They both chuckled, and he kissed her on the nose. “You should at least sit down,” he said.
“Okay,” she agreed, heading toward her couch. He intended to follow her, but almost immediately, she stood up again, light pink filling her cheeks.
“What is it?”
“Nothing.” But the pink was growing darker.
“What, love?”
Her cheeks were decidedly red now, but she giggled under her breath, relaxing him. “It’s just . . . as soon as I sat down, I realized how much I want to be out of this stupid dress.”
He looked down at the soft folds of the material, unable to stop himself from reaching to take some of the fabric of the skirt in his hand. “I don’t know if I’d call it stupid . . .”
She rolled her eyes.
“So go change. You should go to bed, anyway; you’ve got to be exhausted.”
“Yeah . . . the problem is I can’t get out of it myself.” She turned her back to him, showing off an impressive line of tiny, intricate buttons. “And I’m sure Mia and Linnea are already both asleep.”
“It’s lucky for you I know how to operate a button. Otherwise, you’d have to sleep in this thing.” He understood her blush now; warmth crept up his own neck as he reached for the top button. The heat rose higher as his unbuttoning revealed the lacy top of the cream-colored slip she wore underneath the dress.
His breath caught, and she twisted her head to look at him. “This is dangerous,” she whispered.
“Very.” He ran his hand across the silky lace, and then up her also-silky neck. Buttons forgotten, she turned to face him, and his lips found hers.
He was thankful that she had the wherewithal to pull away from him a few minutes later – because he wasn’t sure he’d have been able to. “Sorry.”
She raised an eyebrow, her expression teasing, not angry. “Are you?”
“Only because I want to do this right. At this particular moment, I’m wishing we were already married, and that I could have this job permanently.” She kept her arms around his neck as he worked on the remaining buttons behind her.
“I wish that right now, too. It’s going to be hard to wait.”
He closed his eyes. Yes, traveling with her all the way to Philotheum like this was going to be next to impossible. As he stood there, trying to re-regulate his breathing, another course of action occurred to him. “Maybe we shouldn’t wait.”
“What do you mean?” She frowned. “We talked about this, I thought…”
“We did,” he said quickly. “That’s not what I mean … I meant, maybe we shouldn’t wait to get married.”
“We’re leaving in a couple of days, Will. We can’t just get married.” There was a catch in her voice that he didn’t understand – like something had just clicked, and she wasn’t telling him.
“We can’t have a big wedding, no – though all things considered we probably will still have to have a big, public ceremony sometime.”
“So, what, like a small private ceremony here, and then we’d already be married when we go?”
“Why not?”
“Do people do things like that here?”
“Sure. It’s not standard practice in my family, obviously, but these are not standard circumstances, either.”
“Would your parents be okay with it?”
He walked around her and started working on the buttons again. “Quinn, I love my parents, and I know you do, too. And your parents – your mom, at least, is really starting to grow on me. But we’re not talking about our parents here.”
He reached the last button and, then, still talking, made his way across the room to retrieve her dressing gown from its hook in her bathroom. “I want to be respectful to our parents, of course, but you and I are both adults, and we’re talking about marriage. This is about what’s best for us – not them.”
She slipped her arms out of the dress and into the robe, tying it around herself before he helped her step the rest of the way out of the skirt. “When did you turn into such a grown up?” She slumped down onto the couch, clearly relieved to be free from the heavy dress. He laid it carefully over the back of a chair before sitting down next to her.
“I am technically ten times older than you,” he teased. “Since I grew up in this world.”
“I don’t know. You spent quite a bit of time in mine. It’s possible now that Thomas and Linnea are older than you are. Maybe we should ask them.”
He chuckled. “I’m sure we’ll hear their opinions on the subject in the morning. Right now, I’m more interested in yours.”
“Well, we are going to get married anyway.”
“I hope so.”
“We are, Will. I’m not wavering on that. I’m just trying to process a lot of things right now.”
“I know, love.” He scooted closer to her on the couch, and took her hand in his. “I’m sorry. It’s been a long day. I should let you sleep.”
“I’m wide awake now.”
“So am I.” He wasn’t sure he’d ever been more awake.
“It would make some things easier.”
“We could be sure to have your mom here, for one thing.”
Her eyes widened, and he immediately felt bad – she obviously hadn’t thought about that – that if they waited and were married after they arrived in Philotheum, there was a good chance her family wouldn’t be able to be there. “My mom is leaving in three days. There’s no way we could plan a wedding in three days.”
“My mother could probably put together a wedding in three hours if she had to, Quinn. I’m not worried about that. If you want,” he said, softly stroking her hand, “we could make this ceremony more like one in your world. Do all the traditional things you’d do there. I don’t know what all of them are, but I’m sure we could find a way. My mother is a good planner; you can just tell her what you want. The hardest part of the whole thing will be finding someone to perform the ceremony on such short notice.”
She chuckled once under her breath.
“What?”
“I don’t think that part will be a problem.”
“Why?”
