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TWISTING FATE
THE CURSE OF BEARCLAW CASTLE

EMILIA HARTLEY
A ll R ights R eserved .
This is a work of fiction. All characters, places, businesses and

incidents are from the author’s imagination, or they are used
fictitiously and are definitely fictionalized. Any trademarks or pictures
herein are not authorized by the trademark owners and do not in
any way mean the work is sponsored by or associated with the
trademark owners. Any trademarks or pictures used are specifically
in a descriptive capacity.
Copyright 2020 © Emilia Hartley

CONTENTS
Emilia’s Heartlies
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
What’s Next In The Bearclaw Series?

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1
A shadow fell over Mimi Fisher while she knelt in the garden. A
chill shot up her spine. The rumble of a growl reached her
ears. She spun just as two bears clashed behind her. The
scent of mint blossomed in the air as she fell back onto a patch of
herbs.
The bears met each other, blow for blow. Mimi recognized the
bear nearest to her. Roderick, her pack Alpha, had come to her
rescue. Then who was the darker bear? He nearly matched Roderick
in size and surpassed him in sheer ferocity.
“Shit, shit, shit,” Morgan, Roderick’s mate, muttered as she took
Mimi by the arm and dragged her back toward the castle’s front
door.
Despite Morgan’s interference, Mimi couldn’t take her eyes off
the mystery bear. She hadn’t heard him sneaking up on her. Her
breath trembled. Had Roderick been too slow, the nameless bear
could have killed her.
“He’s finally here,” Morgan breathed while holding Mimi in her
arms.
Though they clung to each other while watching the fight, Mimi
couldn’t help but lean back and serve Morgan with a questioning
look. Morgan had the grace to offer a queasy apologetic smile.
“I should have warned everyone.”
The future came to Morgan in flashes and glimpses. She knew a
lot of things before they happened. Mimi knew that if Morgan had a
vision and didn’t mention it, she’d kept it a secret for a reason
because Morgan loved sharing her visions with everyone. She did it
every day as the local fortune teller.
So, why had Morgan kept this arrival a secret?
Another chill slipped through Mimi. The cold ice sensation
prickled her conscience. She froze in Morgan’s embrace as she
realized who the new bear must be.
Roderick’s brother had arrived.
Mimi watched Roderick and his younger brother, Vaughn, duke it
out on the front lawn. Vaughn was relentless. He swung his massive
paws and clocked Roderick upside the head. While Roderick
staggered, Vaughn closed in on him.
To her own surprise, Mimi lurched out of Morgan’s grasp. “Stop!”
she shouted.
Her heart thundered, but both bears paused. Vaughn fixed his
burning glare upon her. She thought fear would send her running
back inside. If any of the other bears even glanced at her, she shut
down. Though her jaw still shook, she clenched it tight and stood
her ground.
Roderick took advantage of the distraction and slapped Vaughn
to the ground. She expected the earth to quake upon impact. If it
did, she barely felt it before Roderick pounced on his brother. They
shifted back to their human forms only after they’d seemingly
exhausted themselves.
Roderick pulled his fist back and punched his brother in the jaw.
Mimi wasn’t sure if that was a greeting or a warning. She didn’t
understand dominant shifters. The violence wore her out. She could
only handle so much fear day in and day out before her soul shrank
away from the world.
“It’s good to have you back,” Roderick said happily.
He stood and offered Vaughn a hand, but Vaughn’s gaze
remained on a point past Roderick. At first, Mimi thought he was
glaring at the castle. He had every right to hate the building, as she
knew what had happened to the brothers in their teen years. But,
no. Vaughn’s gaze pinned her to the spot.
Her cheeks flushed with heat. She had to run. Frantically, she
looked around for something to do, somewhere to go. Staying here
would only cause trouble.
Should she go back to pulling weeds? No, she would be too
exposed. That’s how this started in the first place.
Were there dishes to do? Could she hide in the kitchen until
Vaughn left?
Perhaps there was laundry to be done. Morgan and Roderick had
recently installed new appliances in the basement where it was cool,
and she could lock the door, so no one could sneak up on her for the
rest of the day.
Yeah, that was a good idea.
Mimi spared one last glance back before rushing inside. Vaughn
still stared. The intensity of his gaze never wavered. She expected
fear to overtake her again, but instead her heart thumped excitedly.
She shook herself and dove inside. Her sandals made her slip on
the glossy hardwood floor. She had to grasp for the doorframe to
keep from sliding past the stairs to the refinished basement.
Finally, out of sight, Mimi could ease her shoulders away from her
ears. She let out a sigh, but it did nothing to quell the butterflies still
flitting about her stomach. There had not been excitement like that
at Bearclaw castle for quite some time. Not since Brandon and Ana
had gotten engaged again.
Mimi had hated Brandon’s fits, but in a place like this, she could
never blame him for them. She knew that the curse still lingering in
the castle’s bones could very well be responsible for Brandon’s lack
of control. Ana’s presence helped keep the curse from wreaking
havoc on him. Mimi didn’t have anyone to protect her from it.
She shoved a load of laundry into the washer and set it to start.
While the sound of water filled the small space, Mimi turned and
leaned against the machine. She scanned the dim room from top to
bottom, hoping to find one of the cursed stones her ancestor had
left behind.
The others were going to hate her when they found out. Mimi
hadn’t known exactly what she wanted when she came to this
Vermont town. Then, she’d happened upon the castle built for her
ancestor, the very same one that had been taken away from that
ancestor. Their family told tales about how her great-great-
grandmother had been spurned.
The stories always made it sound like her great-great-
grandmother had been betrayed, that her mate had chosen a human
woman over her and destroyed her life and doomed the lives of her
children and their children. They spoke of the curse like it’d been
deserved. Mimi had never quite bought into the tale. Since coming
here, Mimi had learned a thing or two.
For one, Mimi had realized that her great-great-grandmother had
been a self-centered bitch. Oh, Mimi hated using profanity, but she
thought her ancestor had earned the title. The witch’s curse had
stretched further than the Carsons. It had bled into her own
bloodline and fed off their misery.
Mimi wasn’t sure who brought her here, but she knew why. She’d
been led here to end the curse. If she could help Morgan break the
last two stones, then maybe she could save her brother.
“I can’t believe you would live here,” someone hissed.
Startled, Mimi glanced around. She realized a narrow window had
been cranked open. Knowing that she shouldn’t eavesdrop on
private conversations, Mimi still sidled up to the wall beneath the
window.
“This is our ancestral home,” Roderick said, the patience in his
voice wearing thin.
She knew because she’d heard him talk to Brandon in the same
tone more than a few times. Perhaps this was a tired argument
between the two.
“No, it’s our ancestral grave,” Vaughn fired back.
Mimi could recognize his voice only by process of elimination.
The voice she heard was not Roderick’s, Wade’s, or Brandon’s.
Therefore, it had to be Vaughn’s.
“We’re working on that,” Roderick said. “Morgan and I…”
Vaughn cut him off before he could say more. “What the hell
does that mean? You’re working on it? If you stay here, you and
your mate are going to end up dead.”
Roderick snarled. Mimi tensed, waiting for the fight to resume.
Instead, Vaughn huffed. She listened to him pace. Start. Stop. Huff.
Start. Stop. Huff.
When Vaughn finally stopped, he said, “I want you out.”
Roderick laughed. “It doesn’t have to be like this. We can make a
home here.”
“That pile of rocks eats people. It takes happy families, chews
them up, and spits out orphans. I’ve done my homework. I know we
aren’t the only generation of Carsons to suffer at the hands of this
place.” Vaughn stifled a growl. “Come with me. Leave this place
behind.”
Mimi grabbed the nearest bucket, turned it over, and climbed on
top so she could peer out the crack in the window. Roderick stood in
front of his brother. Tension had drawn him tight. Morgan stood not
far behind him with one hand outstretched like she wanted to touch
her mate.
Vaughn’s gaze dropped and connected with Mimi’s. The bucket
slid out from beneath her and sent her crashing to the floor. She
yelped and grasped for the wall, but there was nothing to hold onto.
Her butt hit the floor and sent a vibration up her spine that made
her cringe.
“I can’t believe you brought a pack here,” Vaughn said
accusingly. “Your idiocy is going to get them killed, and I’m not sure
you even care. Are you really so stupid that you’re willing to sacrifice
your family?”
Roderick didn’t hold back his growl. It ripped out of him, the
sound more bear than man at this point. “Don’t you dare threaten
them!”
Vaughn’s voice remained even, though she heard the dark note
in it. “I didn’t. You are, by bringing them here.”
Mimi could almost feel the tension in the air even while she sat
on the basement floor. Had she been outside with them, she would
have been in tears already. Sometimes, being a submissive shifter
was embarrassing.
Okay, it was embarrassing most of the time.
“That’s enough,” Morgan snapped.
A moment of silence slipped past. Mimi strained to hear anything
that might have been whispered, but she caught nothing. No one
said a thing. She couldn’t believe a human had stopped the brothers
in their tracks.
Although, Mimi had done the same earlier. Interfering in
dominant fights was not something Mimi did on the regular. She kept
