Wolfdark

by Isobel Robertson

  The next door, though, a majestic double opening, led me into a rather lovely library. I could tell at once that this room was not used as often as it should be. Everything was neat and orderly, with no sign that Lord Hartford ever made use of the large desk by the window. Perhaps he had an office elsewhere. Shameful. If I possessed a library like this, I would use it every day.

  Hands on hips, I surveyed the room. Where to start? It was a difficult question to answer, given that I had no idea what I was looking for. I opened a cupboard at random, but it contained only a few bottles of spirits. Tragically, they were beginning to gather dust.

  And then I heard footsteps in the corridor outside. I flung myself back against the shelves, desperately hunting for somewhere to hide. In my panic, I could feel my body sinking against the books, relaxing, softening. My magic was working to hide me, to camouflage me. For a second, I was tempted to let it do its work. But the door opened, and I saw not a servant, but Theo. I pulled my magic under control with a gasp.

  Theo looked just as surprised to see me.

  “What on earth are you doing here?” he hissed, crossing the library in just a few steps. He stood close beside me, his lips almost brushing my ear.

  “I could ask you the same,” I retorted. “Did you sneak in? Have you broken into the Hartfords’ house?”

  “As if you’re any better,” Theo said.

  “I came for tea,” I said primly. “I am simply lost on my way to try out the fancy new water closet.”

  Theo laughed at that, although he kept the noise soft.

  “What are you really doing here?” he asked.

  “I lied when I said I didn’t want to be involved,” I admitted. “I was just… shaken by Daniel’s injury. But I want to help you. I want to stop this wolf.”

  “You could have just told me,” Theo pointed out. “You knew I was working on this as well. Why come and investigate alone?”

  I shrugged.

  “I didn’t know how to explain I was interested. Not when you thought I wanted nothing to do with it.”

  Theo shook his head.

  “Life would be a lot easier without your pride, Lily.”

  But he was still smiling.

  “So,” I said firmly. “Let’s get to business. How did the wolf get in? And where did it come from?”

  We started the search. Dividing the room into two made the task far less intimidating, although it did not, alas, produce any sudden results. I was getting nervous that Lady Hartford would send someone to look for me.

  “Lily,” Theo called softly from the other end of the room. “I’ve found something.”

  I rushed across to stand beside him, just in front of the door. In the faint winter sunlight, I examined a few scratches in the wood. They were not deep, but they looked fresh. Theo and I exchanged glances.

  “The wolf came through here, then,” I said slowly. “But nothing in here looks out of place.”

  Theo strode over to check the window, shaking the handle firmly to ascertain that nothing was broken. It held firm - locked. There was no other door, at least that I could see. What a mystery.

  “I think I saw someone coming in here on the night of the ball,” I said. “But I can’t quite remember who. It’s as if the memory is foggy.”

  I wrinkled my forehead, trying to remember.

  Then another set of footsteps sounded outside. Theo grabbed me and pulled me down under the desk. From here, we were hidden, although we would be in trouble if this servant came to clean at our end of the room.

  Boots clicked across the wooden floorboards, then paused in front of a shelf. I heard the rustle of a book being removed from the shelf. Odd behaviour for a servant.

  Intrigued, I peered around the edge of the desk, and got my second surprise of the afternoon. Once again, this was no servant. It was Daniel. I stared at him in shock as he turned to leave, marching confidently out of the library. The door swung shut behind him. I turned to look at Theo who, of course, had also shifted to look around the desk.

  “What on earth is going on?” I asked.

  Theo frowned.

  “I don’t know. But can you do me a favour and not discuss this with Daniel until we’ve had a proper chance to talk?”

  I hesitated for a second, then nodded.

  Theo pulled himself to his feet and offered me a hand. I scrambled up beside him and dusted off my skirts.

  “I’d better get back to my tea,” I said. “It will be quite cold by now.”

  He didn’t laugh.

  “Come and see me when you’re done,” he said. “I’ll sneak out the way I came.”