“Alvin tonight – I didn’t know what he was hinting about, but he pulled me aside and told me that he’d be nearby for the next couple of days, in case we needed his services. Now I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”
“Laughing is usually best, I think.”
She smiled. “Okay. So we get married sometime in the next three days, then.”
He pulled her hand up to his lips and kissed her ring. “That sounds good to me.”
Taking his hand in hers, she pulled it to her cheek. He ran his thumb against her cheekbone, smiling when it warmed to a light pink.
She tucked herself up under his other arm. “It’s going to be awfully hard to be ready to say good-bye and leave everyone so quickly.”
He wrapped his other arm around her, too. “Would that part be any easier if we had a hundred moons to prepare? Of course, I always imagined there would be more time – that our wedding would be a little more traditional and celebratory . . . but that’s not what matters to me. I’m leaving the places where I grew up, sure, but I’m not leaving home, Quinn. You’re coming with me.”
“Don’t make me cry. I still have makeup on.”
He chuckled, and leaned in to kiss her nose. “You would be beautiful even if there were black streaks running down your face. But I don’t want you to cry.”
* * *
William was reliving some of his memories of laughing with Quinn as he walked down the hall to his room. One in particular – the memory of their first kiss in Ellen’s basement – actually had him smiling, even though the situation had been very stressful at the time.
“Do you always smile like that when you’re coming back from my daughter’s room in the middle of the night?” Megan’s voice made him nearly jump out of his skin.
“What? No! Megan, it’s not like that . . .” he stammered, blanching.
Sh
e raised an eyebrow, but as he finally caught his breath, he realized that she didn’t look angry. In fact, she was almost smiling.
“Really, Megan,” he said, a little calmer, “I would never disrespect Quinn like that.”
“I know,” she said. “Or at least I hope I do. I heard the two of you come back up here just a little while ago. What’s up with all the late-night secrecy?”
The change in his expression must have been obvious, because hers immediately registered concern. “What, William?”
“Would you like some tea?”
She frowned. “Is that all you do around here? Drink tea in the common room?”
“Twice a day, at least.” He chuckled. “It’s just what we do. People in your world watch television if they can’t sleep, or if they’re bored in the afternoon. We don’t have television. We have tea.”
“The stove’s been cold for a long time.”
He shrugged, walking into the common room. Once he reached the kitchen area, he opened one of the cabinets, and pulled out his electric kettle. “I used to keep this in my room,” he said, as Megan settled herself on one of the stools, “it was sort of my own private thing from Bristlecone. I have trouble sleeping sometimes – or sometimes I’m just up all night working on some research project. But after Thomas told me he found Quinn in here one night, lighting the stove by herself, I moved it in here.”
“She’s always had dreams that wake her up. Even when she was tiny.”
“I know. That’s why I didn’t want her to have to do all that work and wait half an hour for a cup of tea.”
Megan smiled. There was a soft look in her eyes now. “You really love her, don’t you?”
“I do.” Something about this conversation was causing a thick feeling in the back of his throat. He busied himself getting out two mugs and a container of tea.
“You know, last time I was here – the only other time I was here – there wasn’t any electricity.”
“That was a project that took my father and Nathaniel a number of cycles. We didn’t have it here at the castle until I was about ten. It’s still not even close to what you’re used to in your world. But most of the homes in the capitol city at least have lighting now, and it’s slowly spreading to more outlying villages. It will take a long time for us to reach the point of appliances much beyond that, besides the few Nathaniel or I have brought across, anyway. Our light bulbs are made by hand.” He chuckled.
“Most of our world doesn’t have even what we have here. Once we’re at the castle in Philotheum, I suppose I’ll have to get up in the middle of the night and build fires for Quinn’s tea.”
“You do realize that she would probably be offended if she heard you implying that she’s not perfectly capable of building a fire herself.”
He smiled. So Megan did know her daughter. “Good point. I may just have to keep her company while she works.”
“Maybe she won’t have the dreams anymore.”
He sighed, looking into her eyes as he slid a steaming mug across the counter to her. “Maybe. I’m sure she’d appreciate it if she didn’t. But my father and my oldest brother both have them, too. I think it may just be a firstborn thing. Did Samuel have them as well?”
“Yes.” Megan was quiet for a moment, stirring her tea. “So is all of this really true – Samuel was supposed to be the king, and now that leaves Quinn to be the queen?”
“Yes, that’s all true.”
“Does that mean you’ll be the king?”
“It does.”
“Would you be offended if I said I didn’t think you were the type?”
He laughed. “No. I think I’d have to say that’s awfully accurate for someone who’s known me for as short a time as you have.”
“I gave you a really terrible first impression of myself, didn’t I?”
“Well, to be fair, my first impression of you was as just one of the teachers at the school. I thought you seemed nice enough.”
“And, knowing what you know now, do you really think I didn’t notice you then? That I haven’t always? I knew who you were, William. And I had no idea why Charlotte and Stephen would be sending you to live in Bristlecone with Nathaniel. Really, I could only think of one reason they’d do something like that.”
