Defiance at Werewolf Keep (Werewolf Keep Trilogy) (7 page)

‘Do you think anyone
would mind if I took a bath? I can still smell the coal dust on my skin.’

‘Of course n
ot, Lass. That’s what it’s here for. There’s a cupboard in there with towels and such and you have a bar of soap on your wash stand. When you’re ready to come down to breakfast, go that way.’ He pointed in the opposite direction to the one they had taken to get back to her room.’

‘I remember that from last night. I am reasonably confident that I will be able to find my way downstairs without further assistance. Thank you for your help, Will
. I am sorry for putting you to any inconvenience.’ She was definitely hurt and disappointed in him. Her tone was coldly polite, lacking all of the adoration he had come to expect from her.

So he’d finally succeeded in convincing her
that he wasn’t worth her affection. Why did that success feel more like defeat?

CHAPTER SEVEN

It amazed Lily how quickly she settled in to life at Breckenhill Keep. The people we
re friendly, and even though living with thirty people after her life of isolation was challenging, she took to it readily enough. No one treated her like a pathetic invalid except Will. And as the days rolled on, she started to feel she no longer
was
an invalid. Her health improved remarkably, and with it, her fitness.

They
assigned her work in the library with the research team, as her studious leanings suited that duty. It had been disconcerting to find herself sitting next to the infamous Jasper Horton that first day, but she quickly came to realise that Fidelia was right about her husband. He was a superior man of kindness, patience and understanding.

She could not say the same for
Charlotte. The first time Lily went into the gardens to enjoy the roses she had seen from the windows of the morning room, she had been confronted by the surly vixen.             

‘Thes
e roses are mine,’ Charlotte said. ‘Keep away from them. I won’t tell you twice.’

Before she had a chance to find a reply
or step away from the woman who stood nose to nose with her, Will materialised out of nowhere and forced Charlotte back. Although Charlotte was taller by a hand than Lily, the ex-pugilist still towered over her. But the vixen hadn’t backed down more than a step. She’d thrown back her head to meet Will’s threatening gaze with a sullen glare of her own.

‘We’ve been through this before, Charlotte
,’ Will said with exasperation. ‘The roses are yours to care for, but they’re here for everyone to enjoy. If Lily wants to walk these paths and smell the blooms, she can. Do I make myself clear?’

For a moment longer
, Charlotte held her ground. Then she threw a haughty scowl in Lily’s direction and flounced away, black curls bobbing cheekily with each step.

‘Don’
t let that one intimidate you, Lass. She’s all bluster. I’m glad to see you out and about, getting a rose in your cheeks. Stayin’ cooped up in that library all day isna healthy.’ He smiled kindly at her and she nodded politely back.

When she made no attempt to converse with him
, Will turned on his heel and strode off as quickly and efficiently as he had come.

At that moment, Phil came down the path toward her. She had obviously seen the confrontation with Charlotte. When she reached Lily
, she looked her over carefully.

‘Will keeps a close eye on
you, I notice. I have never seen him behave thus,’ she said matter-of-factly.

‘Will does not think highly of my ability to look after myself. He also thinks I have set my cap for him. He has told me in no uncertain terms that he has no such feelings for me.’ She couldn’t help huffing a
little as she revealed all to this kind but comparative stranger.

Phil flicked a piece of copper coloured hair back over her shoulder and leaned down to smell a yellow rose. ‘
Have
you set your cap for him?’

‘No,
of course not. In the last twenty-five years, I have never had thoughts of marriage, as other women have. Given my health, it was unrealistic. And I see no reason why I should entertain such thoughts now when I have discovered I may well be a werewolf. From everything I have been led to believe, werewolves are a solitary breed. Jasper appears to be the only exception. If I am to be one of them, then I will also be a solitary creature.  Setting my cap for Will would be both foolhardy and senseless.’

