Before Midnight (7 page)

“I think Loupe is a fine name,” the other guard offered with a smile.

“Well I don’t like it, but that doesn’t mean other people can make fun of it,” she groused. Suddenly she remembered why she was here. “Oh! The pups! Are they okay?”

The guard held out a hand and she gratefully let him help her rise. Together they peeked into the back of the cart. The two wolf pups immediately started barking.

“Oh, there you are. It’s okay,” Loupe soothed them, reaching out to pet each one in turn. “There, there, it’s all right.”

“I believe the prince has agreed to see you,” the guard observed.

Loupe jerked her gaze toward the palace in time to see the other guard waving her in. Her nerves tightened, her entire body suddenly feeling like a tuning fork that had been struck with too much gusto. She swallowed hard. “Um, all right then, I guess I’ll just…go inside.”

“Well, he is expecting you with his wolf pups after all.”

Something about the guard’s tone sent a blush over Loupe’s cheeks. She cleared her throat and reached into the cart to scoop up the wolf pups. She frowned at the cart, glancing from the nervously shifting mare to the guard.

“I will summon the stable boy to take care of your cart and horse,” the guard assured her. “Go in and meet your prince.”

Loupe blushed harder, but turned to go to the palace. By the time she actually walked through the front door she was certain her legs were going to give out from under her. A palace servant met her in the foyer. After giving the two wolf pups in her arms a strange look, he gestured for her to follow him upstairs. She obediently trailed after him, murmuring soothing sounds to the excited wolf pups wriggling in her arms. She wished she would take her own advice to calm down.

Every step farther into the palace ratcheted her nerves up another notch. Compared with the lush furnishing of the palace, the “finery” her stepmother surrounded herself with looked cheap and tawdry. Loupe had never seen painting with such rich colors, or tapestries with such intricate work. Even the carpet was perfection, thick and plush under her feet. She gripped the pups a little tighter, painfully aware of the bits of dirt drifting off their fur to settle on the royal family’s carpet.

“Prince Etienne is waiting for you inside,” the servant said finally as he stopped beside a giant mahogany door. He gave Loupe one last look then turned away and made his way down the long hallway.

Loupe stared at the half open door. A thousand thoughts swirled in her mind, dangerous thoughts for a woman of her…circumstances to be having. Of course the prince would have a receiving room in his quarters. Each room in the palace was like a small house, it was a wonder it didn’t have its own kitchen. Still, Loupe couldn’t shake the feeling that she was about to enter the prince’s bedroom. The very handsome prince’s bedroom.

An image of her missing wolf pup sprang into her head and shattered the questionable image her traitorous brain had been sketching. She straightened her spine. Before she could lose her nerve, she pushed through the door into the prince’s chambers.

“Loupe,” the prince greeted her. The corner of his mouth quirked up even as his eyebrows betrayed his confusion. His gaze dropped to the wolf pups and his jaw dropped slightly. It only took him a second to regain his composure and he smiled. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Loupe couldn’t find her voice. The prince’s chambers were larger than the first floor of her house. The windows seemed a mile high, offering a view of the kingdom that took her breath away. An impressive bookcase filled with thick texts covered one wall and there was a doorway to the left that gave a glimpse into what was probably his bedroom. The world tilted around her, suddenly unstable. And very warm…

“Loupe?’

Snapping back to the present, Loupe realized her grip on the pups was slipping. She crashed to her knees to keep from dropping them. The pups jumped up to lick her face, all the more bouncy with their newfound freedom. Their brother should be here too, but he wasn’t. He was out in the woods somewhere, possibly hurt, and here she was trying to peer into the prince’s bedroom. How could she for one second let her mind wander to such brazen thoughts while her defenseless pup was missing? Shame seized her chest and Loupe burst into tears.

“What on earth has happened?” Prince Etienne rushed to her side and knelt down beside her. “Loupe, talk to me,” he said softly.

