by W. J. May
Rae stifled a grin and saluted instead. “Yes, ma’am!”
They continued on for a while longer, each one focused on the task at hand, before Rae suddenly shot her friend a rather shy smile. She hadn’t known how to bring it up before now. In fact, she wasn’t even sure if she should. The entire thing had happened under the strangest of circumstances. But seeing as how this was the first bit of alone time the best friends had gotten since it happened, she was taking her shot.
“So…” Rae held up a pair of Champagne flutes, the kind used for special occasions, “I suppose we’re going to need to get you and Luke a pair of these soon enough…”
Molly glanced up quickly before dismissing them with a frown. “Baccarat? Rae, you know I prefer Waterford—”
“For your wedding!” Rae burst out, unable to keep it inside a moment longer.
Molly’s hands froze perfectly still. Her lips parted, but for one of the first times since Rae had known her Molly apparently couldn’t think of a thing to say. She just stared down at her hands.
Like flipping a switch, all Rae’s enthusiasm turned on a dime. She abandoned the flutes at once and scooted towards Molly across the floor, sending up a cloud of bubble wrap in her wake. “Molls?” She inched closer and tentatively took her friend’s hand. “Is that not…I’m sorry. I didn’t think that there was any way that would be a bad thing…”
“No, it’s not that.” There was a little sniff as Molly wiped away an errant tear. “It’s just…” She trailed off, unable to say more.
“Oh, honey!” Rae gathered Molly in her arms. Horrified to have triggered a sad reaction with what she thought was happy news. Fully prepared to let her sob it out as Angel snored obliviously above. “What happened?” she asked softly, stroking her friend’s fiery hair. “The two of you were so happy when it happened! I mean, you were in a burning building surrounded by virtual zombies and you were still so happy! What changed?”
Molly leaned back, pulling in a shaky breath. “Nothing’s changed. At least, I don’t think anything changed. But that’s the problem—I’m not sure.” She wiped her eyes and tried to gather herself together. “Rae, an hour after we got engaged, Samantha wiped our memory of the entire thing. I didn’t even remember being in the grocery store, let alone proposing to Luke. The night you came back, we were all just so relieved that you were home I don’t think anyone thought about anything else. It was hard to, anyway. Like trying to pull something out of mud. Things came back slowly. But yesterday…” She bowed her head, miserably staring down at her lap. “But yesterday morning when I woke up, I remembered everything. Every single thing that happened in that store. That he almost died, that we got all those people out…that I asked him to marry me.”
Rae nodded slowly, trying to follow along. “Okay, so, why is that a bad thing?”
Molly sighed. “It’s a dreadful thing because Luke hasn’t said a single word about it.”
Rae blinked. “Not one word?”
“Not a single word.”
The rolls of bubble wrap flew up again as both girls leaned back, contemplating the situation from every possible angle. Rae didn’t get it. Luke had wanted to marry Molly long before she got pregnant. From all accounts, he’d wanted to marry her since the day they got back from their very first date. And Luke wasn’t the type of guy to play games. In fact, out of all the boys in the house he was the one who was the easiest to predict. The one who could be counted on for a fair and proportionate response. It was one of the things she liked most about him.
That being said, it made this particular lapse in judgement make absolutely no sense.
“Maybe he still doesn’t remember,” she said hopefully. “We already know that everyone handles Samantha’s ink a little differently. It wore off for you yesterday, but maybe he—”
“I asked Julian,” Molly interrupted quietly. “Everything started to come back to him yesterday morning as well.”
Rae scrambled desperately for any out she could think of. “Yeah, but Julian’s a bad gauge of this sort of thing. His tatù is all in the mind, so it makes him more resilient than the rest of us.”
“Angel said it came back yesterday, too.”
As if on cue, the girl snored even louder than ever.
Rae glanced up at the counter before rolling her eyes sarcastically. “You can’t seriously pay any attention to the reaction of that little freak—”
“Gabriel remembered, too.”
At that, Rae couldn’t think of anything to say. Her best friend in the world was clearly devastated beyond any kind of comfort, and she was clean out of escape hatches to help her.
“It’s okay,” Molly said swiftly, not wanting to be a burden. “I mean, the whole thing was incredibly sudden. He was still coming out of the drugs—I’m pregnant...” She sighed. “It wasn’t fair to ask.”
Rae’s heart shattered, and she started desperately shaking her head. “Molly, no—”
“And besides, yesterday was Devon’s and your big engagement announcement. I don’t want to make a big deal out of this, when it never even got off the ground.”
“Molly Elizabeth Skye!” Rae grabbed her hands suddenly, unable to listen for even a minute longer. “That boy LOVES you more than life itself. You cannot possibly think that he isn’t out of his mind at the prospect of finally getting to marry you.”
A few tears slipped down Molly’s face, and she pulled in a shaky breath. “But then why hasn’t he said anything?”
Rae paused for a split second, then moved forward determinedly. “I don’t know. That’s the truth. I honestly have no idea. But I do know Luke.” She squeezed Molly’s hands. “I know he’s crazy about you. And I know he’s an amazing guy. And I know he has to have a damn good reason for keeping quiet.”
