Mary Anne Gruen - The House of Red

Wolf made quick good-byes to the crowd in the courtyard. Then, he herded Virginia and Rose into the castle with Tony following behind.

“I can’t believe it!” Wolf said, to his sister once they were in the grand entryway. “I just can’t believe it. I thought you were dead. Was I wrong about Wilhelm and Lazar too?”

“No. Wilhelm was killed as a poacher. And Lazar was hung for showing interest in a human girl.”

“Oh,” Wolf said, looking down. That might have been him if Virginia hadn’t had such a liberal minded father. Tony had never been really happy about his interest in Virginia, but at least he’d never tried to hang him for it.

“I heard you were jailed for sheep poaching,” Rose said. “And I’m afraid to admit I was happy about it. I thought you’d be safer in Snow White Memorial Prison.”

“I don’t know about that. It’s not as if you meet a high class of people there. That’s where I met the Evil Queen.”

“And became a hero, for all of us.”

“Well, I don’t know about that. Things just sort of happened.”

They were interrupted at that point by King Wendell. He’d seen the whole interplay between Wolf and the beautiful red headed girl from his window and just couldn’t help himself. He had to come and find out who she was. “That was quite a reception,” Wendell said, “I think Queen Riding Hood probably heard that cheer they gave you all the way to the Second Kingdom.”

“Yeah. Can you believe it?” Wolf said, “I’m a hero.”

“And who is this lovely lady?” Wendell asked, striding up to her side.

“Oh, forgive me. Wendy, this is my sister Rose. Rose, this is King Wendell.”

Wendell clicked his heals dramatically and bowed low from the waist. “Charmed.”

“Oh, and I didn’t properly introduce my future father-in-law,” Wolf continued, “Rose, this is Lord Tony Lewis, the Inventor to the King.”

“Rose,” Tony said politely. It hadn’t occurred to him before that he might end up with wolf in-laws and he wasn’t sure how he felt about it yet.

“Your Majesty,” Wolf said, “I hope you won’t mind if my sister stays here in the castle with us.”

Wendell didn’t answer. He was gazing too hard into Rose’s face, admiring the play of freckles across her face. As for her eyes, he hadn’t been able to see what color they were before. They were intoxicating. It was hard for him to concentrate on anything else.

Wolf exchanged glances with Virginia. “Wendy? Did you hear me?”

“Hmm? Oh, I’m sorry. I was just thinking about, uh, the price of, uh, corn in the northern most corner of my kingdom.”

“I’ll bet,” Tony said under his breath. He’d seen that look before. Wendell was looking at Rose the same way Wolf had looked at Virginia’s picture the first time he’d caught sight of it. Except in this case, Wendell didn’t howl.

“The price of corn has been beastly high,” Wendell continued. And people are having trouble buying it. And what with winter coming on, well, it’s a necessity, don’t you know. Corn is used to make meal.”

Rose nodded and looked at Wendell strangely.

“Wendy,” Wolf asked again, “do you mind if my sister stays in the castle with us?”

“Mind? I should say not. I mean, of course not. And we must feed her a good lunch too. I’ll have the chef prepare something special. After all, Miss Rose has been living in the woods. It’s time she had a good meal. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some affairs to attend to. I mean, affairs of state.” Wendell clicked his heels again and fled for his office. It was awful. He’d been every bit as out of control as he’d been afraid he would be. That could never happen again.

“Are you hungry?” Virginia asked Rose.

“Well, I haven’t had any breakfast. So, I really wouldn’t mind.”

“No breakfast!” Wolf exclaimed. “We can’t have that. Right this way and we’ll fix that immediately.”

“I’m afraid I can’t come,” Tony said. “I sort of have a date.”

“A date?” Virginia said in surprise.

“Just a little teeny one.”

“Someone special?”

Tony started to say, “Oh, yeah,” but stopped himself. “She’s a friend.”

“You could bring her along. I’d like to meet her.”

Tony shifted his feet in discomfort. He hadn’t exactly been planning the kind of date you brought your daughter along on. Still, it was Virginia’s first day back and he didn’t want to say no. Also he was curious to hear more about Wolf’s sister. “Well, I’ll go ask her,” he said, “You run along and we’ll join you in a bit.”