her head down. Not once in her life had she ever stepped toward an
ongoing fight until now.
She didn’t know what had possessed her to do something so
reckless.
T hough V aughn had come to chew his brother out, he couldn’t help
but steal glances at the woman with the dark pixie-cut. Her wide
eyes had entranced him from the moment he’d noticed her.
Too bad they were wide with fear because Vaughn had
frightened her when he’d arrived. Vaughn had aimed for his brother,
but the woman had been nearby. He could see how she might have
thought he’d meant to attack her.
Vaughn looked the castle up and down. He sneered at the goblin-
faced knocker on the front door. The shadows just past the windows
danced and laughed at him like demons. He refused to step foot
inside that nightmare palace ever again. Not even to apologize to
the pretty woman currently hiding in the basement.
She smelled like bear, but she didn’t act like any bear shifter he’d
ever met. The woman had a lithe frame, almost athletic in shape.
Her tiny, plump lips seemed to display constant surprise instead of
the brute determination he saw on most bears. Perhaps that’s
because he’d startled her, and she’d promptly run away.
Which, again, was unlike any bear he’d ever known. This woman
did not have a dominant bone in her body. He wanted to whisk her
away from this bloody castle and wrap his body around her to
protect her from the dangers all around.
Vaughn cursed under his breath.
“If you have nowhere to go…” Roderick started.
“Hell, no,” Vaughn spat.
Roderick’s mate rolled her eyes. She had gall for a human. The
curse might not kill her tonight, but she was still human,
nonetheless. It would kill her eventually. No amount of sass would
save her.
“I was going to suggest you stay in the boathouse,” Roderick
finished before his lips flattened into an annoyed grimace. “Like I
want your ass under my roof anyway.”
Vaughn glanced past his brother, toward the boathouse sitting on
the lake’s edge. Vaughn didn’t quite trust the boathouse, but it
wasn’t the castle, and that had to count for something. It wasn’t like
Vaughn had brought a mate along. Whatever demon lurked inside
the castle wouldn’t bother him until he fell in love.
Vaughn wasn’t sure he had it in him to love. He hadn’t looked
back once after taking off. Though he knew he’d left behind his
grieving brother, Vaughn had barely thought about Roderick since.
Until he’d gotten an email stating that Bearclaw was now inhabited.
So, paying someone to keep an eye on the castle hadn’t exactly
been his proudest moment, but he reconciled his paranoia with the
fact that he was singlehandedly funding a small business. The
private detective hadn’t batted an eye at the idea.
“Fine.” Vaughn turned and stomped back to his Jeep, which he’d
parked half a mile up the road so he could sneak up on Roderick.
That had been a petty move, but Roderick deserved it. Screwing
around with the castle was going to get them killed.
Vaughn wouldn’t let that happen on his watch. He would get
Roderick and his pack out of here one way or another. And then…
once everyone was away from this place, maybe then Vaughn could
introduce himself to the woman with the wide eyes.
2
M imi waited until Vaughn was gone. She dragged the basket
of laundry outside. Wade had strung a line between two
trees for her, allowing her to hang some of the larger
items, like bedding, out to dry.
She paused and circled back to inspect the bed of mint that she’d
fallen on earlier. Though the plant was crushed, Mimi paid it little
attention. Mint sprang back easily. If anything, she’d often had to
cull the herb to keep it from taking over. Instead, her attention
turned toward the lawn.
When Vaughn appeared, Roderick had been standing off to the
side. Mimi traced the path Vaughn had cut from the nearby woods
and realized he hadn’t been charging toward her after all. Vaughn’s
only target had been Roderick. She’d simply been in the way of his
shadow.
Her fear response had done the rest, convincing her of
something that had not been true.
She bent, picked up the laundry basket, and continued on her
way toward the clothesline. When she bent to pull out the first
sheet, a figure stepped out of the shade. Mimi yelped and clutched
the wet sheet close to her chest.
Vaughn put up his hands, palms out. He even took a wary step
back.
Mimi cursed her reaction and gave him a small wave.
“Who hurt you?” Vaughn asked.
Mimi raised a brow. “Huh?”
Vaughn looked her up and down. His eyes bled gold for a
moment, and he muttered something under his breath that she
assumed was in response to his beast.
“It’s just that you’re so jumpy. Someone had to have taught you
to react like that.” A muscle in Vaughn’s jaw twitched like he wanted
to attack her imaginary abuser.
She shrugged. “This is just how I was born. Don’t worry, my
family didn’t like the idea that I was born a submissive, either.”
“I never meant to insinuate that being submissive is bad!” He
rocked on his heels, brow scrunched as he stared at the ground.
She wondered if he was trying to reword his question. If so, then
she appreciated the effort.
“I’m not offended,” she offered.
He glanced up. The expression on his face took her aback. She
never expected him to show such softness. After living with Roderick
for a few months, she’d become accustomed to his stony
countenance. It made sense that Vaughn would display the same
outward look.
“Are you sure?” He scratched the back of his head. “I’m really out
of my element here.”
She shook out a fitted sheet and pinned it to the line. “That’s
alright. I think we all were when we first came to Bearclaw. It’s been
a kind of refuge for some of us.”
Vaughn’s growl unfurled between them. Why it didn’t send her
running back toward the castle, she did not know. Normally, any
shifter’s open aggression made her want to shrink away from them.
Not Vaughn. Though he seemed to be very good at startling her,
he wasn’t great at actually scaring her. She liked that about him.
There was a kind of comfort in being around him that she could find
only with human women. Even Carolina still frightened Mimi from
time to time.
She lifted another sheet from the basket. This time, Vaughn
stepped forward to help her sling it over the line. When their fingers
brushed, electric sparks jumped between their skin. Mimi let out a
nervous giggle.
Vaughn, however, froze into place. His breath quickened as he
stared at her.
“W-what is it?” Mimi’s heart flipped in her chest.
Vaughn suddenly backpedaled away from her. He shook his head
and muttered under his breath. When he looked up and his eyes
fixed on the boathouse behind her, he swore. Mimi watched him
carve a wide path around her to get to the boathouse on the
western side of the property.
She scowled and sniffed her armpits to make sure a wayward
breeze hadn’t carried a sour scent his way. If anything, she still
smelled of mint. There was nothing offensive about her scent.
Confused and a little offended, Mimi finished her chores. Roderick
paid her well to make sure that the castle and boathouse were
clean. While it’d been a task when she’d first arrived, she mostly
worked on maintenance now. Where he got the money to pay his
packmates, she didn’t know. She wasn’t about to ask, either. That
was not her place.
She knew that Morgan and Stormi made their income through
their fortune telling business in town. Carolina had hired Ana on
while Ana refurbished her new barbeque shack. Surrounded by all
these girl-bosses, Mimi couldn’t help but wonder how she fit in.
Things made more sense when Morgan pulled Mimi aside and
asked her to help with another round of searches. While Ana lit the
grill, Morgan and Mimi tore apart the den to inspect every stone.
They were starting to suspect that the cursed sigils were not all
face-out. They were in for trouble if some had been hidden during
the erection of the walls.
Morgan knew…everything.
She had the feeling that Morgan came to her because she
already knew about Mimi’s connection to the castle. Mimi hadn’t told
anyone else. She couldn’t help but worry that Roderick would kick
her out if he found out. He and Morgan had nearly succumbed to
the curse. She would understand if he had some animosity toward
her.
For whatever reason, if Morgan knew, she kept it to herself. Mimi
would remain grateful to her forever.
Alone, inside, Mimi could speak freely. Especially since it seemed
Vaughn would not step past the castle’s threshold.
“Roderick’s brother is…” Mimi trailed off, not sure if she should
say strange or intimidating or overwhelming.
Morgan grunted. “He’s something alright. Who ambushes their
brother like that? I’m going to put itching powder in his bed tonight.”
“You’re not Carolina. You have much more self-restraint.” Mimi
ran her fingertips along a series of stones.
Morgan stepped onto an end table to get a better look at a
stone. “I’m surprised you’re not mad at him. I would be if I were in
your shoes.”
Mimi shook her head. No one here really understood what it
meant to be a submissive shifter. Mimi didn’t have a whole lot of say
in how she felt. The moods of others dictated her every move. The
only thing she had any power over was her ability to forgive those
around her. She knew her pack did their best to accommodate her.
And it wasn’t like Vaughn knew he was sneaking up on a
submissive shifter. She’d simply been in the wrong place at the
wrong time.
See how easy that is? She asked the ghost of her ancestor, not
that she really thought there was a ghost in these halls. Mimi spoke
to her past more than anything.
“Do you think he’s going to stick around?” Mimi asked while
standing behind Morgan so she could catch her if the human woman
fell.
“Oh, I know he will.” Morgan accepted Mimi’s hand as she
stepped down off the table, her search proving fruitless. “It’s just
going to take a lot of work on our part to make it happen.”
Mimi was no stranger to work. She liked to keep her hands busy.
More often than not, her efforts softened the mood of the pack and
kept her blood pressure down. If she made their lives easier, then
her own life became easier.
Now, the question was whether she wanted Vaughn to stay or
