Free From Hell With Love: A Secret Histories Novel by Simon R. Green

haunches and studied me disdainfully.
    “Hey rube,” it said. “Keep the noise down; some of us have important nuts to be gathering. Molly’s not here. Why are you here? You’re disturbing the wildlife with your presence, and that after-shave of yours is doing absolutely nothing for the local ambience. I mean, yes, we’re all happy she’s finally found a boyfriend she can bring back to meet the extended family, and all that, but did it have to be a human? She could have done so much better for herself. Still, she’s not getting any younger. Her biological clock is getting pretty damned deafening. Have you got her pregnant yet? Well, why not? You humans are too damned complicated for your own good. I could have been born human if I wanted, but I passed the intelligence test. Little squirrel humour there. Have you met her sisters yet?”
    “Not as such,” I said, jamming a word in edgeways in self-defence. You might think a talking squirrel is cute, but trust me, they really get on your nerves after a while. “I’ve heard about Isabella, of course. Who hasn’t? Supernatural terrorist, twilight avenger, and so hardcore in her convictions she could scare the wings off an angel. Practically every secret organisation in the world has her on its kill list, and vice versa.”
    “What about Louisa?” said the squirrel, knowingly. “She’s the one you have to watch out for. She’s really scary.”
    “Well,” I said. “Something to look forward to.”
    The squirrel cocked its head on one side, and considered me thoughtfully with a dark beady eye. “You do know this isn’t going to work?” it said, almost kindly. “You and Molly? Love doesn’t conquer all, and happy endings are just something you humans made up, to help you get through the nights. Molly is at war with the Droods, and always will be.”
    “You see?” I said. “We have so much in common.”
    The squirrel shrugged. “None so blind as those who’ve shoved two fingers in their eyes. Look, Molly’s gone off gallivanting with Isabella, and no I don’t know where, or when she might be back. She didn’t leave any messages, and she didn’t talk to anyone before she left. Our Molly’s been playing her cards very close to her chest, ever since she met you. You’re a bad influence on her, which is strange, because it’s usually the other way round. You can hang around here and wait, if you want, but frankly I wouldn’t. You make the wildlife uneasy, and there’ll probably be an incident.”
    I had to smile. “I’m a Drood, remember? Untouchable comes as standard.”
    “Like that means anything, in a place like this. Don’t push your luck, Drood. You’re only here on sufferance.”
    The squirrel leapt up into the higher branches, and was gone. I sat down on a nearby grassy bank in an ostentatiously casual manner, just to show I wasn’t going to be pushed around. The air seemed to blow distinctly colder, and there were ominous noises and movements in the darker shadows between the trees. I studiously ignored it all, and did some hard thinking. Molly kept saying she was going to introduce me to her older sister, Isabella, but something always came up. I knew Isabella’s legend. Everybody did. Molly was a wild free spirit, as dedicated to having fun as fighting all forces of authority. Isabella was more cold, focused, unyielding in her determination to search out all the dark secrets in the world, and then Do Something about them. Molly was cheerful, capricious, and at war with the world in general. Isabella wanted to know everything other people didn’t want her to know, and was quite ready to do terrible things to anyone who got in her way.
    They know Isabella in the Nightside, and in Shadows Fall. She’d worked both with and against the Droods, and gone head to head with the London Knights on more than one occasion. But then, they’ve always been a bit stuffy.
    Louisa, the youngest of the Metcalf sisters, was a mystery. You heard lots