Castle of the Wolf Read Free Page B

sorry, Anna. It’s just… I have just received news that my dear friend Hailstone passed away last month.”
    “Oh, my dear.” She rose and hurried to his side, her movements slowed by aged bones and muscles. And yet, when he rested his head against her soft breasts and her hand tenderly stroked what was left of his hair, it seemed as if the years slipped away. And like the first time he had found this heavenly place God had created for him on earth, a warm flood of gratitude and well-being filled his body.
    His hand slipped around her waist, while he turned to rest his forehead against the warm flesh of her upper chest. He inhaled her familiar scent, letting it take the sharp edge off his grief. “Do you remember the provisions of the will?” he murmured against her skin.
    Her hand on his hair momentarily stilled. She cupped his skull, and he felt the subtle pressure of her fingers. “The mad scheme the two of you cooked up all those years ago? Oh dear.” Her fingers relaxed. Her hand glided down to rest on his neck in an oddly protective gesture. “He will not like it. He will not like it at all.”
    And in accord, both of them turned to look out the window to the hill where the castle nestled amidst the dark trees, the crumbling tower to them a symbol of dying hope and shattered dreams.
    ~*~
    “I still don’t think this is a wise idea.”
    Instead of answering, Cissy carefully wrapped one of her tea dresses around her copy of the Lyrical Ballads so the leather-bound volume would not come to harm in the travel chest during her journey. She had sent her maid away because the girl had kept blubbering into her big white hankie. That Evie accompany Cissy to Germany was out of the question—a journey to Newcastle would have been enough to make Evie perish on the spot. Yet the thought of losing her mistress seemed equally disconcerting for the poor thing. Well, I wouldn’t cherish the thought of working for Dorinda, either. Cissy sniffed.
    “Have you listened to me at all?” George asked.
    Cissy threw a look over her shoulder at her brother, who sat at her desk and looked mournful.
    “Dorinda and I, we would have been perfectly happy if you had decided to continue living at Badford Park. You know that, don’t you? We still would. You could still stay here and—”
    Her back to him, Cissy rolled her eyes. “We have been through this numerous times in the past three weeks. You will not persuade me, George.” She prodded her dress-wrapped book of poetry to find out if it needed more padding. Satisfied, she put it into the chest and reached for the next book and the next dress.
    “I cannot imagine what you want to do in Baden.” Wood creaked as George shifted on the chair. “There is nothing for you there.”
    There is nothing for me here. For a moment, Cissy had to close her eyes. Then she shook her head and busied herself with wrapping her book and putting it away. “I am going to have a castle.” Just imagine: a castle! Like a princess! She took up another tome.
    “And marry a man you have never seen in your life.” Suddenly George sounded aggressive. “How our dear father could have come up with such a harebrained scheme is quite beyond me, I swear!”
    Distracted, Cissy frowned and rubbed a thumb over a scratch in the blue leather cover of her book of German fairy tales, a present from her father for her nineteenth birthday. With her forefinger she traced the golden lettering: Kinder- und Hausmärchen gesammelt durch die Brüder Grimm. “Wolfenbach’s son will surely be already married and bouncing his little ones on his knee,” she murmured.
    “And if not?” George jumped up. Before she had time to react, he was at her side and wrenched her around, hands like iron bands on her shoulders. “What will you do then, Cis? You know nothing of… You cannot know what…” Hot color suffused his face.
    His vehemence surprised her, yet she managed a small shrug, even though his hands weighed her