Chapter 8
Lucy: The Untold Story
Lucy slept fitfully. Hooded men with werewolf scars flitted through her dreams, chasing her back and forth, searching for something she couldn’t name.
Once or twice, she had cried out, only for a powerful arm to wrap around her shoulder, lulling her back to sleep’s waiting clutches.
By the time she properly awoke, it was near dusk.
“I was wondering if you were going to sleep the entire journey,” Sebastian said, as she stirred. He kept his eyes firmly on the road. “We’re close to stopping for the night.”
Lucy looked around blearily. The fields of flowers seemed faintly familiar, though she couldn’t quite place them. “Where…”
“We’re close to your Gran’s place. We’re not due at the Umberian palace until tomorrow, so I thought I’d give you some time with her. I can camp outside her cottage to give you some privacy,” Sebastian said.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Lucy said.
Sebastian gave her a smile that didn’t quite meet his eyes. “Well, we aren’t likely to get rooms at an inn with you dressed like that,” he said, motioning to her high-necked gown—the only one she had that covered the bruises Thaddeus had left the night before.
Lucy glanced down at it and felt, rather than saw, the dried blood on the collar. She winced. “I thought you were going to stop once we got out of the forest for me to change?” she asked, rubbing her head. A pounding headache pulsed with her heartbeat.
“I did, but I couldn’t wake you, so I just continued on,” Sebastian said. He glanced at her. “So, when were you going to reveal that you’re a kitsuné, not a werewolf?”
“A kitsuné?” Lucy repeated.
“A fox spirit. They’re supposed to be tricksters, who can shift between mortal and fox forms with ease.
They’re rare in Moyar, but there are a few of them out there.
” Seeing her questioning glance, Sebastian shrugged.
“Oliver had to do an assignment about them at Farraday and I helped. I can remember a little about them, but not a lot. I wouldn’t have thought of it at all if the hooded man in the forest hadn’t mentioned it. ”
The hooded man in the forest. Lucy gave an involuntary shiver at the memory of his voice.
She’d recognized it immediately. Robin Hood, the man who’d interviewed her for the Sherwood Company, had been the initial attacker.
She hadn’t recognized the third man, but she was certain that Thaddeus had been one of the others.
Only he used that infernal nickname, Lucy-lo-lu, short for lovesick lupine.
Only he would call her a madwoman in the guise of a sweet term of endearment.
“Hey. Are you truly alright?” Sebastian asked, his eyes trained on her face, searching for something she wouldn’t let herself name.
Lucy shook her head. “It’s…it’s just a lot to absorb.”
Sebastian nodded. “Fair enough. If there’s anything I can do to help…” He made a face.
“If I think of anything, I’ll let you know,” Lucy breathed. They had entered another forest, though she was beginning to recognize a few of the landmarks. Sebastian was right; they weren’t far from her grandmother’s house.
“I should thank you, by the way,” Sebastian said. “Biting that cowardly bandit gave me the opening I needed.”
Lucy shrugged. “It was nothing.” It had felt like a victory, though. Biting Robin had given her a surge of satisfaction like she’d never known.
Sebastian squeezed her hand. “It was something. Especially since—” He cut himself off, gazing over the horse’s head. “We’re here.”
Lucy glanced toward where he was looking and smiled.
“Gran,” she whispered, leaping from her seat onto the ground below.
She barely registered Sebastian’s cries of protest as she ran, pell-mell, toward the little cottage in the glade, a place she barely remembered.
Her mother’s mother hadn’t liked visitors, much less eight of them, so usually, her mother went to see her alone, if she saw her at all.
Yet, Lucy had vivid memories of coming to the cottage when she was little more than a child.
She couldn’t remember the occasion, though she easily recalled the angry words that passed between her mother and grandmother.
She stuffed those memories as far down as they would go as she knocked on the cottage door. Somewhere inside, a brittle voice called, “Enter!” Her stomach fluttering like Sebastian’s wings, Lucy pushed open the cottage door.
It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkened room. Her gran lay in a rickety bed at the far end of the room. An older gentleman with salt-and-pepper hair was bending over her, his brow furrowed in concentration. He looked up when Lucy entered.
“Ah, you must be Fraulein Lucy,” the man said, the frown evaporating from his face. He spoke with a slight accent, possibly from Feldgrau. He rushed over to shake her hand. “Fraulein Quinn mentioned that you would would arrive sometime this evening. I was just attending to the lovely Frau Tala.”
A cackle came from the bed. “Lovely, my right eye. Shine your powder someplace else, doctor.” Lucy glanced over to where her grandmother was sitting.
Tala Phaelan had changed very little in the years since she’d seen her.
She had grown painfully thin and paler than she had been.
However, her dark eyes still flashed with ire and she glared at the people invading her home with such irritation that Lucy had to bite back a laugh.
The doctor smiled genially, seemingly unaware of the old lady’s displeasure. “She has been saying things such as this all day. If I didn’t know better, I would think she didn’t like me.”
“I don’t like you, you quack,” Tala snarled. “Why, if I were just a little stronger, I’d get out of this bed and toss you out of this cottage so fast, smoke would come off your heels.”
