Raised By Wolves Volume four- Wolves (87 page)

actuallymade a good accountingofherself.”

actuallymade a good accountingofherself.”
“She saved Pete’s life,” Gaston added; and then seemed
to regret it.
“Pete agreed to care for her,” I said. “Morgan
recognized her, and was intent onusingher as a pawnas he used
us. Thus we could not keep her withus.”
“Pete was wounded, but it was not serious and he was
healingwellwhenwe left them,”Gastonsaid.
Striker nodded resolutely.
“Youhave a good dealofstorytellingto do,”Liamsaid. “I feel you all do as well,” I said with a smile. “Is there
any other arrangement of which we should be apprised?” I
indicated Rachel.
“Madame Doucette and I were thinking we should
maybe marryto…”Liamstopped whenhe saw Gastontense. “Is she stillwithAgnes?”I whispered.
“Ofcourse,”Liamsaid.
“We have discussed her being married for reasons of
propriety,”Theodore said.
“I would have her marry me,” Gaston said. “If she will
consent to it.”
Liamthrew his hands wide. “I was just tryingto help.” “Youhave a wife,”Striker said to mymatelot. Gaston and I looked to one another. He appeared guilty:
I was tryingto figure out how we would lie.
“What?” Striker asked in a tone that said I had best lie
wellifI were to lie at all.
I sighed and resigned myselfto the truth. I was sure Pete

would forgive me.

would forgive me.
“Pete took Chris as matelot,” I said. Gaston winced and
thenhe too sighed withresignation.
“So, that probablyhelped disguise her,”Striker said with

suspicion.“Squishyhole and all,”I said.

“No fuckingway!”Striker proclaimed and stood. “He asked me ifI would mind ifhe married her,” Gaston said meekly. “Since there was never actually a marriage; and she has consented to not contest myraisingthe child…”
Striker collapsed back into the chair.
“Youcanbothhave wives,”I said.
He swore quietly and at last said, “I suppose so.” He looked up at me with worried eyes. “Did he say how he still considers me?”
I truly knew not what I should say. “He will always love you, but… I cannot say what he thought would happen when he came here. I believe his opinion on the matter changed as we journeyed to Cow Island. He… he did not seek Chris, but…”
“He punched me and put me on a ship with my wife,” Striker said without anger. “I’ve done a lot ofthinking, too. I just expected…”He sighed. “I just expected I would have to explain a lot of what I was thinking when he arrived. Now I guess I don’t have to worryabout himbeingas angryas I imagined.”
Relief trickled through me. “You will have much to discuss whenhe does arrive.”
The word
if
hung over us all, but no one was fool enoughto voice it.
“So youwishto marryMadame Doucette?”the Marquis “So youwishto marryMadame Doucette?”the Marquis

asked.Gaston frowned at his father with worry. “Oui. I know

she is…”
“I think that a splendid idea,”the Marquis said and came
to embrace his son. “She is a delightful young woman. And with
things as they are, that will make your living arrangements
considerablyless complicated.”
My matelot regarded me with bemusement over his
father’s shoulder. I laughed. The Gods were with us, and though
I might have to bow before a dragon, nothing else seemed to
stand inour path.

One Hundred and Fifteen Wherein We Begin to Make Peace with Destiny

The rest of the day passed quickly. Rachel took command of the house. Striker and Liammet with Captain Horn and Jenkins and attended to matters of security. Theodore commandeered the study, and on Liam and Rachel’s recommendations, paid final wages to servants and negotiated wages with others. Jenkins and a number of his men left my employ; along with several older members of the staff including my father’s personal servants. We kept the cook; and any other personwho expressed no dismayabout servinga sodomite.

Gaston and I were spared almost any involvement in those proceedings. Instead, we were visited by Whyse’s tailor, Mister Winger. He measured damn near every dimension of our persons, and spoke at length on our preferences and how they related to current fashion. He was actually quite sensible, and had a great many suggestions on how we could be in keeping with the style of the court while still maintaining some degree of dignity, and, surprisingly, functionality in our attire. I was quite pleased to realize Winger catered to a number of gentlemen who did not carrya sword merelyfor show.

