Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Luther hadn’t felt like this in... well, he couldn’t remember to be honest. Had he ever? He walked down the hall as though he were walking on clouds. His steps felt lighter. Hell, his soul felt lighter. He’d spent the night in the arms of an angel and nothing would ruin this day for him.

Absolutely nothing.

Whistling as he went, he stopped in at the kitchens to grab food before he started his workday. Magda already had all the ovens firing and the hot room had sweat dripping down the back of his neck in seconds.

“Good lord, woman,” he muttered as he reached for a few of her famous scones. “Do you have to keep it so hot in here?”

“If you want your food cooked when it’s handed to you, yes.” She snapped a towel in his direction, but then returned to a pot bubbling with some delicious smelling liquid. “Where’s that lovely lady of yours? The entire house was talking last night about the way you two came in.”

“We walked in like regular people. I don’t know why everyone would be talking.” Of course, he knew why. Luther couldn’t prevent the grin on his face from spreading far too wide, either.

His mind had already decided she was his bride. They were going to spend the rest of their lives together, and no one would convince him otherwise. He wanted to grow old with her. To see their children toddling around the halls of this manor and filling the haunted chambers with their laughter.

Yes, that imagined future was what he wanted, and he realized that without such a future, anything else would seem bleak.

Magda watched the emotions flicker across his face and sighed. “You’re in deep, Luther. And while I understand the infatuation with a new young woman, I would not be doing you justice if I didn’t warn you that all of this is so very new. For the both of you.”

“Sometimes you know,” he replied with a snarl, and the beast inside him agreed. The wolf claimed to have known the first time they saw her. She was their mate, the only person who would ever satisfy them.

Magda nodded, her eyebrows lifting past her hairline. “You know, I was here when your father was a young man, as well. He employed me when he was your age. Foolish. Perhaps a little too rash. Quick to anger and even quicker to satisfy that anger with his fists.”

“I know.” Where was she going with this? Why would she bring up his father, of all people? The man had a straight line he followed and no one would ever knock him off it.

Magda set her spoon down and turned around. She wiped her hands on the small cloth at her waist. Taking her time to respond. “I know what you are, Luther. I know what your father was. And how your mother died. I know all of it. No secrets get away from the cook of the house’s kitchen, I’ll tell you that.”

He felt his stomach bottom out. She knew? How could she know what he was and what his family had fought with for centuries? Surely she meant that she knew he was an earl, or some other family secret that hadn’t been passed down to him before his father died.

“What do you know?” he whispered, trying very hard not to look horrified.

“You have a wolf inside you, my darling boy. Your father fought with his every step of the way, and I saw how that ate him alive. I think you don’t fight the beast as much as your father, and I don’t know if that’s any better.” She clearly had struggled with this knowledge for a very long time. She’d carried this burden, this horrible truth, and she’d never run from his family or what they had done.

He had a better cook than he realized. Magda was a treasure. A woman of means who should be protected at all costs.

He took a step forward, only to freeze when he saw her flinch away from him. That was what he’d come to expect. That was what everyone did when they saw a werewolf in front of them. It was natural. It was the right way to respond.

“She doesn’t do that,” he whispered. “You have every right to be afraid of me and to wonder what I’m going to do. The animal part of you recognizes what I am, and it doesn’t want to be near me. You should be afraid of what I might do and how I might harm you. But I would never hurt you, Magda. Never.”

Her eyes widened with every word. So large in that pale, wrinkled face. “Can you control it? Your father thought he could and then look at what he did to your poor mother.”

Ah yes, his mother. He still saw the pieces of her strewn about when he closed his eyes. He’d never forget that. Neither would anyone else in this house, although most of them claimed it was a freak accident caused by a wild animal that somehow snuck into their home in the middle of the night.

“I don’t want to control it,” he replied, pitching his voice low and quiet. “My father thought the beast was something to run from, and it is my belief that his wolf then went mad. My wolf got out at the last full moon, Magda. It knew what to do, where to go.”

She pressed a hand to her chest. “The man who died?”

“I don’t think it was me.” He hoped. God, he didn’t know and he should feel more guilty about that rather than focusing on Luna. “If it was, I have no memory of it. I’m going to learn how to live with the wolf, Magda. And of all people, I know she’s willing to go through that journey with me. She’s never once been afraid of who I am or what I am.”

“Then she is a rare woman indeed.” Magda clearly hadn’t processed what he had said, but at the very least, the old woman was willing to try. “But we already knew how rare of a woman she was. After all, she’s a pagan. Just like me.”

“Just like you.”

And he’d be lucky to end up with a woman like Magda for the rest of his life. He’d spend his days in happiness, resting easy knowing that his soul remained happy and well because she was close to him.

He wouldn’t bother his cook any longer. Luther left the kitchens and went to his office, where he tried his best to get his work done for the day. He needed to focus on where to put most of his money in the upcoming year. The town still had a lot of repairs that it needed, not to mention the farmers who could use some assistance buying all the seeds and grain they’d need for the next year. And the roads... He’d experienced first hand how badly the roads needed tending.

But try as he might, he couldn’t get her out of his head. Even when he was working.

He thought of the fields, and then the thought of how she hadn’t hesitated to help Barren and fix all of Luther’s mistakes. Then he thought of Barren’s granddaughter and how her beauty couldn’t match the amazon he’d found.

Too many times he thought about going up to the bedroom again. He could put his work off for another day, surely. That wouldn’t break Dead Man’s Crossing if he took a few days off to enjoy Luna and all the light she’d brought to his life.

