With the bat and the falcon on their way and having no notion how long it would take for aid to arrive, the search for Ursella continued out of doors. Armed with Ben’s knowledge and due to Arthur’s absence, Beatrice struck out on her own. Charlotte implored her to take one of the footmen, but the tug in her chest returned; whether or not it was quite ridiculous, she trusted it and followed her instinct to go alone.
If it was not quite, quite ridiculous to think it, she understood Arthur was on a mission only he could execute, and she must carry on at home in his absence. Compounding the potential foolishness, she muttered to him as if he walked by her side.
“You may like to know having footmen in numbers is quite handy when one’s niece goes missing. And footmen with a difference as well, though their noses will not discover many clues if Ben’s suspicions about the use of neem are true. I suppose they may look for tracks upon the ground as hunters do? It is well past midday, although I doubt a lack of sunlight would prove an obstacle.” She felt a tug on her heart. Was it affirmation? It must be this sentio Arthur spoke of, though how it could work without danger or without having been officially opened she did not know. “You had best undertaken a worthy task or I shall know the reason why.”
She shivered. “I set off with no thought of a coat for Ursella. If she decided to go for a wander under her own power, I hope she dressed herself accordingly. In any case, I have my shawl. I may at least offer it should I be the one to find her.”
After making her way through Arthur’s copse, she found herself drawn to a newly cleared path. If her memory served, it led to the circular space of no name… “Or a name not made known to me. I suspect it is significant enough to have remained unlabeled on a map and the sleuth knows it without naming it.”
The presence in her heart turned both warm and warning. “Its importance may prove to be the usurper’s undoing. Your brother has told me of your ways in this regard, and I am certain Hallbjorn will be no match for Lady Frost.” Beatrice jutted out her chin, not that Arthur could see it. “I feel I must gently remind you of my proficiency at goading decrepit versipelles. It took little effort to push Castleton to his limit. Whenever he revealed himself, his pack did so as well, seemingly against their will, increasing my knowledge and hold over them. Why they did not kill me I do not know. I imagine the punishment for killing one’s Alpha female is quite harsh. All this is to say, I am well able to provoke a Change in his Shape and therefore…”
The connection was useful insofar as the response she received from the other end was a cacophony of emotion. How helpful it would prove in the future. “I am here,” she said aloud, and her voice summoned the creature from the trees surrounding the circular grove.
A creature it was: though greater in size than Castleton’s wolf, this bear was similar to him in many ways, none of them salutary. Its skin was patchy and discolored and hung from its gaunt frame. It looked underfed and unwell. Its mouth hung open and displayed jaws underpopulated by teeth, and it was in possession of only one fang. Its eyes were mad, unfocused, filmy. Nevertheless, she did not fool herself into thinking she could defeat it physically. Words would have to do for now.
“You have forfeited any chance of victory ere you have begun,” Beatrice said. “As I understand it, the challenge must be made in human form and only then may the essential selves of the combatants engage in the battle for primacy.” She called upon every shard of ice Lady Frost possessed. “Show me the child.”
“Here I am, Aunt Beezy.” Ursella stepped around the creature into view.
“Hello, Ursella, it is wonderful to see you,” Beatrice said. “I am sorry you are without your coat. You must feel the chill.”
“It was cold in the night,” the child said, “but I am well.”
How was she to ask her niece if she was entirely unharmed? “I am glad to hear it. Your sleuth has been searching far and wide. It is my privilege to have found you.”
“They would have come straight here, if they could scent me.” Ursella glared at the creature. “He made me rub my hands and my neck and even my dress with a weed.”
“It is a plant called neem, and its primary property is the masking of scent. Well, we shall simply wait until the household has exhausted every option and arrives here. Should either of us come to harm, then this creature’s challenge is well and truly lost.”
“He is called Hallbjorn.” It swung its head around to glare and growl at the child. “I know what he has done.”
“Do you? You are clever.” How fortunate she had such practice maintaining a cool facade; Beatrice fought the urge to grab the child and run. “I am curious how you fell into his hands?”
Ursella had the grace to look chagrined. “We went up to bed, but I wanted to find a very special flower for you and Uncle Artie. He brought me here and made me sit and listen to him.” She scowled, unafraid, and rolled her eyes.