I did choose blues, and my matelot chose greens. The I did choose blues, and my matelot chose greens. The man promised us something suitable to wear by the next day— including boots—and something proper for the memorial service and the burial within three days, along with a number of other sets of clothing for attending court by the end of the week. I did not ask what this would cost: Winger spoke to Theodore about

that. Then we met with the undertaker. There would be a

service here in London for family and my father’s friends and associates, and thenhis body—and Shane’s—would be takento Rolland Halland buried in the family plot. The finaldetails ofthat would be coordinated withthe clergyinthe estate’s parish. I was pleased I would never have to actually look upon the bodies again. I was, however, dismayed I was expected to attend the Londonservice and the burial.

We sent word of these arrangements to Whyse, and he assured us he would attend and insure we knew who we must promise to meet again and who we could politely dismiss. I was once again pleased I genuinely liked Whyse, else the coming months would be a chore indeed as he shepherded us through our first months at court.

While waiting for his reply, I wrote my sister Elizabeth, who was now the Lady Beaucrest. Though I had barely seen her when I returned to England five years ago, I thought it best she receive a letter from me concerning our father’s death and my assumption of the title; instead of receiving a formal notice of the funeral service from the undertaker, or hearing via noble gossip. Theodore had informed me she now resided with her husband, Baron Beaucrest, in Kent. They purportedly had one son. I kept Baron Beaucrest, in Kent. They purportedly had one son. I kept my missive brief, conveyed my grief, and continued the version of events I had used with the servants: our father summoned me home, and Shane and he quarreled over the matter upon my arrival, and Shane shot him—truly, no one who heard that version of events seemed surprised; such had been Shane’s reputation. She would have to travel about as far as Sarah to attend the ceremony—and further still to attend the burial at Rolland Hall. I wondered ifshe would.

Then I wrote Sarah a personal note. I told her I would explain all that occurred once she arrived for the funeral. I was beginning to write Agnes and Yvette when Rachel called us to

dinner.That night, the house was finally free of interlopers and

disagreeable servants, and we were able to sit for dinner with our friends. Rachel was cajoled into joining us, even though as housekeeper it was not her place. I decided this ruse of theirs might quicklygrow tedious.

“Where do you feel everyone should live, my lord?” Rachel asked as she sat after the food had been served and she had shooed the other servants out. “We will have to organize Rolland Hall next. They probably just heard of their old lord’s demise.”