not. While his intensity frightened her, she wanted to get to know
him better. That couldn’t happen if he up and left out of the blue.
“What do we need to do?” Mimi asked.
Morgan put her hands on her hips and glared at the walls around
her. “We need to break another stone.”
“Oh, that’ll be easy,” Mimi said with optimistic sarcasm.
V aughn sat on the sidelines . He wasn’t a part of this pack. Just the
thought of family gave him hives. He would do whatever he could to
get them out of here, then he would go his own way. This pack
didn’t need him once they were out of harm’s way.
But the moment the wide-eyed woman stepped out of the castle,
his thoughts changed. She paused and took in the scene around her.
When her eyes found him, his beast purred happily. The damned
creature hadn’t shown a lick of happiness in years.
It all served as a warning, though. Vaughn could not pursue her.
Not so long as they were in the vicinity of the castle. That would be
like signing their death warrant. The castle would ruin them the
moment Vaughn felt anything like love.
Not that he loved this woman. He didn’t even know her name
yet.
“Her name is Mimi,” Roderick whispered in his ear.
Vaughn nearly fell off his seat trying to get away from his
brother. He glared at the taller man and flipped him the bird as he
righted himself.
Roderick just laughed. The sound turned Vaughn’s chest into a
tight knot, for that was not the sound of the brother he’d left behind.
Roderick had grown into a bear as big as their father had been.
His brother’s expression sobered. “She’s a good woman, but she
requires a gentle hand. Don’t try to seduce her like you did with all
the girls in town.”
Vaughn sneered. “I’m not going to seduce anyone. I came to
burn the castle to the ground. I’m just waiting for everyone to
leave.”
Roderick took a seat beside him. “You’d be ruining all the hard
work my pack put into this place. Are you sure you want to betray
them like that? I think my mate would have a harsh word or two for
you if you attempted such a thing.”
“I’m not going to attempt anything. I’m going to do it.”
Okay, so Vaughn didn’t have any actual plans to burn the castle
down. He knew that the stone structure would remain untouched by
the flames. If he really wanted to get rid of the castle, he would
have to take a bulldozer to it. Or a wrecking ball.
From the way Roderick’s blonde mate glared at Vaughn from
across the lawn, he had a feeling that she could see right through
him. Something about her made him uncomfortable. He didn’t think
he was hiding anything, but she left him exposed somehow. It left
him with the urge to cover up even though he was fully clothed.
“Does your pack party like this every night?” Vaughn asked,
trying to ignore the blonde human.
Instead, his gaze fell on Mimi again. The adorable name suited
her. Mimi.
Oh, no. He couldn’t fall for her. He refused to develop feelings for
anyone while standing anywhere near the castle.
“I wouldn’t call it a party, but yes. We get together whenever we
can. Our bonds grow stronger for it.” Roderick’s gaze slid in Vaughn’s
direction.
Vaughn wouldn’t buy it, though. He didn’t know why his brother
had bought into it, either. They knew what it would feel like when
this all came crashing down. While they hadn’t been a part of a
pack, they’d been a part of a family that had turned on each other.
Nothing Vaughn did would ever erase that night from his mind.
He could remember it all too clearly. If he kept moving, if he kept
himself away from everyone, then he would never have to put
anyone at risk ever again.
“Take the stick out of your ass,” Roderick advised with a hint of
laughter in his voice. “Go swing on the rope over the lake or climb to
the top of the castle and look out over the lake. Do something that
makes you feel alive again, because looking at you makes me feel
dead inside.”
Vaughn flipped his brother the bird again.
Ahead of him, movement caught his eye. He looked over just in
time to watch Mimi pull her shirt over her head. Beneath, she wore a
yellow string bikini. Vaughn’s mouth went dry. He tried to swallow
but ended up choking. Roderick clapped him on the back and
laughed.
“How about that rope swing now?” Roderick asked.
Nope. Vaughn would not go near her. He couldn’t allow himself to
get to know her. No matter how alluring her presence was. No
matter how she sucked him in like a gravitational force.
By the time he finished that thought, he found himself halfway
across the lawn. He cursed himself under his breath. Pausing, he
tried to dig in his heels. Was he really so impulsive that he would
stalk the submissive shifter all the way to the lake’s edge?
Mimi waited for him. She stood, half-turned toward him. She
wore a gentle smile that seemed to be just for him. The sight of it
made his heart stutter. Vaughn couldn’t believe himself. He was
acting like a young cub. What was his problem?
The submissive shifter brought out his protective nature. That
had to be it. He could think of no other reason that could explain the
effect she had on him. So long as he could pin it on her, then he
didn’t feel so bad approaching her. Maybe he wouldn’t be a danger
to her, after all.
She held out a hand. Slightly confused, he stared at it.
When she laughed, his attention snapped back up to her lips,
which only made her laugh harder.
“You’re clean shaven, but act like you’ve never interacted with
others.” She tilted her head. “Your brother looks like a lumberjack
from the darkest part of the forest, but he can socialize better than
you can.”
Vaughn narrowed his gaze at her. “Was that an insult?”
She shrugged. “It was more of an…observation.”
He swallowed back the urge to ask her if she liked the clean-
shaven look or if she was partial to men with beards. He didn’t need
to know because they would never go past this awkward
acquaintances stage.
“Jump with me?”
Vaughn shook his head, not sure he’d heard her correctly.
“Jump? Jump where?”
“Into the lake. I thought it would be obvious since I’m wearing
my bathing suit.”
It was less of a suit and more like three triangles of fabric hiding
the best places he’d ever seen on this earth.
Vaughn shook himself. He wasn’t used to a woman having this
kind of sway over him. Submissives were rare among shifters, even
rarer among bears since most of them turned out to be stubborn
asses. Like him and Roderick.
He looked her up and down, but even with so much skin
showing, Vaughn could not find a scar on her. That meant she’d
been born a shifter, unlike the others in Roderick’s pack. Even the
feisty redhead had a scar on her shoulder.
“Is your family as obstinate as mine?” Vaughn asked under his
breath.
“Oh, definitely. There’s a reason I’m here and not with them.”
She laughed, but he could hear the sorrow hiding behind her forced
humor.
Vaughn fought back the urge to fold her into his arms and softly
apologize. This wasn’t like him. He never went anywhere near
anyone until today. The most interaction he’d had in the past few
years had been at various check-out counters while shopping, and
that had been only when absolutely necessary.
The others laughed and joked with one another. Some had
crowded around the grill while others had gravitated toward the
lake, leaving Vaughn and Mimi in a world of their own. He nervously
shifted his weight from one foot to the other. The beast inside him
seemed all too content to bask in Mimi’s company.
“Well,” she said.
The way she gently stretched the word told him all he needed to
know. He knew she wanted to get away from him when she looked
over her shoulder, toward the lake. His stomach sank, an unexpected
disappointment taking over.
“I was planning on going for a swim. I’m, ah, a little dusty from
cleaning.” She laughed and wiped imaginary dirt from her shoulder.
There was nothing on her shoulder or any other part of her. He
knew because he’d studied her from head to toe already. He’d
memorized the curl of her black hair around her ear, the way it
swirled in waves while clinging tightly to her head. Her lashes grazed
her cheeks when she blinked. Her throat bobbed the longer this
conversation went on.
Vaughn shook himself.
I must be lonely, he thought to himself. Why else would he be so
entranced by someone he knew nothing about?
Then she took his hand in hers and gave it a gentle tug. “Would
you like to come swimming with me?”
His heart stopped. With no control over his body, he stumbled
along after her. Perhaps it was her wide smile that disarmed him. It
could have been the bubbling laughter drifting from her lips. Either
way, she led him toward the dock, released his hand, and ran for the
water. He watched her leap from the dock, her hands in the air as
she shrieked with excitement.
Now, Vaughn was a little ashamed to admit that he never
expected such a display from the submissive shifter. For a brief
moment, while she hung in the air, she shined bright with
confidence. He didn’t know what he’d expected from her, but it
wasn’t that.
Seeing Mimi’s running jump made Vaughn turn his attention back
to his brother. Though Vaughn had shamed Roderick for allowing his
pack to live close to the wretched castle, Vaughn could not deny that
Roderick led a happy pack. If the most submissive among them
could throw her hands to the sky and howl with laughter, then
Roderick had to be doing something right.
Vaughn nodded to his brother, as if that simple gesture would
convey the depths of gratitude welling inside him. Vaughn wasn’t
even sure why he felt the way he did. He’d only just met Mimi but
knowing that Roderick had taken care of her warmed him rather
unexpectedly.
She broke the water and tossed her head. Rainbow droplets
arched through the air.
“Well? Are you coming in?”
Without her touch reeling him in, Vaughn stepped back. He
shook his head as hesitation took over. He couldn’t afford to let
himself get close to this pack. His path would never intertwine with
theirs. The fact that he’d come back here was no indication that he
planned on staying.
They needed to know that.
3
M imi watched Vaughn walk away. He shoved his hands into

