Beauties of the Beast (The Yellow Hoods, #4): Steampunk meets Fairy Tale (3 page)

“Mama? Can Skells, Bore and me use the big ballroom to play since there’s no party anymore?”

“
Sels or Selvin!”
she snapped. “His name is
Selvin,
and it’s
Selvin, Bore and
I.”
She was immediately wracked with guilt for snapping at him. It was a horrible habit she had, a defense mechanism she’d developed against her older sisters, designed to throw them off balance. It worked on Lennart particularly well. She glanced down at Beldon’s tear filled eyes, the look of having disappointed her on his face. She let go of his hand and sat down on a stair. With her head in her hands, she stared at the cold stone steps. She couldn’t look at him, not until she knew he’d forgiven her. “I’m sorry, Belly. I shouldn’t have done that. Mama’s very sorry.”

Beldon looked at her tears as they splashed down, confused and worried. “Someone might see you, Mama,” he said of her sitting on a step. She’d never done anything so common before. She had rules about such things, rules she’d told him a hundred times. “Mama, get up.”

“I can’t right now, Belly. I just can’t.” Her voice was fragile. “I’m sorry, Bel. I’m so sorry about everything,” she said, breaking down.

Bel wrapped his little six-year-old arms around her. “Mama, it’s okay. I know you love me. But, Mama, you shouldn’t be sitting. Someone might see you,” he said, trying to lift her up.

She chuckled at the sweet efforts of her little hero and patted the empty spot beside her. After some hesitation and a glance around, he sat down. “I don’t care if someone sees me, Bel. This is the true me. For so long I have been pushed and shoved into a life and destiny I never wanted.” She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a kiss on his messy top of dark-blond hair. “I love you. You and Selvin and Boris, all of you. You know that, right?”

“I know, Mama.” He hugged her. “Are you worried about something?” he asked astutely.

She rubbed his ear-lobe with her thumb and forefinger as she often did. It reminded her of how soft he’d been as a baby. “I am, a little. There are a lot of things going on.” She brushed the hair from his forehead and looked at his gentle eyes. “You’re so strong, Bel. You’ll always be there for your brothers, right? Always take care of them?”

“Always, Mama,” he said proudly, his chin raised.

CHAPTER THREE

Lost Wolf

LeLoup blinked hard and glanced about, rubbing the side of his head where Tee had pistol-whipped him. She was nowhere to be found, though he could feel her presence. 

The forest leaves rustled as he scurried over to his two henchmen and shook them awake. 

He pointed at the fifteen-year-old boy. “Take the Watt boy. We’re heading back to the horses.”

LeLoup felt a buzzing in his head as he surveyed the clearing. The plan had been brilliant. He’d had a traitor within Tee’s inner-circle, and yet she’d gotten the better of him. Not only had she made him look like a fool once again, she’d taken a piece of his soul this time. He shook as he remembered the look in her eyes after he’d accidentally shot Elly. 

He stared at Elly, a bleeding mess of red and yellow. He glanced around nervously. Tee was no where to be seen. “Where did you go?” he wondered. Scratching his face furiously. “Are you going to leap out at me? Or have you broken, Tee?” As he went through the possibilities, his heart pounded harder and harder. “What have I done?” The buzzing in his head felt like voices arguing now. He slapped his own face to silence them.

Just as he was about to leave, he caught a glimpse of the Liar. His custom made triple-barreled, repeating pistol was a work of art, and it had betrayed him. In the moment where he was ready to use the secret extra bullet, that which gave the pistol its name, it had jammed. With a shaking hand, he picked it up and hurried off, certain he could hear Tee’s voice approaching.

Arriving at their horses, LeLoup paced back and forth angrily. His nonsensical mumblings and rantings had become more intense as he’d trekked through the forest. “She’s taken my wolf. I need it back. I need it back,” he said to the air. Tee’s enraged eyes haunting him. The arguments inside his head grew more intense.

