WolfeLord: de Wolfe Pack Generations

by Kathryn Le Veque

  Will’s brow flickered. “What do you mean?”

  Adria quickly wiped at the tears on her face with a shaking hand. “If he is wrong, Lady de Wolfe will live and the child will live,” she said. “Why must we make such decisions now? Why can we not wait to see? He is not God. He does not know what will happen in the end. He could be mistaken.”

  Will looked at her, sorrow in his eyes. “I wish he was,” he said. “I hope he is. But I fear we have no choice but to believe him. He has knowledge that the rest of us do not.”

  Adria’s features tightened. “Then I am to marry you the moment Lily passes on?” she asked. “I must go into the marriage bed with the husband of a woman whose body will still be warm? I do not like any of this, my lord. It feels… wrong. It feels opportunistic and wrong, as if I am stealing something from Lady de Wolfe even though she has made it clear that her marriage to you is…”

  She stopped herself before she could go on, appalled that she’d run off at the mouth as much as she had. She dropped her head again, looking at her lap.

  “Forgive me,” she whispered. “Please forgive me. We are speaking of a woman I love as a sister and I find this whole thing… shocking and disorienting.”

  Will was watching her carefully. “I understand,” he said. “I told her so. But she is determined to select a woman that I should marry who is worthy of the de Wolfe name. She feels that it is you.”

  Adria shook her head as if fighting off the very idea. “But I am no one,” she said, emotion in her tone. “My lord, you know who my father is. What he is. He’s a penniless lord who is looking for an opportunity for his daughter to marry well. I will not give it to him.”

  Will’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

  Her head came up again, looking at him with great sorrow. “Alcester used to stand for something,” she said flatly. “There was money and a lovely home, but my father took all of the money, and my mother’s money as well, and gambled it all into the ground. He only had a daughter – me – so he knew he had to make sure I was positioned well for an advantageous marriage so he would have access to more money that he could squander. It would be his greatest wish for me to marry the heir to the House of de Wolfe because it would give him an endless supply of coin. He would bleed me dry and have me begging money from you constantly.”

  “Would you?”

  “Nay!” she nearly shouted. “I would not, but he is like vermin that you cannot get rid of. He picks and picks until it drives you mad.”

  Will sat back in the seat, his focus never leaving her. “And that is why you will not consider Lily’s request?”

  She lost some of her anger. “Mostly,” she said honestly. “May… may I be honest?”

  “You are doing an excellent job so far. Continue.”

  “You have already had one unhappy marriage. I could not bring you another.”

  He cocked his head curiously. “You think my marriage to Lily is unhappy?”

  “Isn’t it?”

  He shrugged. “It is a marriage by definition of the name,” he said. “We do not hate one another. In fact, we are good friends. She wants for nothing. It is not a bad marriage.”

  “But are you happy?”

  He sighed faintly. “I am not miserable if that is what you mean.”

  It was a surprisingly honest conversation between two people who had never really had a conversation at all, much less one like this. Even though they’d been acquainted for years, they really didn’t know one another.

  Perhaps it was time.

  “What do you think of Lady de Wolfe’s request?” Adria asked after a moment. “After everything I have told you, surely you must tell her that a marriage between us is quite impossible.”

  “Why?”

  Adria was surprised by his question. “I told you why,” she said. “My father would look at such a union as his own personal fortune. I cannot allow him to do that to you.”

  Will shook his head. “And you do not think I can handle your father?” he said. “I do not care what he thinks. But if we were to marry and you ask me for money to give to him, I would do it. Would you ask?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “Then we have nothing to worry about.”

  Adria wasn’t so sure. She shook her head. “It is not so easy,” she said. “I told you that he picks. It would not be… pleasant.”

  “And I would not be pleasant if he annoyed you or, worse, annoyed me. He would be very, very sorry.”

  Adria looked at him curiously. Or, perhaps she was looking at him through new eyes. She wasn’t quite sure, but his declaration somehow gave her hope.