his pockets and lowered his gaze. A cloud of misery
surrounded him, but no matter how badly she wanted to
try, she didn’t know how to banish it.
She stopped treading water and let the waves wash over her face
as she sank. Beneath the lake’s surface, the world quieted. She
couldn’t hear anyone. She could not feel the waves of tension that
radiated off everyone. Mimi could be alone with herself.
Like an excited puppy, her bear fed her images of it paddling
beneath the water. The beast wanted to play and have fun. She had
to gently remind it that this would not last. She would have to come
up for air eventually. On the surface, the sounds and smells would
reach her again and send her beast into panic mode.
That had stopped while she and Vaughn stood together on the
lawn. His presence had been a kind of protective bubble. She’d
focused on him and nothing else, which had kept everyone else’s
energy away from her for a little while.
She would be a liar if she said she wasn’t a little disappointed
that he’d left. On Ana’s first day in town, they’d thrown a cookout
very similar to this one. They’d dressed her in this same bikini, and
everyone had noticed the way Brandon had looked at her. He’d
jumped into the lake after her, chased her, and teased her.
Mimi had kind of been hoping that Vaughn might be inspired to
do the same. It seemed that Mimi just didn’t have what the other
women had. She didn’t have round breasts or curves. She was as
flat and plain as a loaf of white bread.
When her lungs burned, and her bear whimpered, Mimi kicked
toward the surface.
Her great-great-grandmother’s curse had kicked back at her own
family. Call it karma, call it kick-back, call it whatever, Mimi knew that
she would pay the price for magic cast decades ago. It had left
every bear in her family loveless and filled with hate. Somehow, the
hate had missed her.
Or, perhaps, the hate would come later after years of feeling
unloved and alone. She didn’t like to think that it was only a matter
of time until she ran out of forgiveness and patience. She didn’t
want to be like her father or her brother. Both were cruel bastards.
Her father, most of all.
Mimi hoped that when she finally broke the curse over Bearclaw
Castle, she would be granted a mate. She held tight to the thought
like it was a possibility and not a fairytale. Born while the curse was
still in effect, Mimi likely didn’t have a fated mate. She would be
alone for the rest of her life.
Her children, though, would have mates. They would be loved
and cared for by fate, unlike her and her brother.
Mimi swam to the lake shore and stepped out. With no direction,
she didn’t know what to do next. She’d really been hoping that
Vaughn would jump in with her. No one noticed when she walked
away from the lakeshore and went inside to change. She drifted,
nearly invisible among her own friends.
She told herself that was okay, that she didn’t need their
attention, for it would only stress her out, but she had to
acknowledge that it hurt a little when no one asked where she was
going. Only when she felt the prickle of an inquisitive gaze on the
back of her neck did she pause and glance back. As she suspected,
Vaughn watched from where he leaned against a tree on the edge of
the lawn.
They stood on either side of the party, both trapped on the
periphery where no one ever bothered to look. Since he didn’t want
to spend time with her, she tore her gaze away from him and went
inside, so she could change. Though Vaughn intrigued her, she
would not force a friendship he didn’t want.
Mimi didn’t bother with a bra when she got changed. She towel-
dried her body and hair before pulling on a simple tank-top and a
new pair of denim shorts. When that was not enough to calm the
small storm inside her chest, she gathered her cleaning supplies and
brought them over to the boathouse.
While the boat launch itself remained a workshop for Wade, the
guesthouse attached to it had been restored and cleaned up. Mimi
only had to dust and polish some surfaces to get it ready for
Vaughn. She threw open the windows to let in the lake breeze and
made a list of food she would bring over from the castle.
Though no one was around to trigger her panic response, Mimi
couldn’t stop her heart from racing. She scowled at herself and her
jumpy bear. Sucking in a deep breath, she went upstairs to see if
there was anything she could do. Perhaps she only needed to
expend a little more energy, and then the anxiety would bleed away.
She pulled out fresh sheets and blankets to dress the bed. After
tucking in all the corners, she paused and sat on the end of the
mattress. A bay window looked out over the lake. From here, the
sun turned the waves into a sea of glitter. She sank into her plush
seat and let out a sigh. The crackling energy in her ribcage finally
dissipated.
A floorboard creaked. Mimi jumped to her feet and spun. Vaughn
stood in the bedroom doorway, seemingly confused. His lips parted
and his brows crashed together. He pointed to her but said nothing.
Her cheeks heated. She quickly smoothed out the spot on the
bed where she’d been sitting. “I’m so sorry. I swear I wasn’t trying
to intrude.”
Vaughn grunted, sounding too much like his older brother for a
moment. “Honestly, I had convinced myself that Roderick had set
me up I wouldn’t put it past him to lock me in here with someone.”
Mimi tilted her head. “No one is locked anywhere. Your brother
wouldn’t do that.”
He seemed at a loss for words. A pink hue even crept onto his
face. “I, ah, didn’t mean it that way. It just seemed possible that
Roderick would…try to, ah, play matchmaker. He’s a nosy busybody
like that sometimes.”
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that,” Mimi said before she
could stop herself. “It’s not like I can have a mate or anything.”
She froze, realizing exactly what had just come out of her mouth.
After that, she couldn’t look Vaughn in the eye. She hurriedly
gathered the dusty sheets that had previously been on the bed and
rushed to get past him.
Vaughn stepped in her way, a question clearly posed on his lips.
She tried to give him a tight smile and duck under his arm, but he
held his ground.
“What is that supposed to mean? Every shifter has a fated mate.”
His expression fell as an understanding dawned on him. “Unless you
already lost yours.”
She could have corrected him, but she didn’t have it in her to
explain that he’d lost his parents because of her great-great-
grandmother. He would likely fling her out the window the moment
he learned the truth.
Well, she knew that was an exaggeration, but she didn’t want to
watch him process that kind of information or see how it might taint
their friendship. She wanted to be able to speak to Vaughn, and
telling the truth would ruin everything.
She hated carrying this around inside her. It hollowed her out
and left her empty at the end of every day. She thought that
everything that went wrong was somehow her fault. Floor collapsed
in the attic? Her fault. Nest of wasps in the boat launch? Her fault.
Brandon lost control? Her fault.
Not that Brandon had lost control of his beast once since Ana had
joined them. Everything else weighed heavily on Mimi, though. The
curse had infiltrated her every thought these days. She no longer
had the energy to help anyone like she had with Carolina.
Now, Mimi just wanted to be helped. She wanted someone to
ride into her life and lift her out of this mess.
Vaughn stepped aside. Something like regret twisted his lips. He
didn’t lift his gaze as she stepped past him. She thought he would
let her go, but at the last moment, he touched her wrist.
An electric shock raced across her skin and made her breath
shudder between her lips.
Vaughn looked up, and, the instant their eyes locked, her chest
tightened. The tension crackling in the air was unlike anything she’d
ever experienced before. She wanted to drink it down, not run away.
Excitement slid down to her core and created heat where she’d
never felt it before.
“If you aren’t having any fun outside, you’re welcome to stick
around.”
Mimi hesitated. She didn’t want to make him think that she didn’t
love her pack. She did. It was his presence that threw her off. She
wanted to be closer to him, but she could also sense the walls that
he kept erected around himself. She could never get past them. She
didn’t have the determination. The moment he pushed back, she
would give up.
She pulled away from his touch. “Thanks for the invitation, but
Ana’s food is to die for. If I don’t get down there and grab some for
myself, the others will devour it all before I get the chance.”
“Huh, is that so?” He glanced back, as if he could see the pack
gathering around the grill when there were only walls behind them.
“You should get some food while you can, too.” Mimi backed
away, not out of fear but because she couldn’t bear to turn away
from him.
Vaughn lifted the corners of his lips in a sly smile and nodded.
Her heart skipped a beat.
“I’ll do that. I just need a moment alone.”
Mimi squeaked a quiet okay before turning and sprinting toward
the door. Her body had caught fire while in Vaughn’s vicinity. Places
deep inside her throbbed, practically begging for a glimpse of that
smile again. She wasn’t used to such sensations. Mimi had never
been with a man before. The thought frightened her.
Every other man had intimidated her too much. Even human men
made her worry. What if she couldn’t get out from under them?
What if they refused to listen? The moment a lover displayed any
kind of aggression, she would shut down. She just knew it. Not that
Mimi ever had a bad experience, but the thought of finding herself in
one scared her so much that she refused to even try.
So, Mimi had lived her life without ever knowing the loving touch
of a man. Before now, she’d never really wondered what she could
have been missing out on. Her skin crackled with electricity while her
core still smoldered with trapped heat. She pressed her palm to her
sternum and sucked in a breath, hoping that might dispel this
restlessness that nearly dragged her back inside.
She chalked up her reaction to Vaughn as the very late arrival of
her elusive sex drive. Her body did not behave this way because fate
had tied them together. Her packmates’ romances had left her a
lonely woman. She only wanted him like this because he was a
handsome and available man.
Perhaps a plate of food would quell the need tormenting her.
V aughn hunched and gripped the windowsill. His shoulders pulled

