I also wanted to yell at him for putting me in this situation, for proving me right. We were not safe here. I was not safe without Jasper.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Stop it!” I screamed, leaping up from my chair.
It stopped.
I stood there, breathing heavily. I waited, listening, but the banging had stopped. There was still noise, a violent snarling, but even that subsided after a few moments.
After a few moments of silence, there was a light knock on the front door, much softer, much politer than what it had replaced.
“That’s the men,” Bridget said. “That’s how Conor told me he’d knock.”
She raced out of the room before we could stop her, and returned moments later with Conor and Adam. Both were out of breath, their cheeks and noses red from the cold. Adam was holding his side.
“It’s him,” said Adam. “It’s Seth.”
“But we’ve got bad news,” said Conor. “He’s got accomplices.”
Chapter Nineteen
Exhaustion washed over me. I sat in my chair, staring at the fire as it roared in the fireplace. Annabelle filled the men in on what they had missed while they were out, and I watched as their eyes grew wide and guilty. The further Annabelle got into recounting, the more the men’s faces paled. It was with no small amount of satisfaction that I surveyed their discomfort. I had told them so. Why did no one listen to me? I thought perhaps that once I became a duchess I would have some amount of clout, but apparently not.
“I’m so sorry,” Conor stuttered.
“I’m not sure what you expected,” I spat. “Of course they were going to try to come for us while you were out of the house.”
“I’m really sorry,” Conor repeated.
“You mentioned that he has accomplices?” Bridget asked, seemingly to try to diffuse the tension.
“Oh, yes,” Conor said. “It appears he’s got about a half dozen.”
“Where on earth did he find accomplices?” I moaned.
“He can be charismatic,” Adam sighed. “I’m not surprised at all that he was able to rope people to go along with him, probably with some sort of anti–government rhetoric.”
“Delightful. That’s just what we need. A cult,” I said.
“Adam and I will keep watch for the rest of the night,” Conor volunteered. “Why don’t the rest of you try to get some sleep?”
Sleep was going to be impossible. I was sure of that, and I was right. I tossed and turned all night, finally drifting off as the sun was rising over the horizon. I woke up in the early afternoon, still exhausted. The house was quiet as I walked down the stairs. Everyone was in the drawing room, apart from Hazel and Adam.
“They went into town to send a letter to Jasper,” Annabelle explained.
I sat down in the chair next to her, and Bridget offered to get me some lunch. Once she was out of earshot, I turned to Annabelle.
“I didn’t even know we had a way to contact Jasper,” I said. All I knew was that they were in Sweden. I didn’t have an address, and even if I did, it would be several days before they got the communication.
“It’s a combination of telegrams and wolves,” Conor explained. “The wolves serve as the go–betweens for anywhere that we can’t send a telegram. They can usually deliver a message in a little under a day.”
“Well, that’s convenient,” I sighed.
Bridget returned a few moments later with my lunch. I was hungry, but having difficulty stomaching too much food. I ate slowly, trying to make sure my stomach was stable before proceeding.
“When did Hazel and Adam leave?” I asked as I ate.
Annabelle glanced at the clock. “Oh, about an hour ago, I would imagine,” she said.
I paused. “An hour ago?” It shouldn’t have taken them that long. The village wasn’t very far away.
“Oh, I’m sure they stopped to admire the scenery,” Annabelle said passively, although the smirk on her face assured me that it was a euphemism. I rolled my eyes.
I heard the sound of a horse and carriage outside and jumped. Silly, I told myself, if Seth were going to come, he wouldn’t do it via a horse and carriage. He’d skulk the perimeter of the house in his wolf form.
Wouldn’t he?
Conor noticed my startled look.
“I’ll go investigate,” he offered. I nodded.
I watched him start toward the entry and realized that my hands were clutching the arms of my chair, my knuckles white and muscles tense. I told myself to take a deep breath. I tried to relax.