‘
I am pleased to hear that. And yes, what you say about werewolves is true. They have never shown an interest in forming close bonds with each other, and our lack of knowledge has kept them from taking romantic risks with uninfected partners. All save Jasper.’

‘No werewolf has ever become involved with another of his kind? Why ever not? Charlotte
, for instance, is very beautiful. I would have thought someone like Will would have found her to his taste. Far more than…’

‘Will has never shown any interest in a female here, as far as I am aware. That is why I find his interest
in you so curious. I have felt from the first that their self-loathing keeps them separate. And yet, Will exhibits no such attitude towards himself. He is very at home with his wolf side. So I have no idea why he has never sought out female companionship here, although he would be a fool to look to Charlotte for affection.  She holds few men in high regard.’

‘She appears to hold few
people
in high regard,’ Lily said.

Phil laughed lightly. ‘Oh, do not be misled by her way. She is not nearly as fierce as she appears. I think her good looks brought her trouble in her old life.’

‘However could that be? Someone as pretty and vivacious as she would have had men eating out of her hands.’

‘Some men. Other
s simply see a pretty face as a trophy to be won and then thrown aside. Charlotte was one of the first residents here, some eleven years ago. I gather she had a wealth of experience with men before being turned at eighteen. Women who become cynical of men at such a young age have been badly treated somewhere along the way.’

Lily nodded thoughtfully. She had
never considered beauty as a detriment. In all the stories she had read, the heroines were always beautiful. It was a requisite for a happy ever after. Was it also possible that being beautiful could lead to disappointment and pain? Did cads use such women, break their hearts and then cast them aside? For the first time in her life, Lily was glad she had been plain and sickly so as not to attract the attention of such men.

‘Come, let me show you the cells
in which you will be spending three nights a month,’ Phil said with a little laugh, to change the subject and the mood. Reluctantly, Lily followed the redhead back to the kitchen and then down the hall to the cellar door.

Lighting a lamp, Phil led the way down a flight of steep
stone stairs that were uneven and slippery. ‘Hold the railing or you might slip. I have nearly done so on several occasions.’

At the
bottom of the stairs, the shadowy enclosed space pressed down on her. In the wall closest the the stairs was a huge metal furnace, cold, dark and ominous.

‘That will be lit well before you come down here, so the caverns are all warmed through. You will not need it when in wolf form, but while you are still human and naked, you will feel the cold.’ The idea of going into a cell, taking off her clothes in front of the other women and waiting for the change, was something that filled her with fear. She had never been naked in her life. The idea that women she barely knew would see her skinny, pale body
, and she would see theirs, was horrifying.

With growing trepidation, she followed Phil down one of the three tunnels that led off from the bottom of the stairs.
The dark, dank tunnels gave way to caverns carved out of solid rock. Here, barred cells sat in long rows, stark and empty in the shadowed lamplight. Only the marble floor and the white painted walls gave any semblance of comfort to the dire surroundings.

‘I know it looks bleak. And I will not lie to you. It does lack comfort. Unfortunately,
with the wolves being the way they are, no bedding or floor covers would last the night with them. But it is only a few minutes at dusk and dawn where you will be worried by that. You will be fine after you have been through it once or twice.’

Lily stared at the heavy iron bars that separated each cell from the other and from the narrow corridor that linked them. In each door
, a heavy lock was welded. In each lock sat a key. With sinking heart, Lily imagined what it would feel like to have Phil turn that key on her, locking her in to one of those cold, barren cells.

Fighting down the panic that began to claw its way to the surface,
she resolutely dismissed the upcoming event from her mind. It didn’t help to focus on something she couldn’t change. Better to focus on what her new life had to offer. And there was a great deal that pleased and inspired her in that new life.

‘The library is an amazing place. I have never seen so many books all in one place.’

