Page 32 of Wedlock

“It might be a moot point, what with the princess problem,but I want to know why three years? Why does the mother of a vampire baby have to breastfeed for three years?

She turns her back to me and takes a robe from a peg on the wall.

“There’s something some vampires can do, and others can’t. Now run, because if you’re here when I turn around, I’ll gut you.”

26

I bury my face in my hands and shake my head in frustration as Wolf stands before me, implacable in his refusal to tell me who gave Jag the information regarding my brother.

“Wolf,” I groan, “if you won’t trust me enough to tell me this, how can I trustyouthat this source is reliable?”

Wolf shrugs.

“It’s not my secret to share, and I gave my word. If it helps any, I can tell you that Angie sent a note when she was pregnant and on the run. The note allegedly revealed her thrall. It was attached to flowers and sent to your mother at the hospital.”

“And you’re telling me you followed this lead, and it’s true?”

“Jag did. You know his tracking skills are second to none. I have no reason to doubt his word that the note exists.”

I shake my head.

“Mother had all her correspondence read out to her by the nurses.”

“No,” Wolf gives me a hard stare, “only in the beginning. After a time your mother’s flowers were donated to other patients.”

“Of course,” I nod, realisation dawning on me that Jag must have been very thorough in his investigation to have learned this. “I told the staff to do this at her behest on the day she, for all intents and purposes, died.”

“Yes. So someone received a note from Angelina and either read it and kept it as a royal curiosity, or the note was discarded.”

I frown as I think on this possibility.

“Only,” he goes on, “the notes were not discarded. They were forwarded here, to the castle.”

“Wolf,” I sigh. “This kind of information is not something my mother would have hidden from me. Are you trying to tell mesheis in on this conspiracy?”

Wolf snorts.

“Eleanor? No, I’m simply saying Jag exhausted his lead on the note which would have corroborated his informant’s information because the letter ended up here somewhere. My question to you is whether you followed royal protocol and replied to correspondence from well-wishers, or whether you were too preoccupied at the time trying to find The Free Men who had ‘murdered’ your mother, while simultaneously searching for your runaway wife?”

I look at the ceiling and shake my head.

Wolf knows all too well that I would have followed protocol, for my mother’s memory and sake as much as my own. It was the right thing to do and expected. Naturally, all correspondence was responded to — phone callsandletters.

The only thing is, I’d handed that task on to someone else.

Onto Viper.

27

It’s been two days since Falcon returned to the castle and six days now since Eleanor has visited, and I’m going stir-crazy wondering what the fuck is going on.

Why haven’t either of them come to me and studied my wrist? Why haven’t they acted at all on the information they’ve received?

It’s bad enough that I’m stuck in a room that looks like a cross between a gypsy vardo and a Vegas showgirl’s change room. But to be in here with nothing but my thoughts and a television I refuse to watch, while the castle inhabitants are scurrying around like ants, is maddening.

‘Could it be they plan to protect Viper from his own actions? No! Surely not? Falcon would never condone such a thing, cover up such a thing…would he?’

Walking to the window now, my son asleep on our vast bed, I wrap my arms around myself and shake my head.