Then I heard the scream.
I jumped up from my chair, utterly forgetting myself. I knew that scream. That was a woman’s scream, specifically Hazel, and a scream meant she was in trouble. I rushed through the entry to the door. She and Adam were standing outside their carriage, staring up at something above the door.
Dread sunk into the pit of my stomach as I came closer. Hazel’s eyes had widened like saucers, and Adam was holding her close. Whatever they were staring at was bad. I knew that I might regret going to look, but my curiosity got the best of me. Never mind it killing the cat, it was going to be the death of me.
From inside the doorway, my view was blocked. I had to step outside, into the chilly wind and fluttering snowflakes to get a full look at the horror.
It took me a while to understand what I was seeing. It was a mix of fur and skin, held together by lots and lots of blood. The body was twisted, hanging from its neck off the balcony above the door, wrapped in rope and twine. My hand flew to my mouth.
“What the—”
“All right, ladies, inside,” Conor commanded, pulling both Hazel and me into the house. “Adam, come on, let’s take this down before the others see.”
Trembling, Hazel and I collapsed into the chairs inside the doorway as I tried to help my mind interpret what I had just seen.
“Was that—”
“Yes,” Hazel whispered.
“Someone in mid–transformation?”
She nodded.
Annabelle came to join us, having left Daniel with Bridget. When she saw our colorless faces, her forehead creased in concern. “What is it?”
Hazel explained; I didn’t have the words.
“How is it even possible?” I asked when she finished. My knees were pulled as close to my chest as they could be with my stomach in the way, and my arms were wrapped around my knees. “I thought they turned human when they were killed.”
“It’s not quite that easy,” Conor said as he and Adam came through the door. Their clothes were covered in blood. “If a wolf is killed quickly in his wolf form, with no time to transform back to a human, his corpse will stay in wolf form.”
“So, the man there—”
“He was in the process of transforming when he was killed,” Conor supplied.
“Oh my God,” I murmured. I thought I was about to be sick.
“I’m going to go have Mrs. Henstridge make us some tea,” Annabelle said.
“That’s a good idea,” said Conor. “Meanwhile, I’m going to go wash up.”
Mrs. Henstridge appeared a few minutes later with tea, but I didn’t want to drink it. Perhaps it would be soothing, but my stomach was churning. All I wanted to do was go home.
The next few days passed in a flurry of nerves as we waited to hear back from Jasper. I struggled to eat, struggled to sleep. My thoughts were full of nightmares, and I was terrified that I would wake up with Seth looming over my bedside.
That wasn’t quite what happened. I was in bed, reading Jane Eyre, clutching the pages tightly as I tried to lose myself in her story. It was horrific, certainly, but not as horrific as mine was. I had managed to forget myself when the noises began.
It started the same way it had several days before. Howling, a chorus of voices, the sound filling the sky. Then the pounding started.
I sat frozen in fear for several moments as I shut my eyes, praying for the wolves to go away, to leave me alone, to st
op terrorizing me and my friends. I had no such luck. The pounding continued, and not long after it began the rest of the household burst into my room. I glanced up, startled.
“We needed to make sure you were safe before we go out there,” Conor explained as they rushed in.
“You are not going out there!” I shouted. “Are you mad?”
“As a hatter,” Conor grinned. He and Adam started toward my bedroom door but I planted myself in front of it.
“You are not leaving,” I said.
“Christine, really—”
“Don’t you remember what happened last time you went out?” I asked. “We were left here alone. And what happens if one of you dies? That leaves us in an even worse position. So, no, sorry, you aren’t going anywhere.”
Conor sighed. “I understand where you’re coming from.”
“Good.”
“But really—”
“No! No buts.”
“Christine,” he said, his face softening, “don’t you want this to all end? If we catch Seth, it will.”
“The risk is greater than the reward,” I told him. “I don’t want you and Adam going out there. You need to stay here.”
