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

actions, of the dangers of a place like Gomorrah. Gavriella was trying to be delicate with her because Camilla was, in truth, a delicate creature, but she was also naïve. Reaching out, she put a hand on Camilla’s arm.

“Sweetheart, Aurelia is leading you astray,” she said as kindly as she could. “What your sister does is her own business, but you… you are better than that. You should not go to a place like that. I am afraid of what will happen to you, especially if men can have their way with you without consequence.”

Something in Camilla’s expression suggested that she knew that, but the truth was that she was weak. Aurelia led and she followed. It had always been that way.

“Do not worry,” she assured her, helping pull the new shift over Gavriella’s head. “I will not fall prey to anyone. But I do like to dance. That is the only reason I go.”

Gavriella knew she couldn’t talk any sense into the woman, so she shut her mouth. It was unfortunate that Camilla felt so, but there wasn’t anything more she could do about it.

“Just be careful,” she said before changing the subject because there was no use in continuing. “Now, I am going to sleep for a few hours. Mayhap you should, too.”

Camilla nodded, yawning. “I will,” she said. “But I could not go to sleep when you were missing. I was very worried about you.”

Gavriella smiled at her, patting her cheek. “I am well,” she assured her. “But Aurelia said your mother was asking for me. Why?”

Camilla shrugged. “She did not say,” she said. “I suppose when she realized you were not in bed, she wondered where you were.”

Gavriella was heading towards the big bed she shared with Camilla. “I will tell her that I could not sleep and went to walk about,” she said. “I have had trouble sleeping since I arrived, so that is nothing unusual.”

She climbed in, with Camilla climbing in next to her. They settled down on the feather mattress, soft and warm, far away from the foggy night and the dangerous guild in the sublevels of a burned-out church.

Far away from a dirty river that Gavriella had once entertained.

“Sleep well, Gavy,” Camilla said, sighing as she closed her eyes.

Gavriella rolled onto her side, facing the wall and the door. She was exhausted, that was true, but she didn’t fall asleep right away. Her thoughts were back on the handsome knight who had escorted her home, the one she had once told to go away. But he hadn’t listened.

She was glad he hadn’t listened.

In a few hours, he was going to take her to an entertainment across the river and she had to admit that she was excited about it. Not just the idea of watching an entertainment, but the idea of continuing the conversation with a man who had done the impossible. In spite of everything, the tumult they had been through and her own struggles against him, he had knocked a few holes in that wall she kept up around herself.

She was coming to trust him.

Truth be told, she was coming to like him just a little, too.

She knew she shouldn’t – God knew, she should send the man along his way – but she couldn’t seem to do it. Having a friend, a male friend, was something foreign and exciting and even a little titillating. She really hadn’t known any men other than her father and the men who served him, and then after what happened last year… nay, she had no desire to be friends or acquaintances with any man.

Men only brought pain.

But Andreas hadn’t. He’d been quite the opposite.

Something told her that her stay in London just became a little more bearable.

Lothbury House

“Where have you been?”

The question came from William as soon as Andreas walked into the hall of Lothbury House, his Uncle Edward’s townhome. Edward de Wolfe was an advisor to the king and, as such, needed a home near the Tower of London and also one near Windsor, which he did. It was on the River Thames off to the west, and a beautiful structure, but Edward and his cousins and Theodis had been staying at Lothbury, a hell of a fortified manse that wasn’t too far from the home where he’d just left Gavriella. The Asher, she had called it.

He couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Or her.

“Out,” he told his cousins, who were seated at the big table in the hall, having a morning meal. He pulled off his big leather gloves and plopped down next to Tor. “How was the rest of the evening at Gomorrah?”

He was deflecting the subject and, for the moment, they went along with it. “Boring,” Theodis said. “All of the pretty women were taken, including the one you left with. Where did you go?”

Andreas gave him an exaggeratedly coy look. “Do you truly expect me to kiss and tell?”

Will leaned into him. “Give us something to gossip about, lover,” he said. Then, he sniffed the man and immediately pulled away. “Jesus, Dray. You smell like the fat and greasy river rats that populate The Pox.”

Andreas poured himself some warmed, watered wine. “You were close when you said the river, actually,” he said. “Mayhap I’ll tell you sometime just how close. Now, back to that bawdy guild. Are you telling me that with all of the women there, I was the only one to find an attractive one? Tay, that’s not like you. Usually, you have a few hanging off your arms, anywhere we go. You must be losing your charm, old man.”

Theodis sneered at him. “I have lost nothing except my virginity at a very young age,” he said, watching William and Tor laugh. “Dray, you do not seem to understand. We do not want to speak of our evening. We want to know about yours.”

Andreas spooned stewed fruit into a bowl and took a hunk of bread. “There is nothing to tell,” he said. “You saw her run into