Defiance at Werewolf Keep (Werewolf Keep Trilogy) (16 page)

As he rammed home over and over with a wild
abandon she had never known possible, she took him all, and arched her back for more, clawing at his back as she whimpered and moaned. When she felt him climax, her own body joined his, sending her spiralling off into a sweet oblivion as their shuddering, panting bodies came to rest, replete.

Will dropped down onto her, so that she felt his damp skin surrounding her completely. There was a lot to be said for big, sh
e thought fleetingly as she nuzzled into his neck, smiling at her much pleasured state.

‘I’ll ne’r let you go, my sweet lass. Never.’ His words were mumbled against her neck, but she heard the
m clearly and they only reinforced the knowing that was already bone deep. No matter what their future held, they would face it together.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The midwinter snows lay on the moors, washing the darkness from it and leaving it touched with magic. Lily pulled her woollen coat closer around her and walked alone in the snow-covered garden. The rose bushes were pruned to skeletal stalks. It was hard to imagine them ever blooming with leaves and flowers again.

Who would look after these roses when Charlotte left?

She shivered at the thought. Although Charlotte would never be a friend, she had become a companion of sorts, and the idea that she would soon leave forever was hard to fathom. But the experiments had been successful. Their research showed that even after six months the contagion had not returned to those who had been cured in France. Charlotte, Jasper and ten others had already taken the cure by ingesting a small amount of blood, taken while in human form, from a cured wolf. Though they had spent the nights of every full moon since in their cells, with clothing and bedding, they had not turned.

Lily could sense a change in those twelve. The wildness was gone and an odd gentleness replaced it. Even Charlotte was more friendly and smiling.

No previously sick wolves had been found, as they had hoped. Will refused to let her even consider the possibility of the cure while ever they had no knowledge of its effects on her. He had also steadfastly refused to take the cure himself. She wanted to be selfless and encourage him to take it, but the idea of going down into those cells without him was more than she could handle. Maybe some day. But not yet.

‘Lily!’ She heard her name called and turned to the kitchen door where Will stood
, watching her. She waved and he loped toward her. When he reached her side he hugged her close, and his heat warmed the last of the chill away.

‘
Ellen has made a decision,’ Will said softly into her ear.

Lily jerked back. ‘What do you mean?’

‘She told me that she wants to take the cure.’

‘But… But she can’t. If her strength is taken from her
, she will sicken and die. Why would she take such a risk?

‘I canna t
ell you that, but she seems verra determined.’

‘Surely she doesn’t hate being a werewolf that much.’ Lily frowned, the first seeds of suspicion sown. Ellen had been present when the latest news came in that no previously sick wolves had been found. All of
those in their records had died over the years or disappeared.

Lily had been so distressed by this latest disappointment that she had cried, and Will had wrapped her in his arms, as devastated by the news as she was. Through
tear-filled eyes she had looked up at Ellen to judge her reaction to the news, and the little smile that had played on her lips should have been warning enough.

‘I must talk to her. She is doing this for us. I know she is.’

Will jerked back in shock. ‘Us? What do you mean?’

Lily loved this man with all her heart, but he could be incredibly unaware of the deeper significance of actions at times.

‘She knows I can’t take the cure unless we know I will not relapse. We have not found anyone to test it out on so she is offering herself. We can’t let her do it.’

Will frowned as he considered her wo
rds. ‘I know she cares about us, but surely not enough to risk her life for no other reason than because we need to know. She must be doing it for herself. Being a werewolf has been a greater strain on her than we have thought.’

‘I must talk to her,’ Lily tore herself from Will’s arms and hurried for the Keep. When Will made to follow her
, she gestured for him to stop. ‘No, this is for me to do.’

By the time she reached Ellen’s room she was close to tears. She couldn’t let this sweet old lady sacrifice herself. There had to be another way.

As she knocked and entered the sunny bedroom with its blazing fire in the hearth, Ellen looked up at her from the seat by the fire and grinned her gummy, delightful smile in welcome.

