WolfeBlade: de Wolfe Pack Generations

by Kathryn Le Veque

  In truth, she was a little awed by the man. He had been very kind to her and had helped her calm a great deal with his steady manner and offered drink. She still wasn’t sure why he had paid any attention to her, considering she had been running around like a madwoman and, like an idiot, she had even smashed into the wall. She would have been embarrassed about that had she not been so terrified.

  There would be time to be embarrassed about it later.

  The knight’s appearance had been unexpected. She probably should have been more suspicious of him than she had been because in a place like this, it seemed like everyone wanted something. A kiss, a dance, or something far more intimate… everyone seemed to want something.

  She wondered what this knight really wanted.

  From her.

  But he had been very polite and he had offered to show her the way out, and being desperate to leave, she had accepted his offer. Perhaps it wasn’t the brightest thing to do, but desperate times called for risk. She was going to risk herself to get out of this hellscape, even if she had to place herself in the care of this enormous knight to do it. Suspicion was there, but so was curiosity.

  He was intriguing.

  Although she couldn’t really see his face very well because of the mask he wore, she thought he had rather a nice face. At least, everything between his nose and his chin, which had a big dimple in it. He had smiled, although not broadly, and she had caught a glimpse of massive dimples in each cheek. He wasn’t wearing a helm or anything on his head, even if the rest of him was dressed in a tunic and mail. The dog mask he wore covered a good portion of his face and all of his forehead, but she could see his hair. It was close cropped and blond from what she could tell.

  He was quite something to look at, in truth.

  But that didn’t mean he was trustworthy.

  Even as she followed him from the alcove and into a corridor, she knew she was being stupid. She was going to follow him all the way out and then hope he didn’t try to abduct her or, worse, molest her on the street because she’d been dumb enough to fall into his hands. Although his manner didn’t seem to convey that type of man, she didn’t know him, so she really had no idea of his nature or his character. Those men who had cornered her last year in her village hadn’t seemed wicked in nature until their intentions were revealed. It wasn’t strange that the incident that changed her life also made her distrustful of any man, no matter how kind he was.

  And that’s what made this moment so very difficult.

  Desperation was causing her to do something she wouldn’t normally do.

  Trust a man she didn’t know.

  As Gavriella followed along behind him, she made sure to stay out of arm’s length. He never made any attempt to touch her or pull her along, and so far, he had turned around to make sure she was behind him only once. They entered a corridor, dark and angled, that took them into a room crowded with men who are watching a woman who was sitting on a table, and her escort seemed to move faster when they entered that chamber for some reason. Because he picked up the pace, she picked up the pace, and they were soon through that chamber and into another corridor.

  She could hear music.

  Gavriella’s heart began to flood with relief, realizing they were near the chamber with the music and the dancing. That was where she’d last seen Aurelia and Camilla, and she was starting to feel as if she might actually break free from this horrid place. She knew that the music-filled chamber was near the chamber that was filled with all of that marvelous food, and beyond that were the rooms that connected to the outside world.

  Closer!

  She was drawing ever closer to leaving. It was strange how she seemed completely oriented now, whereas earlier, she seemed to become more and more lost with every turn she took. Her new friend, the man who called himself Wolf, seemed to have a good sense of direction because he was leading her back the way she had come. He seemed to know which way to go and which door to take, and she was starting to hope that, at least for the moment, following him had been a good idea.

  But that was her last calm thought before someone grabbed her.

  They had just entered the room with the music and the dancing, and the room was full of people dancing to a lively folk tune. The musicians were quite good and they were playing adeptly as a room full of dancers leapt and twirled gaily. But the moment Gavriella stepped into the warm, smoky room, someone grabbed her by the wrist and started yanking her towards the writhing throng.

  Immediately, she dug her heels in and began to fight to free herself. The man who had hold of her was big and smelly, and he yanked her so hard by the wrist that she felt pains shooting up her arm. She thought she even heard something crack and, suddenly, she was in a good deal of pain as the idiot pulled her towards the dance floor. The more she dug her heels in, the more he pulled, and she finally screamed at him to let her go. He barely had time to turn around and scowl at her before there was suddenly a big body in between them.

  His hold on her wrist abruptly released and he was on the ground.

  The man she knew as Wolf had his big arm around her shoulders and begin pulling her quickly back to their original course.

  “Come along,” he said steadily, but then he noticed she was cradling her left arm. “What happened? Did he hurt you?”

  Gavriella wasn’t sure what to say. The man had hurt her, but she didn’t want to tell the man called Wolf because she didn’t want him to think she wanted him to tend her or, worse, punish the man who hurt her. She didn’t want him to feel any sense of responsibility towards her whatsoever. He wasn’t her escort – he wasn’t her anything. Just a man trying to lead her to the exit.

  But she had to admit his chivalrous action had been rather endearing. She’d never experienced anything like it.

  “Nay,” she lied. “I was simply… startled.”

  “Are you certain you are not injured?”

  “I am not injured.”

