Wolf Who Loved Me

by Lydia Dare

  “Pup?” Madeline squeaked, though she was soundly ignored.

  “I do love a wager I’m sure to win,” Wes growled. “How much?”

  Dovenby tossed back his head and laughed. “Exactly how do you think to quantify such a thing?”

  “The wager was your suggestion.”

  “So it was.” Dovenby sighed as though he suddenly found the conversation to be tedious. “Shall I tell you what I think is truly going on here?” He gestured to the two of them.

  “What are the odds I could stop you?” Wes narrowed his eyes at his fellow Lycan.

  “Well, as you’re headed north and you both look as though you’ve seen better days, you can only be eloping.” Then he winked at Madeline. “What are you thinking, my lady? You could do so much better than this unruly mutt.”

  “Mutt?” Madeline muttered and she slid closer to Wes on the bench.

  “Some of us have better pedigrees than others.”

  “And some of us,” Wes bit out, “are guests in someone else’s coach.”

  Dovenby laughed. “The crest on the side belongs to Eynsford, not you. So I’d say we were all guests, Hadley. Or did you win the carriage and driver in a wager of some sort?”

  Before Wes could respond, Madeline cleared her throat. “Weston has a very nice high-perch phaeton,” she defended with the lofty tone Wes had become accustomed to. “But it wouldn’t do to race to Gretna in that, now would it?”

  Wes wasn’t certain how she knew about his conveyance. Hopefully, she wouldn’t learn the thing had been destroyed in a race or he’d never hear the end of that topic.

  “I suppose not,” Dovenby conceded with smug nod.

  “Well, of course not,” Madeline finished. “It wouldn’t be the thing at all.”

  “One must live up to certain standards when one is eloping,” Dovenby agreed. “So tell me, is anyone hot on your tail? I cannot believe a loving father would want to see a daughter of his shackled to a Hadley.”

  Madeline clamped her lips shut, probably because she agreed with him wholeheartedly.

  “How far behind us is he?” Dovenby asked.

  “Not far,” Madeline began, “but—”

  Wes cut her off with a stern glance that made her purse her lips even tighter. Thank God. If she would just keep them shut, the earl might close his own damned mouth. “Her father is irrelevant.”

  “About as irrelevant as that carriage wheel atop your vehicle?” Dovenby laughed. “Brilliant bit of maneuvering there, Hadley.”

  How had the blasted earl put all the pieces of the puzzle together so quickly? Damn him.

  Wes leaned forward and reached for the Lycan. “I’ll show you maneuvering,” he growled. But Madeline latched onto his arm and tugged with all her might.

  “Didn’t I ask you to behave respectably?” she hissed in his ear.

  Dovenby snorted. “I’m afraid you’ve saddled up the wrong sort if a respectable ride is what you’re after, my lady.”

  “Do not talk to my wife about riding,” Wes growled.

  “Doesn’t seem as though she is your wife.”

  ***

  Madeline gaped at the two men sharing her space. What was wrong with the two Lycans? Oh, she had no doubt the Earl of Dovenby was a werewolf. Sly mentions of pups and mutts and pedigrees made that rather obvious if one knew what to look for. Though she had no idea why they felt such animosity for each other, there definitely was something going on that she didn’t understand. Any moment, she expected to have to pull Weston from atop the earl and demand he sit and stay. She racked her brain trying to remember where she’d heard Dovenby’s name before. It was attached to some scandal or other, she was certain. Was that the source of their discord?

  Dovenby leaned over to look out the coach window. “Oh, look,” he chimed with gaiety. “There’s my missing bay.”

  Madeline glanced out the window and was startled to see a blonde walking down the side of the road, leading a large bay mare. The girl turned, obviously startled by the approaching carriage. Then a thankful look crossed her face, but Renshaw didn’t stop. He drove right past her.

  Dovenby even waved and grinned out the window at the girl. The blonde stomped her foot and dropped the reins of the great beast she led, and she began to follow the coach, her skirt up around her knees as she ran.

  “Oh, dear,” Maddie breathed. “We have to stop.”

  “Not if I have anything to say about it,” Dovenby grunted. “She left me without a single look back.”