“One of the pups is missing,” she sobbed, covering her face.

“Hey now, don’t cry,” Etienne soothed, reaching out a hand to brush a lock of hair behind her ear. “It’ll be all right. What do you mean he’s missing? When was the last time you saw him?”

“I haven’t been to the lake in a week,” she moaned. “I don’t know how long he’s been gone! He could have been eaten, or wandered off and gotten hurt, or—”

“Loupe, no such thing has happened to him,” Etienne said firmly. “He was probably just playing with you and hiding behind a tree or something. We’ll find him, don’t you worry.”

“Etienne?”

Loupe whipped around to face the female voice. She almost died of embarrassment at the sight of the queen standing in the doorway. The monarch’s crown gleamed in the light as she tilted her head, drawing Loupe’s gaze from her admiration of the queen’s long crimson gown with its blood red corset and golden embroidery.

“Etienne, what’s wrong? Why is this young lady crying?”

The queen left off the “and who is she,” but that part of the question was implied. Loupe clenched her hands into fists, struggling to get herself under control. She swiped at her tears and tried to calm her breathing.

“Mother, this is Loupe, a friend of mine from the village. She’s distraught because one of the wolf pups she’s been taking care of is missing.”

“You take care of wolf pups?”

The queen sounded surprised. If Loupe didn’t know any better, she’d say the woman also sounded pleased.

“Yes, Your Highness,” Loupe said, proud that her voice didn’t tremble. “I’m sorry to bother you, I just…I didn’t know where else to turn,” she finished lamely.

“Nonsense, you did precisely the right thing,” the queen hushed her. She looked at Etienne. “Go get your father, Etienne. You know what a…nose he has for these things.”

Etienne nodded then turned to offer Loupe a reassuring smile. “Please don’t worry, Loupe. We will find the missing pup.”

Loupe stared, her jaw dropping in shock. “You…you and the
king
are going to go look for a missing wolf pup?”

Etienne grinned. “Of course.” He leaned in and winked at her. “You know how fond my family and I are of wolves.”

I’m dreaming. I fell and hit my head and now I’m dreaming.
Loupe stared at him, her brain clicking without offering a single intelligent thing to say. Finally she glanced at the queen. The monarch mirrored her son’s reassuring smile.

Cursing her eyes for holding so much water, Loupe shrugged as more tears spilled down her face. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Chapter 4

Etienne burst out laughing, nearly falling off the driver’s seat of the royal carriage. He wiped a tear from his eye as his father trotted up to the carriage in wolf form. He was a large silver wolf with gleaming gold eyes. He was normally a very intimidating beast to see, but his image was somewhat ruined by the small brown wolf pup hanging from his mouth.

At least, Etienne thought it was a wolf pup. It could just as easily be a large ball of mud. Still chuckling, he climbed down to the ground and took the pup from his father.

“I don’t think you could have possibly gotten more mud on you if you’d had the help of the Earth Mother herself,” he said to the little beastie, his voice thick with barely restrained laughter.

The pup yipped and tried to shake itself clean, but the thick mud persistently clung to his fur like glue. The little wolf whined and squirmed in Etienne’s grip.

“No wonder Loupe couldn’t find you, you little rascal,” the prince chastised him. “You worried her to tears!”

The pup whined again and Etienne tsked.

“The little devil was half buried in a mud puddle between the raised roots of a giant oak.” Etienne glanced behind him into the carriage where his father was back in human form and pulling on his clothes. The older man had a huge grin on his face as he eyed the mudmonster. “He was probably jumping from one to the other and misjudged the distance.”

“We’ll have to work on that,” Etienne joked. He eyed the mud dripping from the pup. “You couldn’t have dunked him in the lake before bringing him back to the carriage?”

“I am the king of all you survey and I’ve just come back from being sent on a mission to rescue a wolf pup from a mud puddle,” the king countered dryly. “And I am still waiting to hear why.”