  His gaze lingered on her as if he didn’t believe her, but he didn’t contradict her. He simply let go of her once they reached the darkened corridor and went on ahead of her as she followed along behind.

  Now, they were in the feasting room. It smelled glorious and Gavriella’s determination to leave was deterred by the fact that she was hungry. She’d had an entire cup of ale to calm her nerves and her head was swimming a little, so she swiped a beef tart as she walked by a table.

  She began shoving it into her mouth as they reached the chamber where the women in transparent clothing were, the women who had put their masks on when they had first arrived. As they entered the dimly lit chamber, the women seemed to come out of the shadows, untying their masks and pulling them off. Gavriella had a mouth full of tart, shoving the entire thing in, as her mask came away.

  His mask came off, too.

  Gavriella found herself looking at a man handsome enough to make her forget how to swallow.

  The tart went spraying out.

  Gavriella coughed violently as the women in the transparent clothing shrieked and began calling for servants to clean up the mess. The man called Wolf reached out, taking her by the arm and pulling her away from the pile on the floor that she had created.

  “Are you well?” he asked, sounding concerned. “Mayhap you need some wine.”

  “Nay,” Gavriella said, clutching him before he could move away. She struggled to control the cough. “Truly, I am not ill. I tried to swallow and… it… it went down the wrong way. I am not ill, I assure you.”

  She was gazing up into his face as he nodded, but he still looked concerned. “Are you sure?” he asked. “It will take me only a moment to find you something to drink.”

  Gavriella shook her head. “Truly, do not trouble yourself,” she said. “I have already been an immense trouble to you already. In fact, since the moment we met, I have been little else, so I wish to relieve you of my burden as soon as possible.”

  He looked at her, rubbed his chin, and then shrugged. Turning a
way from her, he continued down another dim corridor as Gavriella swallowed hard and tried to forget the fact that she had nearly choked. For certain, looking at a man as handsome as he was had startled her. She should have suspected given his dimpled smile, but once the mask came off… well, she had made a fool of herself.

  Again.

  He was fair, with blond brows and pale eyes from what she could see, but she noticed that he seemed to have a faint red tint to his hair even in the dim light. Just a little, but it was there. His jaw was square, like granite, and when he turned to look at her as they passed by a torch, she could see that his eyes were a glorious shade of blue.

  The man was positively magnificent.

  They’d finally reached the corridor that had the two armed door sentries in it, the point of entry to Gomorrah. The armed men stood back, allowing them to the door, but once they passed through the opened panel and out into the cold night, they slammed the door behind them. They could hear the bolt thrown.

  Suddenly, the were out on the darkened, dangerous London street with the burned-out church behind them. The fog that had rolled in from the river now covered everything with mist, damp and slick. Gavriella came to an abrupt halt, looking down at herself.

  “I came with a cloak,” she said, looking regretfully to the door they’d just exited through. “I do not even know what happened to it. It belonged to my cousin and I hate to leave it behind, but I am not going back inside.”

  He looked at the door also. “To go back inside would be to risk being trapped again.”

  “I know.”

  His gaze turned to her. “Where is your home?”

  That was a good question. Gavriella looked around the darkened street and tried to get her bearings, cradling her aching left arm. “God’s Bones,” she muttered. “I have already embarrassed myself irreparably tonight in front of you, so I suppose one more embarrassment will not matter. I have not been in London long enough to know much about it. I followed my cousins here from the manse. All I know is that it is in the northeast section of town, near the priory of the Holy Trinity. If you will point me in that direction, I am sure I can find it.”

  He scratched his head a moment, pondering what she’d said. “If you are not from London, where are you from?”

  “North.”

  “A small village?”

  “Small enough.”

  He sighed. “Then I will tell you that traveling in London, and especially at night, is a dangerous thing for a woman alone,” he said. “If you think the maze of Gomorrah frightened you, then you should be doubly afraid of traveling these streets. There are men lurking in the shadows now, watching us, just waiting to pounce on you. I will be frank when I say that it would not be for a kiss or a dance, my lady.”

  Gavriella knew that. At least, she did in theory. Her cousins had stupidly come alone to Gomorrah and they’d been fortunate not to have suffered any trouble, but now she was without an escort for her return home.

  Except for Wolf.

  “I understand that the streets are dangerous, but I have little choice,” she said. “I cannot stand here all night and wait for my cousins to emerge so that we may walk home together.”

  “Then I will offer my services as an escort, my lady, to see you home safely,” he said. “I’ve seen you through this far. You should allow me to finish my task.”

  She looked at him doubtfully. “I told you that I am not in the habit of trusting my safety to strangers.”

  “Either you trust me or you will have to fight off the rabble on your own,” he said. “Are you willing to risk your life?”

  He had a point and, no, she wasn’t. Heavily, she sighed. “Nay,” she said after a moment. “Very well, Wolf. I accept. But do not try anything or I’ll scream loud enough to wake the dead.”