  “Must be nice to know that you’re that good, Dove,” Wes taunted.

  If that man was a dove, it was a soiled one. And so was the young woman. But they couldn’t just leave her. Maddie tugged Wes’ arm. “Tell Renshaw to stop,” she commanded.

  Wes narrowed his eyes at her. “You do know that the good earl wouldn’t be caught dead with a respectable lady, do you not?”

  That was neither here nor there. They couldn’t leave the poor girl alone. She could be eaten by wild animals. Or worse. She could get covered in travel dust. Maddie shivered. “It doesn’t matter,” she declared. “If you won’t stop for her, you’ll have to stop and let me out so I can walk with her.” Which he would never let happen, not if she knew him. Admittedly, she didn’t know him all that well, but she did know he was in a hurry to make the border. Maddie shot Wes a pointed glance. “And the longer we wait, the more likely my father is to catch up with us.”

  “Don’t tarry,” Dovenby teased. “Or Daddy will catch up with us.”

  With a heavy sigh, Wes tapped on the roof. Renshaw pulled up, causing Dovenby to nearly fall upon Maddie. “Off,” Wes barked, as he shoved the earl back into his own seat.

  “I’ll give you every coin in my pocket if you’ll instruct your driver to keep going.”

  Wes glared at him. “How much do you have?”

  Maddie elbowed him in the side, making him grunt. “It doesn’t matter how much he has.”

  “It might. We could use some extra funds on this excursion, darling,” he reminded her, as though she needed to be reminded of their near-destitute state. Then Wes smiled wolfishly at the earl. “Of course, we could just take his funds and toss him to the hounds from hell.” Wes’ dark eyes twinkled with mischievous delight. “Ah, looks like the hound has caught up with us.” Then he leaned over Madeline to glance out her window. He paled just a bit and sank against the squabs.

  Dovenby snorted. “I told you to keep going.”

  What in the world was wrong with the two of them? “Are neither of you gentlemanly enough to open the door for me?”

  “I’d rather not,” Wes admitted. “Why don’t we just let Dovenby out, and we can be on our way.”

  “There’s a woman all by herself on the side of the road!”

  “She won’t be alone if we let Dovenby out.”

  Of course, the earl didn’t move one inch toward the door. Were all Lycans unchivalrous beasts? They certainly were if these two specimens represented the whole. Very well, if neither of them would open the door for her, Maddie was quite capable of opening it for herself.

  She pushed open the coach door and dropped to the ground more roughly than she would have liked. Blast her missing slippers! “Ouch!” she muttered when a rock found her heel.

  Wes was beside her in an instant. “Are you all right, darling? Are you hurt?”

  Maddie glared at him. Had he resembled a gentleman in any way, she wouldn’t have had to bound outside on her own. “A little late for your concern.”

  “Madeline.” He tugged on her arm. “We are in a hurry, or have you forgotten?”

  But Maddie’s eyes were on the pretty girl, adorned in a much-too-daring walking dress for the country, who was coming in their direction. Before Maddie could say a word of welcome, the blonde stomped past her and sailed into the carriage. There she began to pummel the startled Dovenby with her fists. He protested loudly and cursed prolifically as he tried to fend off her blows.

  Maddie blinked in bewildermen
t at the scene. Then she covered her mouth with her hand. “Go help him, Weston,” she whispered in horror. Whoever thought a woman could behave in such a way?

  But Wes propped himself against the corner of the coach and appeared to be engrossed in examining his fingernails, completely ignoring her and the bizarre kicking and screaming that emanated from the coach. Maddie looked up at Renshaw, who sat in his perch with his head buried in his hands. He was mumbling incoherently.

  “Don’t use such language around the ladies,” Wes called out good-naturedly to the driver.

  The coachman lifted his head and replied, “There’s only one lady present, sir. And she couldn’t hear me the way you can.” Then he mumbled something about not making nearly enough money to put up with such nonsense.

  Dovenby flew out of the coach in a rush, nearly tumbling in the dirt in his haste to get away from the wailing blonde. The earl stood up tall and straightened his coat, then ran a hand through his suddenly unkempt hair. Dovenby circled behind Wes and put Madeline between him and the lady. What a coward.

