Page 108 of The Wolf Queen’s Curse

“Ah,” Julius says. “You’re scheming.”

“I’m doing what’s best for the Pack. I will not, of course, renege on my word. But within strict parameters, a little scheming is never out of place.”

We still have our rented coach, and thankfully, there’s no room to take anyone else in it. I say thankfully because it gives us a chance to speak in private. Doyle wants to move as quickly as possible. That means we’ll send a telegraph from Cardiff and hope Oliver receives it today, because we’re about to descend on him with the entire Cambrian Pack.

The Packs will meet and get to know one another while those in charge plot strategy. I suggested sending out a party to scout Trevelyan, but Bishop fears that if Beryl’s troops are watching, the party will be caught and killed. He also worries about how it will look, sneaking up in the dead of night to our own territory.

I understand the first point far more than the second. But I will admit that appearances are important. The Albion Pack has been cowed. It must return strong. Which means it must march on Trevelyan.

The question is whether we have a strong enough force. When negotiating with the Caledonians, we expected Hamish to send his best. Here, we get what we get, and most of the Cambrians are young. In humans, young means strong and fit soldiers. In werewolves, it means inexperienced fighters, their delayed physical aging pushing their “prime” into their thirties and forties.

Bishop doesn’t seem concerned about this. In fact, he seems decidedly nonchalant about the whole actual plan to take back Trevelyan.

The man is up to something, and I want to curse him out for it, but secretly, I feel as if he’s hiding a gift, and I know it will be worth it.

There is something else we need to discuss in the coach while Rufus is driving.

“He’s going to find out what happened to you, Ann,” Julius murmurs, his voice low to keep Rufus from hearing. “If that’s what you want—to let him hear it in an offhand comment—that’s your choice. But if it’s not, and you don’t wish to tell him yourself, then I can do it.”

“I will.”

“Do you want your own train compartment?” Julius asks.

“No, I will do it now.”

“Now?”

Ann raps briskly on the coach roof. When Rufus slows, she puts her head out the window and says, “I am coming to sit with you.”

“You’re…?” he says.

“Sitting with you.”

Silence, and then, “It’s very dusty, Annie. I don’t think—”

“Pull over, please.”

He does, and she gets out, and he helps her up. The coach resumes, and over the clatter of the wheels, I can’t hear her words, but I do hear her tone, matter-of-fact. At one point, the coach stops, and she has to push him to keep going, which he does after a few moments of silence.

“This will not go well,” Julius says, his voice low. “He’ll be upset on her behalf, of course, but the fact that Bishop and I didn’t rescue her while we’ve been at Trevelyan…”

“Ann will explain that you couldn’t,” I say. “The best way to help her was to depose Silas.”

“Yes, but…”

Bishop shakes his head. “It was my decision. Made in consultation with Ann and Oliver, but I won’t say that part. I made the choice.”

“Which Ann agreed with, as did Oliver,” I say. “You didn’t know Ann well, and you might have had sympathy for her situation, but you couldn’t risk interfering. Just as I couldn’t risk interfering about Hanora this morning. I still don’t know what happened to her, and if she’s hurt and I could have helped—” I cut myself off. “This is about Ann.”

I look at Julius. “The right choice was made, and I’m saying that to you and not Bishop because he already knows it.”

“Which doesn’t mean I don’t feel guilty,” Bishop says.

I reach to squeeze his hand. “I know. It was a terrible situation, but Ann is free, and if both she and Oliver agreed on that course of action, then it was correct. If Rufus is angry…” I shrug. “That speaks to his affection for Ann, not any wrongdoing of yours.”

“He obviously cares for her,” Julius says. “And I fear the one he’ll blame most is himself, though there wouldn’t have been any reason to go back and check on her. He presumed he’d have heard of trouble, and what he did hear was that she’d left with her mother after Silas ascended to Alpha.”

“The only person to blame is Silas,” I say. “And the spectacularly unfair thing is that he is the one person who wouldn’t have felt a lick of guilt. People who do things like that don’t. And the rest of us are left with the burden of guilt for what little we might have done to ameliorate their actions.”