“Oh, how dreadful.” Beatrice marveled at the child’s composure and vowed to do it honor by matching it with her own. “The whole night long you were made to listen?”
“It was, and I was.” Ursella pouted. “He said the silliest things. About how we were not a proper sleuth and never will be, as my uncle has no second or third or anything. That my uncle was weak as my grandfather is weak and he would fall in a fight. I know this is not so as Uncle Artie does not wish to encourage such old-fashioned behavior as challenging. And he knows if I come to harm it will go the worse for him, and not only at my uncle’s hands but my aunt’s and my mum’s and my papa’s. He is a coward.”
The creature had snarled throughout Ursella’s speech, and Beatrice chose simply to speak louder over the din. “I have never met anyone as strong as your uncle,” she said.
“He is strong,” Ursella agreed, “but he is also stubborn.”
“I must claim that fault amongst my own.” Beatrice sighed. “I do like to think I am only stubborn when my heart is at risk.”
“That is very like Bernadette,” Ursella said. “She does take everything to heart.”
“Your papa told me about how important the heart is to your sleuth.”
“Our sleuth,” the child corrected her. “Versipelles need the sentio, no matter their clan.”
“Am I correct in thinking, therefore,” and they continued to discuss this as if chatting across a tea table despite the vocal rage of the creature, “without the sentio, there is no claim?”
“Yes, Aunt Beezy,” Ursella said. “It is well that Uncle Artie waited to open it up again until it was the proper time to do so.”
“To wait is a form of strength,” Beatrice said. “Knowing when to choose one’s time is a gift.”
“A great gift indeed,” came a voice. “One that your husband, ma’am, and your uncle, child, used to best advantage.” George, Prince Regent of England, stepped into the grove from one of the four paths leading into it. He was dressed without his typical magnificence, which was nigh on a greater shock than the fact of his presence.
Opposite him appeared Alfred, Duke of Lowell. From the third path prowled Alwyn, Duke of Llewellyn, and finally, finally, into the grove strode Arthur, Duke and Alpha of the Osborn Sleuth. For that was what he was, and that was what they were, as all in the family and in the house followed behind: Ben and Charlotte with Bernadette and Tarben, the footmaid nursemen, Mr. Conlon and Brosnyn, Morag, Mrs. Porter armed with a skillet, Glynis and Ciara and every single footman. They ringed the edge of the grove, strong in their numbers and so close to complete in their hearts.
“The Duke of Osborn is wise and good, in himself and in his sleuth.” Georgie caught Beatrice’s eye. “Do not, ma’am,” he commanded, and she ceased the descent into her distinctive obeisance.
Charlotte made to retrieve her daughter, and the creature growled, and Beatrice had had quite enough.
“Arthur,” she said, “do fetch your niece.”
“Cousin,” said His Highness. “Your wife has spoken.”
***
Sweet, holy, blessed Freya and all her Valkyries. Was Madam attempting to ignore Hallbjorn to death? For the conversation she was conducting with their niece was as leisurely as one conducted around the hearth nibbling marzipan. He picked up his pace, not caring that his regent’s directive was they should appear at the grove as one, like performers on a stage; nevertheless, Prinny had his way as he and the three dukes appeared at the heads of their respective paths simultaneously.
Madam rose from her curtailed curtsy and took in the aid he had gathered, her eyes smiling. Even as Arthur moved to fulfill his wife’s decree, Hallbjorn bunched to attack. Ursella gave the creature a wide berth and held up one little hand as she passed. “It is time for beddy-bye, bad man,” she said, and like a marionette whose strings were cut, he collapsed and commenced snoring.
“Well done, Ursella,” Arthur said. Madam lifted the child in her arms and made to pass her to Ben, who had rushed forward with Charlotte, but the child held fast.
Ursella patted her mum’s cheek and then cuddled into Madam’s shoulder as she reached out to clutch Arthur’s coat. “Oh, Uncle Artie, he was so mean, and he said he was going to make us be his sleuth, but I could see that he is very, very old and not at all well.”
