The Cursed One

by Ronda Thompson

  It was a good plan. A dream, a hope he would never let go. Gabriel eased Amelia off of him, rose, and offered her his hand. “I miss my brothers. I need to tell them what has happened to me. If I can break the curse, so can they.”

  She took his hand and he helped her rise, reached down and grabbed her valise, and together they walked toward the lights of Wulfglen. Gabriel suddenly wondered what his brothers would think of him showing up with a woman whose wedding they had attended only a week ago. He smiled over the mayhem sure to come.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Gabriel couldn’t have been more surprised when Hawkins answered his summons at the door. The man rarely visited the country estate but kept the home fires burning in London when the Wulfs were not in residence at the townhome. The man’s cool expression never faltered upon seeing Gabriel standing at the door wearing coarse clothing and with a woman wearing outlandish boots with her torn and dirty gown.

  “Lord Gabriel,” Hawkins said formally. “Welcome home.”

  The man’s gaze moved to Amelia. “Lady Collingsworth,” he clipped, then bowed before he straightened and opened the door wider. Gabriel led Amelia inside. He heard voices coming from the front parlor. A man he did not recognize came down the hallway carrying a bottle of brandy. Both stopped and stared at each other.

  “Who the hell are you?” Gabriel asked him.

  “Merrick,” the man answered. “Who the hell are you?”

  It suddenly occurred to Gabriel that the man standing in his hallway was the spitting image of Jackson, only his hair was dark.

  “Merrick, where’s that brandy?” A man stepped into the hallway. Gabriel didn’t recognize him, either … at least not for a moment. His eyes stung with tears when he finally did.

  “Sterling,” he rasped.

  Sterling Wulf, his youngest brother, whom Gabriel had not seen in ten years, stared back at him. “Gabriel,” he said. “We were just making plans about you, and wondering where the hell you were.”

  Gabriel set the valise down, released Amelia’s hand, and stepped forward to hug his brother. Sterling had run away the day their mother died. None of them had seen him since. They had feared he was dead.

  “Good God, man, where have you been?” Gabriel said against Sterling’s shoulder.

  “Traveling about with a circus troupe,” he answered. “At least until my son was born. Then I thought it best to bring him home.”

  “Your son?” Gabriel found it shocking enough just to have Sterling home.

  Sterling grinned, glanced at the man standing behind them, and said, “Have you met our half brother, Merrick?”

  Gabriel could only nod dumbly.

  “Where’s the brandy?” Armond stepped into the hall. Upon seeing Gabriel, he breathed an obvious sigh of relief. “Gabriel, thank God you finally came home. We were planning to come and search for you.”

  Armond stepped forward and slapped Gabriel on the shoulder.

  Jackson came into the hallway next. “Where the bloody hell did everyone go? Left me alone in there with all the ladies, not that I minded so much, but Lucinda and I wanted tea and I thought I’d tell Hawkins …” His voice trailed upon noticing Gabriel. “About time you came home, Brother,” he grumbled. “I was actually starting to worry about your sorry hide.”

  Gabriel smiled and pulled Jackson into a hug. All the brothers, with the exception of Merrick, who hung back simply taking in the exchange, hugged. Then Gabriel saw Armond’s eyes squint into the shadows.

  “Lady Collingsworth? What are you doing here?”

  Gabriel stepped away from his brothers and took her hand, pulling her into the light. “It’s a long story,” he said.

  Armond glanced between the two of them. “Hawkins! Bring more brandy!” he shouted.

  “And tea!” Jackson added.

  An hour later, Amelia was soaking in a tub upstairs. Gabriel had not joined her, as was their original plan. Instead, she was surrounded by Rosalind, Armond’s wife; Lucinda, Jackson’s wife; Lady Anne Wulf, formally Baldwin, Merrick’s wife; and Elise, who was married to Sterling, both of whom Amelia had never met.

  After days of seclusion, running for her life, the room upstairs seemed overly bright and overly crowded. Amelia knew the men were cloistered in the study downstairs. She felt certain Gabriel was telling them about his and Amelia’s extraordinary adventure and about his own. She, to the opposite, didn’t even know where to begin explaining what had happened to her at Collingsworth Manor.