‘Before you say a word, sweet child, know that I’ve made my decision and nothing you say will change it.’

Lily kneeled at her side and took the old lady’s skeletal, palsied hand. It was surprisingly strong when it squeezed Lily’s fingers.

‘Ell
en, you just have to be patient.’

‘I have been. And you know as well as I do that no one has c
ome forward who was mildly ill at the time of turning. I am going to take the risk.’

‘Is being a wolf worth risking your life?’

Ellen laughed gaily for a moment and then patted Lily’s hand. ‘Child, I am ninety-three. All my loved ones are gone. I have lived my life. These extra years have been a Godsend but everyone should know when enough is enough. If I retain my health, I will be content to live out what years are left to me. If I die, then so be it. My loved ones await me on the Other Side.’

‘You are doing this for me. You’re risking yourself for me!’ Lily challenged fiercely.

‘And if I am? Surely you’d give an old lady a purpose in life? Soldiers go off to their death for Queen and Country. Women risk death with every child they bring into the world. Why would you deny me the chance to play hero for someone who has her whole life in front of her. You are such a sweet girl, Lily, and that big Scotsman has never been happier. I want to help you both. Let me.’

‘But…’

‘No buts, Lily. I am old enough to know my own mind. Professor James is bringing up the cure as we speak.’

‘His blood?’

‘I assume so. I didn’t ask.’

The prof
essor had been the first to ingest the bloody cure straight from the original source, who had returned to the Keep with them in November. When James didn’t turn at the full moon several days later, they were all optimistic that they had found the best method of transmission. The rest of the initial twelve had taken the blood before the second night of the full moon, and none had turned then, or in the two months since.

The cautious optimism had become wholehearted satisfaction when the continued flow of information
from the monastery reported no return of the contagion.

At the soft knock at the door, Lily jumped. When the professor’s thick owl glasses appeared around the
door, she felt like slamming them into his face. How could he be party to this? His blood could kill this darling old lady.

But Ellen’s fingers clamped tight to hers so that she couldn’t move.
Furiously, she held her tongue while the middle-aged academic entered the room carrying a finger-sized vial of blood and a glass of wine.

‘I thought you might prefer the taste covered by sherry,’ he said as he held up his two hands
, indicating the choices open to her.

‘Does Byron know about this? Phil would not approve!’ Lily couldn’t hold her tongue any longer. She was witness
ing a death pact and she would be damned before she sat idly by while it took place. For her, they were risking Ellen’s life for her!

‘Yes, he has approved it. And so has Phil. They will be up shortly.’

‘It doesn’t affect the potency does it?’ Ellen asked, indicating the wine.

‘No, several of t
he others have taken it in this form. I wish I’d thought to do it this way. I hate the coppery taste of blood in my mouth. I nearly lost my breakfast. Then again, it might have been excitement that did that.’

Lily usually liked this man’s shy, self-effacing manner, but not today. She wanted him to refuse to do Ellen’s bidding, to yell at her for offering such a sacrifice. Instead
, he smiled his encouragement as he tipped the blood into the fortified wine and then held the glass out to the old lady.

‘If you try to stop me, I will be very annoyed,’ Ellen warned, seeming to sense her thoughts of upending the glass.

‘Please, don’t do this. I will never forgive myself if you die because of me,’ Lily pleaded.

‘There is nothing to forgive yourself for. You have no say in this
, young lady. I know my own mind. You cannot stop me.’

With that
, the old lady swallowed down the small glass of wine in one gulp and then smiled at her. ‘It will be nice not to be the big bad wolf in Red Riding Hood’s story anymore.’

‘You always made me laugh with that one.
Oh, what big teeth you have Grandmama!’

‘All the better to eat you with, my dear!’
Ellen came back, revealing her toothless mouth as her eyes grew large and her hands became claws. Lily giggled, despite the seriousness of the moment.

There was another knock at the door and the small room was suddenly overflowing
with people. The Carstairs, the Hortons, and lastly, Will, crowded in.

