Page 71 of The Wolf Queen’s Curse

“Alfred Blackwood?” She makes a face. “I know they’ve been lovers for years, but he is a sorcerer. Are you sure you can trust him?”

“I can,” I say firmly. “Had he not been trustworthy, Lenora would never have been with him.”

Beatrice goes quiet and then says, “Your aunt’s grimoire … I presume that will be yours?”

“It will. Alfred will have secured mine and Lenora’s, along with my mother’s.”

“I know you’ll want Lenora’s. It has the stronger magic. But your mother’s was a wondrous tome as well. I suppose you’d already copied from it whatever you wanted for yourself?”

“I had.”

“Is there any chance I might purchase your mother’s? I would pay dearly for it, as well as for any alchemical notes of your aunt or mother.” She opens the safe again. “I would even pay in advance, and you could send me the grimoire and notes.”

I lay a hand on hers. “No need for that. I will happily send them. However … I don’t suppose you still have Edith Winterbourne’s grimoire? I know she promised it to you on her death.”

“She did, and I have it right here.” She pats the money box with a small stack of books beneath it.

“Would you consider letting me take that in return for sending my mother’s grimoire and the notes? I hate to ask, but I’m without my own grimoire until I can return to London, and I feel like a student who has lost all her books. I know I should be studying, but I have nothing to study from.”

She squeezes my hand. “You are so much like your aunt. I would say you have more important things to deal with right now, but I understand that spell practice can be a comfort as well.”

“It really can.”

She pulls a volume from the stack. “Take it.”

“I can return it when I send my mother’s.”

“I’ve copied what I wanted from it, and I was only trying to decide what to do with the grimoire itself. Selling it seemed wrong when Edith so kindly gifted it to me. But she’d be delighted for you to have it. She was very fond of you.”

“I remember her fondly as well. Thank you.”

I take the book, and Beatrice waves at the stockroom. “If there is anything you need for practice…”

I bite my lower lip. “I might take a few of the less expensive ingredients. And a mortar and pestle if you have it. I’ll pay, of course.”

“I will,” Bishop says. “It’s my fault you don’t have what you need.”

“Now, now, none of that,” Beatrice says. “Take what you need, luv.”

TWENTY-FIVE

When we’re far enough from Beatrice’s shop, I say, “That went well.”

“It did. I worried, considering what you told me, that she might not have spoken to you.”

I glance at him and smile. “Given that she left London in a hurry after murdering Edith Winterbourne for her grimoire and stealing money from my aunt?” I shake my head. “Beatrice always thinks herself much more clever than she actually is. Lenora said she aspired to the title of master criminal without having the intellect for it. She only got away with the murder and theft because Lenora and I were not at home, and Lenora decided she’d let Beatrice think she’d escaped and then show up on her doorstep one day to take revenge.”

I glance back in the direction of the shop. “I believe Lenora would have preferred it taken with a little more blood and screams of agony, though.”

Bishop reaches to squeeze my hand on his arm. “Sometimes revenge is blood and screams. Sometimes it is getting what you need from a person, especially when they don’t realize they’ve given it.”

“The money was unexpected. I did consider mentioning a loan, but I’d already stolen more than the full amount in expensive ingredients from her stockroom. I did note that she repaid more than she stole from Lenora.”

“Interest. Or guilt.”

I laugh. “The only things that motivate Beatrice are avarice and fear. She’s decided that Lenora never realized what she did or, at least, she never told me. I’m Beryl Levine’s granddaughter, wed to the Albion Alpha. That makes me valuable, and the extra money is to forge a bond between us. Also to keep me from questioning whether Beatrice is truly on my side. Which she is not. Beatrice is only ever on her own side. I do appreciate the money, though.”

“It was a very profitable side trip.”