WolfeBlade: de Wolfe Pack Generations by Kathryn Veque (top 20 books to read .TXT) 📗

bad. Copper bowls in the corner of the chamber burned with peat, keeping the room nice and warm as they listened to the dulcet tones of the harp. There was a variety of ale and they sampled each one, enjoying the camaraderie in a peaceful moment. Times like this were rare for fighting men such as them, moments when their entire existence didn’t revolve around a life or death struggle.

But such was the way of their lives.

In fact, Andreas was in town because his grandfather had sent him to deliver a missive to the king. William de Wolfe was the Earl of Warenton and he, his sons, and his allies essentially controlled England’s border with Scotland from one end to the other. There was always something happening with the Scots and Andreas had brought a report to the king of the last several months, including some odd happenings between Clan Maxwell and Clan Johnstone. Clans that had been at each other’s throats for decades were now becoming even more belligerent, which concerned William.

A clan war was something they all wanted to avoid.

In fact, each man had their own reasons for being in London. Andreas had come to deliver missives, Theodis had come to procure ingredients from the apothecary, while Tor and William had come purely on business for their father. It seemed that their father wanted to reinforce his ranks at his castle in Cumbria and having picked through the local population of men, he was hoping to find more interested parties in a bigger city.

Each man with a different directive. But each man now enjoying the adventure of a new experience.

After about an hour of steady drinking, however, Andreas was starting to feel his exhaustion. All of this on top of the time they had spent in The Pox, so they had already had quite a full evening. With his business for his grandfather concluded in London, Andreas was thinking of the journey home and how long that would take. It was July and the weather had been good, so their journey from Northumberland to London had taken them somewhere around eighteen days. They had been in London for about two weeks and they knew that it was imperative that they head home soon because once September rolled around, the rains would come and they didn’t want to get caught in the autumn rainy season.

As Andreas finished off a hard apple cider with quite a kick, he thought that this should be the last drink of the night. With all of the food and drink, and his bout with the purge, he had to admit that he wasn’t feeling all that great. They were staying with his uncle, Edward de Wolfe, a diplomat for King Edward, a highly positioned advisor who had a home outside of London but also a townhome, Lothbury, that was in a more tony part of the city.

Edward and his wife, Cassiopeia, were uncle and aunt to Andreas, William and Tor, but not in the usual way – Edward was their fathers’ brother and Cassiopeia was their mothers’ youngest sister, so they were related to them from both sides of the family. Andreas didn’t think Uncle Edward would appreciate them staggering back home at dawn and was about to comment on such a thing when a frantic woman suddenly blew into the chamber.

Being that they were trained to handle startling situations in a calm and rational manner, the four of them simply looked at the woman who rushed in. The first thing they looked for was weapons; she wasn’t carrying any. But she was gasping as if terrified. She seemed in a panic. The next thing they realized, she was running into what she evidently thought was a doorway, only it was a small and secluded alcove.

They all heard a loud thump.

The woman didn’t emerge.

Curious, and perhaps slightly concerned, Andreas set his ale cup to the table and stood up, going to the partially concealed alcove and peering inside. It was dark except for the ambient light from the larger chamber, but he could see something trembling in the corner. Looking closer, he could see something quivering beneath a silk coverlet.

He stepped into the alcove.

“My lady?” he said. “Do you require assistance?”

It took a moment, but she pulled the coverlet off her head, gazing up at him with a mask-free face. Andreas had understood that to be forbidden. Everyone was to cover his or her face because it kept the element of mystery and fantasy. But the woman had yanked hers off and tears were streaming down her face.

It was a very pretty face.

“I just want to leave,” she whispered tightly. “I cannot seem to find a way out and a man grabbed me and tried… he tried to kiss me, and I know that sort of thing is allowed here without repercussion, but I do not want to be kissed. I only want to leave. Can you please tell me the way out?”

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that she was hysterical. Andreas could have done the easy thing at that moment and simply walked away, but he couldn’t seem to do it. He had sisters, after all, and a stepmother he loved. He had a grandmother he adored and a variety of aunts and female cousins. If one of them was in distress and he wasn’t around to help, he would hope that someone would be kind enough to lend a hand.

“I am not entirely sure how to get out of this place,” he said. “I have never been here before. Is it your first time, too?”

She nodded, fear reflecting in her eyes. “My cousins brought me here,” she said. “I do not even know where they are. They disappeared and left me… alone.”

“Then you have no escort?”

“I never did,” she said. “My cousins demanded that I accompany them here, so we left the house after their mother went to sleep.”

“Then no one knows you have come?”

“Nay,” she said, guilty and confused.