“Sarah will want her own house,” Striker said. “And I’d rather it be near a port—or at least the Thames.”
“The rest of us have not dared discuss it a great deal; as we have not known what the outcome of matters would be,” Theodore said and the Marquis nodded. “Gaston and you will obviouslyneed to staynear the court.”
“Untilthe kingtires ofus,”I said.
Theodore shrugged. “And whenever the House ofLords is in session. I assume the ladies and children will live at Rolland Hall.”
I did not assume any such thing. “Is that their preference?”
“Well, it’s what we thought,” Liamsaid. “If you were to become lord; and youdid.”
“The ladies were dismayed by Rotterdamand London,” Rachelsaid. “We have allfound Londoncrowded and filthy. The Lady Dorshire thought the family manor quite lovely—what we could see ofit fromthe road. We allthought it would be best for the childrento grow up insucha place ifit were anoption.”
I thought of the house of my birth and childhood and suppressed a shudder. It had been a large empty manse full of taciturn servants; and then, of course, there were the unpleasant memories from my last years there. “I am not keen to return there.”
“The childrenwilllive withus,”Gastonsaid.
I smiled. “Aye. They will not live two days away by coach.”
Rachel and Theodore looked as if they would protest, but theyquicklyshrugged withresignation.
“We will need a much larger house in the city, then,” Rachelsaid.
“Perhaps a place close to the city, but not actually in it,” Theodore suggested.
I wondered if my days would soon be filled with riding about, purse inhand, to find a residence.
“Perhaps Whyse knows of something,” the Marquis said and buttered a roll.
He probablydid. “Or he canarrange something,”I said.
The Marquis chuckled, but the others appeared alarmed.
I sighed. “I am not above someone being urged or ordered to move if it will allow me to live happily with my loved ones under one roof. Those that shall wish that,” I amended to Striker.
He was grinning. “Will, truly, I think we’ll try and do whatever youwant. You’re the one withthe hardest task.”
“Thank you,”I said solemnly. “For acknowledgingthat:I do not relishhow I shallbe forced to spend mytime.”
“We don’t have to stay,”Liamsaid.
I looked about at their concerned faces, and saw Liam’s words echoed inmyman’s eyes. I shook my head. “Nay, we do not, but… I owe it to… everyone, including myself, to try. I imagine I willcomplain a bit, though. Nay, I shallprobably whine incessantly. And I will wish for certain concessions, like a large house I canlive inwitheveryone.”
I saw no argument fromanyofthem.
“I want to see the children,” Gaston said. “I know it is planned for Sarah to attend the funeral, but what of the others? Can everyone be brought here, or should we wait until we are in Dorshire for the burial?”
“I understand your wish to see them,” Theodore said. “We have not seen Elizabeth in weeks. You of course, have not even seen your sons; nor even the girl. But, though Sarah and perhaps the rest of the ladies can arrive here in a few days, packingup the entire household willslow themconsiderably, and be quite the disruptionto the children. Yet, I suppose theywillall be moving soon enough anyway—at least to Rolland Hallfor the time beinguntilwe canfind another house.”
Gaston sighed. “You are correct: it makes no sense to disrupt the children to bring them all here if they will only be moving a short distance to their temporary new home anyway. I willwait. What is another week or so?”He smiled ruefully.
“I will send word that they should prepare to leave the rented house; and that in the end we will all be returning to London,”Theodore said.
“I will write them,” I said. “I am the one making the demands:I willtake responsibilityfor them.”
I did not write them that night, though. Gaston was the one to put pen to parchment and finish my missive to our ladies. While he was at that task, I told our friends of our voyage to Cow Island and how we were trapped into going to Panama. Striker drank brandy and cursed his not having been with us. Liam and the Marquis laughed a great deal, and praised God they had not been with us. And Rachel and Theodore appeared quite alarmed that suchthings occurred inthe world at all.
When Gaston joined us to hand a sealed letter to Theodore, his father embraced himfervently.
“Never again, my son, will you need to face such trials,” the Marquis said.
Gaston did not ask what trials we spoke of, but his look to me said he was as aware as I of how very little our people seemed to understand about what we faced now.
We at last bid them good night and escaped to our room.
“I wish to ask my father if this is how one becomes…
lordly
,”Gastonsaid after the door was safelyclosed.
“How do youmean?”
“You—we—must order everyone about to insure our wants and needs are met:for you to do as you must and support us all.”
I grimaced. His words echoed thoughts I had not wished to examine. “Perhaps we have been the lords in their lives all along. We are the lead cart. They are tossed behind to follow us iftheywill. We have ever decided the road.”
“So why do I feelthis is different than it was before?” he

asked.I snorted withmyownbemusement. “I do not know; but

 

oui, I feelthat too.”

He frowned in thought. “I guess I expected this to be the end ofthe road:that it would become levelbecause now…”
“Our
trials
are behind us. My father is dead; we are well; we have a country; and money, and my title, and your nobility, and peace withyour father, and children, and…”
He smiled. “And the road keeps going
uphill
.”
“With possible ambuscades at every turn as you imagined last night.”
He shrugged. “I suppose it is as you said: a life without adventure is not worthliving.”
“I have beenknownto saythe most foolishthings…”
With a laugh, he toppled me onto the bed. He kissed me deeply and his gaze was solemn when he released me. “Wherever we alllive, youand I willneed a trulyprivate place.”
To my surprise, my cock stirred for the first time in days at his implication. “Oui,” I said with equal solemnity, and then I pulled himto me.
In the aftermath of Heaven’s glow, I finally felt we had passed through the fire and emerged unscathed. Everything felt realagain. I drifted to sleep, not in desperate exhaustion, but in a surfeit ofpleasant emotion. I vowed to dreamoffrolicking.
We slept well and woke early the next day, much to Theodore’s delight. He ushered us into the studyafter a delicious breakfast; and sat behind my father’s desk with Gaston and me and the Marquis in chairs arrayed before the slab ofmahogany. I noted he looked quite proper, there at my father’s desk. He looked as if he could make use of such an expanse—and indeed he had:there were papers and tablets everywhere.
“Your father’s last will and testament will not be read until after the funeral service,” Theodore said. “However, there will be nothing in it to surprise us. All your father’s holdings will be transferred to youas his sole heir.”
“Truly?” I asked. “Despite all that happened, he still had me as his sole heir?”
The Marquis and Theodore exchanged a look I found suspicious.
“That is what the document that will be read says,” the Marquis said. “We have seenit.”
I barked with amusement. “Did it bear my father’s