Defiance at Werewolf Keep (Werewolf Keep Trilogy) (5 page)

Lily rose to her feet also and smiled at her companion politely. ‘I
, too, am feeling more hungry than normal. It must be all the excitement.’

CHAPTER FIVE

Luncheon was a stiff and uncomfortable
meal surrounded by upper-class passengers. As Lily worked her way through the four course meal, complete with wine, she wondered at her ability to consume so much.

In the past, food had been an unpleasant but necessary evil. She forced it down to please her parents
, but rarely enjoyed the taste. And stomach complaints would often follow its consumption. Since the werewolf attack, she found eating a pleasure. Foods seemed to have a heightened taste and texture that fascinated her, and it never made her feel sick afterwards.

This meal was no different in that regard. B
ut the questions that chased around her head, questions that couldn’t be asked with possible eavesdroppers nearby, drove the pleasure away. As did Fidelia’s sad expression and Will’s stony silence. Only Byron seemed immune to the heavy atmosphere around him. And he spent the time telling her about the day to day running of the Keep.

Lily was quite looking forward to meeting Philomena, Byron’s wife and the daughter of the late Captain Davenport. She was less anxious to meet Jasper Horton, as the things his wife had told her about him seemed too personal for her to be privy to. How was she to look the man in the face
, knowing he arrived at Fidelia’s door naked. Or that he seduced her and then rejected her. Or that he risked people’s lives in his crazed need to be with her. He might be an earl, but he didn’t sound much like a gentleman to her, no matter what Fidelia said.

By the time they returned to their compartment
, the afternoon was well advanced. She had been told they would leave the train at York and then board another for Harrogate. From there they would take a carriage to Breckenhill Keep. It would be very late before they arrived at their destination.

Even though the view out the window continued to fascinate her, eventually the exhaustion of the day caught up with her and she fell asleep
on Will’s shoulder. When she next awoke, it was to find his arm around her shoulder and the train no longer moving.

Lifting her head from its comfortable
position, she took in her surroundings. Outside the window was a station platform, where porters were hurrying backward and forwards, loaded high with luggage. Beyond it, she could see stone buildings that told her she was in a large town or city. This was no two-platform country station.

Inside the carriage there was a hive of activity as people hastened along the narrow corridor.

‘York,’ Will informed her as he extracted his arm and climbed to his feet. ‘Time to change trains. Byron has gone on to check the platform for our next train.’

Fidelia, who was storing her book in her reticule, looked up at Will as he pulled Lily’s small satchel from the wrought iron storage space above them.

‘Will, Lily has pointed out that I may have treated you as less than a gentleman earlier. I…I think highly of you, as I know everyone at the Keep does. I meant no offence,’ Fidelia said stiffly, turning a bright shade of pink.

Will looked at her in astonishment. Clearly
, this was the last thing he expected to hear from her ladyship. He cleared his throat and pulled at his stiff, white collar until he could find words to reply.

‘No apology is necessary, Dee. You had only Lily’s best interests at heart. For that
, I’m grateful. I did overstep the bounds of good behaviour and it won’t happen again.’

Lily hated to hear him
criticise himself this way when he had only meant to be kind to her. ‘You don’t have to apologise for being kind.’

Will’s surprise seemed to increase. ‘Kind? Lily, I took advantage of your fragile state to steal a kiss. That was the act of a ‘cad’, as Dee so rightly named me. I must apologise to you for my behaviour. You trusted me, and I took advantage of that trust to satisfy my desire.’

‘Desire?’ Lily squeaked. This was not what she expected him to say. She picked up her bonnet and began to play with its violet ribbon.

‘She is under the impression that your kiss was
not one of lust but of sympathy. I did try to explain the difference,’ Fidelia said over her shoulder as she exited the compartment, leaving Lily alone with Will for the first time since that kiss.

‘I told her you couldn’t feel such a thing for me. I am not…
I do not stir men’s ardour. Just because…’

Will put down the satchel and rested his hands on her shoulders. ‘Lily. Stop. This is no’ the place or the time for th
is discussion. But please donna make me into a saint. I may not have let my carnal nature free for many years, but it doesna mean it has died away. And you are enough to stir any man’s ardour. Certainly this man’s.’ He smiled down at her sadly. ‘But I shouldna have kissed you, lass, and that’s the way of it. It willna happen again.’

‘You truly…
desire me? But I am a scrawny invalid. I have no womanly charms.’

Will
threw back his head, closed his eyes and groaned, never taking his hands from her shoulders. ‘You have more than enough womanly charms to keep me from my sleep. Now please, do us both the consideration of forgetting that kiss ever happened. You have more than enough to worry about the noo.’

He turned her for the door and released her. Looking back over her shoulder
, she saw him pick up her satchel and follow. Head still spinning from this latest revelation, Lily replaced her bonnet and joined the queue disembarking the train.

It was dark by the time their carriage drew up outside
of the Keep. Lily had fallen asleep again on Will’s shoulder and was jolted awake when the carriage came to an abrupt halt.

The
door flew open, and through bleary eyes Lily saw a handsome, blonde gentleman lean into the carriage to grasp Fidelia’s hand. ‘About time. I was just about to ride out in search of you.’

‘
Jas, can you let me out before you try dragging your wife from the carriage? I thought your patience would have returned to you by now.’ Byron pushed the blonde man back out the door with a laugh.

‘I have not seen my bride for three weeks. Do not talk about patience to me!’ Jasper said, but remained standing at a little distance from the carriage so that Byron could climb out, giving Fidelia the space she needed to manoeuvre her
crinoline through the doorway.

Once Fidelia was in the arms of her husband, who
kissed her passionately and without concern for onlookers, Byron offered Lily his hand to assist her down from the carriage, too. Then Will joined them on the stone steps leading up to the Keep and took Lily’s elbow. She swayed slightly as fatigue hit her hard.

