by Alyse Zaftig
Ella pretended not to notice and waved at everyone, carrying on about her next writing project she had booked just this morning. “It’s so nice to work in a place like this. I don’t exactly get the best inspiration for writing a research article about gardening while looking out my window at the apartments across the street.”
I grunted in reply, unable to look anywhere else but down at my feet.
“Are you okay?” she whispered, stopping once we’d made it to the entrance of the only pub in town.
“I told you I dinnae like this idea. We shouldnae be out here where everyone’s watchin’.”
She took a good look around and tugged at my jacket until we were standing along the side of the building. “I know you don’t trust them, Bram. And I can’t imagine the things you went through, especially growing up on your own. They casted you out and then forgot all about you…and then that horrible bitch came to recruit you for the freaking Nazis of all things! But it won’t be like that this time, I promise you. You should try and work on getting over your mistrust of the humans. I mean, you’re sleeping with one, you know.”
Not exactly willing to trust the townsfolk just yet, my dragon let out a low, raspy growl. The sweet lass might have had a good point. “I can work on it. Maybe.”
The cool wind whipped past us, swirling Ella’s heavenly scent all around me, helping calm the insatiable beast. She smiled at me as she squeezed my arm. “It’s a start.”
After Ella was sure that I meant what I’d said, we returned to the small cottage she was renting out.
“Are you sure you don’ want to come stay with me, instead?” Knowing that my mate wouldn’t be close to my side as I slept was really frustrating the dragon, not to mention frustrating the hell out of me. In older times, I would have simply demanded her to listen, the powerful beast in me having no problems taking charge over my mate.
But Ella wasn’t like that. She was strong and would’ve simply cracked up had I talked to her that way. Or walloped me over my heid.
“I actually wanted to talk to you about that,” she finally replied, sitting on the edge of the bed. The cottage was wee smaller than my house, and the only real place the both of us could fit was on the bed. “Once I’m finished with my month here, I have to go back to New York.”
Everything inside of me seized up, my dragon in such immediate anguish that I nearly missed the funny look she was giving me. KEEP. TAKE. STAY. STAY. STAY. The beast was bellowing out its thoughts, growling as it began circling around.
“I mean, I have to see my family. I’m going to have a lot of explaining to do, you know?”
My chest felt hollow, as though she had scooped out all of my innards and fed them to the gulls. “Will you?” I said, numbly.
She turned all the way to face me. “Well, yeah. I might not have a lot of stuff, but I’m pretty sure moving to a new country is kind of a big deal…”
“What?” My eyes went wide as a smart little grin cut across Ella’s sexy mouth. I picked her up in an instant, spinning her around. “You vexing little minx!”
She giggled and held onto me tightly as I stood her back up. “You didn’t really think I could leave you after everything? You made me yours, Bram. I can’t just ignore that. I don’t want to. Plus,” she said, gesturing to the whole of the room, “I’ve never felt more at peace, and less crazy. I kinda think I was meant to be here.”
Emotion filled my chest, aching at the thought that she would choose me with her family back home in America. But I didn’t want her take the decision lightly, even though deep down I felt utterly triumphant. “Are you sure you want to do this?” I couldn’t help the desperation that sneaked its way into my voice. “We could figure out another way.”
To her credit, Ella didn’t play games when she saw the sincerity in my eyes. She reached up and stroked at my jaw. “I don’t want another way, Bram. I want you. I want Scotland. I want peace…” she trailed off before taking a deep breath, “and I want love.”
I closed my eyes as she pulled me down to her level, her cool lips seeking mine out, soothing the ever-present blaze in me with a long kiss.
“I want those things too, lass. More than you’ll ever know.”
I lost count of how many times I made Ella come, or how many times she worked her magic on me. It was enough that even I was getting rather tired and required a break.
The day faded into night and as I laid there on the floor by the fireplace, Ella’s deliciously beautiful body asleep on my chest, I mentally prepared myself to put away the century’s worth of anger and hatred I had toward the humans. Deep inside a box in the far reaches of my mind, past where the dragon could reach, I hid it all.
She believed in me, and if she could believe in an old, cratchety moron like me, then pretty much anything was possible.
If Ella wanted me to forgive then I could slowly do that. After all, I loved her enough already to try.
Part VIII
The Cursed Werebear Prince
Alyse Zaftig
Farewell
Cateline
“Do you have to go, Father?”
“Darling Cateline, of course I do. I’ve been going on journeys your whole life. I always feel happy knowing that your older sisters are here to take care of you. If you ever need anything, you can send a carrier pigeon to one of the inns on my route.” He chucked my chin gently, just like he used to when I was only five. “Sweetheart, I miss you when I’m gone, but I have to work.”
“I understand.” I fiddled with the ribbon in my hair. “Come back soon.”
“I will. Do you want a present, like your siblings do?”
“What did they ask for?”
“Your stepbrother wanted a new horse. Your oldest sister wanted a new carriage. And Aalis wanted new Parisian dresses. And you?”
