Raised By Wolves Volume four- Wolves Read Online Free Page B

look well. She appeared to have lost
most of the weight she had gained while pregnant. Sobriety had
made her beautiful. Her creamy complexion was clear and
bright, her hazel eyes shone, and her long honey-colored hair
glistened in the lamplight. She smiled winsomely at me, and I
could wellsee how Nickelhad become enthralled.
“We need to speak,”she said.
“Nickel,” I said and grinned. “You have my blessing if it
is a thingyouwant. We willhave to sort through…” She cut my words short with a squeal of delight and
embraced me anew. “I knew youwould not be angry! I told him.
But he is so… proper.”
“Quite a change from the noble boys you were raised
around,”I teased.
She laughed. “Aye. Or married.”
She looked to my matelot, who was cooing over her
child, and her happiness dimmed.
“He is not so… enamored with our little Jamaica,
though, as he is withme.”She sighed.
“Good,” I said. “Go and have other children with him;
we willraise her.”
She frowned at that. “Aye, but… Well, we will all live
together, won’t we:insome fashion?”
“I suppose,” I said, contemplating how or where we
would all live in light of the Marquis’ letter and… everyone,
and… I felt very tired and old. I thought of the allegory Gaston
and I shared of our being two centaurs hitched to a wagon into
which we heaped all that we owned. When we roved, it was a
chariot filled with our love. Here, it was a great dray filled with
women and babies and titles and allmanner ofheavy things. And
the road ahead of us was long and seemingly steeper by the
moment.
“We will find some way through the thickets,” I said as
muchfor mybenefit as for anyone else’s.
“You will have to speak with Nickel,” Vivian said and
pulled me deeper into the room, away from the others. “I love
him, truly, as I have never thought I would; but his sense of
propriety is quite entrenched. It is the only thing we have fought
over. It is as if… Well, he will not take my word on the matter:
that you will set me free. I have felt quite insulted. It is…” She
sighed and searched myface.
“He does not trust you?”I asked kindly.
“Aye,” she sighed. “I feel… It is complicated. All here
do not trust me when it comes to a bottle. I have become inured
to it. I have told myselfthat it is for my own good. And there are
times when Rachel is quite… annoying, about worrying that my
behavior will be improper when about a man. They all decided
that Nickel should sleep here and Julio and Davey should guard
the Theodores. I wish to… be beyond allthat, but I suppose my
misdeeds willalways haunt me, willtheynot?”
I pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Our past sins have a
way of haunting us, aye. I thank the… I feel I amquite fortunate
that I am not surrounded by those who knew me before I
journeyed here.” Alonso had been the only one, and that had
ended intragedy. “It must be tryingfor you.”
She nodded.
“You look quite lovely, and I am very proud of you,” I
added.
She smiled. “Thank you. You were very wise in much of
what you said before. I amlearning… How did you put it? Who
the girlwas beneathallthe rum.”
“Good for you,”I said.
Jamaica let out a plaintive squawk and her mother
glanced to her witha smallsmile.
“She has woken enough to discover she does not know
the manholdingher,”Viviansaid withamusement.
“They will have time to become better acquainted,” I
said with surety. “We will sort this through, I promise. But first,
there are other worries.”
“Aye,” she said brusquely, “We must leave this damn
island.”I was surprised. “Aye, that is the conclusionwe reached.
    What has occurred here?’
She shook her head. “I will let your sister tell you of it,
and Mister Theodore.”
“Allright, then,”I said.
Jamaica burst into a full-throated wail; and with a quick
peck on my cheek, Vivian went to rescue her. Gaston seemed
     
peck on my cheek, Vivian went to rescue her. Gaston seemed bothrelieved and