“You thought they wanted your daughter.”
“Was I wrong?”
“They never told me anything about it. I never knew anything about her – other than what I saw at school.”
“I know. I know all of it. And I’m trying, for her sake, to understand it. I am sorry for how you saw me behave. I know it wasn’t rational; I know I could have handled it better. And I know it’s going to take time for you to trust me – the fact that you don’t yet, well, in a strange way it actually makes this more bearable. I know I’m leaving her with someone who loves her as much as I do.”
“I promise I’ll take care of her always.”
“Thank you.”
“I meant it when I said you can come and visit as often as you want, and for as long as you want.”
“Provided there’s not still a war going on and I’m not risking being captured . . . I still don’t know what I’m going to tell everyone about where Quinn has gone.”
He nodded; this was going to be a complicated topic, especially as neither William nor Nathaniel would be returning either. Nathaniel had decided it was time for him to return permanently to Philotheum as well.
“As close to the truth as you can manage is usually best,” he said. “Tell everyone that Nathaniel is actually Quinn’s uncle, and she had an opportunity to travel with him.”
Megan nodded. “Something like that, I suppose.” She stared down at her hands, which were wrapped around her mug, and she sighed. “My husband, Jeff, has been wanting us to be able to move for a long time. He’s coming back from Afghanistan soon. He’s been offered another contract in Atlanta. It would start almost immediately if he took it, but it would be for three years. We’ve been arguing over it, really. He wants to take it, and for us to go down there with him. Whatever you think of me keeping Quinn from Nathaniel and your family – I kept my promise. I never tried to take her out of Bristlecone.”
William swallowed hard. “It would be unfair of us to ask you to stay close to the gate so we could visit easily.”
“Are you going to be close enough to the gate on this side for that to happen, anyway?”
“No. The castle in Philotheum is nearly five days’ travel from here.”
Megan nodded. “That’s what I thought.”
“Have you told Quinn about any of this?”
“Not yet. The plan was to try to enjoy as much of the time we have as possible, remember?”
“I recall something like that.”
She rolled her eyes, reminding him instantly of Quinn. “I was planning on speaking to her tomorrow, if I can ever find some time alone with her.”
“What are you going to tell your husband?”
“The truth. He’s my husband. I’ve never lied to him about who Quinn’s father was, or any of this. Not that I’m sure he believes all of it, but I did tell him.”
William blinked. “You told him? Just like that?”
“Yes. Back when we were first dating, even. He’s an engineer, you know. Kind of a geeky guy – he’s always read a lot. He might have been more impressed with my story if it had involved dragons, but he still proposed after I’d told him. I wouldn’t have married someone I had to keep a secret from.”
“You kept it from your daughter.”
“Jeff was never completely supportive of that. But she was a child. It was my job to protect her. That’s a huge burden, you know, keeping that kind of secret from most people. I’m mad at myself now for dragging Annie and Owen into it. What happens when they go to school after this and tell their friends what they did during their break?”
“I don’t think Owen will tell anyone. And Annie is still so little that everyone will think she’s just telling stories.”
“And I’m supposed to support that? Let my four year old think that people don’t believe her when she tells the truth? That, right there, is the weight I never wanted to put on Quinn’s shoulders when she was a little girl. Her life would never have been normal. And that would have been my fault.”
“It wouldn’t have been all your fault, Mom.” William and Megan both looked up in surprise to see Quinn standing in the doorway, wrapped in her long robe, her thick auburn hair falling everywhere. William reached into the cabinet below him for another mug as she came to the counter. “Some of it might have been your fault, in a way, but doesn’t there come a point where it’s just the truth? Where we both have to accept that my life was never going to be normal?”
Megan reached to brush some of Quinn’s hair back from her face. “How about we just both accept that I messed up big time, and I’m sorry? That I’m not perfect, but I love you more than my own life, and all I really ever wanted was for you to be happy and loved.”
16. A Small Celebration
“Are you nervous?” Linnea asked.
“About getting married? Would you think I was crazy if I told you I’m not?”
“No. I would just take it as one more sign that you’re doing the right thing.”
“You know, Nay, I really think I am.”
“I think you are, too. And for the record – William’s not nervous about it either. I already asked.”
“Of course you did.”
“Well, I should clarify; he’s not nervous about the wedding.”
“Just about living with me for the rest of his life?”
Linnea snorted, pausing in her copious application of blush to Quinn’s cheeks. “Hardly. It’s not like he could find anyone else who’d put up with him.”
Quinn aimed a half-hearted swipe at her friend, which Linnea easily ducked. “He’s a good guy. You’d think you’d be more loyal to your brother.”
“I’ve got lots of brothers. William’s not the one I’d marry even if he wasn’t my brother. He’s too moody – I’m happy he found you, though,” she added quickly, seeing Quinn’s glare. “He’s been less moody with you around, anyway. You’re good for him.”
Blooms of Consequence (Dusk Gate Chronicles - Book Four) Page 19