I looked down at the book in my hand. There was a red rose on the front. It was the sort of book that my mother, if she’d still been alive, wouldn’t have let me read. It was full of stories of love and romance. “A rose, Father.”
“Just a rose? That costs almost nothing. Surely you could use some new dresses. Your clothing is starting to look a little frayed.”
“No, Father. You know I don’t care much about my clothes.”
He leaned in and kissed my forehead. “Yes, I know.”
I took a step back as he mounted his horse. His traveling companion was already ready to drive the carriage that would follow him on his journey to the coast, two days away. I stood there as long as I could see him go down the lane. Eventually, he was gone. I sighed.
“Cateline! Where are you?” Aalis was calling me. If I didn’t escape right now, I’d be stuck sorting through her dresses, sewing her hems up, embroidering things, and attaching lace. I hated sewing and clothes.
I escaped the same way that I always did. I ran into the stables and climbed into the hayloft. The stable boys and I had an agreement. Most of them couldn’t read and had never attended a school, so I taught a short reading lesson every day after dinner. In return, they left me alone when I came to the stable and didn’t tell anybody where I hid.
I kept a trunk up there of books that Father had brought me. He didn’t bother to ask me if I wanted them. Anytime that he saw something that he thought might interest me, he would bring it home. My older half-sisters teased me mercilessly, but I liked books far more than dresses. They said that nobody would ever want to marry a bluestocking.
They teased me for a lot more than that. Their mother, my father’s first wife, was the daughter of an earl, too. Her first husband, an earl, had died when their son Roul was only two years old. She’d been left nearly penniless. Technically, Roul had inherited everything, and it was administered by a solicitor. He gave her enough to feed Roul and not much more. Castles and households cost a lot of money to maintain. So Lady Johanne had been quite desperate, since she had never lived anywhere besides the lap of luxury.
She had been desperate enough to marry a mere baronet, my father, to protect the
baby earl and make sure that she could afford to give him everything that he needed and a good amount of things that he didn’t. From the day that Lady Johanne had married my father, she made sure to look out for his interests. As part of their marriage contract, my father agreed to sign over an amount held in trust by Lady Johanne.
They’d been happy enough together, happy enough to have my two half-sisters. Lady Melisende was the oldest, the one who loved to travel around the Continent and have adventures. Lady Aalis was the fashionable one, the one who loved to go to parties every night and dance past dawn.
Me? I was the boring one. My father had married above himself when he married Lady Johanne and took Earl Roul under his wing, but he was free to marry for love after Lady Johanne had died in childbirth with Aalis. My mother was a merchant’s daughter, his childhood sweetheart. His mother hadn’t liked her and relentlessly pushed him to climb higher. But when both Lady Johanne and his mother were dead, he was free to follow his heart.
He lost a second wife in childbirth when I came into the world less than two years later. He easily could have resented me for stealing his wife, but he said that I was just as beautiful as she had been. He saw her in me. My face was deceptively angelic. In our village, I was known as Belle Cateline and sometimes Belle for short.
My father never remarried. His business boomed as he threw himself into growing his business interests, and so he was often gone. I was raised by a nanny and then a governess, and I could have been sent to finishing school as my older half-sisters had been, but instead I had preferred to stay at home. I liked the solitude of our home, even if my sisters hated it. They threw it in my face that they’d gone and seen the world while I was a homebody who just stayed home. They had titles, too, since their mother was noble. They made me call them Lady Aalis and Lady Melisende. At most, I got an “Honorable” before my name, but it didn’t mean very much. We might have shared a father, but they were descended from royalty and I wasn’t. I learned at an early age that I needed to disappear as often as possible or they would make me play games where I was their servant.
Thus, my refuge in the stables.
I went up to the hayloft where I kept a bag full of apples with my books. I could stay there as long as I wanted to.
Return
Cateline
“Don’t you think that it’s strange that Father hasn’t returned?” I walked into Lady Melisende in the breakfast room. She was wearing an evening gown.
“Father? What nonsense is this?” She ate a bite of eggs.
“He’s not back. It’s not like him not to respond. I’ve been sending a carrier pigeon every day, but he hasn’t responded to me for a week.”
“You’re being idiotic, Cateline. He’s just busy, like me.” She yawned theatrically. “I haven’t been to bed yet.”
“But it’s 8 in the morning.”
She shrugged, her shoulders delicate in her off-the-shoulder gown. “Yes, I just got home a half hour ago. If you are so worried, go out there and search for Father.” She put her napkin on the left side of her plate and stood. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go to bed. I don’t have time for your stupid prattle.” She went up the stairs to her room.
I shut up. I knew that Melisende was a lot nicer than Aalis, so I couldn’t try my luck. Roul didn’t live with the rest of the family. When he reached the age of majority, he had moved to Paris. He spent most of his time with his friends, spending his inheritance like water. He was one of the richest earls in France. He was doing his best to spend everything he had, though, the wealth accumulated through generations to disappear now.
My heart felt like a stone as I walked out of the breakfast room without eating. I climbed the small tower where we kept our pigeons. I went there every day to feed them and care for any sick ones. There was a man who took care of the sick ones if I noticed any that were off their feed. The pigeons loved me, and I loved them. I longed to fly free, even though I loved the coziness of my home.