  In the darkness, his lips twitched with a smile. “I believe it. Shall we go?”

  He was indicating a northerly direction and she nodded. They began to walk, heading up the muddy road as fog swallowed them up with every step they took. It was soupy and cold, with an occasional torch from the night watch piercing the veil of darkness. It was terribly difficult to see.

  Gavriella was looking around nervously, more relieved than she cared to admit that he was escorting her home. A man that size would surely be a deterrent to any unsavory activity. But something occurred to her as they walked and she turned to look at him, his handsome features shrouded in the mist.

  “I’m curious about something, Wolf,” she said. “May I ask you a question?”

  “My lady?”

  “Why would you do this for a woman you do not know?”

  “Do what?”

  She looked around. “Risk yourself like this,” she said. “I do not understand why you would do it.”

  He was looking around, too, but in his case, it was calculated. Years and years of being a trained knight, of being trained to always be aware of one’s surroundings, had him watching every shadow, every glimmer.

  “Because I am a man of honor,” he said simply. “Whether or not you realize it, you became my responsibility the moment I helped you from that ghastly place. I could not simply leave you to fend for yourself once we were free of the confines.”

  “But I am no one to you,” she said, genuinely baffled. “You just met me. You do not even know my name.”

  “Kitty.”

  “Kitten.”

  “I like Kitty better. It suits you.”

  She stared at him, having no idea what he meant by such a thing. Then, she broke into soft laughter.

  “Suit yourself,” she said. “But you still have not answered my question.”

  “I answered it plainly.”

  “But you did not explain why you would do such a thing for a woman who means nothing to you,” she pointed out. “A man could jump out at us any moment with a dagger and you would defend me?”

  “Of course.”

  “With your life?”

  “If necessary.”

  She had to think on that. It made no sense to her but, then again, she had never really spent an inordinate amount of time around knights. Her father was a knight in the technical sense of the word, but somewhere over the years, he seemed to have lost the very thing that made knights who they were. Call it courage, call it dedication… whatever it was, her father’s seemed to have faded. He’d lost whatever was left of it when she had been attacked. She’d seen the light go out of his eyes then.

  Nay… she didn’t understand much about men and their sense of duty because her father didn’t seem to harbor any hint of such a thing.

  He’d given up completely.

  But the man next to her had that sense of chivalry, of honor. She was coming to realize that. Of course, when they’d first met in the guild, she hadn’t trusted him. Her distrust was natural. But now that she’d had a few moments of conversation with him, she began to sense something settling and calm about the man.

  Honorable.

  True.

  She didn’t know why she sensed such a thing, but she did.

  It made her more curious than ever.

  “You must have great experience as a knight, then,” she said after a moment. “In battle, I mean. You must be very skilled.”

  “I have fought in my share of battles.”

  She could tell that just by looking at him. “Is your father a knight?”

  “He’s a very good one.”

  “And your sons? Do they train also?”

  “I have no sons.”

  She didn’t say anything more after that. He didn’t seem to want to converse, so she stopped talking. He was watching their shrouded surroundings like a hawk, intensely focused. They were heading towards a main road, something Gavriella thought she recognized through the mist, but she wasn’t quite sure. Everything was so dark and disorienting.

  They just kept walking.

  The moon finally set even though they couldn’t see it because the fog suddenly became dark. There was very little
ambient light at this late hour and, frustrated and a little fearful, Gavriella came to a halt. He stopped next to her.

  “I thought I would recognize the street at the very least, but I do not,” she said. “As I said, I’ve not been here very long and this is a much larger city than anything I am used to. I fear that I cannot ask you to continue to walk aimlessly with me when I do not know where I am going. I have been far too much trouble to you already.”

  His gaze lingered on her a moment before he started to look around again. “You have no idea where you are?”

  “None at all.”

  “It would probably be easier in the light.”

  She sighed heavily. “It would, indeed. At least I might see something that I recognize.”

  He looked up at the sky. “It is probably two or three hours before dawn,” he said. “I think we are finished wandering around for the night if you do not recognize anything.”

  She looked at him curiously. “But I must keep looking,” she said. “I cannot stand here on the street all night.”

  “That was not what I had in mind,” he said. “Come with me.”

  She didn’t move. “Where?”

  There was fear in her voice right away and he paused. “Someplace safe until dawn breaks and there is light for you to see,” he said evenly. “My lady, I cannot leave you standing out here on the street if you do not know where you live. I would be a dishonorable man, indeed, if I did that. I told you that you were my responsibility until I see you safely home and I meant it. Therefore, please let me take you someplace safe until the dawn comes. I swear upon my honor that I will not hurt you, nor will anyone else. Do you believe me?”

  Gavriella couldn’t very well say no. He’d been kind and considerate since their rough acquaintance and, truthfully, she didn’t have much of a choice at the moment.

  She would have to trust him.

  “I do,” she said after a moment. “Where are we going?”

  Gently, he took her arm with one of those enormous hands. “Come with me.”

  She did.

  Like a fool, she did.