Read Changeless: The Parasol Protectorate: Book the Second for Free Online Page B

driver on to Buckingham.
    The guards were expecting her. Lady Maccon was always at the palace two hours after dark on Sundays and Thursdays without
     fail. And she was one of the most unproblematic of the queen’s regular visitors, being the least high-and-mighty, for all
     her forthright tone and pointed opinions. After the first two weeks, she had even gone to the trouble of learning all of their
     names. It was the little things that made someone grand. The ton were suspicious of Lord Maccon’s choice, but the military
     was rather pleased with it. They welcomed straightforward talk, even from a female.
    “You are late, Lady Maccon,” said one, checking her neck for bite marks and her dispatch case for illegal steam devices.
    “Don’t I know it, Lieutenant Funtington, don’t I know it,” replied the lady.
    “Well, we shan’t keep you. Go on in, my lady.”
    Lady Maccon gave him a tight smile and went.
    The dewan and the potentate were already waiting for her. Queen Victoria was not. The queen usually arrived nearer to midnight,
     after presiding over her family and supper, and stayed only to hear the results of their debate and formulate any final decisions.
    “I cannot apologize enough for having kept you both,” said Alexia. “I had unexpected squatters on my front lawn and an equally
     unexpected engagement to handle this evening. No excuses, I know, but those are my reasons.”
    “Well, there you have it,” snarled the dewan, “The affairs of the British Empire must wait on squatters and your good graces.”
     Landed as the Earl of Upper Slaughter but without any real country seat, the dewan was one of the few werewolves in England
     who could give the Earl of Woolsey a fight for his fur and had had occasion to prove it. He was almost as big as Conall Maccon
     but slightly older-looking, with dark hair, a wide face, and deep-set eyes. He ought to have been handsome, except that his
     mouth was a little too full, the cleft in his chin a little too pronounced, and his mustache and muttonchops astonishingly
     assertive.
    Alexia had spent long hours wondering over that mustache. Werewolves did not grow hair, as they did not age. Where had it
     come from? Had he always had it? For how many centuries had his poor abused upper lip labored under the burden of such vegetation?
    Tonight, however, she ignored both him and his facial protuberances. “So,” she said, sitting down and placing the dispatch
     case on the table next to her, “shall we on to business?”
    “By all means,” replied the potentate, his voice honeyed and cool. “Are you feeling well this evening, muhjah?”
    Alexia was surprised by the question. “Quite.”
    The vampire member of the Shadow Council was the more dangerous of the two. He had age on his side and much less to prove
     than the dewan. Also, while the dewan made a show of disliking Lady Maccon for form’s sake, Alexia knew for a fact that the
     potentate actually loathed her. He had registered an official complaint in writing on the occasion of her marriage to the
     Woolsey Pack Alpha and the same again when Queen Victoria brought her in to sit on the Shadow Council. Alexia had never discerned
     exactly why. But he had the support of the hives in this as in most things, which made him far more powerful than the dewan,
     for whom pack loyalty seemed wobbly.
    “No stomach ailments?”
    Alexia gave the vampire a suspicious look. “No, none. Could we get on?”
    Generally, the Shadow Council administered supernatural interaction with the Crown. While BUR handled enforcement, the Shadow
     Council dealt with legislative issues, political and military guidance, and the occasional sticky-residue snafu. During Alexia’s
     few months on board, discussions had ranged from hive authorization in the African provinces, to military code covering the
     death of an Alpha overseas, to neck-exposure mandates in public museums. They had not yet had a genuine crisis to deal with.
     This,