“Well, if you want to get to a place where you can do that tossing, you must remain in bed a few days longer and drink a bit of this tonic three times a day.” The doctor fished a gleaming silver vial from the black bag at his feet.
“Bottled moonbeams. Very potent. Be careful not to take too much all at once.”
“Hmph,” Tala said, crossing her arms over her chest. “And where do you get off, I’d like to know, ordering me about in my own home?”
The doctor shook his head and winked at the younger woman. “You have a spitfire on your hands, Fraulein Lucy.” He snapped his bag closed and heaved it over his shoulder. “Well, I should get to the inn and get settled for the night. I expect I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Er…you will?” Lucy asked with a frown.
“Oh, ja, Fraulein Lucy. I am Avelar Fenrir, the doctor Fraulein Quinn has assigned to your team. I think she mentioned me?” the man asked, his brow furrowing slightly.
The name rang a bell, and Lucy nodded. “Pleased to meet you,” she mumbled, following him to the door. “Is Gran going to be okay?”
“If she continues to rest and take the tonic, ja, she should be fine. I’ve already given her a dose tonight, so give her another teaspoon before you leave in the morning.
She may be a little more…talkative than usual for a bit, but then she will sleep like the proverbial baby.
” The old man patted her on the arm. “Try not to worry.”
“Thank you, doctor,” Lucy said, smiling softly.
As the door opened and the fading afternoon sunlight illuminated the room, the doctor caught sight of her soiled gown. “Ach, that is no good. Do I need to check you over, Fraulein Lucy?”
Lucy felt her cheeks go crimson. “Er…no. It’s not mine.”
The doctor looked like he didn’t believe her, but he nodded. “If you say so. Well, I will bid you good night. Sleep well, Fraulein Lucy.”
“Good night.” She nodded and shut the door after him. Once it was just her and her Gran, she breathed a sigh of relief.
Tala’s voice broke through her thoughts.
“Well? Don’t just stand there mooning, girl.
Come over here and let me get a good look at you.
” Lucy hurried to follow her instructions.
As she approached, Tala gave a little scowl.
“Well, I was going to ask which of Yuna’s pups you were, but one look at you makes it obvious. You’re the one they took in.”
The temperature of the room seemed to drop by ten degrees. “The one they took in?” Lucy repeated, her voice no louder than a whisper.
“Yep.” The old woman grinned, relishing the word. “It was just after their oldest was born. Eden, I think her name is. They were expecting Judah, and they didn’t have two gold coins to rub together. And that was when that strange lady came along.”
“What lady?” Lucy asked, leaning forward. “Who was she?”
“Gorgon’s bones. How am I supposed to know?” Tala snapped. “All’s I know is that she offered to pay an unholy amount each month if they’d take in her babe and raise her as their own. So they said yes, and I suddenly had two grandbabies instead of one.”
“And they never said a word,” Lucy mumbled.
“Well, not to you or anyone else in the pack. Yuna told me, of course. She wanted to know what I thought about the whole situation.” Tala smirked triumphantly.
“And? What did you tell her?” Lucy wondered.
Tala shook her head. “Told her she was a fool. She was running herself ragged, heavy with child with two infants in the house. Wasn’t worth the money.
But I have to hand it to the mystery lady.
Whoever she was, she was smart. Multiples are common in werewolves.
In fact, single pups are rare. If she’d have given you to an Elf or Fey couple, people would have asked questions, but there was very little time between when she gave birth to her first and when the lady gave you to her.
So no one ever batted an eye. Even when all her babies had jet black hair and you had a full head of scarlet curls from day one. ”
Lucy nodded, not quite comprehending what the old woman was saying. “Did the woman say why she needed Mama and Pop to take her baby in?”
Tala shrugged. “Not that your mama told me. But she wouldn’t. Yuna and I have never had what you might call a close relationship. Even when I’m sick like I am now, she sends her pups to check on me, rather than coming up herself.”
“That’s not fair,” Lucy protested. “She’s working to get the money for the doctors and taking care of the little ones.”
“So you say,” Tala grumbled. “Well, do you have any news from the pack? Has your sweet sister gotten married to that fool woodsman yet?”
“Er, no…she hasn’t—”
“On second thought, I’m tired. You can tell me all the news tomorrow.” With those words, Tala rolled over and within seconds, snores came from the bed.
“Well, that was…enlightening,” Lucy said to the empty room.
She started hunting around the cottage for something to eat, all the while trying to push the questions that swirled around her mind to the side.
Who had the mystery woman been? Why had she been so willing to give up her baby, and not only give up the child, but pay someone an excessive fee to care for her?
And why hadn’t her mother ever told her?
For a second, she considered telling Sebastian about her grandmother’s revelation. But no, she realized. She’d spent most of the day asleep, leaving him to bear the brunt of the trip on his own. She didn’t want to add her troubles to his already full plate.
Instead, she gathered the ingredients she needed for the meal she was planning and began to prepare them. She could keep her mouth shut and focus on the mission ahead of them. Then, maybe, she could figure out the next steps.