The Wolf's Bait (The Wolf's Peak Saga Book 2)

by Patricia Blackmoor

I stared at him defiantly, my jaw set.

  “Besides, you’re forgetting something,” he said. “We’re expending multiple resources to find him already. Proof is nothing if we can’t find Seth in the first place.”

  It wasn’t an answer I was satisfied with. I had a compelling need to put Seth behind bars or in a noose. This man had threatened my family and my happiness again and again. Sure, perhaps both were broken, but I wasn’t going to let them be broken because of him.

  A few days later, Jasper was needed in London for business with the royal family, and I saw my chance. I laced up my boots, grabbed my cloak, and stepped out onto the balcony. Aside from the funeral, I hadn’t been out here since I found the body. It was surreal. The red snow had been cleared away so as not to disturb the mourners, but I could still picture exactly where he had lain. It had snowed since then, but there was still a depression in the snow. I stepped here first, examining the ground as best as I was able. With a gloved hand I brushed some of the powdery snow aside, but if there was anything there, it had been buried days ago. I frowned, and my eyes flickered to the stairs to my left. There had been two sets of paw prints in this direction; one coming up the stairs and one going back down. They had blown away by now, but I still stepped down the stairs, keeping a sharp eye out for a clue. If I could find where Seth had shifted, that might help me. He could have left something behind, like fur, jewelry, or teeth.

  I reached the bottom of the stairs and was still empty–handed. I sighed, resigned. It had been a silly idea anyway, but all I wanted to do was get this madman out of my life so that he was kept from disrupting it again. I only wanted to know my child would grow up safe, and I wanted the nightmares to end.

  I was about to turn back up the stairs when I caught sight of something near the bottom, by the rosebushes. It was a few drops of red, not unlike what had surrounded Roderick when I had found his body. The drops were under the decayed leaves of the rosebush, keeping them safe from the blustering snow. I knelt down to examine it. The snow here had been heavily disrupted, but the killer had missed this spot. It was blood, almost certainly, but what could I do with that? It was even more useless than the black fur.

  I was ready to stand back up, but my examination led me to notice something else. There was an indent in the snow, right by the blood. I reached my finger in only to hit something hard. After a bit of digging, I pulled up a tooth.

  Hooper’s analysis hadn’t repulsed me, but this did. Still, it was the most helpful thing I had. A tooth, almost certainly from the murderer.

  The gears in my brain were working again. Perhaps, if I found one of Seth’s teeth, the coroner could tell me if they came from the same person. The men lost their teeth anytime they shifted, so I just had to figure out where Seth had shifted while he was at Wolf’s Peak. I knew that before the truth had been revealed to me, most of the men had done their shifting in the forest. After my last encounter in the woods, there was no way I was going back in. Especially not in this frigid cold. That left me only one option, the only place I knew for sure that Seth had shifted. The library.

  I hid the tooth in my room and set aside my boots and coat. I charged down to the library, glad that Jasper wasn’t here to see and interrogate me. I took a lantern and tried to think. I had been standing outside the library door and was able to see Seth...so that meant he had to be standing on the other side of the table, beside the stairs to the upper level.

  The odds that a tooth would still be here were miniscule. Out of all the rooms on this level, the library and the great hall were cleaned the very least, but it had been months since I had watched Seth transform in this spot. If there had been teeth left over, they would be long gone—unless there was a deity up above watching out for me.

  I had never been much for religion or church, but there truly must have been someone wanting me to succeed. After several minutes hunched uncomfortably on the floor, peering in every crook and crevice by candlelight, my eyes caught on something ivory under one of the shelves.

  I picked it up carefully, wishing I had kept my gloves on. Jasper had transformed here as well, but he had been further back. I only had to hope that this wasn’t his tooth by accident.

