WolfeBlade: de Wolfe Pack Generations by Kathryn Veque (reading an ebook txt) 📕

The man she saw from her window didn’t threaten her at all.

Now came the matter of breaking out of the fortress-like manse.

From the jaunt last night, Gavriella knew where the postern gate was, but she had to go through the maze-like corridors of the house to get there and she wasn’t entirely sure that she could. The only other alternative was the main entry door. The Asher was surrounded by an enormous curtain wall, but the entire front part of the manse was on the street. It wasn’t set back from the avenue, nor was there a wall between the front door and the main street where people were going about their business. The entry door was right on the street, an enormous iron structure built into the wattle and daub walls.

Fortunately, she was already dressed and waiting for him.

But that had been an odyssey unto itself.

When Gavriella had awakened after those rough few hours of slumber, Camilla had still been asleep, snoring softly in the feather-filled bed. Listening to the faint sounds of the street outside mingling with the snoring, Gavriella had crept out of bed and went about dressing very quietly.

Her first order of business had been to bolt the chamber door. She didn’t know where Aurelia was and the last thing she wanted was for that woman to enter the chamber just as she was getting dressed for a rather scandalous meeting. She didn’t want to have to explain herself to Aurelia, especially not after the fight they’d had, so Gavriella had gone about dressing very quickly in the hopes of avoiding Aurelia altogether.

She also had a special reason for wanting to avoid her – she didn’t want Aurelia to see that she was wearing one of Camilla’s dresses, in yet another dress to potentially ruin. Gavriella had no real need for fine clothing in the north because her father’s castle was in a rural setting and it wasn’t as if their lives were a gay social whirl. In fact, it was quite the contrary.

Because of this, Gavriella owned just a couple of good dresses and she had already worn those several times since she had arrived in London. Both of those dresses had been taken to the laundry and she had nothing left but the simple broadcloth dresses she had brought with her, and quite frankly, she didn’t want to wear those plain and unassuming garments for Andreas.

She wanted to look pretty.

Which meant she had to borrow another dress.

Therefore, Gavriella was very quiet as she opened Camilla’s wardrobe and pawed through the dresses that were hanging on the pegs. She didn’t want to wear one of the really nice garments, expensive with gold and jewels, but she wanted one that was better than her simple broadcloth. She found a red garment, made of a lightweight wool and a sheer white shift that was worn underneath it. It seemed simple enough, without any adornment, so she pulled on the shift, which was very nearly transparent, and the red dress over it.

Being that Camilla’s father was an earl, her bedchamber was well equipped, including a bronze mirror that was about five feet high. It was positioned on the wall next to the dressing table and Gavriella went to look at herself in her borrowed garments. With her fair skin and blonde hair, the rich red dress looked absolutely stunning on her. Because Camilla was a little smaller than she was, the dress was snug, but it made her look quite delectable.

In fact, Gavriella had never seen herself look so… beautiful.

It was a little startling. As she ran her hands over the material, she realized that although the design was simple, the material was, in fact, expensive and the dress very well made. This was no cheap piece of clothing. It had a low neckline with the shift peeking out and long sleeves with cutouts so the nearly transparent shift could be seen underneath. The bodice was snug to her hips whereupon the skirt flared quite beautifully. In truth, it was magnificent.

And she looked magnificent in it.

Feeling confident in the lovely garment for the first time in ever so long, Gavriella combed and braided her hair, draping the braid over her right shoulder and tying it off with a red silk ribbon she found on Camilla’s dressing table. The thrill of looking pretty was something she hadn’t felt in a very long time. She’d just spent the past year feeling ashamed and ugly, and this was the first time in many months that she actually felt attractive and young and alive.

There was something in her that desperately wanted to live a normal life again.

Emboldened by the lovely dress, Gavriella went to her satchel and found a silk purse very deep at the bottom that contained her jewelry. She pulled forth a large golden cross on a long chain that she put over her head. Fine leather slippers went on her feet and she fastened her coin purse to a golden belt that she draped over her hips. The belt also belonged to Camilla and she silently thanked her cousin for her generosity. She knew she was going to have some explaining to do when she returned home but, at the moment, she wasn’t concerned about it.

She was only concerned about the excitement in her heart.

She was blind to all else.

Fully dressed in the lovely red clothing, Gavriella then stood by the windows overlooking the street outside and watched for that tall, blond man who had been part of the eventful evening the night before. As she waited, she relived the night over and over in her mind, thinking on the very moment she met him up until he brought her home at dawn.

She thought about their conversations and about his bravery as he had pulled her from the Thames. More and more, she was feeling incredibly foolish about impulsively jumping in the river. But as she explained to Andreas, she really didn’t know