  “Speaking of saddling the wrong ride,” Wes started.

  “Weston Hadley,” the blonde shrieked as she launched herself from the coach as well. “I didn’t even recognize you!”

  “Of course not. All your ire was directed at Dovenby.”

  How did this outlandish woman know Weston?

  “I think,” the blonde replied, tipping back her chin as though she was the queen, “it has more to do with the fact that you look like an unkempt farmer.” She gestured to his attire. “Have you fallen on even worse times since we last… met? Never mind. Don’t answer that. You are damned lucky you stopped. If you hadn’t, I’d have plagued you to the end of your days. Still if you think you’ll ever crawl your sorry arse back in my bed—”

  Wes stood up straight, suddenly at full attention as he began to speak in an obvious attempt to shut the woman’s mouth. He dropped an arm around Maddie’s shoulders. “Hardly. I already have a wife to plague me until the end of my days, dear,” he said quickly.

  Dovenby bent in the middle he laughed so hard.

  “Or I soon will,” Wes amended, shooting the earl a harsh glance.

  The woman looked startled. Obviously startled. Yet she stopped talking.

  “Which part are you referring to, Hadley? The ‘plague you’ part or the ‘I’ll never let you into my bed again’ part?” Dovenby asked.

  “Shut up, Dove,” Wes growled.

  Maddie must look like a complete ninny. She was certain of it. But her brain was racing as she tried to make sense of the scene. If there was one thing Maddie knew how to do, it was be polite. She extended a hand to the lady. “It’s very nice to meet you,” she said softly, in the voice she’d practiced for years, the one that made people think she was serene and naïve. And at this moment, she’d never felt quite so naïve.

  The woman’s gaze swept over Maddie’s body. Then she sneered, “You usually don’t like them skinny, Hadley,” she said.

  “She’s not skinny,” Wes started. But he dropped his chin to his chest and inhaled deeply before he continued. “Lady Madeline, this is Lucy Reed.”

  Lucy Reed? Why did that name sound familiar? Maddie would have let the name roll around in her mind until she had the answer, but she had just been slighted by the girl. So she leaned close to Wes’ ear. “Did she really just call me skinny?” Maddie murmured.

  But Dovenby answered before Wes could reply. “She did, indeed, dear.”

  “There are worse things you could be called.” Wes winced.

  True. Lucy Reed, whoever she was, had said something even more disturbing. “And did she say she has shared your bed?” She still spoke softly to Wes, but Dovenby was bending at the middle again.

  “That was a long time ago,” Wes tried as he took her shoulders and turned her to face him. Or at least attempted to. “I can explain, darling.”

  Oh, she had no doubt he would try. But Maddie didn’t want to hear one word of it. Not one. “Renshaw!” She called loudly as she stomped to the front of the carriage, ignoring every pebble that found her un-slippered feet. “Are you still in possession of some funds?”

  “I have enough, milady,” he replied. A grin tugged at his lips, too. Blast them all. None of this was humorous in the least.

  “Perfect. Take me somewhere. Anywhere,” she said. “I don’t care where.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said with a quick nod.

  “Madeline,” Wes began, “we don’t have time for theatrics.”

  But Maddie paid him no heed as she yanked open the coach door and stumbled inside. Blasted bruised feet. She must look completely ridiculous. She scrambled to a seat, trying to maintain whatever dignity she could, smoothing her tattered and worn skirts out with her hands. Before Weston or Dovenby could follow her, the coach lurched to a start, causing the door to flop open. Blast. She hadn’t closed it properly.

  Maddie stuck her head out the open door and watched, astounded, as Lucy Reed stuck her foot out and tripped Weston. Then Dovenby stumbled across him in his haste to reach the coach. And while it all occurred, the daring blonde hiked up her skirts and jumped in through the open door of the moving carriage. Maddie had to scramble once again to get out of the way.

  Lucy Reed fell heavily onto the seat across from Maddie. “Well then, now that it’s just us,” she panted, “it’s nice to meet you.”

  Fifteen

  Maddie could only gape at her stowaway for a moment. “I suppose I can’t toss you out.” No matter how much she would like to.

