Free The Countess by Claire Delacroix Page B

hunt and make do with the meat they had. If there were wolves about, there would be safety in numbers, in the camp.
    Melusine, though, cried from above before Eglantine could give an order. Eglantine turned and raised her fist with a whistle, but the bird had already spied her prey. Melusine dove, plummeting from the sky like a feathered spear, and the shadow moved like lightning in the same direction.
    Three more shadows followed.
    It seemed that hungry wolves were not fools.
    â€œNay!” Eglantine ran through the woods, hoping she would reach Melusine before the wolves. They would kill the bird, of that she had no doubt, because Melusine would not suffer her kill to be taken by any other than Eglantine. She gathered her skirts in two fistfuls and plunged through the woods, even as the boys shouted behind her. The dogs ran beside her, barking in anticipation of a fight.
    Melusine gave a strangled cry. Eglantine burst into a small clearing to see the bird’s talons buried deeply in an unfortunate hare. But the peregrine flapped awkwardly, her tether caught on a thorny shrub beneath her kill.
    Four shadows separated themselves from the woods and edged closer. Their eyes were cold, their gazes fixed upon Eglantine. She halted, uncertain what to do. The dogs snarled but she stayed them with a gesture, suspecting that they would lose a battle with these wild creatures.
    The largest wolf sidled closer to Melusine and the hare, one wary eye on Eglantine. The bird screamed outrage at the creature’s boldness, the snagged tether impeding her ability to fight.
    The wolf snarled at her, and seemed to coil itself to spring. It was clearly not a stupid creature, for it had associated the bird’s dive with freshly killed meat. Eglantine had heard many old tales of the cleverness of wolves, though she had never seen one. They had been driven from Crevy more than a century before.
    Were they truly as fearsome as reputed? Did she have any options to save Melusine?
    â€œIt takes a particular kind of fool to step between a wolf and his meal.”
    Duncan MacLaren’s words nigh made Eglantine jump from her skin. She spun to find him leaning against a tree, watchful and amused. Despite that, he looked no less wily, unpredictable and dangerous than the wolf.
    And no less inclined to pounce.
    Jacqueline and the boys stood behind him, Jacqueline holding the reins of the steeds. Duncan evidently noted her glance for he shook his head. “I forbade them to come further. You are in peril here.”
    There was no heat in his words and he seemed more interested in studying the wolf.
    â€œAre they as vicious as repute?”
    His voice was deceptively soft. “Aye, when cornered, when hungered, when tempted.”
    â€œBut I cannot leave Melusine to fare for herself. Her tether is caught, it inhibits her ability to defend herself, and that tether adorns her at my behest.” Eglantine met Duncan’s gaze, noting that he seemed surprised by her words. “How does one deceive a wolf?”
    His smile was not without admiration. “Are you not afraid?”
    â€œI am terrified. The beast seems wrought to fight, but that changes naught of my responsibility.”
    He pulled out his knife, cleaned its blade on his chemise. His eyes gleamed with intent and he looked grimly purposeful. “’Tis not a task for a lady,” he murmured, then moved with the same swift grace as the wolf. “Restrain your dogs.”
    The creature seemed to sense that it had met its match, for it crouched warily. The other three wolves backed away slightly, their poses wary. Melusine flapped and struggled as Duncan eased toward her. He moved slowly but deliberately, with a grace and economy of movement Eglantine had not expected of him. His boots made no sound on the deadened grass.
    When he stood half a dozen paces from the wolf, rabbit and peregrine midway between them, the wolf snarled a warning. It was claiming possession