together, tighter and tighter. A quiet murmur filled the background
with static. He cringed and shook his head, as if that might dispel
the sound.
As he thought, it did nothing. The sound continued to creep up
on him. Jaw tight, he did his best to ignore it as he watched the
pack on the grounds below. He couldn’t see the grill or the patio
outside the kitchen. He could, however, watch as those in the lake
went to shore and clambered to get to the patio out of sight.
Mimi had promised that the food would be good, and the smell
lingering in the air backed up her word. Vaughn couldn’t bring
himself to leave the boathouse, though. He grumbled, jammed a
finger in his ear to silence the murmur, and flung himself onto the
bed.
The aroma of clean laundry blossomed on the air around him,
but beneath it was a scent that made him groan with delight. The
sound in the background faded. Mimi’s scent, faint but unmistakable,
surrounded him. His beast growled hungrily.
He chided himself for even considering breaking his oath he’d
made upon arrival. He hadn’t come here to find a mate. His life was
not conducive to lovers or wives, and he had no plans to change.
Besides, a man like him would not be good for Mimi.
He did not want to reach for her and watch her flinch away from
him out of fear. His heart would break. His beast would lash out at
him. There was no way he could love her the way she deserved if
she was not his fated mate. She would always harbor some
uncertainty when with him. Her gentle nature left her vulnerable,
and though he would not take advantage of that, she would never
have any way of knowing for sure.
The only man she could trust without a doubt would have been
her fated mate, but she’d already lost him. Vaughn pitied her. She
couldn’t have been older than twenty-five. To have found and lost
love before she’d even reached her thirties meant that she had
decades of loneliness ahead of her.
The thought only steeled Vaughn’s resolve even more. He would
save his brother and the pack from this accursed castle if only so
that Mimi could have a chance at happiness with them. He didn’t
want her to watch the castle ruin her Alpha. Once the castle killed
Roderick, would it be satisfied with the Carson blood or would it turn
to the pack and start hurting them?
Vaughn sat up. The murmur returned, but he brushed it off and
went to find his brother. So long as the bastard wasn’t holed up in
the castle, Vaughn wanted to have a word with him.
Looking up and down the lawn, from the patio to the lake to the
driveway, Vaughn couldn’t find his brother. It was not until he
glanced up that he saw a denim-clad leg swinging over the edge of
the stone wall. Roderick smirked down at his brother from the roof
balcony while saluting with a picked-clean pork-rib bone.
“Bastard,” Vaughn grumbled.
“Yeah, but he’s my bastard,” a woman said, turning to wink at
Vaughn before she disappeared inside.
She reappeared moments later beside Roderick on the balcony
where she perched on the stone railing with her mate. Jealousy
sparked in Vaughn’s chest. He could even hear the strike of steel
against flint and the roar of an indiscriminate wildfire that
threatened to devour him.
Then a gentle hand touched his lower back. He jumped and spun
to find Mimi behind him. She leapt back, brows high as she fumbled
the plate he’d knocked from her hands. Vaughn lurched to catch it at
the last second.
Relief flooded his veins and washed away the flames of jealousy.
He passed the plate back to Mimi so he could retreat away from the
pack once more, but she shook her head. With her hand on his, she
pushed it back at him.
“I made that for you,” she said with a wide smile. “I know the
best way to tame a bear is to feed it.”
Vaughn cocked his head. “Are you calling me an animal?”
Someone snorted. “We’re all animals here!”
Another woman with a pixie-cut smacked a big blond shifter.
“Speak for yourself.”
He rubbed at the spot where she’d hit him even though Vaughn
was certain the human woman couldn’t have harmed a shifter of his
size.
A man in a cowboy hat kicked back and laughed at the blond.
“That’s what you get with these women. You’ve got to learn to
watch your mouth around them. One way or another, they’ll teach
you to be a gentleman.”
The blond pouted. “I am a gentleman! They are the ones who
could stand to learn a thing or two about the word gentle.”
The woman pinched him this time. The blond howled and leapt
back from his mate, or at least, Vaughn assumed that a human with
enough gall to pinch a shifter would be the man’s mate.
Where had Roderick found these animals? They were a motley
crew, that much was certain. How Roderick had gotten a cowboy, a
wild female wolf, a guy who could have been a star quarterback, and
submissive Mimi, Vaughn would never know. If they had anything in
common, Vaughn couldn’t find it. To him, they were all so vastly
different that they shouldn’t have been able to find any common
ground.
“So,” the wolf shifter said, drawing out the word. “Have you come
to challenge Roderick for his position?”
Vaughn couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t want his job in the least.
Do you really think I came all this way to command a pack of
assholes?”
Realizing that he’d just slandered Roderick and his pack in one
breath, Vaughn shut his mouth. He waited for Roderick to leap from
the balcony and pounce on him, but nothing happened.
The redhead threw her head back and laughed. One by one,
everyone else followed suit.
“I told you he doesn’t have the patience for you,” Roderick said
from above.
The redhead shrugged. “At this point, only Wade has the
patience for me.”
The man in the cowboy hat threw his feet to the ground, leaned
forward, and hooked an arm around the woman’s middle, drawing
her into his lap. She lifted her plate to keep from spilling it, but
otherwise seemed caught in bliss. She settled into her mate’s lap
while he got comfortable again.
Vaughn took in the pack. Their happiness permeated the air. He
could almost relax even though this was the closest he’d come to the
castle in years. It should have loomed behind him like a demon
waiting to snatch him when he was least suspecting it. Instead, a
smile found his lips. He even laughed with the pack.
A car door closed in the driveway, and the pack quieted.
Roderick’s mate got to her feet, excitement radiating off her, but
Roderick fixed his pack with a stern look.
“No more shifter jokes,” he declared. “Stormi doesn’t know, and
we have to keep it that way for now.”
“That hardly seems fair,” the redhead said.
“Carolina, the only reason Mimi told you was because she knew
you and Wade were a mated pair before either of you did. Stormi is
a human and Morgan’s best friend. She’s not a mate or a shifter.”
Carolina groaned but nodded in agreement in the end. Wade
wound his hand in her braid and used it to pull her into a distracting
kiss. Her shoulders eased away from one another while they
touched.
A kind of yearning tugged at Vaughn’s core. He tore his gaze
away from the happy couple to stare at the ground. But his attention
refused to linger there for long. Morgan burst out of the kitchen door
and raced toward the woman coming around the castle now. The
Black woman staggered as Morgan threw herself into her arms.
From above, Roderick watched with pride, like his mate’s
happiness meant more than anything.
Vaughn used to think that he and his brother would struggle to
find love. They’d witnessed two very much in love people tear each
other apart. How could Roderick dare to love after that? Vaughn had
steered himself away from people for fear of that happening to him,
even hundreds of miles away from the castle in case the nightmare
had clung to him instead of this hunk of rock.
Not only had Roderick found love, but he’d done it here of all
places.
Vaughn’s gaze slid back to Morgan. Her shorts revealed a white
scar on her calf. Though he had no way of knowing what happened
to her, his gut told him that his brother was to blame. Perhaps they
had not escaped the wrath of the castle after all.
It was only a matter of time before the castle ruined what they’d
built. Vaughn didn’t understand how Roderick could come back and
pour his energy and hope into this place when it could threaten the
person who meant the most to him. Morgan’s life should have meant
more to Roderick.
The back of Vaughn’s neck prickled. He rubbed the spot and
scanned his surroundings. As if she could tell that he was thinking of
her, Morgan glared at him from where she stood beside her friend.
An opalescent sheen glimmered over her eyes when she stepped
into the light. He raised a brow and wondered what kind of woman
Roderick had gotten tangled up with.
She was not a shifter, for Vaughn would have been able to smell
the animal in her. Yet, he knew that she was not an untalented
woman, either. She had a power under her skin that Vaughn could
not yet comprehend. He would have asked his brother if Roderick
could be bothered to get down from his perch and partake in a
private conversation.
As it was, Roderick taunted him from above. Vaughn considered
flipping him the bird, but he reached for a pork rib instead. The
flavor stopped his thoughts in their tracks. Overwhelmed by the
sensations rolling across his tongue, Vaughn sat there and stared at
the meat in his hand.
Mimi laughed beside him. Surprised, he looked up at her.
“Ana is really good at what she does.” Mimi bowed her head.
Vaughn thought he caught a glimmer of sadness. It twisted his
heart and tightened his throat. Though he wanted to ask what was
wrong, he couldn’t form the words. Mimi might not want to talk
about it in front of her pack, so he tucked it away for later.
If they would have a later.
“I could eat this every day for the rest of my life,” Vaughn said.
Mimi’s lips twisted wryly.
He’d said something wrong, but as he turned over his words, he
couldn’t figure out what had been wrong about them. Mimi pulled
away from him. She turned her attention away from him, which
made his heart clench. What could he do to pull her back?
“Uh, do you like to cook?” he asked.
Mimi shrugged. It was a sign he would not get anything out of
her right now. That was fine. He didn’t need to needle her with
questions she wasn’t ready to answer. Even if she never wanted to
talk to him, at least he could bump her knee with his and draw a
smile out of her again.
He settled for that, even though he craved more. Logic told him
no, sternly, over and over again. His instincts roared against it. The
beast within him yearned for her. It wanted him to sweep her off her
feet and carry her into the boathouse, so they could be alone again.
His infatuation with Mimi hummed like tiny birds in his chest.
Vaughn wasn’t used to the feeling. It was so at odds with his
mission. He had to focus on one before he could even think about
the other.
Right?
Or, could he get away with indulgence just this once? That was if
Mimi accepted him. Just because he felt a certain way, did not mean
that she would share in those feelings. Sweet and inviting, Mimi was
probably being nice to him because he was her Alpha’s little brother.
There was no other reason he could see to explain her treatment of
him.
Oh, Vaughn had fooled himself into believing that this might not
be one sided. He would have facepalmed had he not been in front of
a crowd with his fingers covered in barbeque sauce.
4
H e saw her sitting on the end of the dock. Though he’d only
just met her and the rest of her pack, there was no
mistaking her. It was not that she stood out so distinctly by
appearance alone. Mimi radiated a kind of energy that pulled him in
no matter how Vaughn tried to fight it. He felt that energy as he
walked past the dock. It pulled him to a stop and forced him to
acknowledge her.
“Shouldn’t you go home for the night?” he called out.
A heartbeat passed. Silence would have rung in the air had it not
been for the whisper of the waves against the shore.
“I’m not ready to call it a night,” she said.
Vaughn let out the breath he’d been holding. Hearing her voice
released something inside him. It felt almost like reassurance. Maybe
even relief. Though he hadn’t thought anything was amiss when he
first stopped. No, he feared that his very presence would drive her
away.
He knew that he could be intimidating. He’d cultivated the skill
over years of being alone out in the wilds like a feral bear. He
couldn’t imagine how that might feel to someone as submissive as
Mimi. If she couldn’t stand having him around, he might wither and
die.
Not that he needed to be around her. Or that he needed her
acceptance.
“Do you want to join me?” she asked.
He glanced at the boathouse where he’d been heading to hide