Conor thought for a moment. “Can we strike a deal?”
“I’m not going to make promises.”
“What if Adam and I go to investigate, but we don’t go outside? We observe from inside the house, make sure that the doors and windows are bolted and secure, and then we come back. That way we at least know what we’re dealing with, but we don’t put ourselves in harm’s way.”
I stepped aside. “I can agree to that.”
“All right,” he breathed. “Ladies, stay here. Adam and I will be back as soon as possible.”
Bridget nodded and Annabelle clutched Daniel to her chest, but Hazel’s reaction wasn’t nearly as composed. She threw herself at her fiancé.
“Come back to me,” she wept.
“I will,” he promised, giving her a soft kiss on the forehead.
The men left the room, and we huddled together in the sitting area. The pounding and assault on the castle continued. I envisioned the wolves throwing themselves at the doors and windows, desperate to get in, to tear us to shreds. I shivered, and Bridget draped a blanket over my shoulders. I pulled it tightly around me.
We waited with bated breath for the men to return. I thought I was going to swoon as the anticipation knotted up in my chest. Hazel was a mess, crying quietly in the corner of the loveseat. I was too terrified to move, and Annabelle was cradling Daniel, so that left Bridget to comfort her. She sat down next to Hazel, gently stroking her hair and murmuring comforts, but her gaze was elsewhere as she stared into the fire.
After a near eternity of waiting, the men finally returned. We all breathed a sigh of relief as they slipped into the room, shutting the door behind them.
“We’re surrounded,” Conor confirmed, “but I doubt they’ll get in.”
“Annabelle said this is one of the most fortified places in the country,” I mused.
“She’s right,” Conor said. “Jasper chose this place on purpose. It will take a lot more than brute force to get in here.”
The assault continued for hours. I was so tired, my head foggy, but I couldn’t sleep with the constant pounding on the doors or the dread in my chest. I sat in shock with my blanket around me, trying to push the outside world from my thoughts. It was impossible. Bridget and Conor were speaking in low tones across the room, Hazel and Adam were curled up together, and Annabelle was trying to keep Daniel, who had woken up, entertained. Almost everyone looked as exhausted as I did. Hazel was nearly asleep in Adam’s arms, and Annabelle looked like she was ready to pass out on the floor.
Did wolves need less sleep than the rest of us? Both Adam and Conor seemed as alert as if the sun was up. And how was Bridget so awake? Her eyes were bright as she and Conor spoke.
My fatigue was overwhelming, to the point where I was ready to simply cry it out. The feeling was about to become too much to handle when everything fell quiet. We waited.
The moment the pounding had stopped, everyone had looked up from what they were doing, but no one dared move. We listened for the crash or the pounding for several minutes, but we were met with only silence. We all exchanged looks, not sure what to do now. Surely someone should go find out if the wolves were gone, but whoever did risked endangering themselves.
I knew who would be the first to volunteer. I should protest, but what were our options? Someone needed to do it, and it wasn’t going to be me and it wasn’t going to be Annabelle and it wasn’t going to be Hazel.
“I suppose we should go have a look,” Conor sighed, standing up from his chair.
He likely expected me to protest, but I had no energy left to argue with him. I merely shrugged.
“I’ll take Bridget with me, and Adam can stay here, just in case,” Conor said. I only nodded. Words seemed too much effort.
Bridget and Conor disappeared out the doorway. I kept my ears open, terrified I was going to hear a scream, that one of them was about to be ambushed. Things stayed eerily silent. They were gone for ten minutes, fifteen minutes, twenty minutes, and I began to get worried with the little energy I had left. What if they had been attacked in silence, killed too quickly to make the sounds of a struggle?
These thoughts consumed my mind as I sat there, watching the second–hand tick around the clock over and over and over again. Finally, the door opened.
“We’ve got good news and bad news,” Bridget said. “The good news is, Seth and his men are gone.”