“Not at all well?” He reached out and ran a hand down her plaits and then took both the cub and her aunt within his embrace.
“No.” She shook her head. “Not in his heart or his head. He thought I would be frightened, but I was not.”
“What a brave girl you are.” And the Omega to their sleuth. What a blessing.
Ursella nodded, solemn as a bishop. “I see things as they are, and so I am not afraid. And I felt you in my heart, even if the bad man thought we could not.” She moved her hand to set it on Arthur’s heart. “When this is better, we all will be.”
He leaned in and kissed his niece’s forehead. “Very soon, my fierce little cub. Freya would look upon you and shiver.”
“I do not fear the war goddess. Mani will mind me.” She yawned, and once handed over to her father, she flopped into sleep.
“Who is Mani?” Madam was never one to pass up an opportunity for enlightenment.
“Goddess of the moon and patroness of Omegas, so there’s our answer, not that there was any point in posing the question.” He exchanged a look with Ben and Charlotte and nodded.
“We shall take her in with the footmaid nursemen,” Charlotte said, “and leave you to it.” The women embraced, and Ben hugged his cub as if he could take her into his own body; they left with the rest of their brood and several attendants. A parting glare from Morag alerted Arthur to the consequences should he fail to follow through.
He would not fail.
For love was never failure, and right thinking never faltered.
“Custom decrees I can only honor my father’s memory by avenging it,” he said, addressing his prince, his peers, and his people. “Look upon this creature and ask yourself did you stand in my place, would you see such a challenge through?” The beast was in dreadful condition, and his bear was appalled to the same degree as he pitied it. Should they choose to fight, it would be over in an instant and would leave a dreadful burden on their conscience. “This is not the picture of a healthy Alpha, one to follow, one to trust in his inner circle, one to hold a sentio able to bond any, much less many.” Arthur shook his head.
“How has there been no challenge for this place from elsewhere?” Madam asked.
“The knowledge Hallbjorn did not hold it was suppressed,” Georgie said.
Madam huffed. “After all this time?”
“When I deign a thing is not to be discussed, ma’am, it is not spoken of.” Georgie’s awful stillness descended, and Freya deliver them, Madam was as unimpressed as that fortuitous evening in the Montague conservatory.
“So, therefore, if it was not known there was none to hold Arcadia, then it could not be taken,” Madam observed.
“Truly, none support these archaic ways in our modern times,” Arthur assured her.
“In law, it lay within my power to prevent the knowledge of his incapability to become common currency.” The prince’s inherent majesty drew down around him like one of his extravagant cloaks. “How I longed to resolve this issue. As I am not King, there was only so much I could do. Arrange a marriage, for example. One that would reestablish the sentio in these lands so strongly, it would inspire this rogue to show itself and thus bring about the resolution I desired. A thriving sleuth, lead by a vibrant Alpha pair, with no chance of disbanding as the cubs will soon follow.”
The creature roused. “Thus are we resolved?” Madam’s tone betrayed her desire to see this travesty concluded.
“The rules of engagement have been forsworn,” Arthur said. “Hallbjorn’s fate is neither my concern nor my responsibility.”
“As the Alpha of all Alphas present here,” Georgie intoned portentously—he did not get nearly enough opportunities to do so—“I shall shoulder this burden. I take responsibility for this blight upon our kind. While I regret he has not found salvation, he cannot be allowed even the slightest hold on Arcadia from this day forward.” His Highness gestured expansively. “Ask what you will of me, Osborn, and I shall make it so.”
“I cede this ill-begotten rogue to you,” Arthur said, “and ask that you remove him from my lands.”
“You may have apprehended the gravity with which I approached this situation.” His Highness gestured to his frame. “I appear before you, dressed drably as I am so the ensuing sacrifice will not be so great.” Hallbjorn, sensing his impending fate, began to retreat. In the blink of an eye, His Highness Changed into his bear, great in size and presence but, it was true, that bit smaller than the Alpha of the Osborn sleuth.
Regardless, he was fearsome as he rose on his back legs and roared like to rend the moon from its heavens. He landed on his fours, bunched, and leapt for Hallbjorn.
And as written by the great man himself: exeunt, pursued by a bear.