from his brother. While he thought about locking himself in a closet
where no one could find him, Vaughn’s feet led him onto the dock.
He crouched and sat beside Mimi, keeping a wide berth from her
just to make sure he didn’t frighten her.
The moonlight illuminated her happy smile. He caught himself
staring, entranced by the genuine expression. Shaking himself, he
directed his gaze out over the water. They sat like this, in silence, for
a while. It could have been five minutes, or it could have been an
hour. Vaughn couldn’t be sure.
It seemed as though neither felt the need to exchange words.
Her fingers drifted over the dock and brushed against his. When she
snuck a sly glance in his direction, he caught the flutter of her
lashes.
Damn, she had an effect on him that he’d never experienced
before.
She’d confessed that she could not find another mate. Though
she hadn’t explained why, he understood what she couldn’t bring
herself to say. Mimi must have found and lost her mate already. His
beast growled at the thought of another man laying a hand on her,
but Vaughn hushed the creature.
She did not belong to him. Half her heart remained elsewhere,
with a man Vaughn could never know.
Yet, he knew that meant there was no harm in courting her. This
castle wanted to ruin his life, so he knew it would wait until he found
his forever mate. If Mimi was not his forever mate, then he would
not mind spending some time with her.
So, he reached up and tucked a curl of black hair behind her ear.
Mimi startled, but did not pull away from him.
Her nervous laugh trickled into the night. He considered tasting
the sound on her lips but restrained himself. Though he’d kept away
from others for the past years, he still knew how to take his time
with a woman. Each and every one deserved respect and patience.
“Why do you keep your hair so short?” he asked, hoping to start
a conversation that might distract him from the lust consuming him
from the inside out.
“Taking care of curls can be time consuming,” she confessed.
“And I don’t want to be a walking feather duster when I’m working.
Having short hair means less to do in the morning and fewer
cobwebs I have to pick out of it in the evening.”
“Cobwebs? What do they have you doing here?”
She lit up. Her excitement radiated off her. “I’m a housekeeper.
When Roderick started renovating, the castle was quite dirty. I
helped clean and organize everything. They turned the basement
into a laundry room after I got everything cleared out of it.”
“That doesn’t seem fair.” Vaughn scowled.
She raised a quizzical brow as she tilted her head. “I mean, that’s
what I’m paid to do. I fail to see how that’s not fair. Paycheck aside,
I also got to join a pack that makes me feel safe. That’s all a
submissive shifter can ask for, really.”
Though he didn’t want to pry, he found himself asking, “And your
previous pack? They couldn’t keep you safe?”
Was that how her mate had died? Though he was glad she’d left
them after they’d failed her, he did not like that her pack had failed
in the first place. What was a family for if not to guard its shifters?
He’d thought that because their family had been small, they’d let the
castle corrupt them. Had there been more shifters to see the
warning signs, maybe someone could have stopped his parents from
dying needlessly.
But if a pack could not protect one person, then maybe his
assumption had been incorrect. No amount of love and togetherness
could save anyone. Roderick and his pack could not hold off this
castle’s evil forever. And he would hate to watch them succumb to it.
Mimi tilted her head as if thinking, but the way her gaze dropped
bothered him. He never meant to take her somewhere she didn’t
want to go. Of all people, he knew that turning back time could
bring back pain better left forgotten.
“I left my past behind,” she said. “While I’m afraid it might catch
up to me someday, I’d like to pretend for a while longer that they’ll
never find me.”
He hated those words. Not because they offended him, but
because he wasn’t sure he could stay to keep her safe. If there was
something coming for her, then he wanted to be there for her.
One thing at a time, he told himself.
First, he would get this pack away from the castle. Once they
were safe from this monster of a building, he would get more out of
Mimi, so he could help her. No one deserved to live in fear. If she’d
found home among Roderick and this make-shift pack, then Vaughn
wanted to make sure she wouldn’t have to run when her past caught
up.
But wasn’t that what he was asking them to do? He wanted them
to escape the castle’s influence, but that boiled down to running.
Didn’t it?
He would ask her to run one more time. Then, he would help her.
He would vanquish her enemies and grant her someplace safe in
exchange for her help.
“I came here to do something,” Vaughn confessed.
Mimi stopped swinging her feet. She watched him with an
intensity that unsettled him. While Morgan had seen through him
earlier, Mimi’s gaze was expectant. He feared the very idea of failing
her.
Swallowing, Vaughn forced himself to continue. “This castle isn’t
right…I don’t understand why my brother returned, but I need to
get him and your pack away from here. Do you think you could help
me do that?”
Her sigh told him exactly what he didn’t want to hear. It didn’t
hold disappointment, but he heard another kind of rejection in it.
She shook her head, confirming his fears.
“I can’t leave yet.”
He straightened his spine, indignant. “Why not? Hasn’t Roderick
told you about what happened here? If he hasn’t, then he’s hiding
things from you, and you shouldn’t be okay with that.”
“Anyone with access to the internet can look up how your
parents died.” She stopped. “I’m sorry. That was crude of me to say.
I didn’t mean…I would never…”
He caught a hint of her bear. It was in the almost imperceptible
growl in the back of her throat. Vaughn caught himself smiling,
despite her frustration with herself. He quickly moved to reassure
her.
“No harm done. It doesn’t sting as much as it used to.” Even
though it did. Had anyone else said that, his heart would have
wrenched. His anger would have boiled over.
When it came from Mimi, it didn’t have the same punch. He
could tell that she wasn’t trying to hurt him. In fact, he doubted she
was capable of hurting anyone. She’d only wanted him to know that
secrets weren’t so easily kept in this day and age.
She exhaled. “I should warn you that the pack isn’t going to
leave so easily. You’re facing a nearly impossible task.”
He scowled. If he tilted her head back and kissed her, would she
say that? If he nibbled the taut skin over her throat, would she deny
him all the same?
Vaughn would have kicked himself had his legs not been dangling
over the edge of the dock. He could not aggressively court a
submissive shifter. She would run screaming or dissolve into tears if
he grabbed her without warning. Though his beast urged him to
touch her, he gripped the edge of the dock instead.
Maybe he would throw himself off it. The lake would cool him
down for sure.
“You can’t stop me from trying,” he said.
“If that’s what you want, I would never try to stop you.”
Her words held kindness, but no room for discussion. There was
that obstinate bear nature again. He shouldn’t have been surprised
to find it now, but it made him look at her in a new light. Though he
knew he could scare her, if she had a purpose, she would not move
from it.
How much resolve did that take? He could not imagine trying to
override his own nature, so he could see something through. If Mimi
could stand up in the face of her fears, then she was stronger than
he would ever be.
And so much better than he would ever deserve. Which was why
he was not her mate, no matter how his beast howled with need for
her.
Vaughn got to his feet and held out a hand to help her up, too.
When she took it, he tugged. Most shifters were heavier than they
looked, so when he pulled her up, her surprising lightness threw
them off balance. Vaughn put an arm around her as they both
careened sideways. He reached for something to grab ahold of, but
there was nothing.
The water swallowed both them and Vaughn’s curse. Darkness
surrounded them, but he still had a hand on hers, so she wouldn’t
drift away. His lungs tightened when she squeezed his hand. He
blamed it on the water keeping him from drawing breath, but his
beast knew better.
Kicking, he pulled Mimi toward the surface where they could both
suck in fresh air. The first thing he heard was her laughter. It rang
like church bells, so pure and disarming. The sound was a call to
worship that he could not deny no matter that he couldn’t
understand it.
Perplexed, Vaughn kicked toward the shore. Once he could get
onto his feet again, he twisted and bent to help Mimi up, too. She
doubled over with laughter, stumbling until she threw herself onto
the grass. Clutching her stomach, she continued laughing.
Vaughn stood over her, wondering where this had come from.
Slowly but surely, her laughter infected him. He chuckled. The
chuckle turned into an all out laughing fit until he dropped to his
knees beside her. He didn’t know what was so funny, but he couldn’t
stop.
“I got you into the water with me after all!” Mimi squealed finally.
Vaughn sat back on his haunches. He wiped away the tears
gathering in his eyes from how hard he’d laughed. “Is that what this
is all about? Did you do that on purpose?”
She shook her head. “Like I would dare play a joke on a
dominant shifter. The fact that it was an accident makes it even
better.”
“Woman, you are so very interesting.” He couldn’t help it. A low
growl entered his voice.
Mimi’s laughter immediately died. She coughed and cleared her
throat. The air between them became thick with tension. When she
scooted away from him and drew her knees up to her chest, he
knew he’d messed up. Vaughn didn’t know how to backtrack from
that. He couldn’t bring them back around to laughing after she’d
shut down.
“I should leave you alone for the night,” he said, defeated.
M imi wanted to tell him that he hadn’t scared her. Well, he had, but
in a very different way from what she was used to. While every
other dominant shifter oozed violence, Vaughn’s presence promised
something else. His growl as he called her interesting had ignited a
flame in her that she didn’t know how to deal with.
The fire warred with the cold water still clinging to her hair, skin,
and clothes. She’d pulled in on herself in an attempt to smother the
flames, because she didn’t dare explore the depths of their heat.
Vaughn could turn her on, but she didn’t know how she would react
when he touched her.
Best to steer clear of that for good. It would save them both a lot
of strife.
“Yeah, I should get going,” she mumbled.
Vaughn lingered like he wanted to say more. Even in the dark
and with his head slightly bent, she could feel him watching her. He
didn’t want to leave, either, but he remained at a distance because
of her.
So, Mimi made the first move. She nodded to him and left
without another word. Every step away was shaky when her beast
thrashed. It told her to go back to him. The beast wanted him to
look over her at night so she could sleep safe and sound. It was
convinced that he would stand guard all night just for her.
They’d only just met today. Her beast clearly didn’t know what it
was talking about. It might have only attached itself to him because
he was the only non-mated male in the area now. Roderick had
Morgan. Wade had Carolina. Brandon had Ana.
And Mimi would be alone forever.
Unless she decided to marry a human man or a shifter who’d lost
their mate. Then she could settle down to a loveless marriage and
have children. That was only if she could break this curse.
At her car, she popped the trunk and dug into her bag of dry
clothes. As a shifter, she wasn’t one to be modest. Her lack of
feminine assets made it easier to undress and redress out in the
open.
She had half hoped that Vaughn would have followed her, just to
make sure that she was safe. He could have caught a glimpse of her
naked form, and she would have been able to take stock of how he
felt about it. Mimi yanked her shirt over her head and chided herself
for her girlish hopes.
She wasn’t a teenager, but a full-grown woman. If she wanted
something, she could take it. She could walk right up to Vaughn’s
door, completely naked, and ask him if he had any interest in her.
Nope. She couldn’t. Before she knew it, she found herself behind
the steering wheel of her car and her foot on the gas. She gunned it
out of the driveway before she could think of any other ways to
absolutely embarrass herself. This night would not end with her butt-
naked and rejected.
5
T he whispers continued throughout the night. Vaughn tossed