  The blonde had shared Wes’ bed. Her Wes. It made no difference that he hadn’t been her Wes whenever the interlude or interludes had taken place. He was her Wes now. Though she wasn’t certain when that had happened. Perhaps when she’d decided to leap out that inn window and run away with him. And this is how he thanked her? By cavorting with this Lucy Reed person before Maddie even knew she wanted him? She realized how ridiculous her thoughts would sound aloud and was glad she didn’t have to mutter them to anyone who would think she had gone mad.

  “You could try.” Lucy Reed shrugged. “But where would be the fun in that?”

  Fun? Maddie somehow managed not to choke on a sob. But she refused to let the blonde see her at her worst. So she straightened her back and glared at the other woman.

  “I know who you are, you know?” Lucy shook her skirts out, making dust float in the streaks of sunlight that filtered through the window. “You went to The Taming of the Shrew this last Season.”

  Maddie coughed and swiped at a dust cloud that threatened to envelop her. Everyone had gone to The Taming of the Shrew last Season. What did the woman mean by that? “Just how do you think you know me?”

  “You’re Lord Robbie’s little sister. I saw you in Hythe’s box with him.”

  Lord Robbie? Maddie frowned at the blonde. No one had ever called Robert such a ridiculous thing in his life. “And just how do you know my brother?”

  Lucy folded her hands in her lap. “He’s a very generous patron of the arts.”

  Patron of the arts? Speaking with Lucy Reed made Maddie’s head pound, and she had more pressing things to think about. After all, she had just ridden off without her wolfish fiancé, hadn’t she? She probably should have thought that through better, but she’d been so flustered standing in the road in her bare feet, listening to how her Wes had shared his bed with the blonde who now sat across from Maddie, that she hadn’t been thinking clearly. She still wasn’t.

  And then it hit her.

  Maddie leaned forward in her seat and peered at the woman opposite her. Not Lucy Reed. “You’re Lucinda Reed.” Suddenly the outlandish walking dress made sense.

  “So nice to be recognized even in this backwater county. How I let Dove talk me into this excursion is a mystery. I must have been foxed when I agreed to it.”

  “You played Bianca on the stage.”

  The blonde actress inclined her head. “I would have done a fabulous job as Kate, but H
enry said my ingénue presence was better suited for Bianca.” She rolled her eyes dismissively.

  Maddie held in a snort. If Henry, whoever he was, had seen Lucinda Reed pummel an earl with her fists, trip two grown werewolves, and leap into a moving conveyance, she would have been cast as the shrew in an instant. “I’m sure you would have been a marvelous Kate.”

  Lucinda Reed smiled for the first time since Maddie had laid eyes on her. “That’s what Robbie said, too. He’s so adorable, your brother. Sent me roses every night of the show.”

  Patron of the arts. Madeline didn’t want to know more. So both her brother and her fiancé had a taste for actresses. She could have gone her entire life without that knowledge. Now if only she could forget it. “Oh, yes, adorable. That’s what I always say about Robbie.”

  “But your husband is wonderful, too.”

  “I’d really rather not discuss him at the moment.”

  “I can see your point.” Lucinda agreed with a nod. “If I never lay eyes on Dovenby again, it will be too soon. Black-hearted scoundrel. What did Hadley do to you?”

  Turned into a wolf before my very eyes. Rolled me in mud. Abducted me. Made me sleep in a hovel crawling with vermin. And kissed me… All things considered, it was best not to think about that kiss. That kiss was what most likely what had propelled her to leap out the inn window that morning. “It’s too complicated to explain.”

  Lucinda Reed laughed. Loudly. “Complicated? Men?” Then she shook her head. “You really are the naïve sort, aren’t you? How long have you been married?”

  Madeline had no idea how to answer that, so she just stared at the actress.

  Not that it mattered. Miss Reed could carry on a conversation with herself. “It can’t have been very long or you’d know men are the most uncomplicated creatures on the earth.”

  “I’ve always thought them to be perfidious.”

  “Oh, they’re scoundrels, the lot of them.” The actress nodded in agreement. “So as long as you know not to trust them, they’re easy to understand. They want full bellies and a woman warming their bed. That is it. The whole secret to men’s happiness. Quite uncomplicated.”