Chapter 32: The Lake Gate

Ewan could not come with me.

A challenged Alpha who set foot in his challenger's house before the ring forfeited the Right.

"Guest-right is mine to claim," I told him. "He offered me a room. I'm taking him up on it for one supper."

"Thea."

"Daphne's three days are up. I'm going to ask for my sister, politely, at his table."

He took a long time to nod.

Brigid drove me, because she refused to let anyone else, and she parked the truck at the end of the lake road with the engine running.

"If you're not out by dark, I'm coming in with the cat," she said.

"That's not a plan."

"It's the best I've got."

Greywater was a long timber lodge on a point of land, with a green copper roof and a dock running out into the black water.

Wolves in grey coats lined the drive and watched me walk up it.

They did not stop me. They had been told.

The door opened before I knocked.

Hamish Gault stood in it in shirtsleeves, with his hat in his hand and his face full of warm surprise.

"Miss Corvane. This is a delight. Come in, come in out of the cold."

"I'm here under guest-right," I said. "For one meal. And to see my sister."

"And you shall have both."

He took me down a hall of dark wood and a great many antlers into a long dining room.

A fire burned at one end.

Four people sat at the table.

Judith, in her grey coat, with her gloved hand in her lap.

Isla Gault, in a woollen shawl, her red hair lank, her face bloodless.

And Daphne.

Daphne looked well.

That scared me more than anything else could have.

Her cheeks were pink, her hair was brushed, and she wore a clean blue sweater I had never seen.

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