Part 25 (2/2)
Lord Maccon caught the inventor before she could fall completely to the ground and carefully lowered her there instead. He held his hand briefly before her mouth to see if she was breathing. ”She is still alive.” Alexia quickly pulled her shawl from about her shoulders and handed it to him to use as a bandage. No sense in his spoiling the last of his good cravats.
Alexia looked up at the castle, scoping the battlements for a glint of sun on a rifle barrel, but there were too many battlements and there was too little sun. The sharpshooter, whoever he might be, was not visible.
”Get down this instant, woman,” ordered her husband, grabbing her by one skirt ruffle and yanking her down next to the fallen Frenchwoman. The ruffle ripped. ”We dinna know if the shooter was aiming at her or at us,” he growled.
”Where's your precious pack? Shouldn't they be hightailing it to our rescue?”
”How do you ken it isna them shooting?” her husband wondered.
”Good point.” Lady Maccon s.h.i.+fted her open parasol defensively so that it s.h.i.+elded them as much as possible from sight of the castle.
Another shot rang out. It hit the ground next to them, splattering turf and small pebbles.
”Next time,” grumbled the earl, ”I shall pay extra and have that thing made with metal s.h.i.+elding.”
”Oh, that will be tremendously practical for hot summer afternoons. Come on, we need to find cover,” hissed his wife. ”I shall leave the parasol propped here as a diversion.”
”Break for that hedge?” suggested Conall, looking over to their right, where a little berm covered in wild roses seemed to be the Kingair formal garden hedge subst.i.tute.
Alexia nodded.
Lord Maccon hoisted the Frenchwoman over one shoulder easily. He might no longer have superhuman strength, but he was still strong.
They dashed toward the berm.
Another shot rang forth.
Only then did they hear yelling. Alexia peeked around the rosebush. Members of the pack poured out of the castle, looking about for the source of the shooting. Several yelled and pointed up. Clavigers and pack reentered the castle at a run.
Lord and Lady Maccon stayed hidden until they were convinced that no one would be taking any more shots at them. Then they emerged from behind the bushes. Lord Maccon carried Madame Lefoux, and Lady Maccon retrieved her parasol.
Upon attaining the house, it was found that Madame Lefoux was in no serious medical danger but had simply fainted from the wound, her shoulder badly gouged by the bullet.
Ivy appeared. ”Oh dear, has something untoward ensued? Everyone is gesticulating.” Upon catching sight of the comatose form of Madame Lefoux, she added, ”Has she come over nonsensical?” At the sight of the blood, Ivy became rather breathless and looked near to fainting herself. Nevertheless, she trailed them into the back parlor, unhelpfully offering to help and interrupting, as they lowered Madame Lefoux to the small settee, with, ”She hasn't caught a slight fatality, has she?”
”What happened?” demanded Lady Kingair, ignoring Ivy and Felicity, who had also entered the room.
”Someone seems to have decided to dispose of Madame Lefoux,” Lady Maccon said, bustling about ordering bandages and vinegar. Alexia believed that a generous application of cider vinegar could cure most ills, except, of course, for those bacterial disorders that required bicarbonate of soda.
Felicity decided to immediately absent herself from any possible a.s.sociated danger via proximity to Madame Lefoux. Which, as it absented everyone else from her, was no bad thing.
Only Lady Kingair had the wherewithal to respond. ”Good Lord, why? She's naught more than a two-bit French inventor.”
Alexia thought she saw the Frenchwoman twitch at that. Was Madame Lefoux shamming? Alexia leaned in on the pretext of checking bandages. She caught a whiff of vanilla, mixed with the coppery smell of blood this time instead of mechanical oil. The inventor remained absolutely still under Alexia's gentle ministrations. Not even her eyelids moved. If she was shamming, she was very, very good at it.
Lady Maccon glanced toward the door and thought she caught a flicker of servant black. Angelique's white, horrified face peeked around the corner. Before Alexia could summon her in, the maid disappeared.
