Chapter 1- The Story Begins

Rosto came up behind Rebekah, wrapped his arms around her waist, and kissed the back

of her neck.

"Up early again? You do need to get some sleep you know."

She smiled and reached over her shoulder to touch his face. He was such a good man. It had been almost since she had met him at the court of the Rogue. Since then he had become the new Rogue. She still remembered it, back when she was a Puppy.

"I did get sleep silly. Although I don't expect you to remember since you were snoring so loud."

Rebekah had a mischievous grin on her face. Earlier in their relationship she had objected to being the Rogue's 'woman'. She hadn't thought it was right for her, a Dog, to be associated with the King of Thieves. Luckily for Rosto, Mattes and Clary had told her there would be no problem with it.

In fact Clary had said, "People share their deepest secrets in bed. If there was ever a way to get on the inside with the Court of the Rogue this would be it."

Rosto had spluttered and choked on his drink, Beka nearly laughed her head off, and Mattes had just laughed his loud deep laugh. Beka snapped back to the present.

"I'm sorry Ros, did you say something?"

"I asked you if you had guard duty tonight. My boys are making some, transactions, tonight and I was hoping you could, you know, ease some things up a little."

Rosto had that fantastic grin on his face, and she knew she wouldn't be able to say no to him, but she had to. She groaned. Not again.

"Come on Rosto. I thought we talked about this. I can't do anything to make your 'transactions' easier. The only thing I can do is make sure it doesn't get too messy when you get caught."

She laughed as he winced at the last statement. He was remembering what happened last time he went on one of those "transactions" or whatever he called them. He had gone to the old Court building and, let's just say things didn't go too well.

"Don't remind me." He groaned. "I was just getting over that last setback."

"Sure"

"No, really, I was." She looked skeptically at him.

"Your Majesty," she began mockingly. He knew he was in for it now.

"you haven't stopped whining about that mission since you got back. And that was three weeks ago!"

He grinned, again. He knew she couldn't resist that smile.

"But I was starting to get better, before you deflated my self-esteem."

He put on a mock sad face. She shook her head at him.

"You need something deflated, and it's not your self-esteem."

He looked at her in horror.

"You wouldn't!"

"Yes I would. Your ego needs a good deflating."

"I can't believe you want to tell the Court I sleep with a teddy bear. That is so unfair. And besides, you would be saying you sleep with a teddy bear too since the whole court knows we share a bed."

He smiled at her slyly and this time she was pretty sure she would have to hit him.

Beka heard a knock at the door. She managed to convince Rosto to let her go by telling him he wouldn't look very intimidating if it was Rogue business.

'Did he really want to answer the door to his boys with his arms wrapped around her waist?' She asked.

When she opened the door she was surprised to see Tansy in front of her. Standing beside Tansy were Clary and Mattes. Why would her old Dogs and her best friend be knocking on her door in the middle of the night?

"We have a problem Beka."

"What is it Clary?"

Goodwin had given Rebekah permission to call her by her first name when Beka had graduated from Puppy status.

"We just found Herun dead Beka."

Beka looked at her friend and teacher.

"Does Tansy know?" she whispered to Mattes.

Clary shook her head no. Apparently she had better hearing then she let on.

"We thought it would be best if you told her. She likes you, and we just found out she has another little one on the way."

Beka mouth was set in a grim line.

"Well I should hope she likes me, we are best friends after all. But that's beside the point. Please come inside. Rosto, we have company."

"Who is it?"

The Rogue's palace was one of the safest buildings in the Lower City, Rosto made sure of it, but he was still paranoid.

"It's just Tansy, and Clary and Mattes." She knew he wasn't extremely fond of her old Dogs, so she kind of 'coughed' the last part.

"It's Tansy?" Rosto repeated. "I'll be right down. What does she want?"

"I'm not sure. Tansy, why did you come here?"

Beka smiled a little at her friend and rolled her eyes. Ros could sure be a pain. Tansy looked slightly nervous.

