Castle of the Wolf (31 page)

Their gazes locked. She saw how clear his eyes were, how untroubled, though the last remnants of tears still spiked his lashes. A radiant smile spread over his face, transforming him into a younger self.

“‘A celuy que pluys eyme en mounde,’” he quoted slowly.
To her whom I love most in all the world.

Cissy’s breath caught and her eyes widened, and wonder filled her heart. His voice became soft and lilting, as much a caress as his gaze which held on to hers.

“Saluz ottrey e amour,

With grace and joye and alle honour,

Dulcissima.”

I send greetings and love

With grace and joy and all honor,

sweetest lady.

Again he kissed her palm, closing his eyes, as if to savor her taste and smell. “I love you very much, my sweet Cissy,” he said against her skin.

Joy filled her, and love. So much love it could encompass the whole world. She stroked his head, then leaned over him and touched her mouth to his. Their lips clung and parted. Their breath flowed between them and mingled, became one. She felt his arm around her shoulders, a sweet weight, while his hand stroked the back of her neck. And Cissy knew that both of them had reached the safe harbor, and that she hadn’t needed any powers from a mandrake to gain happiness.

‘Will you stay with me?” he whispered.

“You know I will. The whole night and always.”

He fell asleep with his head still on her lap while she watched over him and remembered the story of the wolf at the woman’s hearth.

She smiled and tousled the dark hair of her wolf and guided him through the night.

Interlude

A new emotion dripped into the stone.

They pricked up their ears and listened how it trickled through the ancient walls. Slowly, slowly, like thick syrup, but, oh, clearer than sunshine and sweeter than honey.

They rumbled amongst themselves, joyful, and basked in its warmth.

Yes, they had known this, felt it from the first.

Their whispers floated through the night-darkened corridors, soaked the castle.

And they knew…

All of them knew…

…they wouldn’t let anybody take this warmth from them ever again.

Chapter 22

When Cissy woke up, specks of dust were dancing in the sunbeams falling into the room. The wind carried the sweet song of the bells of St. Margaretha’s up from the valley, where they merrily chimed the Angelus.

Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariae et concepit de Spiritu Sancto
.

Cissy looked down at Fenris’s head in her lap, his nape exposed and vulnerable. His sides moved with deep, even breaths. Her heart swelling, she gently covered his nape with her hand and let her fingers play with his hair.

With a sigh, he turned his head a little and nuzzled his nose into her skirt before lying his cheek onto her thigh once more. She regarded his profile, the dark, sooty lashes resting in half circles against his cheek, which was no longer deathly pale but flushed from sleep. But there were still dark circles under his eyes, and the lines of pain around his mouth had not yet fully disappeared. And yet…and yet sleep again made him look much younger than he was. Cissy could easily envision the small boy he had been. She carefully ran the back of her hand over his cheek, let his stubble rasp her knuckles.

Down in the valley, the bells still sang of the creation of a new life, and with a sense of wonder Cissy put her hand on her stomach. Someday she would be carrying Fenris’s child. She imagined her belly swelling underneath her hand, growing round with new life. A child, created with sweetness and joy and love. A child to bring the castle to life again, to fill it with happiness and banish the beasts of the past. A small boy, with dark hair and sooty lashes, one who would grow into a gangly youngster with a devil-may-care smile. But always, always it would be a child well loved.

Smiling, Cissy studied her sleeping husband. With gentle fingers she brushed at his forehead, then leaned down to press a kiss against his cheek. “I love you,” she whispered.

He made a sound deep in his throat, like the purr of a big cat, and the corners of his mouth lifted. “Nuff you,” he mumbled, and his arms closed tightly around her waist. He sighed, and his breaths deepened once more.

A delighted smile spread over Cissy’s face. “You are such a darling man,” she told him softly. “How could you stand being a snarling demon wolf for so long?” She petted his nape and his shoulders, mindful of his injuries.

At the creaking of the door, her head whipped around. In an unconsciously protective gesture, she looped her arms around Fenris’s shoulders.

“I beg your pardon,
gnädige Frau
,” Johann said. “I wasn’t sure whether you would already be awake.” His hair was windblown, and he was wearing what looked like a riding cape.

