Lady and the Wolf Read Online Free

have something to do with the curse? Or did something happen to Arnon?”
    “No. Neither. Not really.” He started across the battlements with the wind blowing his cape behind him, and Stefan followed. It was always windy up this high, and he only hoped it would blow his worries from his head as well. “You know if something had happened to Arnon, it would have happened to me too.”
    “Then you need to keep our brother inside the castle walls at all times.”
    “I can’t do that.” He started down the steps, nodding to his men along the way. “Arnon needs to be free. I at least owe him that, since he’s trapped inside the body of an animal and doesn’t even have the chance of shapeshifting into a man the way I do. I can’t cage him the way that bastard earl did to us.”
    “Then mayhap it is time for us to conquer the earl and collect the bounties of war. Our troops are strong, and we could easily take Castle Chaserton as our own.”
    “No.” Wolf stopped and grabbed an apple off a vendor’s cart, taking a bite before he spoke. “His castle’s defenses are stronger than you think. Too strong for us to penetrate. We need to fight him on our terms.” He entered the great hall and made his way to the dais. The morning meal was being prepared in the kitchens and the servants were setting up the trestle tables.
    “Good mornin’ my lord,” said a serving wench handing him a tankard of ale as he walked by.
    “So what are you saying?” asked Stefan, settling himself at the trestle table next to Wolf, grabbing a tankard of ale for himself from a passing wench. “You want us to fight him in a field or perhaps near the sea?”
    “He’ll come to us.” Wolf leaned back on his chair and crossed his arms in thought.
    “You’re jesting.” Stefan took a long draw of ale and put down the tankard with a clank on the wooden dais table. “The earl of Tavistock doesn’t even go out of his castle unless he has to, and even then he’s protected by at least a hundred of his men. What makes you think he’ll leave?”
    “He’ll come right to us, because I’ll have something he wants.”
    “That old man is rich and has everything he needs. What could you possible use as bait to lure him here?”
    “Lady Winifred,” he answered, raising his cup and looking over the rim of the tankard, watching Stefan’s perplexed expression on his face.
    “Lady Winifred? The old man’s granddaughter?”
    “That’s right.”
    “I’m sure she’s guarded heavier than the old man day and night. How would it even be possible?”
    “I met her in the woods last night and she was all alone.”
    Stefan about choked on his ale, spitting it across the table. “You did?” He used his sleeve to wipe the ale dripping down his chin.
    “I’ll go to the woods again tonight, and every night if I have to until she returns. Then I’ll abduct her and bring her here. The plan will work beautifully.”
    “If you scared her off last night, what makes you think she’ll be stupid enough to return?”
    “She’ll return,” he said, licking his lips, the essence of her sweet kiss engraved upon his memory. He wanted more than anything to taste her once again. He’d seen it in her eyes that she wanted him almost as much as he wanted her. “She’ll be back because a woman like her will never be satisfied with just a taste.”
     
    * * *
    “Winifred Alana Chaserton, get out here anon.”
    Winifred looked up as her handmaid finished brushing her long, red hair. She could hear the bellowing of her grandfather’s voice from out in the hall.
    “That’ll be all, Penelope,” she said, nodding to her handmaid.
    “Aye, my lady.” The handmaid put down the brush and headed to the other side of the room. Winifred feared for the girl, since Penelope discovered she’d been out of the castle last night, and had helped her to change out of and hide her grandfather’s cloak once she’d returned. She didn’t want any harm coming to her