Threatened [W&W Book 2]

Chapter 5

Anya could barely breathe through the pain of her fear for the twins.

"I'll do whatever I have to, Thorne."

"Very good.  As I said, you will enter the household of Wildwood.  You will present yourself as a lady's maid for the future Lady Wildwood.  She has need of a second with more exact talents."

"I don't know anything about being a lady's maid."

He handed her a book she had not even noticed that he carried.  "This will teach you everything you need to know.  Lord Keaton Wildwood has a fondness for keeping wizards in his household."

Anya protested, "But I'm no wizard!"

"You are now.  You know as well as I that your witch's magic comes from the same place as a wizard's does.  The line is not so firmly drawn as they think.  You have a week to study the ins and outs, and you will be given a post close to Lady Wildwood, likely to help her prepare for their wedding.  From there, an opportunity will no doubt arise for you to destroy Lord Wildwood.  Stab him in the back, poison him, control him, suck the magic out of his very soul.  I care little how you do it, but do not be long in your planning."

Anya nodded, holding the book in her shaking hands.

"I will require regular reports.  You may send them to this house using your crow.  I will retrieve them from here.  He will have to live in the woods around Wildwood so that they do not suspect that he is your familiar and that you are a witch.  That suspicion would make your task far more difficult."

"I understand," she said, just wanting him to leave.  She had much to do, and she did not know how much longer she could keep her tears in.

He moved as if to leave, and then turned briefly again.  "There is a letter in the book which will further explain your identity and past.  Also, if it makes your task easier, I shall tell you something.  You should know that your brother's eye was destroyed by Lady Theresa Waldwick, the future Lady Wildwood.  Furthermore, it was her sister, The Honorable Lady Daphne of Waldwick and The Honorable Sir Thomas of Harding who put the two arrows in your brother's back.  He would be alive today if it were not for their actions."

Gage would also be alive if it were not for Thorne having convinced him to interfere in matters that were too big for him as well, Anya thought bitterly.  She wondered if she would go the same way as Gage. 

If only she could get the twins to safety first.

"Good luck.  If you play your cards right, you will return here to your cottage with your precious siblings as if you had never left.  I will send someone by within the week to take you to Wildwood."  Thorne turned, and walked down the drive.  Anya stood and watched him until he was out of sight.

* * * * *

When he was gone, she collapsed down in the dirt and let her tears escape.  Sabin hopped off her shoulder and stood on the ground, watching her sympathetically with his intelligent eyes. 

Thorne had forced her hand, and she was left with only impossible choices.  She could not kill a man.  She would not become a murderer.  She just could not.

But if she did not kill him, Thorne would kill the twins.  She knew it with a deadly certainty.

The twins' lives or a stranger's.  She really had no choice.

She wiped her face, uncaring that dirt was streaked across it.

The twins were young and good, and they deserved more than life had given them.  The stranger, this Lord Wildwood, had been born into a life of privilege.  He probably did not care about the lives of the common people.  He was likely wicked and dissolute.  The world would almost certainly be better off without him.