  Hope that Gar de Geld wouldn’t get what he wanted, after all.

  But that wasn’t the only problem in her eyes.

  “Even so, I am not a suitable match for you,” she said, calmer and more quietly. “You are the heir to a great empire. I am the daughter of a very minor noble family. When you marry, it should be for wealth or position. I can’t give you either.”

  “I do not want wealth or position, for I have both already,” he said. “Wealth and position do not a happy marriage make.”

  She was quite curious about that comment. “Then it is not something you desire?”

  He shook his head. “Strangely enough, I would like to marry a woman who isn’t ambitious, who is unfailingly honest, and who would make an excellent companion,” he said. “I’ve been around you for a few years now, my lady, and I have seen how you have been with Lady de Wolfe. You are faithful, true, honest, loyal, and unselfish. I know this for myself because Lily cannot live without you. Plus, you can run fast and chase Atticus down, so that makes you entirely suitable in my opinion. Lily did not have a terrible idea when she suggested a marriage between us. Mayhap she is right. Will you at least think about it?”

  Adria stared at him, realizing that he was agreeable to his wife’s mad scheme. Or perhaps it wasn’t such a mad scheme, after all. Adria pondered his question a moment before answering.

  “Are you sure this is what you want?” she asked.

  His eyes took on a glimmer of warmth. “Knowing you as long as I have and seeing you through Lady de Wolfe’s eyes, I think I could not find a more suitable lady were I to search far and wide,” he said. “This is what Lily wants. I am agreeable if you are.”

  Adria didn’t know what to say. She sat there for a moment, bewildered but not entirely hopeless. There was something in the way he looked at her that gave her confidence that, perhaps, this wasn’t so insane, after all.

  There was only one answer she could give him.

  “I will think about it,” she finally said. “I promise.”

  “Good,” Will said, standing up. “We will speak again tomorrow. Is that acceptable?”

  Adria nodded hesitantly. “It is,” she said. “I… I do not think I have much time to think it over. I do not want to distress Lady de Lohr, so I promise I will think very hard.”

  Will nodded, stepping out of the alcove. “It is a big decision,” he said. “You must make certain you are comfortable with it.”

  Adria stood up, too, following him. “Let us be honest, my lord,” she said. “It is the request from a dying woman. I am not entirely sure there is any other option but the obvious. But I will most definitely think on it, very hard.”

  Will forced a smile. “That is all I can ask,” he said. “Now, I intend to save Hermes from Atticus the Tyrant. I think he has spent enough time with his young cousin and is surely ready to beg for mercy.”

  “Nay,” Adria said, pushing past him. “I will save Hermes. Atticus is my charge, after all.”

  “You are a brave, brave woman.”

  Adria couldn’t help it; she grinned at him, flashing a big dimple in her right cheek, before quickly lowering her gaze and heading to the hall entry. Will followed at a distance, but as he did, he found himself taking a second look at the noble Lady Adria. He’d never really given her a second look in all of the years he’d known her, but
now… now, perhaps he should.

  His wife certainly thought so.

  An odd situation, indeed.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “It has been a long time since I’ve been here,” a soft female voice with a decided Scottish brogue spoke. “Carlisle Castle never ceases tae fill me with a sense of awe.”

  It had been a few days since Will’s dire missive had been received at Castle Questing, forcing the House of de Wolfe into action. Scott, riding in full battle regalia beside a fortified carriage painted in the de Wolfe colors, turned to the woman looking from the window.

  “How fortunate we were that Edward asked Will to be his garrison commander,” he said. “That makes an unbreakable line of de Wolfe or de Wolfe allies from one end of the border to the other.”

  Jordan de Wolfe, the Countess of Warenton, gazed at the red-stoned bastion as it drew near. “When I married yer da those years go, who knew this would come about?”

  “Papa did.”

  Jordan smiled at her eldest son. “I think he did,” she said. “Ye’ve never seen a fiercer man in battle or when dealing with the politics of the border. It still amazes me that our life has become what it has.”