She waved him inside. Sudden anxiety swamped her and formed a hard knot in the pit of her stomach. “Have you been out? Have you found anything?”

Johann bowed his head and turned his cap around in his hands. “I think so. But I believe it would be better if you could come and see for yourself.” He looked up to meet her gaze. “Should this need to be testified to in front of a judge…”—a hint of ruddy color stained his cheeks—“your word would carry more weight than mine,
gnädige Frau
.”

~*~

The wind whispered in the trees and tugged at her hair as Cissy rode down the muddy country lane at the valet’s side. Like wooly sheep did the wide Yorkshire moors, clouds dotted the bright blue sky. Bird song filled the fresh, crisp air-and yet Cissy could not suppress the shiver that coursed through her. Danger lurked beneath the idyll, and it seemed to her that the dark swaying trees wanted to tell her of the evil that was hidden in their midst.
Murderer, murderer, murderer.

She caught Johann watching her. “What is it?”

Narrowing his eyes, the valet looked ahead over fields and meadows and the thick, dark forest on their right. “I’ve been thinking…” He cleared his throat, looked back at her. “About who might want to kill Fenris.”

“Yes?” She inclined her head.

“Who would have a motive.”

“Yes.”

The breeze seemed a little colder than before. Perhaps Johann felt it, too, for he remained silent several moments before he finally continued, very quietly. “I could think of only one person.”

Near to them, a blackbird rose into the sky, scolding loudly as a magpie came flying over from the forest. Another blackbird joined in.

Cissy blinked.

With a shake of her head, she turned her attention back to Johann. “Do you really think he would do it?”

The valet shrugged. “He would be the only one to gain if my master died.”

“Do you think he wants to inherit the title?” Cissy frowned. “I would have thought he’d be keener on money.”

“The Wolfenbach Hoard?”

She rolled her eyes. “That hoax! But he wouldn’t get the castle. It would come into my sole possession.” She had learned that from the family solicitor.

Johann raised his brows. “Perhaps he doesn’t know.”

“Perhaps not.” Cissy shivered. She remembered the night the bat had invaded her room and he had come across her in the hallway. She remembered his stale breath wafting over her cheek. How the sunny, charming façade had given way to an arrogant, violent insolence. When the two brothers had faced each other, she had thought of a golden St. George and a dark Merlin, devil’s spawn. But outward appearances were so misleading. Mrs. Chisholm had noticed this long before her.

All is not gold that glitters
.

Johann brought his horse to a halt. “We’ve arrived,” he said. He dismounted. Holding the reins in one hand, he went over and offered Cissy his other to help her dismount.

But she could not stop staring at the strip of country lane, where her husband had lain hurt and unconscious.
Oh, my wolf, my wolf.
All of a sudden tears clogged her throat, burnt her eyes. How very easily she could have lost him.

“
Gnädige Frau
?” Johann prompted softly.

Taking a deep breath, Cissy lifted her leg over the lower pommel of her saddle and slid down to the ground. She looked around and found the place ideal for an ambush: the forest spread out and reached al most down to the road, and yet a man could stand undetected in the underbrush here, she supposed.

She flexed her fingers. Inside her gloves they were icy-cold.

“Where?” she asked quietly.

After looping the reins over the twigs of a bush, Johann led her a few steps into the forest. “A person can hide here quite undetected by people on the road.” He echoed her earlier thoughts. “If you remember, we had a bit of rain yesterday morning. In the afternoon the ground was still a little wet.” He pointed to several footsteps on the ground. Most of them were smudged, as if somebody had impatiently walked up and down, but there was one deeper, clearer set.

Eagerly, Cissy squatted down to take a closer look.

“Ah, yes. Here he must have waited,” Johann commented behind her.

Frowning, she extended a fingertip and traced the outline of the tracks. “There must be something wrong with heel of his boot. See? A little corner of it is missing.” She glanced up at the valet.

He nodded. “I’ve noticed that, too,
gnädige Frau
. That was the reason I asked you to come here—as I said, in case this needs to be testified to.”