"I'm not sure why we came here. Mattes came and got me. He said we had to go right away, and we were meeting up with Clary. Then we came here. That's all I know. Why do they look so, I don't know, sad?"

Beka wasn't expecting her friend to be so perceptive. She had no idea where to begin. She knew she had to tell Tansy something, but she didn't know any details. She decided to take the safest route.

"I'm going to make some tea. Clary, I need your help."

She looked pointedly the older woman.

"Right, ahem, I'll help you with that, uhh, tea."

Clary followed Beka into the kitchen.

"Alright, that was the lamest getaway ever." Clara said dryly.

Beka smiled. "Clary, what happened back there? What happed at Herun's house?"

Beka was genuinely concerned for her teacher. She had never seen her so tired.

Clary took a deep breath,

"When we went into the room where we found him, it was a disaster. You can imagine what he looked like. They picked the one room in the house that wasn't likely to be left empty for long, the nursery. They left him in the nursery Beka. One of the little ones woke up while we were in there and started screaming. Thank goodness Tansy was at a friends' house. If she had been there I don't know what would have happened."

She said all this after closing her eyes and laying her head back against the wall. At least Beka now had something she could tell Tansy. Unfortunately that was not going to happen. Beka heard a high pitched scream, and then sobbing. Apparently Mattes had decided to tell her himself and not wait for Beka.

Beka ran into the other room at the same time Rosto did. Ros however had a knife drawn. The sight of the knife sent Tansy into even more hysterics. She started babbling incoherently and pointing to the knife. She wasn't making any sense at all. "Beka what happened?" asked Rosto.

She was spared having to answer by Mattes, who said

"It's probably my fault. I didn't want to wait until you were done in the kitchen, so I decided to go ahead and tell her."

"Tell her what?" Ros was completely confused.

This time Tansy answered him. Still sobbing, she said,

"Herun's dead Rosto. My husband is dead."

Then she fell back into hysterics and started wailing,

"What am I going to do?"

Beka knew she was going to have to do something. She thought for a minute, and figured it out. Unfortunately someone beat her to it. Clary walked in from the kitchen and slapped Tansy across the face. Mattes grinned.

"Obviously you're feeling better."

Clary glared at him. Beka took this opportunity to talk to Tansy, or at least try to.

"Tansy, Tansy, look at me. You have another little one on the way. If you stay this hysterical, you will lose your husband and newest babe on the same day. Calm down Tansy. Calm Down!"

Tansy's sobs shrank to quiet hiccupping whimpers. Rosto decided that now was a good time to ask his question.

"What are Mattes and Clary doing here? You only said Tansy was here." He had a little bit of a pout in his voice.

Beka stared at him.

"Do you really think this is a good time to go into this? I know you aren't fond of them, but couldn't you act like they weren't the ones to arrest you three weeks ago? For me?"

"All right. I'll be good."

Rosto sighed dramatically. The group heard a quiet giggle. Tansy was laughing at Rosto.

"See, I'm good at cheering people up."

"Shut up" was the unanimous reply to that statement.

Rosto looked at Tansy, "See, I don't get any love from these people!"

Tansy giggled again and looked flirtatiously at Rosto. Beka sighed.

"Boyfriend, stop leading on my best friend."

Then she looked at Tansy.

"Best friend, stop flirting with my boyfriend."

Mattes and Clary chuckled at this exchange. Tansy had started crying again when Beka called her on flirting with Ros.

"B-but Beka," she sobbed, "I j-just miss m-my Herun so much."

Tansy started wailing again. Beka was tired of her fickle friend.

"You told me last week you were tired of Herun. The only reason you were upset a minute ago is because you wanted us to feel sorry for you. I know you Tans. I know you too well to put up with whatever story you are going to tell. And I certainly know you too well to let someone like Rosto end up with you."

Tansy gaped at Beka. She knew her friend was honest, but she didn't think Beka would bring up the past this soon after her husbands death. Tansy wasn't about to deny that she was glad, to a point, that Herun was gone. He was a rich man, but a very poor husband. Beka had no right though to bring up what had gone on at the house on Mutt Piddle Lane.