Etienne scraped as much mud as he could off the pup then set it on the driver’s seat of the carriage. It took a few minutes to wipe the mud off his hands with the cloth he’d retrieved from under the driver’s bench, but he managed to get his hands mostly clean. He hauled himself up and settled in with the reins, wincing when the pup decided to cuddle against his hip. He eyed the thick layer of mud that had now been transferred to his trousers and sighed.

“I told you, Father, it was a gesture of goodwill to one of our nobler citizens. Loupe is one of the few people in this village who not only supports our protection of wolves, but actively makes it her duty to look out for them. I’m sure she had better things to do today than hunt for a wolf pup.”

“Much more important things than anything the king might have been doing, no doubt,” the king commented, leaning out the window to look at Etienne. “Tell me, is this noble villager an attractive young woman?”

Etienne clenched his teeth and refused to answer, keeping his attention ahead of him and clicking at the horse to move. The sleek white steed obeyed instantly, moving into motion as smoothly as a current sliding down a river. For what had to be the thousandth time in his life, Etienne was grateful to the fey for letting his family breed their horses with steeds of fey blood. He couldn’t imagine fighting with a common horse, which tended to become very nervous in the presence of a
lycanthrope
.

“You know,” his father started after a few minutes had gone by, “I should try to come into the village more often. In human form, I mean.”

“We have a very beautiful kingdom,” Etienne agreed. “It would do you good to see more of it.”

“You come into the village often, don’t you?”

“Yes. I like to meet as many people as possible. I get to know their scents and try to keep up with anyone that strikes me as behaving suspiciously. As much as I enjoy patrolling in wolf form, there are some things you have to be a man to pick up on.”

His father coughed. “I take it you were a man when you picked up on Loupe’s…dedication?’

Etienne flushed and scowled. “Drop it, Father.”

“Etienne, don’t be difficult. There’s nothing wrong with finding a young woman attractive—you
should
find young women attractive at your age. For goodness sake, Etienne, it seems to me you have found a solution to your—”

“Don’t say it.”

The king sighed, but lapsed into silence. Etienne stared at the road, concentrating on getting back to the palace. It would have been a more peaceful ride without his father’s suggestion that Loupe be used to provide a lycanthrope heir. Loupe was a kind and beautiful woman, but he had no future with her. The last thing a woman as sweet and meek as Loupe needed was to be married to a beast.

Of course, you may not be a beast for much longer, a voice in his head pointed out.

Images of Loupe naked in the lake swirled through Etienne’s mind. He hadn’t been back to the lake since then. He’d been tempted a few times, sorely tempted. But Loupe had been so skittish around him, so obviously uncomfortable. She was far too innocent to toy with and Etienne didn’t have time for more than that, not while his future was in such dire jeopardy. He remembered the way she’d looked up at him, the way her soft plain dress had hugged her curves. If only things were different…

Etienne rubbed a hand over his face, cursing at the thick, cold trail of mud it left over his cheeks. He narrowed his eyes at the wolf pup who sat there staring at him without a trace of remorse. Somehow the little scamp had ended up in his lap and had taken the opportunity to try and get Etienne to pet him. He stared at his hand. Hence the mud.

Which is now all over my face.

Momentarily distracted from thoughts of Loupe, Etienne wiped his hand on his already muddy trousers and then shifted the reins to that hand. With his clean hand, he reached into his pocket and withdrew a handkerchief. By the time they arrived back at the palace, he was fairly confident that his countenance was as mud free as it would get without a proper bath. Etienne picked up the wolf pup and climbed down from the carriage.

Maurice approached from the direction of the stable. “Your highness, I wish you’d have let me drive you and your father. It would have been my pleasure.”

Etienne smiled. “Your dedication is admirable, Maurice, but this was a little father-son excursion. We managed quite well on our own, thank you.”

Maurice bowed. “Very good, sire. I’ll take the horse back to the stable and get him all settled in.” He paused. “Will the young lady be needing her cart tonight?”