  Rosalind helped Amelia wash her hair. She was comforted by her friend’s presence but would have been more so by Gabriel’s. It was odd, but for days Amelia had been hoping to awake from a nightmare and now she actually was afraid she would wake up in her room in London and discover she had dreamed it all. That Gabriel did not even know her, had never made love to her. That they had not vowed to marry in a year, when her mourning period had ended.

  “When you feel like talking about what happened, I will be here for you,” Rosalind said softly. “We are all here for you,” she added, including the women stationed around the room like a small army. “We have all seen things no ordinary person has seen. We will understand what no one else ever will or can.”

  Emotion closed Amelia’s throat. “Is the curse broken then?” she asked softly. “For all Wulf brothers?”

  Rosalind smiled, although somewhat sadly. “For now,” she answered, then unconsciously pressed a hand against the noticeable bulge beneath her dress. “Who knows what the future will bring? But together we will all stand strong against the bad and share each other’s joys.”

  Having finished her bath, Amelia glanced around for a towel. Rosalind lifted a fluffy one from beside her and held it open. Amelia rose from the tub, immediately wrapped in the soft fabric. She was steered toward a vanity table where she sat while Rosalind brushed out her wet hair.

  “Tell me, friend,” Rosalind asked, “do you still not believe in love?”

  Amelia’s eyes met Rosalind’s in the vanity glass. She smiled at her. “What do you think?”

  Rosalind laughed, as did the other women gathered in the room. “I think you have been captured by a Wulf,” Rosalind said. “We are all captives, very willing captives,” she added.

  “A word of warning,” Lady Anne said. “The Wulf brothers seem to be highly fertile. There isn’t a woman in this room who isn’t currently breeding or already a mother. Well, except for you,” she added. “Prepare to be a mostly-swollen-with-child captive.”

  It wasn’t a horrible thought; in fact, it was a most pleasing thought, Amelia decided. Part of her dreams was to have little boys running around her skirts who favored their very handsome father.

  “I hope I am not swollen before I am able to marry Gabriel next year,” she said, then realized what she’d confessed. Her cheeks burned for a moment, but she saw no censuring in the warm gazes trained upon her. Instead, Lucinda, Jackson’s wife, a beautiful redhead rumored to be a witch, walked over and placed a hand against Amelia’s stomach.

  Curious, Amelia stared at the woman as she closed her eyes, seemingly lost in a trance. A moment later, Lucinda opened her eyes and smiled down at Amelia. “You will not get your wish,” she said softly.

  Amelia hoped her mouth didn’t drop open. Surely Lucinda couldn’t know what Amelia couldn’t possibly know until more time had passed, but she had a very strong feeling Lucinda was right. Just the thought made Amelia warm and tingly inside.

  “You said you wanted to be the most shocking woman in London,” Rosalind reminded her, then gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “Be careful what you wish for, Amelia.”

  Gabriel had told his brothers the story that had led him and Amelia back to Wulfglen. He felt a little odd speaking in front of Merrick, who he did not know even existed, but the man was clearly one of them, and Gabriel knew he must accept him as the rest of his brothers obviously had done. Five men, all cursed, but now free. And all because of love.

  “Mora and Raef,” Arm
ond spoke, swirling his brandy in his glass. “Do you think they will try again with their plans?”

  Gabriel was sure of it. He just wasn’t sure when they would try again. Or what they could now do about it if they did. “The curse has been broken for us, but along with it, we have lost our edge,” he said. “We might have used it to our advantage if we someday felt it was necessary to sniff these others out. If they do not play by their own rules.”

  “True,” Jackson said. “Now, we are like everyone else.”

  Gabriel was amused to see Jackson drinking tea when every other man in the room had a snifter of brandy. He was proud of his brother. He’d obviously fought his demons and emerged the victor, and his wife might be a witch, but she was the prettiest witch Gabriel had ever seen. The babe, Sebastian, had been introduced to Gabriel before Lucinda took him upstairs for bed, and although Amelia had told him true and the boy did not in the least resemble Jackson, it was clear to Gabriel that his younger brother doted upon the child.

