"Cecelia used to talk French to me," Tanya said, "because I was the only one of us who could understand it. Arno and Ivan didn't know any. You and Stefan and Druse were too little to interest Cecelia anyway."

Samara didn't know whether to believe Tanya or not but at the Baldwin she'd been wonderstruck watching Cecelia. Every seat in the theater was full and the crowd clapped and cheered so much when the show was over that Cecelia came onto the stage again and danced one more number. She wore all black and her gown was tight rather than flowing like the others she'd worn.

The way she pranced and glided and leaped across the stage wove a spell around Samara. If she half-closed her eyes she could almost imagine Cecelia was a graceful and beautiful black cat.

Cecelia had supper with them at the Palace Hotel after the show and Samara could hardly eat for watching her.

"We'd enjoy a visit from you," Grandfather said to her. Cecelia smiled and shrugged. "I'm so busy. Perhaps next year."

Tanya thought she meant to visit them in the future but somehow Samara knew that Cecelia had no intention of ever coming to Volek House.

For weeks after the trip, Tanya had sashayed around the house trying to imitate the way Cecelia walked. Though they both had dark hair and slim figures and Tanya was pretty enough, she lacked Cecelia's grace and verve.

Samara didn't like Tanya very much. Of the two girls at Volek House, she preferred Druse. Though Druse might be a nuisance sometimes, trailing after her and Stefan when they didn't want her, she was kind and sweet while Tanya thought she was Miss Know-it-all and could be really nasty if proved wrong.

Like her or not, Samara was thrilled when Tanya invited her into her room, saying she needed some advice. Tanya locked the door and drew Samara to the window seat where she pulled her down beside her.

Outside, a tule fog gathered, the usual boring November fog that no one enjoyed.

"Druse couldn't keep a secret if her life depended on it," Tanya said, "and I have to talk to someone or I'll go stark, raving mad. Promise me you won't tell a living soul--not even Stefan."

"Cross my heart and hope to die," Samara said, making an X over her heart.

Tanya took a deep breath. "You've met Rodney McQuade. What do you think of him?"

"He seems nice," Samara ventured cautiously, not sure what Tanya was leading up to. The McQuades had celebrated Rodney's twentieth birthday two months ago and invited all the Voleks to a party. Grandfather and Grandmother declined, as usual, but allowed her, Stefan, Druse and Tanya to go, Grandfather driving them over in the buggy and picking them up later.

"Nice! Why, Rodney's wonderful!" Tanya clasped her hands together and gazed dreamily at the fog.

Samara eyed her in surprise. The McQuades had two boys. The elder, Richard, was married and lived in San Francisco where he looked after his father's interests in McDee Enterprises. The younger, Rodney, worked on the ranch. He looked a lot like his brother--they both were stocky and sandy-haired and had blue eyes.

"He's so handsome," Tanya crooned.

Samara raised her eyebrows. Pleasant looking, yes--but handsome? Arno and Ivan, dark and tall, with golden eyes, were her idea of handsome.

Tanya opened several buttons of her high-necked gown and drew out a gold chain. Threaded onto it was a ring with a sparkling blue stone set into it.

"A sapphire," Tanya said proudly, holding the ring in her hand. "Rodney bought it for me when he was in San Francisco visiting his brother."

Samara blinked. Tanya had drifted around in a trance lately but she never dreamed the cause was a man--and certainly not Rodney McQuade, of all people.

"Is it supposed to be an engagement ring?" she asked bluntly.

Tanya blushed and nodded. "I don't dare wear it on my finger, though. Grandfather would have a fit."

"You mean he doesn't know?"

"Heavens no! You're the only one I've breathed a word to."

"When are you going to tell him?"

"Never." Tanya's chin quivered as she blinked back tears. "He'd forbid me to marry Rodney."

Samara didn't understand. "But Mr. McQuade is Grandfather's partner. They're friends."

"Grandfather doesn't want any of us to marry. Ever. He as good as said so when I turned seventeen."

Samara knew Tanya had been called into the study on her last birthday and she'd wondered what for. Tanya had never told her. Though she hadn't really thought about getting married herself, Tanya's words disturbed her.

"Why can't we marry?" she demanded.

"Because we're not supposed to have children. They might be shapeshifters because of our Volek blood."

It made sense to Samara. When you got married you had children. Who'd want to bear a shifter? Heaven knows she wouldn't.