  “Regrets?” Scott teased her.

  Jordan cocked an eyebrow. “Only with ye,” she said, watching him laugh. But she sobered quickly. “I confess that I’m concerned with what we’ll find here.”

  Scott’s smile faded. “I know,” he said. “Me, too. I wonder if Will has sent word to Chris. This is his daughter we are speaking of, after all.”

  Jordan fell silent for a moment. “Birth is part of life,” she said quietly. “As men go intae battle prepared for death, women go intae childbirth prepared for the same. I’ve been very fortunate that my own children havena suffered dead children or wives throughout the years.”

  “But you had a stillbirth.”

  Jordan nodded. “Madeleine,” she said, thinking back to that terrible day so many years ago. “It was strange, really – the babe had been very busy in my belly up until she was born, and when she came out, she was simply… dead. There was no chance tae revive her and I’ve always wondered what happened. Sometimes God’s will is painful and mysterious, but when I die, that’s the first question I’m going tae ask Him – what happened tae my Madeleine and where is she so that I may hug her?”

  Scott nodded faintly, knowing that Madeleine’s birth had always affected his mother so. She’d had many children, but each one was as precious as if it were the only child to her. “If you get there before me, hug her for me, as well,” he said. “And then find Athena and Andy and Bea and tell them that I love them.”

  “I will, have no doubt.”

  The castle loomed closer.

  The blue sky seemed inordinately bright against the silhouette of the structure as they came in from the south, as the road wound around to take them through the main gatehouse. There was an enormous moat between them and the walls, part of Carlisle’s defense system, and the moat smelled – and looked – like a sewer. It was all part of the deterrent.

  Passing through the gatehouse, Baron Kilham was announced, Kilham being the hereditary title for the heir to the earldom of Warenton. Scott had brought two hundred men with him, unwilling to take a chance with his mother traveling with him. The entire party congregated in the outer bailey and by the time Scott opened up the door of the carriage so his mother could climb out, Will was upon them.

  “Papa,” he said, hugging his father fiercely. When he saw his grandmother’s wimpled head emerging from the carriage, he reached out to help her down. “And Matha. I’m so happy to see you both.”

  Once Jordan was on her feet, Will hugged her tightly enough to lift her up. She grunted at his enthusiastic hugging as his father beat him off.

  “Careful, lad,” he said as Will set Jordan back to her feet. “Squeeze like that again and you may break something.”

  Will grinned. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m just so glad to see you. Poppy let you come without him?”

  Poppy was what all of the de Wolfe grandchildren called William de Wolfe and Jordan nodded. “He insisted I come,” she said. “He thought I might be of some assistance, but I must tell ye that he sent word tae Paris. I wouldna be surprised if Bonny showed up as well.”

  Will’s smile faded. “I’m so sorry to drag you away from Poppy’s celebration,” he said. “Every birthday celebration at his age is important.”

  Jordan waved him off. “This is important, tae,” she said, looking towards the keep. “How is Lily? Where is she?”

  Will took his grandmother by the elbow, helping her towards the keep as Scott took position on her other side. “She is as well as can be expected,” he said. “Did Papa tell you everything?”

  “Everything in the missive,” Scott said, looking at his eldest son and seeing how much the man was starting to look like his mother. He hadn’t seen him in about six months and even at Will’s age, he changed and developed as he got older. His hair had taken on more redness to it and there was something with the way his mouth was shaped that looked just like Athena. “Now that we’re here, tell us everything, Will. Everything that was in the missive and more that wasn’t.”

  Will’s joy in seeing his father and grandmother dampened at the thought of why they were actually there. There was comfort that they had arrived, of course, but there was also a sense of foreboding as to why they had arrived.

  They’d arrived because of Lily’s impending fate.

  “There is little more to tell,” he said. “Know that no one knows what is happening with Lily, so please do not speak of it to others. We have kept it private.”

  “Understood,” Scott said. “Continue.”

