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“You did not tell me everything. But I was able to take the few details you disclosed and put them to use.” Alfred shook out the duvet that had slid off the bed onto the floor. “I marveled you spoke so freely, but knowing your views on the intelligence of common beasts…”
“Not so common.” She rose, wrapping a sheet around herself, which she then lost in a light tussle. They each took a side and spread it over the mattress. “How do you interact with non-shifting creatures of the common sort?”
“Simply and directly. Through tone and the position of the body. Much in the same way you do with horses, to be honest. We are also able to use language with them, to a limited degree, in our shifted forms.”
“Do they fear you?”
“They cede to us and often welcome the strength of our presence. They recognize us, as we ourselves recognize one another.” His wolf peeked out at her through his eyes. “Alfie recognized you as our mate from the start.”
“I was so happy to see him, despite how large he seemed.” She returned to her original thought. “When I told you almost everything that day in the meadow, I hadn’t realized that I was missing someone to confide in. Yes, even a so-called mere animal. How cross I was with you that evening.”
“How impressed I was with you.” He smoothed the duvet over the top of the bed; they exchanged a glance acknowledging the uselessness of the endeavor. “I have had Matthias as my Second since we were boys. I cannot imagine being without him to talk to.”
“I would very rarely see Jemima outside atonevent. Her aunt is quite strict. When at Templeton House, Delilah was my confidante, and I her only champion. Although,” Felicity laughed, “once, Mama turned her ankle, and Father had to fetch Delilah back. They fought the whole way but came to an agreement in the end.”
“She was his confidante as well.” Alfred lounged onto the bed, at home in his own skin, in both his skins—muscular, beautiful, raw, vigorous, steadfast. “The jewels and the will were hidden in her stall.”
“Oh, Papa.” Felicity let a wave of sadness move through her. “Perhaps he forgave my mother’s obsession with the horses, and my own, in the end.”
“Do you forgive him?”
“I understand the pain of his loss now.” She joined him atop the freshened bedclothes. “It will go some way to forgiving his behavior in the last years of his life.”
“We believe in the continuity of our ancestors,” he began.
“Ghosts?”
“Not as such,” he replied and rubbed his big, warm hands on her arms. “We believe in their essence prevailing through time and space. Perhaps we can leave that thought for the moment,” he said as she wilted in his arms. “You have taken in more than one new idea these last few days. I will say that the continuation of the title will be a fine tribute to him, and it will gratify his spirit.”
“Where will that leave our second daughter?”
“Perhaps you will make another decree and we can confer one of my many titles upon the next daughter, and the next, and the—”
“Now see here, Your Grace. As many as we desire does not mean progeny without number.” How peremptory she sounded. How confident she was that she would be heard.
“I desire twelve.”
“I desire six. Three and three.”
“My duchess has spoken.”
“But not all at once.”
“We do run to twins, hence the myth. No more than two at a time.”
“I shall feel rather the spare part. Being the only member of the family who cannot Change.” Felicity worried the edge of the duvet. “Are you disappointed that I am not a wolf? Or even a fish?”
He tickled her toes with his. “Are you disappointed that I am not simply a man?”
“Of course not. You are…you.”
“Well, then.” He howled as she managed to get her fingers on his ribs.
“You are not impervious then, to ills and such.” She laughed as he once again subdued her, this time wrapping his arms around her from behind.
“There is no ill we cannot recover from up to death,” he said, rubbing his cheek against hers. “And we are difficult to kill. If ever we are in need of speedy recovery as a human, we shift into our essential selves and can mend a bone in a matter of hours, for example.”
“So you needn’t wait for the full moon? Nor keep humans safe from your presence?”