“Wouldn’t we need the boots for that as well?” As Cissy rose, a momentary dizziness overcame her. Her hand reached out for the support of the nearest tree, but Johann’s hand shot out to grip her elbow.

“
Gnädige Frau
, are you all right?” Concerned, he peered into her face.

She took a deep breath. “Yes. Yes, I am.” She gave him a quick smile and let go of the fir tree. “I—eww.…” Grimacing, she inspected her gloves. “Resin.” She rubbed her fingers together. “That won’t be easy to…” Her voice trailed away as something occurred to her. Hastily, she raised her eyes to meet the valet’s.

He nodded.

“All the trunks here are slightly resinous. It’s likely he touched one of them. So…”

“We need his boots and the clothes,” Cissy finished. She gazed at the road where her husband had ridden, unsuspecting of what awaited him.

Cissy’s throat grew tight, and she had to swallow hard before she could continue. “That bastard.” Quite suddenly, a thin veil of red slipped down over the edges of her vision. “That bloody bastard!” she whispered fiercely. “I’m going to rip his heart out and feed it to the dogs!” She turned to look at the valet. “We will stop him, Johann. We will stop that despicable cur and make sure he will never harm anyone even again!”

Johann blinked. “Yes,
gnädige Frau
.”

“Yes.” Cissy nodded emphatically. She marched back toward the road. “But we need the boots and the clothes to prove it was him.” Just then she became aware that the valet wasn’t following her. She turned and found him still standing in the same spot.

She frowned. “Is something wrong, Johann?”

He cleared his throat. “Not at all,
gnädige Frau
.” He hurried to catch up with her. “It just…” He coughed. “It just occurred to me that the Wolves of Wolfenbach will have to hurry if they want to avenge this wrong themselves.” Flushing, he ducked his head and busied himself sorting out the reins of their horses.

The Wolves of Wolfenbach? Cissy’s frown deepened. Now where had she heard that before? Shaking her head, she pushed the thought aside to concentrate on more pressing matters. “We need his boots and his clothes.” She tapped her finger against her chin. “But how?” How to catch the mouse?

With a trap.

The play’s the thing,

Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the…

…brother.

Cissy let Johann help her up onto her horse. She settled in her saddle and took up the reins. She watched him getting into the saddle himself. Looking up, he met her gaze and raised his brows.

“
Gnädige Frau?
”

“We’re going to lure him back to Wolfenbach,” she said. And then she pressed her left leg to nudge the horse into motion.

~*~

Later that morning, Cissy wrote a letter to Leopold, asking for his help because his brother, her husband, had taken a nasty fall and was likely to die; Fenris had told her how close they had once been, and she hoped Leopold would forget their differences and return to Wolfenbach. How could she run such a large castle all on her own? Her dear parents-in-law were so distraught they were of no help. She needed a strong male hand to guide Wolfenbach through this crisis.

She carefully sanded and sealed the letter, then handed it to the valet. “When will he get this, Johann?”

“This evening.”

“So we can expect him tomorrow morning.” She folded her hands on the desk in front of her. “We should make sure the Graf and Gräfin have gone home by then.”

“Yes,
gnädige Frau
.”

“It would be too cruel.” She thought what it would mean to his parents when their son’s unscrupulous behavior would be revealed. “Do you think he might be innocent?”

The valet cocked his head to the side and seemed to ponder her question. “Do you?”

She thought of Peter Schlemihl, the fool who had sold his shadow for a purse of money. How far would Leopold von Wolfenbach go? Would he sell his brother? In the Bible, Jacob’s sons had sold
their
brother just because they were jealous of him. Leopold, by contrast, blamed Fenris for ruining their family.

“We will see, won’t we?”

Interlude

In the darkest hours of the night, when everybody in the castle slept and for once no flickering light was walking the ramparts, a shudder ran through the stone. They flexed their muscles, tested their strength. Sparks of power sprang from pinnacle to pinnacle, spanned the circumference of the castle. And then the power turned inward, raced up and down the walls, saturated the stone until the whole castle hummed with it.

And then…

…all settled down…

…and watched…

…and waited…

They had spun their deadly web of power. Now they stood guard to protect, where only hours ago they had failed to do so.