  He was halfway to the door when the memory hit me.

  “Theo,” I said. “I remember who came in here on the night of the ball. It was Daniel.”

  Theo looked at me oddly.

  “Of course it was,” he said. “Daniel came this way back into the ballroom. He must have been one of the first people injured by the wolf.”

  Of course. But if Daniel had been so close, how had he not seen the wolf enter the library? Or perhaps he had but had chosen not to tell me. Something about this felt strange - that is, even more strange than a wolf attending a society ball.

  Why hadn’t Daniel said anything? Why had he come back?

  And why did Theo want me to stay silent?

  Delilah

  Usually, when I knocked on Theo’s door, I got a quick response. Today, however, it took a full five minutes before his butler deigned to open the door to me.

  “Theo is expecting me,” I said with a glare as I swept past the butler and into the hallway. As always, Theo’s house was a mess. I don’t know where he found his staff, but I wouldn’t have given them a moment of employment.

  “Lord Theodoric is not presently receiving visitors,” the butler droned. “Please be so kind as to wait in the parlour.”

  He held the door to said room open, and I stepped through automatically. Then I stopped. Not presently receiving visitors? But I had seen him just an hour earlier. He must know that I would come and visit him.

  “Surely he will make an exception for his fiancée,” I said firmly. I marched back into the hallway and past the spluttering butler. He ran after me, but I ignored him. I would soon be mistress of this house and the staff would do well to remember that. I knocked once on the study door and then pushed my way inside.

  “Theo!” I said brightly. “We need to talk about what we found in - oh.”

  He sat in one of the cosy chairs by the fire, where I liked to sit with him in the evenings. And he was not alone. A beautiful dark-haired woman sat next to him, her gleaming chestnut curls slipping from her chignon to brush her shoulders as she leaned close to him. For a second, they both remained frozen, staring at me. Then Theo leapt to his feet and stepped towards me, hands extended. I ignored them.

  “Lily,” he said. “I had no idea you would pay a visit so soon.”

  “Obviously,” I said, raising an eyebrow. I let my gaze flicker over the beautiful woman behind him, but I kept my focus on my fiance.

  “Let me introduce you,” Theo said hurriedly. “This is Delilah, one of my closest friends since childhood. We practically grew up together. And this is Lily. My fiancee.”

  The woman’s beautiful smile faltered for just a second. I took a little petty satisfaction from that.

  “Goodness, a fiancee?” she asked. “You kept that one quiet, Theo!”

  She laughed, an irritating, tinkling kind of laugh, and she reached up to pat Theo on the arm. I wanted to swat her hand away.

  Theo, thankfully, ignored her.

  “Delilah is from a family very like mine,” he told me. “I’ve requested her help with the matter of the wolf. She’s rather an expert in tracking witches, so we hope that expertise can transfer to tracking magical wolves.”

  Of course. She wasn’t just beautiful and on first-name terms with my fiance. She was a specialised witch hunter. Wonderful.

  “You’ve told your fiancee about
witches?” Delilah asked, a hint of scorn in her voice.

  “I met Lily in Yorkshire,” Theo said. “She’s been to the house there. She knows everything.”

  Delilah pursed her lips doubtfully, but at least she said nothing more. And, to my relief, Theo did not return to sit beside her. They had been far too close for my liking.

  “So,” I said, breaking the silence that had hovered for a second too long. “The matter of the wolf.”

  “It won’t pose a problem,” Delilah said smoothly. “The beast’s days are numbered.”

  “I hope that my research proved useful,” I said to Theo. He ran a hand through his hair, looking uncomfortable as he failed to meet my eyes.

  “I’m sure it will be,” he said.

  “You haven’t even read it.”

  To my dismay, I felt tears prickle at the corners of my eyes. No. I would not show weakness in front of this picture-perfect harpy.

  “Please do remember that I’m thought to be rather intelligent in certain circles,” I told Theo. “Like the Royal Academy. You might find my assistance helpful.”