Flashback

Tansy sat on the bed in her mother's house. She hadn't seen her in two years even

though she only lived three houses away. Her mother wasn't able to come outside

much. Hera slept through the day and began her business at night. Everyone on Mutt

Piddle Lane knew what Tansy's mother did, and there were even whispers that Tansy

was going to follow in Hera's footsteps. Tansy looked up from the bed and saw

someone in the doorway.

"Are you one of Hera's new brats wench?"

Tansy thought he meant children so she answered

"No sir, I'm one of her older ones I just don't come

around all that much."

The stranger leered at her. He didn't seem that old, but he had

yellow teeth and foul breath.

"How much then girl? Three copper nobles? Silver even?"

Tansy suddenly realized who he thought she was.

"I'm sorry sir but you have it all wrong. I'm no doxie. I'm Hera's daughter."

"Daughter, doxie, all the same gixie. If you don't name yourself a price I'll choose one for you, and it'll be free."

He reached out for her but she stepped back.

"Six copper nobles." She blurted out. "No less than six. That's only for a regular also sir. I charge extra for special services."

She had heard her mama make a deal before and she just raised the price. Tansy hoped he didn't want anything different since she didn't know how to do anything at all. That was the last time she went to her mama's house. Beka was the only one she had ever told about that night and that was only after Beka promised never to tell anyone about it.

End Flashback

Beka instantly felt bad about what she said.

"Tansy, I didn't mean to bring it up. Honestly I…"

"You didn't think about. That's because you don't care Beka. You never cared. You werealways just like 'it'll be okay Tans' or 'just forget about him Tansy. It's no big deal', but you weren't the one who had to deal with it all!"

Tansy was yelling at Beka. Grieving for her husband was forgotten. Beka thought for a second and then said

"Shut up Tans. I bet you don't even care that Herun died. I bet you killed him yourself and then left him in the nursery so someone would find him quickly."

Everyone stared at Beka. Clary and Mattes were shocked that Beka would even think something like that. Then they looked at Tansy. She was pale white and shocked.

"How. Dare. You. You accuse me of murdering my own husband!?"

Tansy was sweating. She kept shifting her eyes to others in the room. Clary looked at Mattes and then back to Tansy.

"Mistress, I think you better come back to the Kennel with us. You don't look too well."

"I am perfectly fine Guardswoman. I don't need to go with you."

"Alright then lass," Mattes grinned,

"you are under arrest for the murder of Herun Lofts. Now do you feel the need to come with us?"

Beka turned to Tansy,

"Why did you do it Tansy? What did you think you would gain?"

"Beka it was him all those years ago at my mothers. I ended up pregnant and went to him. Since I wasn't a worker at Hera's no one could have proved he didn't force me. So he married me instead. What I did was the only way to be free of him don't you see?"

She was smiling calmly like it all made perfect sense.

"Clary she must be mad. She told me the name of the man that day, and it wasn't him. She must be rationalizing it any way she can. I'm tempted to believe her about the baby though. It wouldn't surprise me if she'd gotten pregnant."

Clary didn't look at Beka when she replied,

"I don't know Cooper. I guess we'll find out more when we get to the kennel and the other Dogs get their paws on her."

Before Beka could say anything Clary smiled a humorless smile.

"Don't worry; we won't let them hurt her too bad."

Rosto and Mattes had been silent through this whole ordeal.

"Beka." Rosto said quietly.

"Someone is going to have to take care of Tansy's newest child when, if, she goes to the cages."

Beka looked at her man. She loved him a lot, but she hoped he wasn't suggesting what she thought he was.

"Are you asking me if we can take care of Tansy's baby?" she asked.

"Yes I am love." He had that grin on again. Damn him and that grin. She was not going to give in this time. She wasn't.

Fivr Months later

"Rosto! I can't believe I said yes to this!"