It was from the tower that I saw the carriage that had followed my father on his journey weeks before approach our gate. I ran down the tower stairs at a reckless pace.
“Father!” I screamed, not caring that my sisters would tease me later for being so exuberant. “Father!”
I waved cheerfully at his companion, who brought the carriage to a stop. “Miss, wait a moment.” His tone was carefully even.
“What’s the matter?”
“Your father is a little ill.”
“Ill?”
When I opened the carriage, I saw what he meant. My father was as pale as salt. His hair was disheveled. His clothing looked like he hadn’t pressed it for months. He also smelled a little. My father was fastidious, always saying that “the habit makes the monk.” He needed to look prosperous for people to take him seriously. The sick man in the carriage couldn’t have sold a potato to a starving family.
“What on earth happened, Papa?”
“Cateline?”
“Yes, I’m here.” I motioned to the footman at the door to help me bring my father into the house.
Physician
Cateline
Once the footman brought my father inside and put him in the parlor, I said, “Please get a physician.”
“Right away,” he said, bowing. He moved quickly out of the room, as if he might be afraid that he would catch what my father had.
I went to the couch and held my father’s hand. His eyes were closed and his breathing was very shallow.
“What happened?”
My father’s voice was breathy and weak. “Caught in a rainstorm. Horse shied. Fell down and hurt my ankle.”
“Oh no! Did you go into a village without a physician?”
“Worse,” he said in his raspy whisper. “He put me in the carriage and took me to the nearest castle. I am the father of Earl Roul, after all. I thought that I could trade on his name.”
“You’re acting as if you couldn’t.”
“He imprisoned me.” The statement was so short, so quiet, that I thought I had misheard him.
“What?”
“He imprisoned me,” my father told me, his voice a little stronger. “He locked me in his library.”
“Father!” Lady Melisende and Lady Aalis must have noticed the commotion out in front of our manor, because they knelt at his bedside, displacing me. They might have been vain and catty, but they did love him. Aalis began to weep.
The footman must have caught a physician who was already near our house, because the door sprang open. A man carrying a large black bag walked into the room.
“Is this the patient?” He looked at my father, too pale and resting. “I see. Not a moment too soon. You’re lucky that I just attended a birth nearby and had a midwife to leave there.” He shooed us out. “I need privacy. No ladies allowed.”
The three of us left. Aalis and Melisende were too shocked to make a joke about the way that I wasn’t actually a lady. Aalis cried into Melisende’s shoulder. I could see from Melisende’s face that she was thinking about what would happen to us if our father died.
My father didn’t have an heir. He only had three daughters. When he died, the baronetcy would pass to our cousin Gaufroi, my father’s nephew, and all the entailed land would go to him. We had generous dowries, but unless we were married off, we couldn’t draw from them.
“What will we do if Papa dies?” I asked Melisende. I wasn’t expecting her to slap me.
“Shut up,” she hissed. “It won’t happen. Papa can’t die.” Aalis was crying harder now, huge, wracking sobs that shook her whole body. “Get out. Get out!”
I walked outside. It wasn’t a good time for me to hide in the stable. Walking in the woods behind the house instead, I wrapped my arms around myself in the chilly air. My sisters would have an easy time finding a husband. They got proposals left and right. It was a game for them. If they really wanted to be married, though, they could manage it.
I, on the other hand, barely went out of t
he house. I knew that my father and sisters would be unhappy if I married a commoner, but I didn’t mingle with nobility all that often. I was just the Honorable Cateline and Belle to those who knew me well.
I stood to lose the most if Father died.
I walked in a slow circuit around our manor, praying that my father would make it through. When I saw the physician come out of the door, I rushed up to him.
“Will he recover?”
My fear must have shown in my eyes. The physician patted my arm awkwardly, as if he didn’t feel comfortable comforting me.
“He’ll live as long as he doesn’t overexert himself. He told me a wild story, though. I don’t think that he’s in his right mind. You can go in now. Maybe bring him some tea.”
I went to the kitchen and took a teapot, two lumps of sugar, and a cup in a saucer. I went back into the parlor with those in hand.
“Father? I brought you some tea.”
His eyes opened. He seemed a little better than he’d been when he arrived.
“Ah, Cateline. Come here, child.”
I gave him the cup of tea. He was resting on a pile of pillows that hadn’t been there when I left. He drank it in small sips.
“I feel better already, my dear. Thank you.” I nodded. He drank all the tea and gave me back the cup. “I need you to call your sisters down for a family meeting.”
I didn’t know what was wrong, but I knew that he had bad news. He wasn’t at death’s door, though, and I felt better. I went up the stairs and knocked on Melisende’s door.
“Come down,” I shouted through the door. “Father wants to speak to you both.”
The door opened, and I could see Aalis still had red eyes. Melisende was dabbing under her eyes with one of the handkerchiefs she made me embroider for her. “Coming.”
They swept past me to go down the stairs to see our father.