‘Byron!’ A tall red
head hurried down the stone stairs to the carriage and threw herself into the big man’s arms. Lily had never been witness to such open displays of affection before. She shifted uncomfortably, trying to look anywhere but at the loving couples as they celebrated their reunions.

‘Anyone would think
we’d been gone weeks,’ Will told her as an aside, steering her around the clinging couples. ‘Ron and I were only in London two days. We came down as soon as we received word of your attack.’

‘Do they do that often?’ she asked quietly, even though they were now far enough away from the co
uples that her words wouldn’t be overheard.

‘Unfortunately
, yes.’ Will exaggerated his disgust to make her smile. ‘Being surrounded by all their hearts and flowers melodrama puts me off my food.’

‘After watching you eat on the train, I find
it hard to imagine anything putting you off your food,’ she said, and then gasped at her rudeness.

Will laughed and drew her elbow a little closer into his side. ‘I do believe, Lass, that we’re already starting t
o rub off on you. Don’t fash yerself. I ken you were playin’.’

Lily sighed and smiled back at him. She
had
been playing with him, hadn’t she? How odd. Maybe the playful jibes and insults these people threw at each other
were
rubbing off on her.

Inside the huge entry hall, brightly lit with lamps, Lily had her first glimpse of Breckenhill Keep. It was a massive stone structure that was as ominous as she expected a
n ancient castle to be. A huge wooden chandelier hung over their heads, casting shadows into all the marble-paved corners of the room and up the curved stone staircase that led to the floor above.

A young maid was coming down those stairs at that moment.

‘Mary, can you show our guest to her room?’ Will asked the woman. ‘I’ll follow with the luggage.’

Mary nodded and smiled shyly at Lily. ‘If you’ll follow me
, Miss.’

‘Before you go, I want you to meet my wife,’ Byron announced as he entered the Keep with his wife plastered to his side. Fidelia and her husb
and followed closely behind.

Lily turned back to the couples and smiled tiredly.

‘Miss Lily Farnsworth, this is my wife, Philomena Carstairs. She likes to be called Phil,’ Byron introduced the redhead.

‘You are very welcome in our
home, Lily. I hope it has not been too overwhelming, so far. But you have had my dearest friend Dee to protect you from these men on your journey.’

‘I am afraid I have done a poor job of easing her passage. I
have offended her more times than I can count.’ Fidelia grimaced unhappily.

‘No, it is I who offe
nded. I am not used to people…’ Lily broke in anxiously.

‘No, quite rightly you pointed out
that a gentleman is recognised not by his class but by his behaviour. I am afraid I demonstrated that my mother’s influence over me is still unmitigated.’

‘Balderdash,’ Jasper said staunchly, kissing the side of his wife’s head. ‘You are nothing like your mother, praise God.’

‘Lily had to defend Will, Jasper.’

‘Will needs no defending,’ Byron said with a laugh. But Lily watched as the redhead turned to
look at her more carefully before glancing at Will.

‘
Enough of this, the lassie’s asleep on her feet. There’s time for this nonsense on the morrow,’ Will said gruffly, handing her over to Mary and turning back for the carriage.

The redhead, Phil, came up and took
her elbow as Will had. ‘Come, my dear. Let us get you into a warm, comfortable bed. You do look ready to collapse at any moment. It has been a trying journey, I can tell.’

The
compassion in the woman’s voice brought tears to Lily’s eyes, and she let herself lean heavily on the woman, as she had on Will only moments before. It felt as if her legs were not strong enough to carry her weight anymore.

Finally
, though she wasn’t sure how she did it, she reached the top of the staircase and allowed Phil and Mary to guide her down the corridor to a large, airy room that had a fire burning in the grate. That surprised her, as it was still early autumn. But now she noticed it; the great stone Keep was a lot colder than the temperature outside.

Will strode into the room with her two bags in his arms. He put them down near the wardrobe and hastily headed back out the door, as if he was glad to be rid of his self-imposed guardianship of her.

‘Will,’ she called after him. He reluctantly turned back to her, the scowl on his face a surprise. ‘Thank…Thank you for everything you have done for me today. I am most appreciative.’

He jerked a nod in her direction and then strode away.

‘Will can be rather gruff. He does not mean anything by it. It is just his way,’ Phil told her.

‘That is the
first time he has been gruff with me. He has been…very kind.’ She wanted to run after him to ask what had happened to change him so dramatically. But she couldn’t do such a thing.

‘I am glad he treated you well. He is a good man,’ Phil said. ‘Now let us get you into bed. Tomorrow you are to sleep in and come down when it suits you. We do not stand on ceremony here, and except for evening meals
, we all come and go as we like. There is no distinction between classes amongst us. We all have our work to do, but in every other way we are equal.’

Lily looked at the beautiful woman in surprise. ‘Equal? I do not understand.’

‘Everyone here, except for a few, are werewolves. Such a condition makes nonsense of class barriers. So we eat together, socialise together, and all go by our first names. There are no Lords and Ladies here.’

Almost
as if to deny Phil’s words, Mary bobbed a curtsey as she made to leave the room. ‘But habits are hard to break, as you can see.’

As Lily changed into her nightdress and brushed out her hair by the fire, she marvelled at the place she now found herself. This castle keep was the stuff of fairy tales, and her new place in it, as a possible mythical creature, only added to the unreality of it all.
The only aspect of her adventure that seemed real, thus far, was her feelings for Will. In a few short hours he had become her anchor to the world. He kept her from spinning off into madness.

But what if he no longer wan
ted to fulfil that role for her? What if his brief dalliance with her was over now that he was home? Maybe there was another woman he favoured here, and he didn’t want to be seen paying Lily too much attention.