Rathgart in this matter?

  ‘I can see you are reconsidering your loyal defence of your husband. Wise. Howard was directed to me by a mutual acquaintance. He required the young lady to miscarry. Easily done, given that women do it all the time, often intentionally.

  ‘So I was able to make that happen. Unfortunately, the poison I administered did more than cause a miscarriage. It killed her. Howard was peeved with me for that. But I did warn him that such matters were a delicate balance. Not enough and the child survives; too much and child and mother die.’

  ‘He had you poison her? Oh good heavens!’ She rubbed at her forehead, desperately trying to scrub away the images that came to mind. It was bad enough to imagine Howard with another woman. It was even more horrible to imagine someone dead on his orders. It didn’t matter that he had not intended the lady’s death. He had ordered the child killed. In a way, that seemed even worse. She shuddered and shrank back into the richly upholstered seat, seeking the comforting heat of the warming coals at her feet. The fast approaching night was made even more icy by the frightening revelations she was being told.

  ‘So you see, I am not a man to be trifled with, nor underestimated,’ he concluded proudly, sitting back on his own side and putting up his booted feet so that the muddy heel grazed her skirts. ‘If I say you will marry me, you will do just that.’

  ‘But why me? I had never so much as laid eyes on you until after Howard died. Why would you want me?’

  He smiled smugly and wiggled his moustaches suggestively. ‘At first it was not so much you as what you represent. Howard had a peerage, more wealth than any man deserved and a pretty little noblewoman, wealthy in her own right. I wanted some of that. I wanted you and the wealth that comes with you. And I had seen you on many occasions. You were just never aware of it.’

  ‘I can give you money. If that is what you want, I will give you everything I possess. Just let me go.’

  He grinned at her and shook his head, folding his arms over his narrow chest. ‘I do not want just your wealth; I want you, my dearest, and your position in society. The ton has always kept me out, as if I was some inferior species, not one of them. Now I will be. I will be the husband of the widow of the Duke of Clarence.’

  ‘Do you think the ton will accept you when they find out you forced me into marriage?’

  ‘My dear, they will require that I marry you, to save your honour. After all, you were seen leaving that hotel with me of your own free will.’

  ‘I will not do it,’ she said finally, crossing her arms over her own chest and turning her face away.

  The amused and sinister chuckle that was his answer turned her blood cold.

  She should be terrified, she realised. But all she could manage was a feeling of disbelief. This day had brought her one shock after another, and now she couldn’t take any more in. Jasper had taken her to the blinding heights of passion, heights of which she’d never believed herself capable. Then he’d thrown her down into the deepest pit of despair. A pit she hadn’t managed to climb out of when Rathgart arrived and, as bold as brass, took her from the hotel in front of everyone.

  They hadn’t known she didn’t go willingly. The pistol he held at her side was hidden from curious onlookers. Only Maude understood what was happening. Only she knew that her mistress would never go with this madman willingly.

  Would Maude get help? But where would she turn? Philomena at Breckenhill Keep or the local constabulary? Which was the most likely to arrange a rescue mission in time? The carriage they travelled in was moving at a tremendous pace along icy roads. It was a dangerously reckless pace that could find them overturned in a ditch at any moment.

  But wouldn’t that be better? If she survived the accident, surely that would give her rescuers time to catch up? But what if they didn’t find them, and they were lying in the snow for hours, slowly freezing to death?

  And wouldn’t it be just as dangerous for anyone who came pursuing them? She couldn’t stand the idea that she would be responsible for someone else’s death or injury. Maybe it would be better if Maude didn’t get word to Phil. Maybe it was better if no one came after her.

  It was some time after dark when the horses began to slow. Rathgart, who had been dosing in his seat, pistol in hand, was suddenly wide awake. He stuck his head out the window to find out what was happening, letting in a blast of freezing air.

  ‘Why are you stopping?’ He yelled up at the driver.

  ‘Something’s on the road ahead!’ Came the reply she barely caught.

  ‘Drive on through!’ demanded Rathgart

  ‘Can’t. Horses’re spooked.’

  And slowly the carriage came to a halt. She could hear the horses shifting anxiously in their traces and the calming words of the driver. Her own pulse suddenly skittered to life as the hair on the back of her neck rose. She gripped the fabric of her black skirt to keep her gloved hands from shaking.

  ‘Damn it!’ Rathgart swore, opening the carriage door. ‘Do not even think of trying to run. We are out in the middle of nowhere, and it is freezing cold. You would not last an hour. Stay in here and keep your mouth shut.’

  Any gentlemanly mask he had worn in the past was now gone for good. Rathgart spoke to her like a thing, a possession he now considered he owned. Well, he would find out soon enough that she was never going to be owned by a madman. If she had to freeze to death wandering the forest, then that was what she’d do at the first opportunity.

  That was when she heard it: a howl, like that of a wolf, but deeper and more rumbling. She’d heard the same sound the night before, outside her hotel. It had kept her awake for several hours, until the creature had finally given up and gone away. Or she had assumed it had gone.

  ‘My God, what is that t
hing?’ Rathgart yelled into the night.

  She wasn’t waiting to find out. She slid out the opposite door, just as the carriage sprang forward and took off into the night. Staggering under the unwieldy weight of her skirts in the three inches of fallen snow, she turned for the dark woods.

  Behind her a pistol exploded. In one endless, unreal moment, she waited to feel the inexorable pain where the bullet had hit. But when no pain registered, she turned back in confusion to see whether Rathgart was reloading to take aim again.

  What she witnessed next was even more frightening than a man pointing a pistol at her. The moon was full and bright, making the scene before her as clear as day. She saw a monstrous black wolf tearing across the snow toward Rathgart. Wisps of smoke from the fired pistol showed her that it was not she Rathgart had been aiming for. The shot had been meant for the monster now hurtling toward him.

  Helpless and terrified, his one shot wasted, Rathgart dropped his pistol and raised his arms to fend off the beast. ‘No…No…Get back!’ he cried.

  Even she could see how useless his words and gesture were, up against such a monster.

  Heart racing, Fidelia was caught between the mindless need to run and the even more irrational urge to freeze. She held her breath, waiting in horror for the inevitable end. Waiting for the monster to claim its prey.

  The beast bounded into the air in a graceful arc, silhouetted against the huge moon. For several long moments, it was almost as if it was flying. Then it crashed to earth with the struggling man beneath it.

  Rathgart screamed – one piercing, hair-raising scream – before the beast took the man’s throat in its great jaws and shook its head. The scream turned to a gurgling, guttural wheeze. Then it stopped. The only sound to be heard in the frozen moonlight now was the frenzied snarls of the wolf as it tossed the lifeless body around as if it was a rag doll.

  Finally, the beast stilled, all interest in its prey gone. Lifting its huge head, it sniffed the air.

  Fidelia shivered as cold sweat ran down between her breasts. Now it was her turn.