  The most difficult thing now was going to be taking the teeth to Mr. Hooper. I asked Mr. Potter to summon me a carriage. The morgue was across the street from a jewelry shop that Annabelle liked to frequent, so I told the driver that was my destination. He helped me out of the carriage, and I prayed I wouldn’t attract too much attention. The villagers seemed enamored with me, although I attributed that more to the fact that I was the mysterious duchess rather than that there was any sort of allure on my part. I had worn a large hat to mask my face, but the shopkeeper still recognized me the moment that I walked in. To keep up appearances, I purchased a choker with a lovely broach in the center.

  My necklace stashed in one pocket, the teeth in the other, I crept outside the shop. The driver was reading a newspaper, and I took advantage of the distraction. I darted across to the morgue, looking around carefully to be sure I was unobserved before I stepped inside.

  To say Hooper looked surprised to see me would be a massive understatement. He nearly fell off his chair when he saw me, and before putting his glasses back on he rubbed them on his jacket to be sure he was seeing clearly.

  “C–can I help you, my lady?”

  I needed to appear as though I was confident in what I was doing and by no means going behind my husband’s back. I pulled out the teeth I had collected.

  “I certainly hope so,” I said. “My husband sent me into town with these. One is the tooth of the murderer, and the other is the tooth of the suspect.”

  Mr. Hooper glanced at me over his glasses. “He sent you?”

  “This involves the utmost discretion, you understand,” I said. “There are very few he trusts as well as me.”

  “I can definitely take a look,” he said, taking the teeth from me. He motioned for me to sit as he spent what seemed like an eternity examining the two under a microscope. Finally, he spoke.

  “I can’t tell you if they’re from the same person or not,” he said. I sighed, frustrated. “There’s no way for me to do that,” he explained. “But I can tell you a few things. The first is that both of these teeth are in peak condition, which would indicate that they’re from a wolf. With the constant falling out and regrowing of teeth, werewolf teeth hardly have a chance to decay. These teeth show no wear. While I can’t confirm that they’re from the same person, I can confirm that they’re both human and fresh.”

  “That’s not as much as we had hoped,” I said. “We already knew that the attack was from a wolf.”

  “You were fairly certain,” he corrected me.

  “Right. Fairly certain.”

  “At least that’s more evidence in that direction then?”

  “I suppose,” I said. “I do appreciate all your help.”

  “Of course,” he said. “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

  I stood up, slipping the teeth in my pocket. “No, that will be all. Good afternoon.”

  I left him, poking my head out the door to be sure no one was watching as I darted outside. From my vantage point, I saw that my driver was still deep in his paper. It was a blessing that he was a slow reader.

  I crossed the street and aligned myself so it looked like I was coming from the jewelry shop. When I caught the driver’s attention, he came around to help me up, none the wiser. I settled into the velvet cushions, pensive.

  “Did you find everything you were looking for today, my lady?”

  “Oh, yes, quite,” I lied. In fact, I hadn’t found any of the proof I wanted. What good was knowing that the tooth came from a wolf? I needed to be able to prove that it came from Seth so I could wipe my hands of him. As of now, my only hope had been extinguished, and the murderer was still at large.

  I didn’t sleep well again until Jasper returned home.

  Chapter Eight

  Jasper arr
ived home a few days later. I was sitting in the library, curled up in the window seat when I heard his carriage approach. I set down my book and rushed out to greet him at the door.

  Jasper swept me up in his arms, kissing me on the lips and cheeks.

  “I missed you,” he murmured.

  “I missed you too,” I said, clutching him close to me.

  “Anything exciting happen while I was gone?”

  “Absolutely nothing,” I sighed.

  “You got a new necklace,” he said, gesturing to the choker. I had worn it on purpose, so that if the driver mentioned it to Jasper, I had an excuse.

  My hand flew to the broach on the choker, and I fiddled with it. “I saw it the last time I was at the shop with Annabelle, and I simply couldn’t put it out of my mind.”

  “It’s lovely,” he said, kissing the top of my head.