"Grandfather asked me," Tanya went on, "what I'd do if I got married and had twin boys. Whatever I told my husband, he couldn't be expected to understand the dangers. And when the one boy shifted, the beast would be uncontrollable, bringing disaster to everyone. If I didn't have twins, what would I tell the child I bore when it grew up and wanted to marry? Having Volek blood is dangerous, he said, and the shifting trait must not be passed on to another generation." Samara didn't know what to say. Grandfather was surely right but how could she comfort Tanya?

"I don't care what he says, he can't keep me from marrying Rodney!"

Tanya's voice was fierce. "No one can!" Startled, Samara gaped at her.

"The reason I'm telling you all this," Tanya continued, "is because I need your help. Rodney and I are eloping. Tonight." ###

Chapter 7.

Late on the night of the planned elopement, Samara watched Grandmother lead a weeping Tanya into the study to wait for Grandfather. She feared Tanya would never forgive her and she wondered if she'd be able to forgive herself. Grandfather, she knew, was escorting Rodney back to the McQuades. Samara hadn't wanted to tell her grandparents about the elopement but, haunted by the specter of shifter babies being born to Rodney and Tanya, she'd gone to Grandmother at the last moment.

Aware she'd never be able to sleep, Samara climbed the stairs slowly, sighing as she sat down on the top step. No matter how long it took, she meant to stay there until her grandparents finished talking to Tanya and then apologize to her cousin.

Some time later, Druse eased down beside her. "I woke up and Tanya wasn't in her bed," Druse said. "Where is she?" "In the study with Grandfather and Grandmother," Samara told her.

Druse drew in her breath. "What's she done?"

"She and Rodney McQuade tried to elope."

"Oh. Why'd they want to do that?"

Samara explained as best she could and Druse was silent for long moments. "Grandmother makes a potion for not having babies," she said finally.

It was the first Samara had heard about it but she wasn't too surprised that Druse knew. Druse had shown a talent for healing and Grandmother was teaching her how to make and use various medicines.

"I like Rodney," Druse added. "He makes me laugh." Samara put an arm around her. "I like him, too. But maybe he wouldn't want to marry Tanya if they could never have children."

"When I'm old enough, I'm going to marry Stefan," Druse announced.

"Does he know?"

"Sure he does--I told him. 'Course he said he wasn't never, ever going to marry anyone but I didn't pay any attention. Boys his age don't think about marriage."

Samara hid her smile. Druse, at thirteen, was three years younger than Stefan but at the moment she sounded years older.

"Grandfather won't care if I marry Stefan," Druse went on. "We won't be marrying outsiders--we're both Voleks." Druse's relationship to her and Stefan was complicated. Samara thought of her as a cousin but actually Druse was Wolf's daughter. Wolf was Grandfather's grandson by a woman in Russia. Grandfather also had had a son in California by another woman and that son, now dead, was her and Stefan's father.

None of them, Samara decided, including Arno and Ivan, would have been born if someone had warned Grandfather about Volek blood when he was young. Someday she'd ask him why no one had.

"Who are you going to marry?" Druse asked.

"I haven't met anyone I want to marry. Maybe I never will."

"Cecelia Kellogg told Grandfather the same thing when we were in San Francisco--that she hadn't found anyone. He was talking to her about children carrying traits of their parents and grandparents. I wasn't supposed to hear but I did."

Samara wondered why Grandfather would say such things to Ceceila, who wasn't a Volek. The sound of the back door opening and closing drove the thought from her mind. Grandfather had returned home. She shook her head. Poor Tanya--she was in for it now.

Druse, leaning against her, fell asleep before the study door opened, telling Samara their grandparents were finished talking to Tanya. Samara shook Druse awake and, with an arm around her shoulders, helped the other girl back to bed. She returned to the hall and waited with a heavy heart for Tanya. To her surprise, instead of dragging up the stairs, Tanya bounded up them. When she saw Samara she flung her arms around her.

"I'm so happy!" Tanya cried.

Samara pulled back. "I thought you'd be mad at me." Tanya beamed. "If you hadn't given us away to Grandmother, this never would have happened. Listen--Rodney and I are going to get married in a real wedding with everyone invited!"

Surprise made Samara temporarily speechless. Finding her voice, she asked, "When?"

"Sometime next spring."

"But what about the problem?"