“Hey!” yelled Stefano, snapping his fingers to get LeLoup’s attention. “Look, I know you’re the boss and everything, but you’re not making any sense, and you’re not listening to us. Frankly, we’re getting sick of it. Are we going somewhere with the knocked out twitchy kid, or not? Because if your plan is to do the crazy walk-and-talk all day, then we’re out of here.”

“Shut up!” yelled LeLoup, whipping out the Liar and pointing it squarely at his henchman.

“Woo there,” said Ruffo, the other henchman. “Just calm down, LeLoup.”

“LeLoup? Who’s that? Is that you? No, it’s me,” LeLoup muttered to himself, glancing about before settling back on Ruffo.

Stefano rubbed his face in frustration and glanced at Ruffo with a look of disbelief. “What do you want us to do?”

LeLoup smoothed his hair and straightened his dirtied grey suit jacket. “I’m going back after Tee. You two continue on to the inn with the Watt boy. I’ll be there soon. I need to get my wolf back.”

It hadn’t taken LeLoup long to find the trail left by Tee’s makeshift stretcher. After following them for a few minutes, and knowing the area well, he took a direct route for the road. Exiting the forest and stepping on to the dirt road, he scanned about. A hundred yards away, he saw a horse and cart stopped. Hugging the forest’s edge, he quickly and quietly approached.

The greasy looking driver pushed up his three-point hat with a finger as thick as a sausage. He leaned forward, resting an arm partially on his big belly. His face had several days of grey and black stubble. 

He smiled down on the exhausted, dirty, but still pretty girl before him. “That’s a nice piece of metal you have there,” he said of the shock-stick Tee had pulled out. “Now, why don’t you put it down and come keep me company up here? You want me to help your friend, don’t you?”

LeLoup listened as he crept ever closer. It was odd seeing Tee without her yellow cloak. She was in a blood and dirt stained sleeveless blouse, her hair a tangled black mess. Her shock-stick hand was shaking; not in fear, but in fury.

Tee growled. “I
need
your horse and cart!” she yelled, leaping forward.

Time seemed to slow for LeLoup as he caught the look in Tee’s eyes. His blood ran cold. All the voices inside him screamed as one.

Two shots rang out, startling Tee and making her slip off the edge of the cart. She fell to the ground, landing on her back and elbows. She stared in complete shock at LeLoup, who was standing only a few yards away, his triple-barreled pistol held high in the air.

“You can’t do this!” LeLoup yelled at her, his arm and head shaking. “You can’t, that would make you forever the wolf. I need it back. This is not you.”

The driver glanced back and forth between Tee and LeLoup. “Who the yig is this guy, and what’s he talking about?” he asked her, slowly reaching underneath his seat.

LeLoup flashed a twisted smile at the driver. “Monsieur, I might not sound my best, but please, do not test me. Leave the weapon where it is.”

“I don’t—don’t know what you’re talking about,” stammered the driver, leaving his hands low.

LeLoup took careful aim at the man’s chest. “Well, I
can
educate you, if you’d like.”

None of this made sense to Tee. Seeing LeLoup drained the last of her strength. Her body sagged as exhaustion took hold. In a voice laced with defeat, Tee said, “Just kill me already.”

“What? No,” said LeLoup, staring at her. Inside, he was surprised at his answer. Wasn’t this what he’d set out to do—what he’d told his henchmen he was going to do? He glared at the driver, sending a shiver down the man’s spine. “Now, Monsieur,
out
of the cart
. Please.
”

The driver put his hands up. “Look, let’s start over. I don’t know who you are, but I’m just trying to help the little lady. She was coming up and—”

LeLoup laughed. “Do you really think you were about to have your way? You’re an idiot to risk your doom by underestimating her. She’d have beaten you to within a kiss of your last breath.”