and turned. He covered his head with a pillow. Nothing he
tried did anything to halt the static constantly humming in the
background.
They’re not whispers, he told himself. There had to be a gap in
the wall that the wind was whistling through. Or perhaps his shifter
hearing could pick up the lap of the waves in the boat launch.
Whatever he was hearing, it wasn’t a whisper.
There was a reasonable and logical explanation for it.
Not that it mattered when he got out of bed, miserable because
of the night he’d spent without sleeping more than half an hour at a
time. With a groan, he got up, scratched his junk, and headed
downstairs to see if there were any amenities in the bathroom.
“Oh. My.” Mimi’s voice stopped him dead in his tracks.
His head slowly swiveled toward the kitchen where Mimi stood
with a tray in her hands. A deep red blush covered her cheeks and
was in the midst of spreading toward her forehead and chin. He
grinned, despite himself, when her gaze dipped south.
Remembering that he could scare her away if he came on too
strong, Vaughn covered his cock and asked her what she was doing
in the boathouse.
Mimi rapidly blinked and looked away. “Oh, well. I thought I
would bring you breakfast. I checked the fridge yesterday. It didn’t
have much in it. I know I’m showing off a little bit but…”
The gears in Vaughn’s brain started to turn. “Showing off? So,
you’re trying to prove that you’re a better cook than the other
woman?”
Mimi stiffened. “No. It’s not like that. Ana is a great cook. I don’t
need to be better than her…”
“But you still want recognition,” he supplied.
She remained quiet for a long moment. Her silence told him that
he was right, but that she didn’t want to admit it. Sweet as ever,
Mimi wouldn’t dare step on anyone else’s toes even if it meant
building up her own confidence.
“Your breakfast smells delicious,” he said, truthfully. The aroma of
sausage and greens on the air made his stomach tighten hungrily.
“Do you mind waiting for me while I shower? Then we can have
breakfast together?”
“Oh, I should get back to work. Besides, I didn’t bring enough
food for the both of us.”’
Vaughn stifled the urge to pull her into the bathroom with him
and lock her in there so he could enjoy her presence a while longer.
He could do nothing to keep her from running like a scared rabbit. If
he forced her to stay, he would only make her hate him.
Be a patient hunter, his beast whispered.
“Shove off, butthole. We aren’t hunting,” Vaughn muttered under
his breath.
“Excuse me?” Mimi’s voice cracked.
He wanted to kick himself for thinking out loud. What did he
even want with a submissive shifter? He would only make her life
more difficult. If he forgot to monitor his tone or watch his step, he
would stress her out. Neither needed to tread carefully around one
another for he had no plans to stick around.
He could let her run back to her life and never look at her again.
The thought physically pained him. He realized that his bear had
lashed out at him for just considering it. The damned beast had
grown so lonely that it had latched onto Mimi. Vaughn would have
groaned if he didn’t think it would scare Mimi away.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Letters from the
peninsula, 1808-1812
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
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laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.
Title: Letters from the peninsula, 1808-1812
Author: Sir William Warre
Editor: Edmond Warre
Release date: March 30, 2024 [eBook #73292]
Language: English
Original publication: London: John Murray, 1909
Credits: MWS and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at