Phil looked momentarily shocked by the change of subject, but she accepted it willingly enough. ‘Yes, my father loved books. It was he who started the collection, and as more people with different interests joined him, he enlarged it to accommodate them. Have you found the wonderful selection of fiction? I must admit I have a weakness of Charles Dickens’ works. I know he is considered low brow, being serialised in newspapers, but he has a way of capturing people and places like no other.’

Lily smiled and nodded enthusiastically.
‘I loved
Bleak House
! And I was part way through
Great Expectation
when I was attacked. Did you hear that Mr Dickens was almost killed in that Staplehurst train accident a few months ago? His was the only first class carriage to remain on the track. They say he was very brave and did much to help the other injured passengers. He almost lost his latest manuscript, too
. Our Mutual Friend,
I think it’s called. What a tragedy it would have been to have lost that manuscript, or even worse, Mr Dickens himself.’ Lily knew she was prattling as they hurried down the tunnel, but she needed to focus on anything other than her upcoming ordeal. And Dickens was one of her favourite authors.

‘You will find all of Dickens’
books here. As you will those by the Brontes and George Eliot. One could spend all one’s time reading here if there was not so much work to do.’

Lily had to agree. But it pleased her to have meaningful work to do. For too much of her life
, she had done nothing but sleep and read. The only time she had ever felt useful was in those odd times of reasonable health when she had taken on the shop’s books.

But now, each day could be spent in useful endeavour. And who knew what might be uncovered.

Back in the library, she settled in with another pile of recent letters. Her job was to read each letter, noting down any information that might be useful to their research, reply to the letter if necessary, and then file it according to author, country of origin and date. She found the process fascinating, especially when she sat down with the huge logbook which recorded all the data collected from these letters and other sources throughout history. Some entries were laughable, like wolfsbane worn around the neck or a cross of month-old blood painted on a door to ward off werewolves. But there were more serious entries that described the contagion as being carried by the blood, which was aggravated by the magnetism of the moon. There were also some interesting entries by ancient astrologers who believed that certain aspects in a person’s horoscope could indicate if they were fated to be turned.

That idea fascinated her. Not so much the astrology
part, but the idea that one could be fated to become a werewolf. A month ago, she would have said such a possibility was absurd. But then, a month ago, the idea that werewolves actually existed had been absurd.

‘Anything of interest?’ Jasper asked, coming to stand at her shoulder.

‘No, not really. I was just considering the idea of fate. Do you think we were fated to become what we are? Or was it just a freak accident, being in the wrong place at the wrong time?’

Ja
sper sat down across from her and tipped his head to the side thoughtfully. ‘It is certainly more fated than free will, as none of us would have willingly placed ourselves in a position to be turned. Nor do there seem to be any common character traits that might lead to it. For every one of us who could be considered risk-takers for walking dark streets on our own, there are people like you who were in the comparative safety of your garden, or on your deathbed in your own home like Ellen. Either it is pure random chance that we found ourselves faced with this contagion, or it was fated.’

For a moment
, Jasper turned to look out of the window at the sunlit moor. Then he nodded. ‘I am more inclined to see fate at work in finding Dee. What were the chances that I would meet her if she had not been Phil’s best friend and had rushed up here to seek sanctuary when a madman murdered her husband and stalked her so violently? That can be called nothing but fate.’

‘I always belie
ved my fate was to die young. Rather, that was what I was told. What were the chances that I would be in my garden at the time that werewolf jumped the wall and attacked me, granting me a new lease on life?’

‘It does seem like fate, or that you have a Guardian Angel. I must admit, in my own case
, I would have seen it as the devil’s handiwork.’

Saddened by Jasper’s mood, Lily turned back to her work. It would be terrible to think that the devil had a hand in their fate. She much preferred the idea that a benign force had led her down this path and given her a chance at a real life. But people like Jasper had already had a real life bef
ore they were turned. Since, their lives had been seriously restricted.

But life was life. And Jasp
er had so much more than many people, especially now that he had Dee. Surely, a cup half full was better than one that was empty?