LITMIR.BIZ

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amidst the tattered tapestries and scratched chairs. Everyone else, though, was dressed in expensive camisoles and looked as scruffy as Tien.

      «I’m Jessica,» the brunette introduced herself. Though she spoke and moved, she seemed like an inanimate porcelain doll in a silk ball gown. A diamond tiara sparkled in her black hair, arranged in an intricate braid.

      Samantha looked around. Except for Jessica, everyone present was male. They all took the time to introduce themselves by name. That’s rude! Probably should be counter impolite.

      «Are you mute?» Jessica wondered.

      «I’m Lady Samantha,» she mumbled, but didn’t give her full name. It was probably a precautionary instinct. She wondered if this was a noble robber’s estate.

      «I am glad to see you!» Jessica smiled broadly. Her pearly white teeth were very sharp. The front incisors resembled fangs. «Come in! Sit next to me! There’s no need to stand on the doorstep. It’s rude!»

      Everyone but Jessica was being rude, but Samantha remained silent. There was no dinner on the low tea table in front of Jessica. But there was a broken tea set, and some shiny objects lying in a pile. Jessica drank tea from the only cup that was intact. The tea was such a thick red color that Samantha would have refused it, but it wasn’t offered to her. There were no cakes or cookies with the tea.

      «Do you have any bread and cheese in the kitchen?» She asked, overcoming her pride. She was very hungry, and the picnic basket she had brought with her had run out of food.

      «Bread and cheese is peasant food,» said the tall, stately man standing behind Jessica’s chair.

      «Then don’t you have a more refined meal?»

      «What would you like?» Jessica made Samantha sit down beside her and began groping the girl as if she were a chicken to be plucked before cooking.

      «I’d like pâté, pancakes with rose petal jam, dumplings or stuffed cabbage. How is about cottage cheese pie?» Samantha listed all her favorite dishes, but there was nothing like that in the local kitchen. Jessica and Tien’s community didn’t eat cottage cheese, boiled eggs, vegetable salads, soups, or even desserts.

      «So what do you eat anyway?» The girl wondered.

      «Only the most dainty and exquisite dishes,» Jessica smiled enigmatically.

      Probably fish delicacies are not even worth asking about. If the fountain in the garden has dried up, then the ponds on the estate have long since dried up. There’s nowhere to fish.

      «Can’t they at least make meat dishes here?»

      «That’s interesting,» Jessica licked her lips.

      Samantha was afraid. Jessica put her arm around her shoulders. She must be the mistress of the manor, and this way she let everyone know that she had patronized her guest.

      Jessica was beautiful, but her touch made Samantha feel sick. It felt like a corpse had touched her.

      Among the pile of glittering objects on the table, an earring sparkled, suspiciously similar to the one the demon had pulled out of Evangeline’s dead ear. Samantha couldn’t remember if the dead woman had been wearing one earring or two. Maybe Evangelina’s from this estate.

      «Do you have the whole family together?» Samantha asked.

      Jessica waggled her eyebrows expressively, and the men grinned as if the guest had asked an amusing question.

      «Is a certain Lady Evangelina your neighbor by any chance?» Samantha asked another question.

      «Have you met Evangelina?» Jessica was surprised.

      «I saw her on the road…» Samantha’s tongue was slurring. How to say that she hadn’t met Evangelina, but her corpse?

      «Usually that proud girl was above meeting country girls on the road,» Jessica pouted. Her porcelain face began to look cranky. «Duchesses don’t talk to just anyone.»

      «Are you a duchess, too, since she was talking to you?» Samantha thought to herself that Jessica was no less than a marquise. What would she say? What her title is, and who the men around her are. They are all brunets with dark eyes, just like her. You can tell they all belong to the same clan.

      «I’m the local queen,» Jessica pulled Samantha’s hair like a doll.

      «Are you a bandits’ queen?» Samantha gasped as she saw knives flashing in one of the men’s hands. Or were they not knives, but claws?

      «I am the Queen of the wolves,» Jessica corrected. Samantha felt something furry pressed against her back. Was Jessica really wearing a mantle she hadn’t noticed?

      The full moon was just peeking through the cracked window. Isn’t it too late for the moon now? Samantha thought she’d been at the manor most of the night. But she guessed it’s still a long way from dawn, isn’t it?

      «The moon is our patron saint,» Jessica said in a sermonizing tone. Her companions laughed hoarsely. Their laughter turned to snarls. Samantha was wiping her eyes when she noticed the brown or gray fur growing on the skin of those gathered and their limbs turning into paws. Jessica was suddenly fluffy too, like a large wolf.

      Samantha struggled to get out of her clutches. Tickling herself was useless. Wolves in torn camisoles standing on their hind legs were no dream. In the large she-wolf that led them, Jessica could only be recognized by her dress and tiara.

      «Help me!» Samantha rushed to the door. She should have brought her carbine with her, but she’d left the weapon in the carriage. The horses wouldn’t come to rescue her, and the moon peeking through the windows favored only werewolves.

      «Get her!» Even in wolf form, Jessica spoke in a familiar contralto. «Dinner’s getting away!»

      Several wolves blocked the girl’s path. Samantha found herself at a dead end. She pressed her back against the tattered tapestry. If only there was a secret doorway in the wall now.

      One werewolf tore at Samantha’s dress with a paw. The fabric crunched, the sleeve ripped off. Samantha clutched her eyes in fear, and when she opened them a moment later, all the wolves recoiled. It appeared that the mole shining on her shoulder again had scared them away. Werewolves can’t be scared of a mole.

      «You can’t touch her!» Jessica said regretfully. – «Let’s all run into the woods! We’ll find another victim before morning!»

      The wolf pack raced toward the door, leaving new scratches on the already hopelessly ruined floor.

      Fairies’ instructions

      Samantha waited a moment. The wolves ran off. The horses they thankfully didn’t touch. An excited neighing could be heard outside. Apparently, werewolves only eat humans.

      The girl picked up the shreds left from her sleeve. Maybe as compensation for the torn dress, she could carry away the werewolf jewelry. There was jewelry and oddly shaped keys on the table. Samantha liked the gold-plated key with the heart-shaped head and slipped it into her pocket. It was not theft. It was compensation for emotional distress. She’s been scared to death in here!

      There was blood in the bottom of the cup Jessica was drinking from. She should have known it wasn’t red tea. Both green and pink tea are imported to Ivylor too rarely, and they are speculated in such a way that even aristocrats can’t always afford them. Overseas merchants are rare guests in the country. Rumor has it that some powerful spirit scares merchants away from the royal harbor, taking away their goods.

      Samantha descended the stairs, walked across the wolf-scratched floor, and stepped out into the courtyard. The neglected garden and the sculpture of the wolf goddess on the fountain began to frighten her.

      How could there be so much light in an abandoned manor at night to see everything? Samantha looked around for a lantern, but all that emerged from the thicket was an orange fairy with heat coming from it. Samantha recoiled. The

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