  His nephew Trenton was a big strapping babe with blond curls and green eyes who resembled Gabriel more than Sterling, and so he’d immediately taken to the babe. It was all a bit overwhelming. To find Wulfglen, once so quiet and solitary a place, teeming with such life. They even had a housekeeper. Mary was her name and she’d once worked for Rosalind’s stepmother. Hawkins, stuffy man that he was, had developed feelings for Sebastian’s nurse, Martha. Jackson predicted the woman wouldn’t be leaving, even when the babe was old enough to no longer need her plump breasts.

  “Pardon, but I couldn’t help but overhear.” Lucinda, Jackson’s wife, stepped into the study.

  Gabriel was immediately struck by her beauty and the warmth in her eyes when she glanced at her husband. She clearly adored the scoundrel, and to Gabriel’s surprise, Jackson in turn clearly adored her. Odd, but Gabriel recalled hearing certain rumors when Jackson returned from abroad over a year ago that he’d been chasing one Lady Anne Baldwin all over Europe. And now that same lady was in the house, married to a man who was Jackson’s half brother.

  There was no tension between either couple, so Gabriel assumed the past was not an issue between them. Lucinda walked across the room to stand beside her husband. Jackson, naughty as ever, pulled her playfully down into his lap.

  “What is on your mind, Wife?” Jackson asked. “Besides when I’m coming up to bed.”

  Lucinda flushed and gave Jackson a halfhearted nudge to the ribs. “Behave,” she said. “Gabriel, I heard your concerns about losing the gifts that went along with your curse. There is something you should know, something I have not even told Jackson.”

  “You tell me everything,” Jackson argued, summoning an expression of mock hurt.

  “This is serious,” she said, and Jackson’s expression immediately lost its playfulness.

  Lucinda rose from Jackson’s lap and walked to a large window that overlooked the front lawn of Wulfglen. “I’d like for you to all to come to the window for a moment.”

  Gabriel had no choice but to follow suit when his brothers rose and joined Lucinda. He was bone tired and he wanted to go upstairs and crawl into bed with Amelia. He joined them all by the window.

  “Look out there, along the tree line,” Lucinda instructed.

  Gabriel realized in that moment that his gift of seeing easily in the dark was gone. He squinted in the direction she had instructed them to look and saw nothing … at first. Five sets of glowing eyes shone in the darkness. Gabriel tensed.

  “The others, they lied. They are out there.” He immediately thought to search for weapons to protect themselves, but Lucinda stopped him.

  “No, it is not these others you spoke of. It is the spirit of the wolf that once dwelled in each of you.”

  “Why are they there?” Jackson asked his wife. “What are they waiting for?”

  She glanced at each brother in turn. “For you to call them back.”

  “Call them back?” Armond repeated. “Why in bloody hell would we want to do that? Bring the curse upon ourselves again?”

  Lucinda shook her head. “No, not a curse, because the choice is yours this time. They are only there in case you need them.”

  Gabriel was confused. “But how could they help us? When the wolf took me, I could not remember what I did or where I went. The gift is not a gift at all if it cannot be controlled.”

  “But it can be controlled,” Jackson informed him. “Lucinda taught me how to think like a man, even in the form of a wolf. If need be, I’m certain she can teach all of you, as well.”

  Gabriel hadn’t been normal long enough to know if he missed having the gifts that went along with the curse. “If need be,” he agreed. “Until then, they can stay put.”

  The night got the best of him. He was tired, and he wanted to be with Amelia, regardless that he was filled with joy to be home, to have all of his brothers, even one he didn’t know about, at home with him. Gabriel walked over and took what was left of the brandy and two glasses.

  “I am retiring for the evening,” he said to everyone. “We can catch up with one another in the morning.”

  It didn’t escape his notice that each of his brothers took note of the second glass in his hand and raised their brows. Gabriel just smiled at them and moved toward the door leading from the study.

  “I wouldn’t share the brandy with Lady Collingsworth,” Lucinda said at his back. “Tea would be better for the babe.”

  The bottle slipped from his hand. “What?” He turned to the lovely witch. “What did you just say?”