Lily rose from the
bed and rushed to Will’s side. ‘She wouldn’t listen. She wants to be a hero. If anything happens…’

‘Do not think like that, Lily,’ Phil told her sternly. ‘Ellen has the right to decide her own fate. Do not try to take this away from her.’

‘But if only she waited. There is bound to be someone somewhere – ’

‘I don’t wish to wait,’ Ell
en said cheekily from her throne as she held court. ‘And look at me. Who would ever have thought I’d have so many fine ladies and gentleman concerned over me. I feel very special.’

Lily could take no more. Before Will could stop her, she dashed out the door and down the corridor to her own room, the sobs impossible to conta
in. She couldn’t stay there, watching and waiting. It was more than she was worth.

Over the next day, Lily refused to leave their room. Phil and Dee
, and even Charlotte, came calling, trying to coax her out. But Lily felt as if her life was hanging in the balance as she waited for news of Ellen. Nothing else matter.

By bed time the next evening, Lily was so tired an
d depressed she could barely keep her eyes open. When Will entered the room, looking like the world weighed on his broad shoulders, her heart sank.

‘She’s dying isn’t she?’

Will nodded without looking up.

‘No, no, no!’ she cried, tearing at her hair in frustration and grief.

‘It hasna been in vain. Now we ken – ’

‘Don’t,
Will, just don’t! That old lady is dying for me. I cannot bear it!’

Will came to her side and stopped her hands from puling anymore hair out by the roots. ‘You have never seen a soldier caught up in the glory of war, so you canna possibly understand. There are times when dying for something bigger than yours
elf makes the sacrifice worthwhile. I know what that feels like.

‘
Ellen saw a chance to die a heroic death rather than eking out a few more years, stuck in her bedroom in a fast emptying Keep. Do not take that from her with your selfish recriminations. Be grateful, be glad. Appreciate her sacrifice. Make it worthwhile!’

Lily stared at him as if seeing him for the first time. His eyes blazed with the kind of zeal he spoke of. Was there
glory in such a sacrifice?

‘I feel so guilty,’ she whimpered out.

‘She doesn’t want that. It takes away from her. Go to her while she’s still conscious. Tell her how much you appreciate what she’s done. Now you know. Now there are no doubts about your future. That is a huge gift she has given you. Has given us.’

‘I can’t go to her. Not now.
’

‘You must. It may be the hardest thing you ever do in your life, but you must. For Ellen.’

Like a condemned woman walking to her death, Lily let Will take her along the corridor to Ellen’s room. At the door, Charlotte was just coming out. Lily cringed, expecting the volatile woman to give her a piece of her mind.

Instead, Charlotte took her hands
and squeezed them in comfort. ‘She’s quite the hero is our Ellen. I’ll never forget her. You’re lucky Will has her heart. She’d do anything to make him happy.’

For the first time, Lily considered this new possibility. Was Ellen doing this for Will, not her? She had known the two had a special relationship, almost a mother
/son bond. Had she been mistakenly seeing this being all about her?

How was Will
taking the old lady’s sacrifice if it was for him? She looked at her husband and saw his feelings written there. Yes, he knew the truth of it. And yet he was grateful, even as the unshed tears filled his dark eyes.

‘You don’t
feel she’s abandoning you?’ Lily asked, suddenly connecting his affection for the old lady with his dead mother.

‘
No, the opposite, in fact. She’s giving her life for my happiness. I’m humbled by it.’

Lily shook her head slowly, trying to take in the enormity of it all. Her self-recriminations had been a childish attempt to give herself more power in this situation than she deserved. This had never been about her. It had been about her husband and a woman who loved him like a mother. A woman who joyfully gave her life so he didn’t have to risk losing the love of his life.

‘I’m sorry. I have been very selfish.’

Will smiled at her and kissed her forehead. ‘No, you are a kind woman who didn’t want an old lady to give up her life on her account. That’s not selfish, just misguided.’