Luck of the Wolf by Krinard Susan

Author:Krinard, Susan [Krinard, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, General, Gothic, Fiction
ISBN: 9781426874420
Publisher: HQN Books
Published: 2010-11-01T07:00:00+00:00

“I KNOW YOU, YURI. You will not go through with it.”

Babette stood with one hip resting against the massive oak dining table, her dressing gown pulled tight around her waist and her hair down about her shoulders. She had not been able to sleep; the masquerade she and Yuri had been performing since Cort and Anna’s arrival had exhausted her, and she was in no mood to indulge the man she loved.

Yuri sat in one of the rustic chairs, his arms folded across his chest. “We have no choice,” he said, his expression as glum as she had ever seen it. “If we fail to cooperate, Brecht—”

“Brecht!” she said with a laugh.

“—di Reinardus will not let us escape a second time. You have no idea how ruthless he is.”

“But he is only one man! You said yourself that his former allies—”

Yuri cut the air with his hand. “He still has those who obey him, and he is the most dangerous man I have ever known. I have no wish to die, and I will not allow you to get yourself killed. The girl won’t suffer. We will deliver a woman worthy of being a queen, and that is what she will become.”

“As the bride of a traitor and regicide!”

“Why should you care what happened in a distant country twenty years ago?”

Babette leaned over the table, hands pressed flat to the polished wood. “It is not a distant country that concerns me. I tell you, Yuri…nothing is worth betraying her like this. Or betraying your dearest friend.”

“I cannot afford such friendship now,” Yuri muttered.

“Are you certain you can afford mine?”

His brown eyes, so full of the feeling he refused to express, gazed mournfully into hers. He was little better than a villain himself, but always, always, she became weak and foolish in his presence. Even though he was weak and foolish himself in so many ways.

Babette could feel herself beginning to lose control. That would never do. She could still hardly believe what Yuri had told her after he had taken her out of the warehouse. It was a fairy tale of epic proportions. An infant girl born into royalty in a distant land, the child of murdered parents, swept away from those who might exploit her and brought to the thriving new nation called America to be raised by the distantly related Reniers, very few of whom knew her true background or name. The most absurd thing Babette had ever heard.

Or it might have been, had she herself not risen from a naive, ill-educated peasant girl to become the most celebrated whore in New Orleans. And regardless of her rank, Anna—Lucienne, Alese, or whatever name they called her—needed her now. A clear head was the only thing that would give Babette the slightest chance.

“There must be another way,” she said. “You said yourself that the duke was exiled from his own country and has no current allies in Carantia. He will have to depose yet another king in order to claim the throne.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.