”An excellent question. Perhaps she will be so kind as to tell us once she has awakened,” Lady Maccon said, once more watching Madame Lefoux's face. No reaction to that statement.
Unfortunately for everyone's curiosity, Madame Lefoux did not awaken, or did not allow herself to be awakened, for the entirety of the rest of the afternoon. Despite the a.s.siduous attentions of Lord and Lady Maccon, half the Kingair Pack, and several clavigers, her eyes remained stubbornly shut.
Lady Maccon took her tea in the sickroom, hoping the smell of baked goods would awaken Madame Lefoux. All that resulted was that Lady Kingair came to join her. Alexia had settled into not liking this relation of her husband's, but she had not the const.i.tution that would allow for anything to interfere with her consumption of tea.
”Has our patient awakened yet?” inquired Lady Kingair.
”She remains dramatically abed.” Alexia frowned into her cup. ”I do hope nothing is seriously wrong with her. Should we call a doctor, do you think?”
”I've seen and tended to much worse on the battlefield.”
”You go with the regiment?”
”I may not be a werewolf, but I'm Alpha female for this pack. My place is with them, even if I dinna fight alongside.”
Alexia selected a scone from the tea tray and plopped a dollop of cream and marmalade on top of it. ”Did you side with the pack when they betrayed my husband?” she asked in forced casualness.
”He told you about it.”
Lady Maccon nodded and ate a bite of scone.
”I was just sixteen when he left, away at finis.h.i.+ng school. I didna have a say in the pack's choices.”
”And now?”
”Now? Now I ken they all behaved like fools. You dinna p.i.s.s upwind.”
Alexia winced at the vulgarity of the statement.
Sidheag sipped her tea, relis.h.i.+ng the effect of her barracks language on her guest. ”Queen Victoria might not chase the tails of a werewolf agenda, but she isna bleeding to the vampire fang either. She's no Henry or Elizabeth to be throwing her support full tilt behind the supernatural cause, but she hasna been as bad as we'd feared either. Perhaps she doesna watch the scientists as careful as she might, and she sure plays us close and fast, but I dinna think she is the worst monarch we could be having.”
Lady Maccon wondered if Sidheag was attempting to guarantee the pack's safety or if the woman was talking truth. ”Do you consider yourself a progressive, then, like my husband?”
”I'm saying, everyone handled the incident poorly. An Alpha abandoning his pack is extreme. Conall ought to have killed all the ringleaders, not just the Beta, and restructured. I love this pack, and to leave it leaderless and turn to a London London pack instead is worse than death. It was a national embarra.s.sment, what your husband did.” Lady Kingair leaned forward, eyes fierce. She was close enough for Alexia to see that her graying hair, pulled tightly back into a braid, was frizzing slightly in the humid air. pack instead is worse than death. It was a national embarra.s.sment, what your husband did.” Lady Kingair leaned forward, eyes fierce. She was close enough for Alexia to see that her graying hair, pulled tightly back into a braid, was frizzing slightly in the humid air.
”I thought he left them Niall?”
”Na. I brought Niall back with me. He was naught more than a loner I met abroad. Handsome and das.h.i.+ng, just what all schoolroom misses want in a husband. I thought I'd be bringing him home to meet the pack and gramps, get permission, and post the bans. Only to find the old wolf gone and the pack in shambles.”
”You took on the responsibility of leaders.h.i.+p?”
Sidheag sipped her tea. ”Niall was an excellent soldier and a good husband, but he'd have made a better Beta. He took on Alpha for my sake.” She rubbed at her eyes with two fingers. ”He was a good man, and a good wolf, and he did his best. I willna speak against him.”
Alexia knew enough about herself to realize she couldn't have taken on leaders.h.i.+p like that so young, and she considered herself a capable person. No wonder Sidheag was bitter.
”And now?”
”Now we're even worse off. Niall killed in battle and no one able enough to take Alpha role, let alone be Alpha in truth. And I'm knowing full well Gramps willna come back to us. Marrying you cemented that. We've lost him for good.”
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