Molly bit her lip, then nodded. Unable to refute it.
“I’m sure whatever he’s thinking, it’s going to come out soon enough,” Rae assured her soothingly. “And in the meantime, we have a whole new life to start planning. The both of us.”
For the first time, the hint of a watery smile made its way up Molly’s face. “Can you even believe it’s true?” she whispered. “We’re finally moving back home to London. You’re going to get married. I’m going to have a baby.”
“We’re both getting married,” Rae said firmly before melting into a rather breathless smile herself. “And no…I can’t believe it. If you had told me this would be happening a few years ago, when we were first starting at Guilder—”
“There’s no way we would’ve believed it!” Molly finished with a grin. “Not a chance in hell! We had plans, you and me! Those plans did not include getting married and settling down!”
Rae giggled, trying to picture the look on their sixteen-year-old faces if they were to jump ahead just a few years. “Well, to be fair, you might have always wanted to do both. If I recall, one of the first things you started chattering about when I got to Guilder was boys. Devon included.”
Molly snorted, and swatted her with a roll of bubble wrap. “Yeah, but not as an actual possibility! He had ink. So did you! In my mind, it was totally off-limits. You and Devon would no sooner have gotten together than me and Julian!”
“Someone say my name?”
The girls looked up with matching smiles as a dark head of hair popped into the room.
As if on cue, Angel sprang back to life and fell to the floor beside them, graceful as a cat. “Oh hi, honey!” she said brightly. “We’ve just been packing things up down here.”
He pursed his lips with an indulgent smile. “I can see that.” His eyes wandered over the crinkled waves of bubbles before coming to rest with amusement on the trio of lovely girls in the center, two of whom were still staring at him as if lost in their own inside joke. “Why do I feel like I’m missing something?”
Rae and Molly shared a knowing glance as their smiles turned smug.
“Bit of a shock for someone like you, isn’t it?” Molly quipped lightly.
“Yeah,” Rae grinned, “welcome to our world.”
Angel simply picked up the nearest thing she could reach, and began mummifying it haphazardly in the bubbles, completely unconcerned with the fact that it was Rae’s purse.
“Did you need something?” Molly asked, most likely concerned that her tear-stained face wouldn’t go unnoticed. “Or did you just need a break from Dev’s insufferable company?”
Julian grinned. “Actually, both. The guy is insisting we take the entire library with us to London. According to him, you never know when you might need a novel detailing the lost art of cricket.”
The girls looked up at the same time. “Cricket?”
Julian cast a long-suffering look towards the ceiling, as if he could still see Devon cheerfully bustling around. “It’s like he woke up and suddenly realized he’s British.”
“Quite right,” Rae piped in, feeling the need to defend her fiancé no matter how difficult the task might be. “You know Devon’s all for tradition. And sports.”
The rest of them shot her an identical look of sarcasm, and she conceded the point.
“…and he might be a bit of a hoarder,” she added under her breath.
“So, what did you need?” Molly interjected, moving them gracefully along. “Besides a new best friend?”
“Boxes,” Julian said briskly. “We called down a few minutes ago, but—”
“Oh, sorry.” Rae pushed to her feet. “I forgot. I’ll come up right now.”
The two of them headed out together, but not before hearing the beginnings of what promised to be a classic argument brewing between Molly and Angel.
“…You didn’t see it was a purse?!”
“…I didn’t care it was a purse.”
There was a hitch in Julian’s step, and Rae placed a comforting hand on his arm as they headed out towards the hall, stopping first to grab a bottle of wine.
“She’s doing fine.” When he gave her a doubtful look, she amended with a slight grin. “At least she’s trying—she’s trying really hard. You have to give her credit for that.”
“Which one?” he teased.
“Both. Angel. Molly. Definitely Angel.”
“I know,” he said quickly, reaching up to get a mug, “and I do, trust me. It’s just…”
It wasn’t often that Julian found himself at a loss for words. Fortunately, after all these years, Rae knew his mind almost as well as he knew it himself.
“It’s a big step,” she said gently, pouring him a splash of wine. “Moving back home.”
A little frown creased between his dark eyes, and he looked up helplessly.
“I don’t know why. We did it before.”
“You did it when we thought the world was about to end,” Rae said wisely, jumping up onto the buffet so they were closer to the same height. “At a time when everything felt like it was in transition. If there were rough spots, they didn’t matter then. Because nothing was fixed.”
Julian considered this for a moment before looking up suddenly. “I don’t regret it. That’s not what I’m saying at all.”
Rae nodded quickly to reassure him. “I know. I never thought otherwise. I’m just saying…it’s okay to worry about her.”
Julian bowed his head, wearing that worry on his sleeve. It was a sweet habit that both he and Devon happened to share, the inability to keep their emotions hidden from those they loved the most. One that tickled Rae to death, and made her absurdly protective.
“Hey,” she squeezed his hand, “at least you can take Angel out in public. What the hell am I supposed to do with Kraigan in London? You’ve seen him at the dinner table…”
Julian laughed in spite of himself, and the moment of darkness passed.