Tanya shrugged. "We just won't have any children. Grandmother knows ways to prevent it." She smiled again, this time more slyly. "They had to agree. I told them if they didn't I'd sneak off and marry Rodney anyway. And I would, too. He's the only man I'll ever love."

Tanya's wedding reception was held at the elegant new Citrus Hotel in Thompsonville. Everything about the wedding was beautiful, Samara thought, including the bride. Though Grandmother had one of her spells, falling into a trance, Mrs. McQuade managed to ease her away from the guests before anyone else noticed her odd behavior.

Mrs. McQuade, who'd known Liisi for over twenty years, didn't seem disturbed but Samara knew both her grandparents were. She was herself after she heard Grandmother whispering to Grandfather that she'd suddenly seen the bridal couple engulfed in flames--a frightening omen.

No one told the happy newlyweds that anything was amiss and they left amid a shower of rice for an overnight stay in San Francisco. In the morning they'd be getting on the train in Oakland to cross the country to spend their honeymoon in New York City. When they returned they'd live in Thompsonville until their new house on McQuade property was finished.

Because she and Tanya had never been close, Samara was surprised to find that Volek House seemed emptier without her. Druse, with no Tanya for company, constantly tagged after her and Stefan.

"I expect to find Druse under my bed next," Stefan grumbled.

"She's planning to marry you," Samara warned him.

He rolled his eyes.

But in June it was Stefan who comforted Druse when the tiger-striped kitten she'd smuggled in from the barn clawed her face and neck in its frantic effort to escape.

"It wasn't you the kitten didn't like," he told Druse, dabbing away the blood with his handkerchief. "Grandfather doesn't take to cats and I guess they don't like him, either. All cats seem to hate Volek House."

When Samara looked for the kitten later, wanting to be certain it wasn't still in the house, Stefan told her not to bother.

"It's gone for good," he said. "I killed it."

Samara drew in her breath in horror. "Why?"

He shrugged and walked away, leaving her deeply disturbed. More and more lately, he seemed to be turning into someone other than the Stefan she'd known since birth. She was aware he could hardly wait until they turned eighteen so he could stop going to school.

"It's like I'm penned in the damn schoolhouse," he told her. "Did you notice the desperate eyes of the caged wolf we saw at the San Francisco Zoo? That's how I feel sometimes. Not only about school but because I'm trapped here at Volek House. Once I'm eighteen I'm leaving and no one's going to stop me."

By the following June, Stefan had begun avoiding her. Samara tried not to care and sought Druse's company. More often than not, though, Druse was nowhere to be found and Samara assumed she was in the tower room with Grandmother. Feeling left out, she was delighted when Tanya invited her to spend a weekend with them in their new house. Grandfather readily agreed.

On Saturday afternoon Tanya served tea to Samara in her parlor after Rodney and his father left for Thompsonville on business.

"You look so happy," Samara said, her tone tinged with envy.

"Being married to Rodney is more wonderful than I ever imagined. I've never felt so close to anyone before. At least not since my mother died--and I can hardly remember her."

"He doesn't mind not ever having children?"

Tanya's smile faded. "We don't discuss it."

A sudden suspicion struck Samara. "Surely you've told him you don't plan to have children."

Tanya bit her lip. "No. No, I haven't. He doesn't know the real reason I take Grandmother's potion--he thinks it's for my health."

Samara bit back her impulse to say that was dishonest. It was none of her business what Tanya chose to do. But she wondered how Tanya could feel close to Rodney and at the same time conceal something so important from him.

When Grandfather came to get her on Sunday night, Samara almost brought up the matter on their way home but decided it wasn't her place to tell him.

"The moon's three days from full," Grandfather said. He'd taught all of them the moon's phases when they were so young that Samara couldn't recall a time when she didn't know exactly what phase the moon was in. She glanced from the buggy at the waxing moon, half-hidden by a passing cloud. Strange that the moon, so far from earth, could affect a Volek shapeshifter.

For some reason this reminded her of what Druse had overheard Grandfather say to Cecelia. Pondering his words, she asked, "Are there other shifters in the world besides Voleks?"

"I know of one. Dead now. There may be others, who can tell?"

"Did a stalker kill that other shifter?"

He sighed. "Yes. You're old enough to be told--the shifter was Cecelia's mother."

Samara's eyes widened. "A woman! I thought shifters were always men."

"That's true of Voleks."

After mulling it over, Samara said, "Then Cecelia shouldn't have children."

"That's right. She may pass on the trait."