  Will looked up at the squat, strong keep looming in the near distance. “My physic, Tarraby, is a man of great talent,” he said. “Poppy sent him here last year when I was badly injured in a skirmish. He healed a wound to my thigh that could have just as easily gone wrong. I could have lost my leg.”

  “I know,” Scott said. “The man is very skilled.”

  Will went on. “Last month, Lily was in the kitchen yard when she slipped and fell heavily in the mud,” he said. “From what I understand, she landed on her bottom and left side. In any case, ever since then, she’s been having pain in her belly and in her back, and she has been passing blood fairly steadily, sometimes a greater volume than other times. She did not tell me this, of course – I only knew about the pains – so I finally had Tarraby examine her and, based on his experience, he believes that the nourishment sack for the child has pulled away from the womb. He says the child is slowly dying and that Lily will bleed to death when he is born. That is why I sent for you, Papa – you are a great healer. I want you to examine Lily, too, and give me your opinion.”

  Scott drew in a long, if not remorseful, breath. “My skill is with illness and battle wounds, Will,” he said. “A pregnant woman requires skill I do not believe I have. I am not entirely sure I can help in this case.”

  “Will you at least look at her, Papa?” Will asked. “I am willing to believe Tarraby. We all are. But I want you to examine her and tell me what you think.”

  Scott nodded in resignation, passing Jordan a long glance. “And Lily?” he asked. “How is she taking this?”

  Will shrugged. “Lily has been surprisingly strong,” he said. “She is trying to be logical and reasonable about it, but you should know something. Tarraby has told her that the only way to save the child is to take him by force, which will surely kill Lily. She has chosen to do this, for she wants her child to live. She has also decided to select a wife for me to take her place. She says that she must go to her grave knowing that the children and I are well-tended.”

  Both Scott and Jordan looked at him in surprise. “A wife?” Jordan said. “Who is this wife she has selected?”

  “Lady Adria, her lady-in-waiting.”

  Jordan frowned. “Adria?” she repeated. “I believe I’ve met this lass, only briefly, howev
er.”

  “Probably,” Will said. “She accompanies Lily everywhere she goes, so I am sure you’ve met her at some point.”

  Jordan was still frowning. “So Lily wants tae make sure ye have a wife after she’s gone?” she said. “I’m not sure I like that she insists upon selecting her. Ye have yer own choice of freedom as tae who ye’ll marry, Will. ’Tis not Lily’s decision.”

  Will nodded patiently as they came to the inner gatehouse. “I know,” he said. “But she is concerned with what she leaves behind. She wants to make sure I am happy and that the children are cared for.”

  “It is still not her choice unless ye’re comfortable with her making it,” Jordan said. “Lily has exerted enough control in yer marriage, Will. The lass can be headstrong and ye’ve let her.”

  “This is not the time, Mama,” Scott said, trying to head his mother off of any tirade against Lily. Jordan never had agreed with the way Will and Lily ran their marriage and wasn’t shy about expressing that opinion. “Let us greet Lily and your great-grandson before we engage in any heavy discussions.”

  Jordan shut her mouth, but she turned her nose up at Scott to let him know she wasn’t finished speaking her mind when it came to Lily de Lohr de Wolfe. The lass who had everything but never seemed to be happy about it.

  “Where’s my Atticus?” she said. “I must hug him before he can scream and run away. He doesna seem tae like hugs.”

  Will grinned weakly. “Do not feel bad about it,” he said. “He doesn’t like anyone to hug him.”

  “I’m not just anyone.”

  “That is true,” Will said, lifting her hand and kissing it. “You are one of a kind.”

  Jordan let his flattery soften her and he laughed softly because she smiled at him, though reluctantly. The keep was looming ahead by now and they moved towards it, heading towards an encounter that would either give hope or give confirmation. That would either dispute Tarraby or support the fact that Lily de Lohr de Wolfe, Lady Irthington, was in a dire condition.

  Somehow, stepping into that keep signaled life or death.

  That dark, cool interior had them dreading what was to come.