  I wanted to ask him all about his trip, but he didn’t have much to say. “I’m sorry, Christine. I’ve got some work to do. We’ll talk over breakfast tomorrow, all right?”

  I frowned as I watched him head to his study. Disappointed, I went back up to my room. He was true to his word, however, as he joined me for breakfast the next morning.

  “So, tell me about your trip,” I said as I sipped at my tea and Jasper drank his coffee. “How was it?”

  “Oh, it wasn’t anything terribly exciting,” he sighed. “I needed to speak to Edward and fill him in on things here. We talked about Roderick, and I wanted to be sure that all available resources are being used to find Seth.”

  “That’s good,” I said hopefully.

  “I’m hoping it makes a difference.”

  “I’m sure it will.”

  “I also had to discuss finding a new council member.”

  “How does that process work?” I asked.

  “We’ll replace Roderick with a member of his family,” Jasper explained. “Since he doesn’t have any children, it will be one of his nephews.”

  “I spoke to Connor. I liked him.”

  “I like him as well. Unfortunately, it must be a group decision, so I can’t merely offer him the position. The men are coming over later tonight to discuss. Hopefully, we’ll have our answer tonight, but I suspect that it will take a few days.”

  “The men are that opinionated?”

  “Oh, yes. You should have seen the contention when we added Adam about two years ago, and that was supposed to be simple because he was his father’s oldest son. The other men didn’t like that he was so young. In fact, he’s one of the youngest that we’ve ever had on the council, aside from myself.”

  “You think that because Conor is on the younger side, they won’t want him?”

  “Among other things. However, he’s the only one who has so far shown any interest in politics, so I suppose we’ll see.”

  “I’ll back you up, if you like,” I said, taking another bite of my breakfast.

  “Unfortunately, you won’t be allowed to,” he said.

  “What? Why?”

  “Only the councilmen have any say in who joins the council.”

  “Well, that’s not fair,” I muttered.

  He threw me an apologetic look. “I know it’s frustrating for you, but this is the way it is. Only councilmen.”

  The men arrived later that evening, and Stephen brought along Annabelle. As the men locked themselves away in the great hall, I explained what Jasper had told me.

  “I should be used to it by now,” Annabelle sighed, “but it’s still frustrating to be left out.”

  “I hope they choose Conor,” I said, leaning back against my chair. “I didn’t like the other two so much.”

  “I agree. The brothers weren’t very sociable, were they?”

  “I don’t think they spoke a word to me,” I mused.

  We passed the time chatting and playing cards. I wanted to bring up her duplicity, but I never seemed to find the nerve, and she was oblivious. I kept quiet.

  When all the men left for the night, I poked my head into the great room.

  “How did it go?” I asked.

  “About as well as I expected,” he sighed. “We went around in circles.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  He shrugged. “As I said, I expected it. Still, it would be nice if we came to a conclusion. I want Roderick’s position filled as soon as possible.”

  I wandered around the room. I didn’t spend a lot of time in the great hall; Jasper used it mainly for meetings.

  “This room is beautiful,” I said, tracing my fingers along the massive stone of the fireplace.

  “That it is,” Jasper said as he rubbed his temples.

  “Annabelle said that this room is part of the original house?”

  “It is. When my father was a child, the family had left on holiday. Someone had left a lamp lit upstairs, and it spread out of control. There were servants in the house; I think you’ve noticed that their quarters are above the great hall. They rushed to put out the fire, but it spread over most of the house. Thankfully none of the them perished, and they were able to salvage some of the more valuable manuscripts, which we now keep in the library. Almost the entire mansion was rebuilt around this room. Two of the walls in the library, three in the kitchen, and the servant’s quarters upstairs are original as well.”

  “I always wondered why the back of the house was stone,” I murmured. “That explains it.”

  Jasper bunched his papers together and stood up. “I’ve got to get to bed, Christine. I’m exhausted.”

