Page 42 of Lady Petra and the Wolf

Kemberley went to his sideboard to leisurely pour himself a brandy and sat back down.

The two men stared at each other for a moment as Kemberley set his brandy in front of him, untouched. Wolf sensed that Kemberley always poured himself a drink but never actually drank it in these sorts of meetings.

“So, if my daughter is not at Wolfridge House, why is it that you have called, Wolfridge?”

The hour had at last arrived for him to unveil the true nature of his designs. It was a climax toward which he had been laboring for longer than he had been truly cognizant of his own industry, as though some unseen architect of fate, far grander than his own meager will, had finally compelled this definitive stroke.

Extricating a multitude of papers from his frock coat, Wolf proceeded to arrange them in a meticulous stack upon the polished mahogany of the desk before him, his every movement a study in contained, predatory resolve.

Kemberley’s annoyed expression faded the moment his eyes narrowed on his own writing of the first note, but Wolf continued dramatically before he swept them all together and placed them inside his coat pocket again. He had always enjoyed the drama of a monster receiving his just reward and he wished to savor it. After all, Kemberley deserved it.

His only regret was that Petra was not present.

“These go back years…” Kemberley muttered, for once his smug surety was not present in his voice.

“All these years, I thought I was doing it for Longley. You were watching him, but I was watching you. But now…I know I was doing it for her. Because she deserves a hundred times better than the likes of you.”

The smugness unfortunately returned. “So what are you going to do, Wolfridge? Call these all in? Ruin me? That would ruin her as well. Is that what you want?”

“Oh, these?” Wolf patted his pocket theatrically. “I won’t be doing anything with these—or rather, I will be selling them to someone for one halfpenny. And she will decide what to do with them.”

Kemberley stood rooted to the Turkish carpet, his features assuming a mask of unreadable stillness at Wolf’s pronouncement, just as a sudden clamor erupted from the corridor beyond the study. Dismissing the unbidden interruption with a sharp shake of his head, Wolf went on, determined to press his advantage.

“All she ever wanted was for you to love her, Kemberley. You have built your house of cards with such precision, yet you failed utterly in doing the easiest thing in the world.”

The heavy oak doors were flung wide at the precise instant the butler’s frantic cry of “My lady!” resonated through the walls, and the love of his life tumbled into the room.

“Whatever you are doing, whatever you are offering him, don’t do it, Julian!”

Rising to meet her halfway, Wolf shook his head in wonder. “Oh, I think you will want me to do this, my lady.” Pulling the IOUs from his pocket, he handed them to Petra. “These are years of your father’s vowels all put together. I am giving them to you to do with as you will. If you want to call them in, if you want to hold them over his head…” Wolf trailed off as his heart swelled at the sight of her. Slightly rumpled yet still utterly delectable, she had clearly raced to come save him. His warrior.

Holding the vowels in her hand, a furrow was beginning to form between Petra’s brows as she stood frozen before him.

“You would give these to me?” Her dazed voice was tinged with wonder.

He smiled for the first time since he had arrived. “You deserve to decide, my love. Not me. Nor any man.”

“My Pet would never call in a debt on her own father. That is unheard of. It would not just ruin me, it would ruin her.” Despite the dismissiveness in Kemberley’s tone, Wolf swore he heard a tinge of fear.

At the sound of Kemberley’s voice, Petra’s dazed expression hardened. “You do not, nor have you ever had any idea what I am capable of, Lord Kemberley.”

“Now, now, Pet,” Kemberley droned with an acid familiarity.

Petra’s body went as rigid as that evening in the library those many weeks prior. Just as in the library, the skin on the back of Wolf’s neck prickled at the diminutive. Yet watching Petra stiffen this time, Wolf did not think of prey, but a predator recognizing a foe. Eerily still, she faced her father, her face a mask.

“If you ever call me Pet again, I will call these debts in like that.” Petra snapped her gloved fingers. “Otherwise, I will show you the mercy you never showed to any of us.”

Kemberley betrayed no emotion, yet a vein pulsed at his temple. Petra went on, her voice a previously unknown ice. “But if I hear one whisper, one breath of a rumor that a servant or anyone else is being interfered with at Kemberley House, hang my connection to you, hang my reputation, these will all be called in. Do you understand?”

Kemberley stared at his daughter as if he had never seen her before. “Pe—” he began, which only made Petra clutch the paper more tightly. Wolf was rocked back on his heels by the image as he recalled her sword and her shield behind the rose.

Kemberley clenched his jaw, his eyes darting between his daughter and what was clutched in her fingers. Wolf had the sense that the man was sketching the potential outcomes before him, weighing the risks and the benefits. He gave a stiff nod at his daughter, looking toward her but not truly meeting her eye. Wolf clicked his tongue against his teeth. Ultimately, conceding to Petra was the wisest option. While Kemberley might be sacrificing a potential means of blackmail, he would not court ruin. Besides, the sly spider was likely already planning his next move against his peers. Though as long as it did not harm Petra, nor any domestic worker, Wolf couldn’t care less.

“And if I choose to marry Lord Wolfridge, it will have nothing to do with what you want and everything to do with what I want. I wash my hands of you, Kemberley.”

With that, Petra turned imperiously and strode out of her father’s townhouse, Wolf following silently in her wake. While everything that had happened in the past few moments was fantastical, it was her parting words to her father that left him without the power of speech.

Once they were outside, both spoke at the same time.