By the time they got to the dining room, the wait staff had already been alerted by the King. A small table was being readied in the corner with four chairs and a fresh new tablecloth covered with some of the best silver the castle had to offer.

“This is nice,” Virginia told the waiter. “But we’ll need one more place-setting.”

“Certainly, Miss,” the waiter said.

“Excellent,” Wolf said, “Rose, you’re just in time for our wedding. We’re getting married tomorrow. You can help Virginia get ready and even be her maid of honor.”

“Oh, yes. I’d love it,” Virginia said. “Wolf never talks much about his family.”

Wolf’s eyes shifted nervously and he took a big gulp of water.

“Some of our childhood wasn’t pleasant,” Rose said.

Virginia remembered how Wolf had once told her about his parents being burned by farmers, back during their trip through Little Lamb Village. It had been her first experience with Wolf during the full moon. And he had talked about his parents dying with such pain and anger that she never dared bring it up again. But it was hard not to. Another time while they were in New York, he’d talked about his parents again, describing them as old and fat this time. And he said they’d died basically of a sedentary life and an obsessive hatred for humans. But that didn’t make sense. They sounded like full-blooded wolves. How could that be? In order for him to be half-wolf, he had to have one human parent. She was hungry to learn more. “How did you all lose touch with each other?” she asked. “Our real parents died when we were very young,” Rose said. “And we were raised separately after that.”

“Oh,” Virginia said. That explained a lot. There were two sets of parents then.

“Rose and Lazar looked exactly like our mother,” Wolf said. “She was human, with red hair and a light complexion. Wilhelm and I both had the dark coloring of our wolf father.”

“Did Wolf tell you that we’re rumored to be descended from Red Riding Hood?”

“What?” Virginia was shocked. She looked first at Wolf and then at Rose. “You’re kidding!”

“Huff-puff!” Wolf said, “That’s just a silly rumor.” He didn’t believe it for a minute. But he had fantasized about it after his real parents were gone. When the other children picked on him and treated him like an outcast, it was fun to pretend that he was secretly a prince. “Everyone knows Red Riding Hood the First only had one daughter, who was born several years after she was married. Her name was Ruby originally. Before the Red family got seriously committed to the color red, they used to name their children after gemstones. Red Riding Hood the First’s real name was supposed to have been something like Pearl. When Ruby ascended the throne, she took her mother’s popular name. And she also had only one daughter, the present Queen Riding Hood. My foster parents told me that rumor was just a story people thought up. You know, because there weren’t a lot of half-wolves like us in the Second Kingdom when we were young. So, people got to thinking how ironic it would be if Red Riding Hood had half-wolf descendents.”

“Well, my foster parents swore it was true,” Rose said. There was assurance in her voice and green eyes. She believed it just as much as Wolf didn’t. “I was brought up by friends of our father, you know.”

Wolf growled. “And my foster parents were friends of our grandfather’s. It’s ridiculous! Everybody knows Red Riding Hood and her family have always hated wolves more than anybody else. They still do.”

“So, what happened to your real parents?” Virginia asked carefully.

“They were burned for poaching,” Rose said.

“How horrible.”

Rose nodded solemnly. “But my foster parents insisted they were innocent.”

Wolf said nothing. He just looked down pointedly at the table. His appetite had suddenly disappeared.

“My brothers and I were immediately divided up,” Rose went on, “Wolf went to friends of our grandfather’s, who were both pure-blooded wolves. Wilhelm and Lazar were adopted by the gypsies because they like having wolf blood in their families. They think it gives them cunning and strength and makes strangers fear them. Unfortunately, living with the gypsies didn’t do much for our brothers.”

“And so, no one kept in touch with anybody,” Virginia said. “I guess you wouldn’t have been able to.”

“My foster parents tried to keep in touch with my brothers but weren’t able to. The gypsy band that had Wilhelm and Lazar went to another kingdom. It wasn’t till after I reached adulthood that I was able to find out what happened to them. As for Wolf’s foster parents, they refused to have anything to do with mine. I think they wanted Wolf, as the oldest son, to carry out the revenge of our grandfather. They were afraid my foster parents might try to talk him out of it.”