  “There’s no need for you to trouble yourself,” Delilah said, a slight smile on her red lips. “Theo and I have everything under control.”

  “I wouldn’t trust you to control my oldest, slowest pony,” I snapped. “You’ll forgive me for taking a personal interest in a matter that’s already affected my life.”

  “Lily! Be polite, please,” Theo said, frown lines gouging their way down his forehead. “Delilah is an old friend.”

  “I wouldn’t call her friendly,” I said.

  “What a shame,” Delilah said, still smiling. “I’d so hoped we could be friends.”

  “A definite lie,” I said. “You didn’t know I existed until a moment ago.”

  “Enough!” Theo boomed, marching forwards to lay a hand on my shoulder. “Lily, this is not your business to worry about. I meant that as no insult to your intelligence, simply as a comment on your experience. And you’re tired, and emotional. Go home.”

  “Tired and emotional?” I could barely keep my voice from rising to a screech. After everything I’d faced to save him, did he still see me as a poor weak woman? When another woman sat beside him, ready to kill a wolf?

  “I understand that Daniel’s injury was difficult on you,” Theo said. Did he expect that sugary tone to placate me?

  “Stop treating me like an idiot,” I said. “If I wore too much lipstick and fluttered my eyelashes, would you take me seriously?”

  His gaze flickered to Delilah, and I saw both their expressions change as the veiled insult landed.

  “Leave,” Theo said, his teeth gritted. “I won’t have you insulting my oldest friend. Come back when you can stop acting like a spoilt child.”

  “Oh, don’t worry,” I told him. “I’m happy to leave a place where I’m not wanted.”

  I didn’t even look at Delilah as I turned away and reached out a hand to open the door.

  “So lovely to meet you, Lily,” she cooed. “You look so like your mother, you know.”

  I had stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind me before I realised what she had said. And what she might mean. I did not look much like my mother; her hair had been black, while mine was blond. My features were nothing like her delicate beauty. But there was a certain… something about me that had also marked her. A certain wildness.

  Did Delilah know that my mother had been a witch? Surely not. But that sweet tone had hidden a will like sharp steel. I would have to be wary.

  The Housemaid

  I couldn’t stop pacing.

  What if she knew?

  What if she told Theo?

  “Please sit still,” my maid, Deborah said, as patient as ever. “How can I fix your hair if you keep walking up and down like that?”

  “I don’t need my stupid hair fixed,” I snapped.

  “That’s what you called me up here for.”

  Deborah was always so reasonable. She’d looked after me since I was twelve, and occasionally she took advantage of that position. Sometimes, I enjoyed having someone who took no nonsense from me. But sometimes it irritated me.

  “Leave me alone,” I said, glaring at the fire. “I’ve changed my mind about my hair.”

  She left the room, but not before I glimpsed her rolling her eyes. I would pretend not to have noticed.

  I stared at the fire for a few moments longer, but it did nothing to ease the restlessness prickling in my fingers and toes. I needed to move, needed to do something. Anything.

  I walked back down to my study and marched from one bookshelf to another. All of a sudden, I missed the huge library at Beechwood, the country house where I had grown up. I hadn’t visited in almost two years. Perhaps it was time. And maybe the library there had something to help me. After all, Beechwood had been my mother’s home too.

  But I was getting ahead of myself. I already had a book here, ready and waiting for me.

  I slipped the key from my purse and unlocked my desk drawer. Inside was the little book I’d hidden from Theo. Werewolves.

  I picked it up, that same nervous energy still dancing in my fingertips.

  And then the damned book caught fire.

  I threw it across the room, swearing. Unfortunately, a still-burning spark drifted from the blackened page and landed on a pile of papers I had never quite got round to disposing of. They caught light in an instant.

  “Damn, damn, damn!”

  I rushed to stamp out the fire, cursing myself for leaving so much paper lying around. If I couldn’t get my flaming fingers under control soon, I would be in a great deal of trouble.