  He wrapped me in a hug, kissing the top of my neck. We walked together out of the hall and upstairs. “I’ve got to do all this again tomorrow. I’ll see you in the morning?”

  The men and Annabelle arrived earlier the next day, after tea time. Like before, the men locked themselves away so we couldn’t hear.

  “Did Stephen say anything about their meeting?” I asked Annabelle.

  “Not much. Did Jasper?”

  “Only that they couldn’t seem to come to a proper agreement. I suspect that if the walls weren’t so thick, we’d hear yelling by now.”

  Annabelle rolled her eyes. “It’s the Adam situation all over again, only that was somehow worse.”

  “Worse?”

  “Well, that was cut–and–dry. Adam was first in line and the rightful heir, but some of the men still put up resistance. The older ones… they’re very resistant to change. They don’t like it no matter how necessary it is.”

  “I can understand why Jasper was frustrated then,” I said.

  “Oh God, decisions like these, I never hear the end of it from Stephen. He’s been on the council for four years, and it seems like he’s aged ten.”

  “Were you married at the time?”

  “We were courting. Once Stephen was added to the council, my father didn’t hesitate to allow him to marry me.”

  “Your family are werewolves, then?” I asked.

  “My father is. I don’t have brothers. I didn’t know about it until I was almost nineteen. They kept the secret from me well.”

  “How did you find out?”

  “It was before I went to finish my education. They basically sat me down and explained the genetics of it. I didn’t believe them until my father shifted in front of my eyes. I think I screamed for two days.”

  “I can understand how that feels,” I murmured.

  “I never heard what your reaction was when you found out,” Annabelle said.

  “No one told you?”

  She shook her head.

  I sighed. “I saw Seth shift, then Jasper. They didn’t know I was there.”

  She frowned. “Wait, was that the night you went into the woods?”

  I nodded. “That’s part of why I left. I was afraid.”

  I could see her mind working behind her eyes. “But that was in August. You came here in May.”

  “Yes.”

  Her hand flew to her mouth. “Oh, Christine, I had no idea Jasper waited so long!”

  “Y
ou didn’t?”

  “He told me he would tell you, and I trusted him. Oh, my dear, I’m so sorry.”

  I stared down at my hands, torn with emotion. “It’s all right,” I said, though it was still painful. Someday, perhaps, I would find the strength inside myself to confront Annabelle.

  “What do you think they’re talking about in there?” I asked her, trying to change the subject.

  “Probably still arguing,” she said, “knowing them. I know Stephen is rooting for Conor, but some of the men are hesitant because he’s only twenty–six. I think they’re worried about being outnumbered by the young men.”

  “Ridiculous.”

  A wicked grin spread across Annabelle’s face. “Do you want to listen in?”

  “We can’t. Like you said, the walls in there are three feet thick. At least.”

  “I have an idea,” she said, climbing off of the couch. As she stood up, I saw what she had seen: Daisy bringing a tray of tea into the great hall.

  Annabelle darted down the hallway to stand right outside the door.

  “Pretend we’re talking,” she said, keeping her eye on the door.

  “We are talking.”

  “Pretend we’re talking about something exciting.”

  “All right. What do you think of my new necklace?”

  “It’s lovely,” she said without looking.

  “I got it at Julian’s Jewels.”

  “That’s nice.”

  “You haven’t even looked at it.”

  She glanced between my neck and the door. “Like I said, it’s lovely. Christine, I told you to pretend we were talking about something exciting. And keep quiet.”

  Daisy slipped out the double doors, balancing the tray on her hand. She scarcely looked at us as she made her way back to the kitchen. As the doors swung shut behind her, Annabelle stuck a slippered foot out to stop the second one before it clicked shut. She reached for the handle and pulled the door so the latches were resting side by side, but the door wasn’t actually shut. This way, there was enough of a crack between the two doors that we could listen in, but the men most likely wouldn’t notice the door was open.

  “I’m not comfortable handing over the role to Conor,” one of the men was saying.