Fortune's Ashes (The Firebrand Series Book 7) by Helen Harper

Author:Helen Harper [Harper, Helen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-06-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter

Seventeen

I offered Buffy a lift in the back of Tallulah but she recoiled as if I’d suggested that she hand over her firstborn. She told me that she wouldn’t go near the purple monstrosity ever again, and she’d certainly never get inside it. I guessed I’d finally found the two things that scared Buffy: losing someone she cared about and my battered purple Mini.

She got into her bubble-gum pink Smart car, complete with eyelashes fringing its headlights, and followed us at a distance. While I drove and mumbled to Tallulah to ignore the werewolf, Lukas called the hospital. ‘No change,’ he reported when he hung up. ‘Not in Grace or Fred.’

Pain stabbed at my heart, although I knew that a stable condition was the best we could hope for right now. I remained silent for the rest of the journey. At least Lukas was with me now; at least I wasn’t alone.

The location that Alfie had given us wasn’t in the town of Borehamwood, it was off a side lane a mile or so from the main road. The lane was narrow, with high hedges on either side that seemed to close in on Tallulah. We might be out of the city and in the countryside, but all I felt was stifling claustrophobia. Even Lukas seemed relieved when we drove onto a wider road that took us to a cottage. I pulled to a halt, ignoring the small muddy driveway in front of the building in favour of parking on the road. The place looked abandoned.

Buffy’s ridiculous car stopped behind us. She lowered her window and yelled, ‘Go park in front of the house! There’s enough space there for both of us!’

Lukas looked at me and I shook my head. ‘No,’ I said. I pointed to the driveway. ‘There are tread marks there that might tell us something.’

He followed my gaze and his expression cleared when he saw them too. He unfolded his tall frame and got out of Tallulah, and I gave her steering wheel a brief caress before heading after him.

A moment later, Buffy joined us. ‘I said that you should park on the driveway in front of the house!’

I ignored her and stepped around the worst of the mud, taking care not to disturb any of the marks in the squidgy earth. ‘There’s only one set of tyre marks,’ I muttered as I examined the ground.

‘Yes,’ Lukas said, ‘but there are three sets of footprints.’

My body tensed. Buffy stopped glaring at me and immediately jogged to Lukas’s side. All of three of us stared down. I’d almost missed the footprints. Lukas had keen eyes.

The tyre marks from Grace’s car were obvious, then two sets of footprints led both to and from where a car must have parked – undoubtedly Grace’s and Fred’s. But there were other prints that led from the tarmacked road where we’d parked.

I stared at the third set, which seemed to circle around the heavier tyre marks. They weren’t clear enough to get a

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