“I hardly think a little girl—”

“Ah, Monsieur, you are indeed an idiot. But, where are my manners? I’m—” and nothing else came out of LeLoup’s mouth. His eyes darted around before landing on Tee.

She frowned and stood up slowly. “He’s… Andre LeLoup,” she said, her expression of one of complete bewilderment. “He… He’s the one that shot my friend… the friend who is
dying
right now.” Tee growled, the fury returning to her eyes.

“Wait,” pleaded LeLoup, speaking to her rage. “No, back. Go back in!”

The driver looked at Tee and then LeLoup again. “You can talk with the crazy man, I’m going.”

Tee glanced at Elly. “If I don’t get her to Costello soon, she’ll die! Please.”

“Costello…” repeated LeLoup, dropping his pistol arm as he suddenly remembered his conversation with Franklin. He’d completely forgotten about the boy and his henchmen. He gazed about, and was wondering which direction they were in when the cart driver whipped out a flintlock rifle from under his seat. 

LeLoup spun and shot over the man’s shoulder, the wind slapping him in the face. “Now, please, if you would be
so kind
,” he said, showing his teeth, “clean your little mess that I see piddling off the bench seat, and take yourself for a walk. I hear exercise is good, particularly for those of such blessed girth.”

After wiping the bench seat and cart floor with a rag, the man hurried off in the direction he’d come from.

Putting the Liar away, LeLoup approached Tee slowly. She stared at him, confused. 

“Tell me how best to help you get… Elly… into the cart,” LeLoup asked nervously.

Elly stared lazily at the painting on the ceiling as she enjoyed the sounds of an angelic choir. Morning light poured in through two large, open windows. The red and gold curtains had been drawn aside, probably by the monk that had been keeping an eye on her. 

Before she could really wonder about where the monk had ventured off to, she heard it—Tee’s distinctive footfalls, blazing a trail down the marble corridors. Excitement built in Elly until finally she saw Tee burst through the doorway. For a moment, Tee was a blur of red, until Elly could see she was in the red and gold colors of the abbey.

For all of their thirteen years, they’d been best friends. Before they’d been able to talk or walk, they’d had each other. They had overcome everything together, including the secrets that had most recently threatened to tear them apart, along with Franklin’s betrayal. When LeLoup had shot her, Elly’s greatest fear had been what would happen to Tee if she died. 

Elly winced in pain as she tried to sit up and failed. Tee leapt to Elly’s low bedside and buried her head beside Elly, her long black hair everywhere. Tee wrapped her arms around Elly, and with a choked up voice asked, “How… ah… how are you feeling?”

 “I’m okay,” replied Elly weakly. “Good thing we have the no dying rule, right?”

“Yeah,” replied Tee, crying.

Elly carefully wrapped her arms around Tee, pushing through the pain. “You saved me. We’re okay now.” Tee hugged Elly harder, her body shaking. Elly couldn’t understand her incoherent mumbles, but there was a weight and pain in her voice that she didn’t recognize. “I’m okay, you saved me,” Elly kept repeating. As the seconds passed, her anxiety crept up. “Tee? Are we okay?” 

Elly felt her gaze pulled to the doorway. Slowly, a mysterious form stepped into the room. Her blood ran cold as she recognized LeLoup. When she’d last seen him, at the other end of his triple-barreled pistol just before he’d shot her, he’d looked different. His hair was now a mess, his face unshaven, and his grey suit was dirty and stained. His pistol was strapped to his leg, but hung there as if he had no idea it existed. 

As he turned, Elly saw the once piercing green eyes were now emerald windows to a shattered soul. He was a man undone. A strange smile crossed his lips as he and Elly made eye contact. “It is… good to see you are alive,” he said, his voice was oddly hesitant. His eyes darted away, bouncing around the room before settling on the window. “Elly… You must fix Tee. She’s taken my wolf, but she’s using it. I can’t get it back until she’s fixed. I need it back, because without it, who am I?” He rubbed his cheek, confused. “Who am I?”