The Clockwork Wolf Read Online Free PDF Page B

rather think that would take a miracle, not your magic. Good evening, Lucien. Kittredge.”
    Once Lady Bestly had gone, Dredmore turned to me. “Why is she expecting a mob, and how am I to prevent it?”
    â€œThe editor of the Rumsen Daily intends to run a story tomorrow morning about Lord Bestly.” I looked down at the article. “You must convince him not to, at least for a week. I expect you will also have to attend to the reporter who wrote the story, and perhaps some of the police—”
    â€œBefore you arrange to have me bespell the entirecity,” Dredmore said, “why don’t you first tell me about this story?”
    â€œYou can read it for yourself.” I handed him the article. “It seems his lordship died shortly after going on a rampage so savage that they’ve renamed him ‘Lord Beastly.’ ”
    Dredmore unfolded the paper and read the headline. “This is insane.”
    â€œSo was the lady’s husband,” I said, “the night he became the Wolfman.”

C HAPTER T HREE
    Discovering his client’s once highly regarded and imminently respectable husband had died after murdering two strangers and mauling a dozen others unsettled Dredmore, but only for a few moments. Once he recovered from the shock of the unpleasant revelation he promptly tried to assume control of the case—and me, naturally.
    â€œI can see to it that the editor delays printing the story on Lord Bestly until next week.” He returned the article to me. “I will accompany you to Bestly House in the morning. You may interview the servants while I inspect the premises.”
    â€œYou certainly will not,” I snapped. “Lady Bestly confided her suspicions in me, not you. She also engaged my services, not yours. The investigation into Lord Bestly’s death is my job, and I work alone.”
    Dredmore didn’t like that. “Using my power to influence the editor already involves me. If the dark arts were used to compel Lord Bestly to this madness—”
    â€œâ€”they will have no effect on me,” I finished for him. “I am immune to all magic.”
    A strange light glittered in his eyes. “All but mine.”
    I gave him a complacent smile. “Oh, yes. Except for yours, which you promised never again to use on me.”
    â€œHow strange.” His hands encircled my wrists. “I cannot remember ever making such a promise.”
    From here I’d have to be very diplomatic. “You don’t want to have me as your mindless love slave, Lucien,” I scoffed. “I’d hang all over you, become entirely useless outside the bedchamber, and talk of nothing but my undying and eternal love for you. You’d be bored witless within a day.”
    He caught my face between his palms. “I’ve wanted you, Charmian, from the first moment I saw you. Nothing has altered that; I’ve thought of little else these five years.” His thumb brushed across my lips. “But you, you have changed. The old hostility is gone. You don’t threaten, you listen. You even discuss. You don’t look at me with hatred anymore. You see me. And now you’ve asked me to help you.”
    I could not explain the reasons for that. That while Dredmore knew nothing of me, I knew everything of him. Every dark and lonely secret, every lost wish, every hopeless longing. Of course I saw him now; the man had bared his very heart to me—and that I could never tell him, for only I had traveled back in time.
    For Dredmore, it had never happened.
    â€œI have changed, in my opinion of you,” I told the third button on his evening shirt. “It has greatly improved.”
    â€œWhy should it?”
    â€œI did kill you to free you from Zarath,” I reminded him. “I know in the past I threatened you with death a dozen times, but I never meant to do it. I didn’t know that I could end another life. And