https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
images generously made available by The Internet
Archive/Canadian Libraries)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS

FROM THE PENINSULA, 1808-1812 ***
LETTERS FROM THE
PENINSULA
Lt. General Sir William Warre C.B., K.T.S.
From the miniature by J.C.D. Engleheart in the possession of the Rev. Canon
Warre
Emery Walker, Ph.sc.
LETTERS FROM THE

PENINSULA
1808-1812
BY LIEUT.-GEN. SIR WILLIAM WARRE

C.B., K.T.S.
EDITED BY HIS NEPHEW

THE REV. EDMOND WARRE, D.D., C.B., M.V.O.
WITH FRONTISPIECE AND MAP

LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
1909
PREFACE
Some years before his death in 1875, my father entrusted to me a
packet containing letters written by his eldest brother, my uncle, Sir
William Warre, from the Peninsula during his service there from 1808
to 1812.
The packet was not opened by me until the year 1908.
The letters, on perusal, seemed to be of interest, as giving a
graphic description of the life and opinions of an officer serving on
the Staff during the Peninsular War, and, in particular, of one
immediately concerned in the organisation of the Portuguese army.
Moreover, the letters, which are written on the spot and without
reserve, being chiefly addressed to his father or mother, seem to
reflect in some measure, as regards the campaign, and as to home
politics, to which there are plentiful allusions, the conversation and
opinions of the Headquarters’ Staff at the time; and further, the
intimate acquaintance of the writer with the Portuguese character,
and with the methods of the Portuguese Government, enhances the
illustration of the difficulties which had to be overcome in the effort of
Great Britain to save her ally from the crushing yoke of French
imperial despotism.
Mr James Warre of Oporto, the father of Sir William Warre, was a
man of great ability, and of influence both in Portugal and at home.
He was a partner in the firm of Warre & Co., which was at the time
one of the leading commercial houses in Oporto—an old firm,
established in the seventeenth century—with which, however, the
family connection was severed at the death of Sir William Warre’s
brother George, in the year 1850.
The letters themselves, considering the circumstances under
which they were written, are very fairly legible; but in places there
are lacunæ which are sometimes difficult to fill up. The orthography
is not at all consistent—often old-fashioned, sometimes faulty. I have
corrected it in some places, but in many have left it as in the original.
I cannot claim to have any particular knowledge of military history,
and, as regards the brief introductions to the several chapters, wish
to acknowledge in limine my indebtedness to Napier’s great work, to
Professor Oman’s three most interesting volumes, which bring the
story of the war down to 1810, and to Sir Herbert Maxwell’s Life of
the Duke of Wellington.
I am indebted also to my cousin, Mr George Warre, for help in
translating the Portuguese words and phrases that occur in the
letters.
My thanks are also due to my cousin, Mrs Wm. Rathbone, for
kindly allowing me to use several of the collection of family letters in
her possession, extracts from which help to fill up some of the gaps
in the correspondence.
Lastly, I must acknowledge my debt of gratitude to my friend and
publisher, Mr John Murray, for his most valuable help in many ways.
Without his assistance, the map which illustrates the volume could
not have been constructed.
EDMOND WARRE.
Finchampstead, 1909.
LIST OF LETTERS
PAGE
1808
CHAPTER I
Portsmouth, May 22 3
H.M.S. Resistance, St Helens, May 24 4
Cove, June 8 5
Cove, June 17 8
Cove, June 22 11
Cove, June 27 41
1808
CHAPTER II
Porto Roads, July 25 19
Off Ovar, Monday evening, July 25 20
Camp Lavos, near Figueira, Aug. 8 21
Lourinhao, 12 miles south of Peniche, Aug. 19 24
Vimiero, Aug. 22 25
Buenos Ayres, Lisbon, Sept. 27 28
Lisbon, Sept. 29 36
1808-9
CHAPTER III
Avanilla, near Sahagun, 5½ leagues from Saldaña, half-past
5 p.m., Dec. 23, 1808 46
Sobrado, between Lugo and St Jago, Jan. 4, 1809 48
Barfleur, at sea, Jan. 18 50
Plymouth, Jan. 23 51
Lisbon, March 3 53
Lisbon, April 1 56
Undated (?) April 7 59
Headquarters, Thomar, April 27 60
Lisbon, July 13—arrived Aug. 24, per Colonel Brown 66
Lacebo, Aug. 10—Los Hoyos, Aug. 13 68
Salvaterra, Aug. 18—Castello Branco, Aug. 20 71
Headquarters, Lisbon, Sept. 6 77
Headquarters, Lisbon, Sept. 11 81
Lisbon, Sept. 25 85
Lisbon, Oct. 10 86
Lisbon, Oct. 26 90
Lisbon, Oct. 26 93
Lisbon, Dec. 1 95
Thomar, Dec. 31 97
1810
CHAPTER IV
Lisbon, Feb. 6 104
Lisbon, Feb. 17 108
Lisbon, March 10 112
Coimbra, March 21 115
Coimbra, March 30 117
Headquarters, Mango Aide, May 3 119
Fornos d’Algodres, May 9 (extract from letter to Sister) 123
Headquarters, Fornos d’Algodres, May 15 125
Headquarters, Fornos d’Algodres, May 23 130
Extract (London, June 20), Fornos, June 6 132
Extract (Hendon, July 8), Fornos, June 13 133
Headquarters, Fornos d’Algodres, June 20 134
Headquarters, P.A., Francoso, near Pinhel, June 27 137
Francoso, July 9 139
Lagiosa, Aug. 8 156
Lagiosa, Aug. 22 158
Lagiosa, Aug. 29 162
Lagiosa, Aug. 29, 6 p.m. 166
Hendon Place, Oct. 2 167
Hendon Place, Oct. 16 (extract, news of Bussaco, Sept. 27) 168
Hendon Place, Oct. 25 (referring to letter Oct. 6) 169
Headquarters, P.A., Casal Eschin, a mile to the eastward of
Enxara dos Cavaleiros, 5 leagues from Lisbon, Oct. 20 171
Extract, Falmouth, Nov. 14 175
Extract, Honiton, Nov. 18 177
1811
CHAPTER V
Headquarters, St Olaia, June 20 184
Headquarters, St Olaia, June 27 188
Headquarters, St Olaia, July 1 191
Lisbon, July 5 192
Lisbon, Aug. 2 192
Cintra, Aug. 17 195
Cintra, Aug. 23 198
Cintra, Sept. 7 202
Lisbon, Oct. 17 205
Lisbon, Nov. 23 209
Lisbon, Nov. 30 212
Lisbon, Dec. 6 213
Lisbon, Dec. 14 216
1812
CHAPTER VI
January to September
Torres Novas, Jan. 4 221
Coimbra, Jan. 10 222
Gallegos, Jan. 20 223
Elvas, March 6, extract 226
Elvas, March 18 229
Camp before Badajos, March 20 234
Camp before Badajos, March 29-(April 3), extract 235
Camp before Badajos, April 2 236
Badajos Camp, April 7 241
Camp before Badajos, April 10 247
Nava, on the road between Sabugal and Alfaiates, April 24 248
Fuente Guinaldo, May 20, extract 252
Fuente Guinaldo, May 28 254
Salamanca, June 17 258
Salamanca, June 25 262
Villa Escusa, Province of Toro, June 30 269
La Seca, Province of Valladolid, July 7 274
La Seca, July 10, extract 278
La Seca, July 13 279
Salamanca, July 24 284
Salamanca, July 27 292
Salamanca, Aug. 29, extract 295
(?) Salamanca, Sept. 2, extract 297
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF
EVENTS
1807.
Nov. French Conquest of Portugal.
Nov. 30. Junot occupies Lisbon.
Portuguese Royal Family fly to Brazil.
1808.
May. Napoleon makes Joseph Buonaparte King of
Spain.
Outbreak of Spanish insurrection.
June. French invade Valencia and Andalusia.
Siege of Saragossa.
July 14. Battle of Medina del Rio Seco.
” 20. Capitulation of Baylen.
Aug. 1-4. Landing of British army in Portugal.
” 17. Combat of Roliça.
” 21. Battle of Vimiero.
” 30. Convention of Cintra.
Oct. Napoleon’s invasion of Spain.
Oct. 6. Sir John Moore takes command of British troops
in Portugal.
Nov. 13. Moore at Salamanca.
” 23. Battle of Tudela. Spaniards defeated.
Dec. 4. Napoleon arrives at Madrid.
” 15. Soult with 15,000 men at Saldaña.
” 20. Moore reaches Mayorga; junction with Baird.
” 21. Combat of Sahagun.
” 22. Napoleon’s pursuit of Moore begins.
” 23. Avanilla, near Sahagun, 5½ leagues from
Saldaña, half-past 5 p.m.—orders to march
on Saldaña, 6 p.m.; news received about 7
p.m. of Napoleon’s advance; Moore resolves
on and orders retreat.
” 28. Benavente.
” 29. Astorga.
” 31. Bembibre.
Napoleon leaves the pursuit to Soult and returns
to France.
1809.
Jan. Retreat of Sir John Moore’s army continued.
Jan. 2. Bembibre.
” 3. Villa Franca.
” 6. Rearguard finds army at Lugo in position.
” 8-9. Lugo evacuated.
” 9-10. Betanzos.
” 11. Corunna—no transports.
” 14. Transports arrive.
” 16. Battle of Corunna.
” 17. Embarkation completed.
” 18. H.M.S. Barfleur sails from Corunna.
” 23. Arrives Plymouth.
Feb. 20. Fall of Saragossa.
Feb. (end). Beresford appointed to command Portuguese
army.
March (early). Beresford arrives at Lisbon.
March 10-20. Soult’s operations in Portugal; capture of Oporto.
” 29. Battle of Medellin—Spaniards defeated.
April 22. Sir A. Wellesley arrives in Lisbon.
May 12-22. Oporto retaken; Soult’s retreat to Orense and
Lugo.
June. Advance of British army from Abrantes.
July 27-28. Battle of Talavera.
Aug. 4. Wellesley retires on Badajos.
Oct. 18. Battle of Tamames—French defeated.
Nov. 19. Battle of Ocaña—Spaniards defeated.
” 29. Battle of Alba de Tormes—Spaniards defeated.
1810.
Jan. Lord Wellington retires into Portugal.
Jan. and Feb. The French invade Andalusia.
Feb. 1. King Joseph enters Seville.
Siege of Cadiz.
” 12. Badajos summoned by Mortier.
March to April 22. Siege of Astorga.
May to July 9. Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo.
July 24. Combat of the Coa.
July to Aug. 27. Siege of Almeida.
Sept. 16. Masséna advances into Portugal.
” 27. Battle of Bussaco.
Oct. 1-9. Wellington retires within the lines of Torres
Vedras.
Oct. to Nov. Masséna before the lines.
Nov. 14. Masséna retreats to Santarem.
Dec. 21. Soult moves northward to support Masséna.
1811.
Jan. 27. Soult invests Badajos.
March 5. Masséna leaves Santarem.
” 11. Surrender of Badajos; Soult returns to the South.
” 15. Foz d’Aronce.
” 29. The Allies take Guarda.
April 3. Combat of Sabugal.
Masséna leaves Portugal.
” 20. Wellington to the Alemtejo.
May 2. Masséna resumes the offensive.
” 4. Beresford lays siege to Badajos.
” 5. Battle of Fuentes d’Onoro.
” 8. Masséna retreats; is removed from command.
” 10. Brennier escapes with garrison from Almeida.
” 12. Soult raises the siege of Badajos.
” 16. Battle of Albuera.
King Joseph leaves Madrid.
Marmont takes command of the army of
Portugal.
” 25. Reinvestment of Badajos.
June 12. Siege raised the second time.
The French retire from Estremadura.
Aug. 8. Wellington blockades Ciudad Rodrigo.
Sept. 21. Marmont advances to relieve Ciudad Rodrigo.
” 24. Action at El Bodon.
” 25-27. The Allies retreat, and take up position covering
the line of the Coa.
” 27. The French withdrawal—Marmont to Talavera,
Dorsenne to Salamanca.
Ciudad Rodrigo again invested.
The British army goes into cantonments on the
Coa.
Marmont concentrates near Toledo.
1812.
Jan. 8. Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo.
” 19. Taking of Ciudad Rodrigo by storm.
March 16. Siege of Badajos.
April 6-7. Taking of Badajos.
May 18. Hill destroys bridge at Almaraz.
June. Wellington advances into Castille.
June 17. Allies enter Salamanca.
” 27. Forts at Salamanca taken.
July 22. Battle of Salamanca—Beresford severely
wounded.
Aug. 12. Allies enter Madrid.
Sept. Siege of Burgos.
Oct. Retreat from Burgos.
Nov. Winter quarters near Ciudad Rodrigo.
MEMOIR OF WILLIAM WARRE
William Warre, the subject of this Memoir, was the eldest son of
James Warre of Oporto, and Eleanor, née Greg, his wife. He was
born at Oporto, 15th April 1784, and spent most of his childhood
there. He was sent to Harrow, but seems to have left early, and to
have been placed in the office of Messrs Warre & Co., of which his
uncle, William Warre, was the senior partner, in order that he might
learn the business which both his uncle and his father desired him to
follow.
But his own strong wish was to be a soldier, and, as it turned out,
a piece of mischief achieved that which arguments and entreaties
had failed to obtain. One day in the office, when letters had to be got
ready for the mail, the duty of sealing them, in which, after the
fashion of the day much wax, red or black, was consumed, devolved
upon the young clerk, who, observing that the pigtail of Pedro Alves,
the Portuguese member of the firm, had lapped over to his side of
the desk, while the old gentleman was enjoying a peaceful post-
prandial slumber, felt moved to play a practical joke, which had
momentous consequences. He poured the red wax upon the ribbon
of the pigtail, fastening it to the desk, sealed it with the seal of the
firm, and fled. Great was the wrath that ensued. No apologies could
be accepted. It was the end of his commercial career.
He was then sent to a private tutor at Bonn to learn foreign
languages, and to prepare for the Army. On the breaking out of the
war between France and Austria, he and another fellow-student
joined the Austrians, and went out, as they said, to see the fun. As
luck would have it, they were taken prisoners in a skirmish, and were
brought before General Custine, who commanded the French force
in the neighbourhood. Custine, seeing that they were English and
mere boys, scolded them and told them that it was very lucky for
them that Marshal Davoust had not arrived to take over the
command, “for,” said he, “he would have hanged you without mercy
on the nearest tree. Now go back to your books and your tutor, and
don’t meddle with affairs which do not concern you.”
Shortly after this William Warre was sent back to England, and on
the 5th November 1803, when he was 19 years of age, received his
commission in the 52nd Light Infantry, then under the command of
Sir John Moore. He served with the 52nd till 25th April 1805, when
he was promoted Lieutenant in the 98th, which was then in Canada.
He did not, however, proceed thither, having purchased promotion as
Captain in the 23rd Dragoons.
He served with this regiment in Ireland until the summer of 1807,
when he was sent to the Royal Military College, then established at
High Wycombe, to study for Staff employment.
In 1808 General Ferguson selected him as A.D.C., and took him
with him to Portugal. There he was present at the combat of Roliça,
and at the Battle of Vimeiro, both of which are described in his
letters. His health gave way under the hardships of this campaign,
and he was detained ill at Lisbon for several months. His knowledge
of the Portuguese language enhanced the value of his services, and
after his recovery, General Ferguson having returned to England, he
was attached by General Beresford to his personal staff, and served
with him as his principal A.D.C. until the year 1812.
Captain Warre took part in Sir John Moore’s retreat and, with
General Beresford, was the last to embark after the Battle of
Corunna, 16th January 1809.
In March 1809, Beresford, with the rank of Field-Marshal, was
placed in chief command of the Portuguese Army, and employed
Captain Warre, his A.D.C., in the organisation of the national troops.
He entered the Portuguese service and was promoted therein to the
rank of Major, and appointed first A.D.C. to the Field-Marshal.
After the passage of the Douro, May 1809, Major Warre was sent
forward by Beresford to raise the armed peasantry in the province of
Minho, with a view to harassing the French forces under Marshal
Soult, which were then in full retreat. He succeeded in getting the
peasantry to dismantle the bridges of Ponte Nova and the Saltador,

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THE CURSE OF BEARCLAW CASTLE

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M imi watched Vaughn walk away. He shoved his hands into

V aughn hunched and gripped the windowsill. His shoulders pulled

T he whispers continued throughout the night. Vaughn tossed

Title: Letters from the peninsula, 1808-1812

Author: Sir William Warre

Editor: Edmond Warre

Release date: March 30, 2024 [eBook #73292]

Original publication: London: John Murray, 1909

Credits: MWS and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS

Emery Walker, Ph.sc.

LETTERS FROM THE

BY LIEUT.-GEN. SIR WILLIAM WARRE

EDITED BY HIS NEPHEW

WITH FRONTISPIECE AND MAP

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