I didn’t want to ask, but I knew I would have to. “What’s the bad news?”
“The bad news,” Conor sighed, “is that the Henstridges are dead.”
Chapter Twenty
Conor and Bridget had gone downstairs, peering out of the windows and listening at the doors for any sign that Seth was still there, but they found nothing. After exhausting all possible ways of checking without actually going outside, they had decided to open the doors to be sure. According to them, they surveyed the house, checking around the perimeter. Granted, there were at least fifteen, if not twenty minutes missing in there, but they didn’t offer up an explanation and I didn’t ask. As the two of them circled the house, they came to the back. There in the snow, dumped unceremoniously at the back door, were Mr. and Mrs. Henstridge. Their throats had been slit.
I felt sick.
Over the next several days, I continued to be sick. I scarcely slept, only able to drift off once the sun had risen over the horizon. I felt more at ease when the valley was bathed in light, knowing that Seth wasn’t going to try to launch an attack in the daytime. I had read all the books I had brought, but luckily the library here was large enough to rival the one at Wolf’s Peak. I chose books from there, the stack on my bedside table continuing to grow. It was the only thing keeping me sane.
I had little appetite as well. I ate only as much as I needed to keep the baby from kicking me too hard. Nothing was appealing, and so I would have toast and marmalade. I couldn’t stomach anything much richer than that, and besides, without Mrs. Henstridge here, there wasn’t much in terms of meals. None of us were particularly good cooks. Food wasn’t a top priority for me. I only thought about it when the baby kicked, and then I’d go to the kitchen and find some bread. There weren’t any mealtimes outside of that.
I was living in fear. Aside from not sleeping and scarcely eating, I was constantly on edge. My nerves had frayed days ago. Every foreign sound made me jump, but too much quiet made me fear for my friends’ safety. When I did sleep, I had only nightmares. Every shadow had me terrified, every creak and groan set me on edge. I found myself collapsing to the floor in panic with increasing frequency, every episode having me more and more terrified. This couldn’t be good for me, and it couldn’t be good for the baby.
All I wanted was safety. I missed being able to walk freely through the house, knowing that if anything were to happen, Jasper would be th
ere to guard me. I missed sleeping peacefully in my own bed. Yes, before I had left Wolf’s Peak, the shadow of Seth loomed over everything, but at least then I had an army of men to guard me. Here, there were two of them watching over the five of us. It wasn’t enough. Every time one of them went outside, I was in constant fear that they wouldn’t come back, that we’d be left with even less to protect us than we had now.
I missed being safe.
I missed Jasper.
What would he think of the way we were living, if he knew? Knowing Jasper, he’d be deeply concerned. He wouldn’t want me to be in a constant state of panic or fear. He would want me to be relaxed, resting in bed, concentrating on these last couple of weeks of pregnancy. Sure, he had sent me here, but this isn’t what he’d had in mind. He thought I’d be safe while he was away, almost like a holiday. That wasn’t what this had turned into at all.
My mind wandered to Jasper and his protectiveness, his strong body that stopped anything from hurting me. I missed his chiseled chest, his impossibly warm skin. I missed the way that when he held me, I knew that nothing would possibly harm me. My mind flooded with images of his piercing eyes, the beautiful greenish–blue color that reminded me of some rare, exotic gemstone. His lips were always so soft, so skilled, melding perfectly with mine when we kissed. I missed his rough hands, so big they practically engulfed mine, always so warm when mine were like ice.
Throughout our marriage, I’d had a lot of doubts. Jasper had lied to me about a lot. He hadn’t told me he was a werewolf when we wed, and he hadn’t told me about the desperation of having an heir. Still, no matter how intimidating I had initially found him, I had never felt unworthy. He made me feel not like a duchess, but like a queen. He treated me like the most precious thing in his life, and I missed that dearly.
The Wolf's Bait (The Wolf's Peak Saga Book 2) Page 15