After Rae had unsuccessfully tried to vanquish her little brother in a cloud of smoke, the entire family had come together to discuss the logistics of the move. It was decided that, at least for the time being, Beth would be staying in the house with Simon. Commander Fodder would also be spending most of his time commuting from the estate so the two wouldn’t have to be alone.
It was a noble sacrifice, one that no doubt came about after the news of Devon and Rae’s impending marriage. Technically speaking Simon was still on governmental probation, and required a ‘keeper.’ It was a task that Beth refused to foist upon the younger generation when they were not only dealing with the ongoing question of Samantha, but were also finally leaving their isolated little castle behind to return to the land of the living.
At first, Rae had done her best to refuse. She couldn’t imagine a worse punishment for her mother than to be trapped in a giant house with Simon Kerrigan. But, to be honest, her mom almost didn’t seem to mind. The two of them generally steered clear of each other, and something about having their only daughter snatched away from right under their noses had re-clarified their priorities a bit. At any rate, she wasn’t in a hurry to return to Scotland all by herself.
That only left the question of Kraigan. And it was another answer that Rae didn’t like.
Kraigan was coming along.
Much to her extreme shock, it was actually Devon who made the decision. According to him, the last thing they needed on their fresh slate in London was a visit from the police, demanding to know why their ward of the state wasn’t currently in their care. When Rae had coolly suggested that Kraigan might stay in the boathouse—in a similar manner to how Simon had stayed in the boathouse when he first arrived—she was shot down with an exasperated smile.
“I still can’t believe he’s coming with us,” Julian muttered as they headed out into the main foyer. “As if we needed another reason to sleep with one eye open.”
“Hey! I couldn’t have fought against that any harder,” Rae said defensively. “Blame it on our little cricket star up there.”
Julian snorted and held open his arms as she piled them full of conjured boxes. He saluted as best he could and headed back up the stairs, when she called out suddenly.
“Jules?”
He turned around and she blushed.
As a habit, she didn’t ask him these sorts of things very often. “About Luke and Molly…”
He glanced down quickly before shaking his head. “I’d leave it.”
Rae’s shoulders wilted with a little sigh, but he shot her a swift grin.
“But…I wouldn’t worry.”
They shared a fleeting grin as Rae made a silent vow to master his power once and for all.
He turned once more to leave but doubled back suddenly, precariously balancing the boxes in his arms. “Speaking of Luke, I almost forgot to tell you—his dad’s on his way over.”
“To see him?” Rae asked.
“To see you.” Julian’s eyes briefly flashed white before darkening back to their usual shade of brown. “He’s already almost to the village.”
Rae’s spine stiffened instinctively, and she searched his face. “What does he want to talk about?”
Julian flashed her a sympathetic smile, then said the word she least wanted to hear. “Samantha.”
Apparently, her job as president of the PC was still hers.
She hoped.
Chapter 5
The very first time Rae met Commander Fodder—the day she opened her eyes to find herself in the medical wing of the Abbey—she found herself completely unable to tell him anything but the complete and utter truth. It had been a strange situation to find herself in, especially considering the bizarre circumstances of their meeting. A trained spy should have no problem spinning the truth to an opposing head of government.
But Luke had assured her that there was nothing to be done. The condition wasn’t limited to her alone. He’d been under the same inexplicable truth serum spell since childhood. It was his dad’s eyes, he’d said. There was something about those commanding eyes that simply held one accountable, no matter how much they might try to resist.
Needless to say, Rae found herself in a very similar state once again. It didn’t matter that she
had been elected President of the Privy Council. It didn’t matter she was the one who spearheaded the alliance between the Knights and the PC, or that she had more powers than most everyone at Guilder combined, or that she and her friends had single-handedly saved the world from destruction more times than they could count.
The second the two of them sat down together he was the adult, and she was the child. Age and rank didn’t matter. Experience played no part. In a way, it reminded her a great deal of Carter.
“…at which point Devon took me back to the house in London and proceeded to make me dinner,” she recounted openly. “Which was really surprising because, you see, I never had any idea that he knew how to cook—”
The Commander held up his hand with a little smile. He’d been sitting quietly for several minutes now, listening as she took him through every single detail that had happened since she woke up on the hill, quite oblivious to the fact that not every detail was exactly relevant. “Why don’t we just stick to Miss Neilson?” he suggested lightly. “I’m assuming you saw her again after the encounter in the diner?”
“Oh. Right.” Rae nodded quickly, flushing with embarrassment. “Yes, I did.”
From there, she proceeded to tell him the rest of the tale—avoiding his eyes and recounting it more as a case report than as a story. Things were easier, she’d discovered, when she acted like an agent of the Privy Council again, rather than as its president.
She never knew where the line was, as president. Least of all with a man who was going to be the father-in-law of her best friend. She had a great deal of trouble navigating the delicate balance between a conversation and a debriefing. Things were far simpler if she slipped back into the role of an agent. And not just in terms of the familiarity of it. There was something about putting on that hat again that made her feel very much at home.
“And that’s about it,” she concluded when she finished. “Saman—Miss Nelson drove off before either Devon or I could stop her. But I have no doubts that she’ll be back. The only question now is when that will be. And what we’re going to do when she comes.”