Spread and Howl by Lilith Duvalier

Author:Lilith Duvalier
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi, epub
Publisher: Evernight Publishing
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Secrets and Exchange

Now that he was out in the fresh air, the sunshine, and the chilly wind, Marius was starting to doubt the wisdom of his plan. Bent over the bits and bobs of iron from Dominic’s workshop, sorting the pile he’d carried with him into a stack that could only be used as part of the barricade he was planning, and a few pieces that might serve as weapons, his plan to talk to Seraphina had seemed entirely reasonable. As he’d eaten a bit of Guillaume’s rations, it had seemed like the perfect way to acquire a damning bit of evidence in his quest to convince Guillaume that Marius’s plan was the only solution.

But standing in front of Seraphina, well in sight of her watchful father as he worked in the vegetable patch, but far, far out of anyone’s hearing, the stonemason wasn’t sure where to start. He was good with his hands, not with his words. This had always been true of him. And he had never learned to speak to young women. It had never seemed like a skill worth acquiring.

Seraphina’s eyes were still bloodshot and red rimmed. She looked like she had been crying through the night and then through the morning. Had Marius not been sure it would raise her father’s ire, he would have stepped forward and embraced the girl. But as it was, all he could do was stand in front of her awkwardly, hands tucked behind his back, feeling like a schoolboy.

“How might I help you, Monsieur Lemarque?” Seraphina finally asked. Her voice was surprisingly rough. Marius felt another surge of pity emanate out from his heart through his body.

“Well,” he started, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “As you well know, Mademoiselle, I am hosting the King’s Master of the Hunt.”

Seraphina’s brilliantly blue eyes narrowed. She moved back from Marius, almost imperceptibly, shifting her weight slowly and rearranging her feet until, without ever seeming to have taken a step, she had moved a few paces away. In her grief she was more serious than Marius ever remembered her being. Like the Bonfils boys, she was younger in his memory than she had truly been in years.

“I know it, Monsieur. I can’t see how it’s relevant to me,” Seraphim replied.

“Your family hosted another of the King’s men. Anton Duchamp.”

Seraphina endeavored to move further back from him again, using the same sort of graceful feminine magic.

“So we did. It’s our duty as loyal subjects of the King,” she replied. “Just as it is your duty to host the Master of the Hunt.”

“Of course,” Marius said. He felt ridiculous, as though he was playing some sort of strange game with her, where she set all of the rules and he had to scurry along behind her, constantly fearing that the smallest misstep would cast him down through the crust of the earth. “And I have acquired additional duties from the Master of the Hunt. I am to serve as his guide as he pursues the Beast.

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.