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

of that child she had lost. Every time she looked at him, she felt hatred anew.

It was just one of the things she hated about returning home.

More strange things were happening at Falstone these days.

When Gavriella had returned from London, there had been a new female servant who shadowed her father everywhere he went. The woman had been sent by an ally, she was told, but not even Lukas could tell her just who the ally was. He was very suspicious of the woman, but Merek didn’t seem to mind having her around. Lukas had discovered why when he had walked in on them in Merek’s solar and the woman’s head was down between Merek’s legs.

That told Lukas everything he needed to know.

The woman’s name was Giddy and she was quite clever. Over the past six months, she had gone out of her way to separate Merek from everyone else. She ate with him in his chamber, she was with him while he conducted business in his solar, and wherever Merek went, she trailed along behind him. She was obedient and quiet, and always tried to be as inobtrusive as possible, but it was obvious that she had a stranglehold on Merek.

These days, he wouldn’t go anywhere without her.

Then came the madness.

Somewhere in the past six months, Merek seem to have developed a madness that ebbed and flowed. It seemed to be better in the morning and worse in the evening. He conducted business with Lukas in the mornings, because by mid-afternoon, he was almost completely incoherent.

Giddy was always with him, madness or no, following him around and tending to him, and Lukas was convinced that the woman had something to do with whatever was happening to Merek de Leia.

But he couldn’t prove it.

Merek would rage at anyone who suggested that he separate from Giddy. When Gavriella had returned from London and saw what was happening, she’d even suggested it to her father and he lashed out at her, nearly hitting her in the face. After that, Gavriella stayed away from him and away from Giddy, who had tried to befriend her at first, but Gavriella made it very clear she wanted nothing to do with her.

These days, Falstone was something of a horrible mess.

And now, the Scots were on the rampage.

As Gavriella sat on the floor of the vault and cut away pieces of rotten turnips, she tried not to think of what her life had become. What Falstone had become. If things hadn’t been bad enough when she left, they were worse when she had returned. But she was jolted from those moody thoughts when Iva returned with the cook and two more servants, taken from the keep. They were maids, but they could use a knife as well as anyone, so Gavriella handed her knife over to the cook, a woman named Jocosa, as she stood up and brushed off her hands.

“Lukas tells me that we’re expecting an army here by this evening,” she said. “We’ll need to make great batches of stew in the iron pots used to boil the hides. We have turnips, carrots, onions, and the sausages we made when we slaughtered the pigs in the autumn. We can boil the sausages with everything and make a nice stew.”

Jocosa was already on the ground, tossing the cut turnips into a big basket she’d brought.

“I’ll add barley to it,” she said. “I can make it last a few days, depending on how many men we’re feeding. Do you know?”

Gavriella shrugged. “Lukas says at least two thousand,” she said. “We do not know how long they are staying, so you’ll have to plan to feed them for at least a month. Can you do that?”

Jocosa looked around the vault. She was a big woman, round and strong, and she knew her business. “Aye, my lady,” she said after a moment. “I’ll determine what to feed them without using everything we have. Leave it to me.”

That was Jocosa – a woman who never had a harsh would or a negative comment. Truthfully, she was one of the people who kept Gavriella sane around this place and Gavriella smiled, patting the woman on the shoulder.

“You have my thanks, Jo,” she said. “I must see what Lukas is doing about their accommodations. I suppose we should house the knights in the keep, so I should make room for them.”

Leaving Jocosa to handle the turnips, Gavriella headed out. The vault had two exits – a narrow staircase to the floor above and then a second exit built right into the wall, with exterior stairs that led up into the bailey. She had seen Lukas go in that direction, so she followed.

It was an icy day. They’d had snow two days before that had melted, but the freezing temperatures had turned everything to ice. The bailey was caked solid and there were frozen ponds throughout. Given that Falstone had limited space inside that crusty, frozen bailey, Gavriella knew that they were about to be crammed full of men with the incoming army and the horses.

It was about to get quite cozy.

Rounding the keep, she came into the main body of the bailey. The enormous gatehouse was directly ahead and she could see men scurrying about, including Lukas, who was speaking to one of his men. When he looked up and saw her approach, he excused himself and made his way in her direction.

“The army has been sighted a few miles out,” he told her. “Our scouts have seen them moving towards us and it looks like more than a thousand men. There are at least five knights that our scouts saw, mayhap more he did not.”

Gavriella lifted her eyebrows. “I wanted to ask you where you wish to house the knights,” she said. “We have those two chambers on the ground floor of the keep that the servants use, but they can sleep elsewhere if we need to house the knights.”

Lukas nodded. “It would be the polite thing to give the knights their