He stopped himself each time. He had to work. Just because a beautiful woman with long limbs and beautiful hair waited for him in his bed, didn’t mean he could neglect the people who’d been here for him his entire life. Did it?

Oh no, he was already standing. Luther moved out of his office without hesitation. He wanted to see her. A couple hours had passed, surely, and that would mean it was time for breakfast. He’d gather her up himself. Waking up with his kisses would be better than the maid shaking her awake and telling her to go to the dining room.

He picked up his pace, considering having breakfast delivered to his bedroom instead. They weren’t entertaining anyone, so why not? They could languish between the sheets for hours if she wanted to. She’d earned that much after the life she’d had.

A maid passed him in the hall, and he grabbed onto her arm. “Would you tell Magda that I’d like breakfast in my room, please? We won’t need the dining room after all.”

“The dining room?” The maid stopped short, her mouth open. “Sir, you asked one of us to wake Miss Winchester this morning from your room. But she wasn’t there.”

Oh, she must have already gone to the dining hall. He thought it odd she’d want to sleep in when she’d rarely done that while staying here. “I’ll meet her in the dining hall, then.”

“Wait, my lord!”

He didn’t linger. Instead, he rushed down the halls so he could tell her his grand idea. She’d like it. Luna was always willing to do whatever mad scheme he’d thought up. At least, he thought she would.

Magda’s words rang in his head, though. It was all so very new between the two of them, and perhaps that’s why it burned through his chest so all consumingly. He wanted to lose himself in her until he didn’t know where either of them started.

Skidding to a halt in front of the dining hall, he frowned at the two butlers, who were already clearing one plate set.

He cleared his throat, hoping his voice wasn’t too angry. “Did Miss Winchester already eat? I told her to wait for me, gentlemen.”

The butlers froze, then looked at each other. “Uh, my lord...”

Neither of them continued.

His gut twisted with dread. “What is it? Out with it, gentlemen. I have no interest in waiting for your explanation.”

Magda walked out of the kitchen and waved a hand at the two butlers. “Off with you. I’ll explain it to him.”

It didn’t escape his notice that the two men shared a look of relief before they walked out of the room a little too quickly for men of their station. They were running from him, and that dread in his stomach twisted like a knife. No one wanted to tell him what was going on, but he already had a sick feeling that he knew what had happened.

“The maid said she wasn’t in my room,” he murmured.

“She’s not in the house,” Magda corrected. “We looked all over for her. I didn’t want to disturb you if the girl was in the gardens or had decided to take an early morning walk. She’s not in the manor. And she’s not on the grounds, either.”

She’d run.

From him.

Why would she do that? He couldn’t think of a single reason why she’d leave now of all times until the thought rang in his head like church bells.

She was a thief, after all. She’d arrived at his home with only one intent in her mind, and that wasn’t to spend her days with the Earl of Dead Man’s Crossing. Luna had never once lied to him. Her life story. Her desires. Everything she’d told him had been the truth, and he was the idiot who had refused to listen.

Now what would she want to steal from him? What was the most impressive thing in his manor because she’d obviously been scoping out the entire place for weeks now. She knew where every valuable in this home lay.

He met Magda’s gaze with a horrified look on his own. “The Diamond.”

“The what?”

“The Diamond of Crestfall. Mother’s jewels and her birthright.” He pressed a hand to his racing heart that suddenly hurt.

He couldn’t stand here and wonder if that’s what she took. He already knew the truth, but he also knew that the proof waited where he’d left her. Luther ran from the dining hall, sprinting through the halls, and with every step his heart felt as though it were shattering. She wouldn’t take it. She wouldn’t take the garish gem that had nearly led to his mother’s death.

The wolf in his chest howled at the thought that their mate could ever betray them. She wouldn’t. She couldn’t.

The thundering in his head stopped as he paused in front of his bedroom. Empty. It shouldn’t be empty like that, and yet it was. He could almost hear the glass of his heart splinter into a million pieces as he walked around the corner, and there it was.

His letter opener sat next to the open floorboard where the box had been hidden years ago. The blade glinted in the sunlight. Stark contrast to the shadows of the empty hiding place his father had been so certain no one would ever find.

One more step and he saw the bone white paper that she’d wedged into the space where his mother’s legacy had once been.

He didn’t want to know what she had to say. But he also wouldn’t survive if he didn’t know what she dared to leave behind.

Luther knelt beside her handy work and reached into the darkness. The paper crinkled in his hands as he opened it.

Her handwriting was beautiful. Surprising, really, considering how she prided herself on strength and power. But the looping curls were one of a woman who had spent years perfecting her handwriting into something graceful and lovely.

Luther,

If there was any other way, you have to know I would have taken that path. I didn’t tell you everything.

I owe a terrible man a lot of money. He’ll hunt me to the ends of the earth, even if I choose you. But worse, I think he’ll use you to get to me.

I couldn’t take that chance. Even if that meant ruining what we have.

Goodbye, I guess. I’ll see you in my dreams.

She didn’t sign it, but he knew. He knew this was her way of saying goodbye forever, as though a letter would ever suffice.

He crumpled the letter in his fist, letting out a low, long growl. The wolf in him and Luther both agreed. She would not leave them like this. She wouldn’t leave at all, because there was too much left unsaid. He would bring her back to him. No matter the cost or the time that it took.

Standing, he let the wolf free for one more hunt.