AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And you will continue to do so.” He took her chin in his hand. “We shall be an Alpha pair to all we meet. We may discover our Beta and Gamma as we go on, but we shall always be each other’s staunchest supporters and critics as well. It would have been rash to Change as I did, without having laid the groundwork for overwhelming Asquith with numbers. Which you did not know, and for that I owe you an apology.”
She nuzzled his palm. “May we consider both accepted?”
“Yes, and thus, we move on.” He served her more cheese and slices of apple. “Mind you, a feline can hold a grudge like none other.”
“And a Welshman?”
“Is powerless before his beloved.” He nestled closer. “You will miss your brother.”
“Yes. But I will have the comfort of knowing where he is. Alwyn.” She slipped an arm around his waist. “We must look for your family.” He rubbed his face in her hair and nodded. “And keep a lookout for O’Mara.” He leaned back, and they waggled their brows at each other.
“What does O’Mara do when she looks off into the distance?” Tabitha asked. “She looks like she’s conferring with the air.”
Her duke took a breath, bracing himself. “We do not think death is the end.Versipelles,not dukes. Or not only dukes.”
“Alwyn, no.” This was the outside of enough. “Do not tell me she is speaking to ghosts.”
“Very well.” He reached across to hand her a small, flat cake, dusted with sugar and studded with currants. “I will not tell you. Try this. Lowell’s French chef deigned to follow a Welsh recipe—”
“Alwyn!”
He tore a piece off another and devoured it with relish. Dusting his hands of the sugar, he said, “We believe the essence of our animal selves and our ancestors prevail over time and space—”
“Holy, Blessed Palu.” Tabitha took a bite of her cake to prevent her from saying any more. Happily, it was delicious.
“—and the powers Omegas have are a mystery to us all,” he continued. He peeped at her through those lashes, as if he knew how it disarmed her. “I suspect she can talk to them.”
“To your ancestors.”
Alwyn tapped her on the nose. “To anyone’s. It may be her specific power.”
“Her gift.” Tabitha polished off the cake. “Themoohoo.”
“The what now?”
Tabitha explained what he’d missed at tea, that Sunday Meal. “Oh, Alwyn.” She drew back and took his face in her hands. “If that is the case, she sought to help you in that way and could not. It must mean your family is alive.”
“I wonder if none of my ancestors could sense them even from beyond, thanks to that infernal sorcery.” He laid his forehead against hers, and they breathed in tandem.
“And how does the Irish mister-lord fit into this picture?” Tabitha wondered.
“They may be fated mates. One cannot imagine that melancholy horse exerting himself to thwart her to the degree she fled her homeland, but”—Alwyn shrugged—“still waters run deep. We will put word out in London. I doubt she is there, but she may have passed through.”
“We must go to Drake’s and free any who may be captive. Mr. Bates went to look despite having no way of knowing. He said there is a leopard he suspects is not ananimali puri.”
Alwyn shivered. “I had a terrible thought that Jack Bunce might have an ability such as yours, but he did notseeme. Or else he would not have lost his mind when I Changed.”
“The Dowager Duchess of Osborn said it was a matter ofvera amorummeeting, and that is why my, my gift realized itself. I suspect my natural inclination to observe lent itself to it.”
“Lucky for all involved.”
“Luck!” Tabitha objected. “One cannot base a future on luck. Or a gift. A gift I had no notion even existed.”
“Then let us not call it a gift, for I suspect you are as awful at receiving them as you are with compliments. Am I wrong?” Alwyn asked. She growled and saw his lion flash in his eyes. “Let us see. How is your new skill different from the usual application of your knowledge?”
She tipped her head back and thought. “In apothecary matters, I have numerous hypotheses based on what I have previously observed, I have the experience built from having seen what is useful and what isn’t, and I extrapolate from there into other avenues of ingredient combinations, dosages, and substitutions.”
“While you have had only one experience, you trusted your instincts, experimented, were given proof of your conclusions, and now have that to build upon.”