  “Better listen to her,” Jackson piped up, grinning like an idiot. “She knows these things. Our own babe is on the way and she knew long before she missed her first cycle.”

  “God, it’s an epidemic,” Armond remarked drily, and one by one, each brother began to laugh.

  Always the serious one, the sensible one, Gabriel did not join them, at least not for a moment. He’d never dared to dream of children, of even having a wife. But Amelia had taught him to dream again, to laugh again, to have hope. How could a man cursed for so long suddenly be so blessed? It was as simple as finding love and surrendering to it.

  EPILOGUE

  LONDON, TWO YEARS LATER

  The boy was the spitting image of his father; there was no doubt about that. He would break many a heart someday, but never his mother’s, Amelia felt certain. His name was Treville, and all of society knew the child did not belong to Amelia’s late husband. It caused talk to be certain, but Amelia didn’t mind talk.

  If she did, she would not that very moment be standing in the middle of Hyde Park wearing men’s breeches and boots. She and Gabriel had ridden Rotten Row earlier. Her choice of clothing had caused quite a stir, but Amelia was used to causing a stir. Gabriel found it all very amusing. She watched him now, so full of love and pride that he belonged to her and she to him. He was speaking to her parents, who’d spread a blanket on the ground and brought little Treville with them. They doted upon the child, and finally, no matter what Amelia did wrong, they turned a blind eye.

  All of the Wulfs were in London at the moment. The season had begun and the Dowager Duchess of Brayberry couldn’t wait to host her first Wulf ball. Everyone would come simply out of curiosity. Amelia thought she might wear trousers and boots to the ball. That would set everyone on their ear and please the old woman immensely.

  “You’re looking very fetching in those trousers, Wife,” Gabriel teased, joining her. “I’m sure it will be all the rage tomorrow. Women wearing men’s clothing.”

  “Well, maybe not tomorrow, but someday I imagine it will be,” she said, leaning up to give him a quick kiss. “Are you nervous about attending your first social engagement in years?”

  “I’d rather be at Wulfglen,” he admitted.

  Surprisingly enough, so would Amelia.

  “Your parents are going to spoil that boy,” he said, turning Amelia’s gaze to the sight of her father hefting Treville into the air until he squealed with delight. Amelia
smiled, watching them. Her smile faded a moment later.

  “He will be all right, won’t he?” she asked softly.

  Gabriel put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer. “He will be all right because we will make certain that he is. If Treville is different, we will tell him why, and we will tell him it doesn’t mean his life is cursed. It doesn’t mean he can’t have hopes and dreams, and a life like everyone else.”

  She took assurances from Gabriel. If he said things would be all right, then she knew they would be. Armond and Rosalind had a son, also. A very handsome boy. And Jackson’s dimpled little boy would steal whatever hearts his older brother, Sebastian, didn’t take for himself. Merrick and Anne had a daughter. A beauty she was, and as sweet natured as her mother. Sterling’s son, although only toddling, seemed to have a gift with animals, like Sterling did himself.

  The curse that had stolen their lives had given them back tenfold in the end. Perhaps that had been the witch’s parting gift to Ivan Wulf, only he had never realized there could be a gift in a curse. Which reminded Amelia of the glittering eyes she saw every night in the shadows. The spirit of the wolf, waiting.

  “You don’t suppose we will see Mora or Raef this season do you?” she asked.

  Gabriel frowned down at her. “I don’t suppose we’d know we were seeing them if we did.”

  “Will you and your brothers hunt them?”

  It was a subject they mostly avoided, but Amelia would know her husband’s plans.

  “Only if they give us cause,” he answered. “They already force us to rejoin society’s ranks whether we want to or not. Someone has to protect our race from theirs.” He nodded toward Amelia’s mother and father, who were laughing down at young Treville. “Who will protect those who have no idea what lives in the shadows?”

  Amelia knew he was right. She might have once wished to remain blessedly ignorant. But not anymore. Only the strong could protect the weak, and only a strong woman could stand bravely by the side of a guardian. She was that woman. Gabriel’s woman. His wife, his lover, his partner.