Chapter 52 Stay On Course

• The door to her father’s study closed with the soft click. It was a comforting sound of one spy mission going well for a change. She didn't really need the company to confront Rafe, but it would make for a more fun trip. Also, she needed to invest in the gossip. Her lips still tingled with the taste of lies. Four Huntresses. Two sorceresses. A healer. That was the mission she had requested. But the truth was simpler: she wanted the truth from the wolf. Was she a walking womb to him? A vessel to bridge bloodlines and make a half-breed alliance? Did Marr want vengeance from Beatrice after all these years? Had he meant any of those sweet words? Did he risk his neck coming into her bedroom for love? Or lust? Or to use her?
• Nicholette paused in the hallway, letting the stillness sink. Her father's guests chatted lively in the other room, awaiting the negotiations to continue. She promised them more werewolf stories, but she was sure that the novelty of the Wolf Rider had already been dismayed in the fog of trade routes and tariffs. Apart from the tedious politics, the house was quiet. The agitation was all outside, where the clank of swords and shields called out to Nicholette.
• The training yard smelled of sweat and dust. The guards had just finished sparring drills, waving their swords like feather dusters at each other. Their moves were so obvious and so wide, it would give any werewolf time enough to take a short nap before moving out of the way of their steel. Nicholette thought that she should go back to their ranks and train them some more. Depending on her scouting mission, she would most likely be under Theobald. And under Theobald's orders too. Depending on Rafe's answers.