“What revenge is that?” Virginia said.

They paused for a moment as the waiter brought their lunches. Additional plates were laid down for Tony and his lady friend, but they still hadn’t arrived.

“Didn’t Wolf tell you?” Rose asked.

Wolf shut his eyes, dreading the inevitable. This was the one thing he’d never wanted Virginia to know. Cripes. Rose had always been too honest. Even when she’d been a cub, she refused to tell the littlest of white lies. Couldn’t she at least have waited until after they were safely married to tell this to Virginia?

“We’re direct descendants of Aesophocles,” Rose said.

“Who?”

“You know. The gray wolf that tried to kill Red Riding Hood.”

There was silence at the table again.

Wolf opened one eye and looked at Virginia. “Is the wedding off?”

“Why didn’t you tell me? What else haven’t you told me?”

“Oh, Cripes,” Wolf whined. “It was bad enough that I was half-wolf. How could I tell you I was descended from THAT wolf?”

Virginia shook her head and closed her eyes. “Well, at least it explains why you took such an instant dislike to my grandmother.”

Wolf shivered with embarrassment at the memory of his first and thus far only meeting with the old lady. He prayed his sister would stop, but of course she went on. Why did she always have to be so honest?

“After Aesophocles was killed,” Rose continued, “his son, who was our full-blooded wolf grandfather, promised revenge on the House of Red. His name was Scythian. He was well known for archery and his use of poisoned arrows.”

“When our father died,” Wolf said, “my foster parents wanted me to step in and carry out the revenge.”

“You could have done it easily,” Virginia said, “by going through with the Evil Queen’s plans to poison everybody. Queen Red Riding Hood was here that very day, you know.”

“Yeah, I know.” Wolf picked up his knife and fork and started carving his meat with extra vigor. “Missy Red was none too happy about being drugged with troll dust. The other guests were thrilled to have the Queen defeated and Wendell back on the throne. But not her! She was angry that her dress had gotten dusty from lying on the floor. Oh, huff-puff! Rose, how can you possibly think we’re related to them. I wouldn’t want them as part of my family, anymore than they’d want me as part of theirs.”

Virginia reached across and took Wolf’s hand. His fingers were in a tight fist, but they loosened as she touched him. “One thing I have wondered,” she said, trying to change the subject a bit. “Did your parents really name you Wolf? Or did you have another name?”

“Our real parents called him something else,” Rose said.

Virginia closed her eyes with dread. “It wasn’t Aesophocles, was it?”

“No,” Wolf said, “I hardly remember it anymore. My foster parents were the ones who started calling me Wolf. They thought if everyone called me that, then maybe I’d learn how to be a proper one.”

“It’s just as well,” Rose said, looking up admiringly at her brother. “For now, the name Wolf stands for something more than revenge. It stands for honor and heroism. It’s the only name you should ever use.”

Suddenly the door to the diningroom burst open and Lord Rupert flew in, the gold braid on his jacket rising and falling as he panted. “Ah,” he said, throwing his hands up in the air. “There you are, Mr. Wolf. I’ve been searching for you everywhere. I need you to come at once and pick out which pattern of china you want. The everyday stuff will simply not go with our motif!”

“I’m coming,” Wolf said, with a wave. Then he turned appealingly to Virginia, his forehead creasing with dread. “The wedding’s still on, isn’t it?”

“Of course,” Virginia said, giving his hand a squeeze. So what if his ancestor with the ridiculous name had tried to kill Red Riding Hood a couple hundred years ago. Her mother had only three weeks before tried to wipe out most the rulers of the Nine Kingdoms. “I just don’t want to have to plan everything.”

“No problem!” Wolf said. He got up and kissed her on the top of the head. “We’ve got it all under control. You just need to pick out what you’re going wear. Maybe Rose can help you.”

“I’d be glad to,” Rose said.

“Mr. Wolf. Please!” Lord Rupert squealed. “The hours are ticking.”

“See you later,” Wolf said. And he was gone.