  “My lady? Is there a problem?”

  A thousand curses on efficient servants. I did not need a witness to this.

  But the girl was already beside me, her solid little boots stamping on the burning papers.

  “It’s fine,” I said sharply. “You may leave.”

  I was too late. I watched as her gaze flickered across the room to where the book still lay, apparently untouched. Its title was starkly visible even from here. The girl turned to face me, her vivid green eyes meeting mine.

  “Interesting reading material,” she said softly. “But perhaps not fit for curious eyes.”

  Right there in front of me, the book began to smoke. Not the vicious fire that leapt from my fingertips on occasion, but a slow crumbling. I rushed towards it, but I was too late. The paper was black ash before my fingers touched it. What had I done? I’d let a stupid servant girl see what I was reading - and then I’d destroyed it. If I'd forgotten the contents of those pages, I would be more than a little angry at myself.

  “Get out,” I snapped at the girl, expecting her to cower and scuttle away.

  To my amazement, she smiled. There was no warmth in her eyes.

  “My name is Gwyneth, my lady,” she said. “And I know a lot more about the secrets you’ve been reading.”

  My heart almost stopped.

  “How dare you say such things to me,” I hissed. I kept my voice low. The other staff did not need to hear this conversation.

  “I can help you,” she told me.

  How dare a servant speak so presumptuously? But I thought of Theo. When I first met him, I’d thought him only a servant. This girl might look like an unassuming housemaid, but perhaps I should not judge so quickly.

  “Tell me what you know,” I said.

  She just laughed lightly and stepped away.

  “I’ll need a favour first, my lady,” she said.

  Of course. The girl would want money, or perhaps a promotion.

  “Very well,” I said. “Tell me what you want, and then what you know.”

  “Tomorrow,” the girl said. What was her name again? Gwyneth. “Wait until tomorrow,” she went on. “I’ll tell you everything.”

  She slipped out of the room, closing the door softly behind her. I stared at it for a second, then moved forwards to open it again. But she was already gone,
vanished down the corridor beyond.

  I had no idea what she might want to tell me. I could not imagine it would be anything of use. But the more I thought about this wolf, and about Theo’s plans, the more my doubts grew.

  Theo was certainly correct that he had more experience of such matters. But when the witches attacked in Yorkshire, who had really saved us? Experience or no, this was increasingly my world, not his. Perhaps it was time I took matters into my own hands. He could do what he wanted with Delilah.

  Music and Memories

  “Let’s not discuss business,” I said, fluttering my fan at Theo. I knew my smile was far too bright, but he could hardly question me here, in front of Alexandra. At last, two days after meeting Delilah - and two days since I’d last seen Theo - I had the perfect opportunity to show how displeased I was. Is there anything quite so splendid as a night at the opera?

  Theo had sent me a polite note, asking if I would prefer to reschedule our opera evening, given the current circumstances in London. I sent him a simple reply: Don’t be ridiculous. And then I arranged for my carriage to pick him up; I preferred to travel in comfort rather than in the near-squalor of his own carriage. Sometimes Theo seemed far better suited to life as a servant than as an earl.

  By the time Theo appeared at my front door, I was dressed and ready for the finest that London had to offer. A deep blue silk gown and glittering diamonds, layers of black lace, black feathers in my hair. My outfit was utterly inappropriate for an unmarried young lady, but I doubted that Theo would object. I felt glamorous in it, prepared to hold my own amongst the cream of London society. Theo smiled in appreciation as I descended the stairs to meet him. When he kissed my hand, his lips lingered a little longer than usual. I had chosen well. And now, here we were, about to descend from the carriage and enter the Covent Garden opera house.

  “I will try to keep the conversation wolf-free,” Theo said, smiling at me. He didn’t even look at Alexandra. I felt torn between satisfaction that he couldn’t take his eyes off me, and disappointment that he seemed unaware of my still-burning anger.