Dare, Lydia - Tall, Dark and Wolfish

Twenty-four

"Hurt?" Elspeth echoed. Her heart stopped beating. "What happened ta Cait?"

Blaire's eyes flashed to Ben before she replied, "I'd rather explain on the way."

Elspeth grabbed her friend's hand and towed her toward her bedroom. "Explain while I dress. I may need somethin' from my stores."

She shut the door behind them and went straight to her armoire, pulling out the first dress her fingers found. "Speak, Blaire."

"It was Westfield," she whispered.

Elspeth spun on her feet, panic washing over her. "I beg yer pardon."

"She'd gone out for a walk with her maid, and they were both attacked."

Elspeth shook her head. "Ben would never do that."

"Ye doona even ken the man. How do ye ken what he would or wouldna do?"

She didn't know him all that well, but still… "I ken he wouldna hurt anyone." Except for the "whore" when h

e

had lost control. Had he lost control again? She shook th

e thought from her head. Ben's altercation had been during an act of intimacy. He wouldn't attack two women on a walk. There had to be a misunderstanding.

"Ye would believe him over Cait?"

She had a point. She'd known Caitrin all her life and Ben only a week. "What did he do?" Her heart ached as she asked the question.

Blaire took a deep breath and ran her fingers through her dark mane. "He attacked them both, though Cait got the worst of it."

"Attacked them?" Elspeth echoed in horror.

"Aye, the maid said the wolf came out of nowhere and attacked before disappearin' inta the woods. Will ye dress, already?"

Elspeth realized she was clutching her blue muslin in her fists, and she shook her head. "Sorry." She tore off her wrap and nightrail and started to slip into her dress. "It wasna Ben," she said as she slid into her old, worn half boots.

Blaire let go a beleaguered sigh. "Of course it was. Did ye not hear me say it was a wolf?"

"It canna be. He canna change. That's why he's here."

"How do we ken that for certain? Ye're only takin' his word for it."

Elspeth quickly pinned her hair, knowing the effort was futile. "Then why else would he have come, Blaire? I doona believe it was him. There are wolves out there who doona turn inta men, ye ken."

Blaire's grey eyes bore into hers. "Cait has been the most vocal about her dislike of Westfield. So he meant ta silence her. He's come ta destroy the

Còig

one way or the other."

Finished with her hair, Elspeth picked up a small satchel on her dresser, then crossed to her door. "I doona believe it."

She walked out of the room and into her kitchen, where she found Ben's hazel eyes leveled on her. With his ears, he'd heard every word, she knew it.

"I didn't," he whispered.

Elspeth nodded. She wanted to cry. "I ken." Then she went to the cupboard behind him and began tossing corked bottles into her satchel.

"Can I help?" Ben asked from behind her.

"I doona think now is the time, or ye might be attacked by more than a little fireball."

He squeezed her shoulders and dropped a kiss to her cheek. "If you need me, I'll be at Alec's. I'm so sorry, Ellie."

She looked at him over her shoulder. He was so earnest with his light brown hair with singed ends hanging in his eyes. "Be careful, Ben. If any of the others get a chance at ye, I doona ken what they'll do."

Instead of returning to Alec's as he'd said, Ben ran swiftly through the woods toward Caitrin's home. He followed his nose and used it to find the door the two women had used when they started their walk. Then he followed their trail. They'd ventured much farther into the woods than he would expect of two women who were just taking a casual stroll.

But there was a worn path through the area, and it lead to Elspeth's home, so perhaps this was a path much taken. The wind shifted and Ben inhaled deeply. As usual, he could pick out the scents of animals in the area. But there was a wild scent that was definitely lupine nearby. If anyone knew the scent of a wolf, it was him. Ben crouched behind a boulder at the top of a hill and looked down into the valley. He immediately saw the pups, rustling and tumbling together in the grass. The mother wolf stood sentry nearby, and Ben could smell the father in the area as well.

That explained it. Caitrin and her maid had stumbled upon a wolf den. And wolves protected their young.

Ben heard a low growl behind him, and the hair on the back of his neck stood up. He turned slowly to face the wolf, taking care not to meet his dark stare. If confronted in such a manner, the male wolf would tear him to shreds.

Ben backed away slowly, heading back down the trail as he'd come. He didn't growl or bare his teeth as he would in a normal confrontation. He'd stepped into this wolf's territory, after all. And the male was simply protecting his young. If he'd had children, Ben could imagine doing the same.

The thought brought an immediate image of Elspeth to him, cradling a red-haired wolfling in her arms. Their wolf.

The male wolf continued to watch as Ben turned and jogged back in the direction he'd come. It made Ben feel much better to know there was a valid cause for the attack, if you could consider any cause to be valid.

He circled to the front of Caitrin's house, and the butler opened the door before he could even knock. The man looked down his nose at Ben. It had always amazed him how they could do that.

"If it's not too much trouble, I'd like to check on Miss Macleod," he told the man.

The butler simply nodded and led him to the morning room, where Alec sat, his foot tapping anxiously against the floor as he nibbled his fingernails.

"How is she?" Ben asked, breaking Alec from his fretful fidgeting. He glanced up quickly.

"Elspeth is with her now." Alec stood up to pace. "There was a lot of blood."

"Maybe the wounds are superficial?" No matter what, Elspeth would have to worry about infection.

"She was in a lot of pain." Alec continued his pacing.

"Would you sit down, man? You're making me crazy with all the moving about." Ben knew his voice was a bit too forceful, but the nervous energy in the room was going to send him into a frenzy if it continued.

"She'll be all right, won't she?" Alec's gaze finally met his, and he saw the anguish behind the man's rigid façade.

"You truly care about the girl?"

Alec simply nodded.

Ben motioned to a footman nearby. The man immediately returned with two tumblers of whisky. Ben offered one to Alec. He shook his head.

"You'll be no use to her if you're tied up in knots."

Alec acquiesced and took the glass. He downed it in one swallow. Ben pressed his own glass into the man's shaking hands. He drank that one as well.

Ben clapped him on the shoulder. "She'll be fine, Alec. You told me yourself that everyone in town goes to Elspeth when they need to be healed."

"Aye, it's like she has healing warmth in her fingertips," Alec said as he finally met Ben's gaze. "She'll be able to heal her. I'm sure of it."

A low murmur of female voices from the corridor reached Ben's ears.

"Ye canna use fireballs on him with MacQuarrie in the room! What's wrong with ye? Are ye daft? Put that thing away."

Ben glanced around the corner and saw Blaire standing with Sorcha. The raven-haired witch balanced a ball of fire over her fingertips, as though testing the weight of it.

"Is that for me?" he asked. Certainly she wouldn't use it in front of Alec.

"Of course it is. Who else would I use it on? If it wasna ye, then it was one of yer kind who hurt her."

"Your kind?" Alec said as he approached the doorway. Blaire rubbed her fingertips together and extinguished the fireball seconds before he looked around the corner. "An Englishman hurt her? Who? I'll kill him."