“Well, there’s just been a little more activity with that lately. It feels like something’s changed.”
“In the last week?”
He nodded.
“What else?” she asked. It was obvious that Ben was holding back more.
“There have just been a couple of messages from Philotheum… Last week, my father sent a message to Charles about some business that needs to be attended to at the castle. Charles, of course, has been sending messages here regularly – and none of his messages has acknowledged the one my father sent.”
“So what, like he’s ignoring the message?”
“Or like he didn’t get it.” Thomas said.
Ben looked at him. “That … I shouldn’t even be talking to you about this, you know. This is treason.”
“Quinn’s not going to accuse you of treason, Ben. She would tell us.”
“It doesn’t matter what Her Majesty will or won’t accuse me of, Prince Thomas – and it doesn’t matter what you believe she would tell you. That’s her prerogative. I’ve made an oath, and I will keep my word.” His eyes flicked to Linnea. “Even when it comes to my wife and her brother. I’m sorry.”
Linnea stepped close to him again and pulled his hand back into hers, squeezing it as pride filled her – this man, her husband, was a good man.
“No, Ben, I’m sorry,” Thomas said. “I know I shouldn’t be asking you that. It’s just … you do plan on telling Quinn what’s going on don’t you?”
Ben almost cracked a grin. “So that you could run to her and ask her to give you the details?”
Thomas shrugged, chuckling.
“Yes, if we had the slightest inclination of real danger, or any better evidence of wrongdoing, then yes, of course we would tell Her Majesty. Right now, we don’t believe there’s enough to warrant interrupting her and King William in their personal time. I think the two of them deserve to have a few days to rest and get to know the new little prince, don’t you?” His posture had relaxed again, and Linnea knew he was talking to Thomas as his brother-in-law again, not as the queen’s guard.
Thomas smiled. “I’m still not used to Quinn and William having other people to protect them and look out for their interests. I’m glad they have you, Ben.”
They’d reached the stables now, and Linnea could tell that Ben – who was always uncomfortable being praised for his work – was glad to have an excuse to walk away from them to go “check on something,” and Thomas and Linnea headed for their horses, Storm and Snow.
“So, what is going on with you and Mia?” Linnea asked, once she was sure they were alone.
The grooming brush that Thomas had just picked up fell to the ground. “What do you mean?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Don’t try that with me, Thomas. I may have been a little preoccupied with the wedding and honeymoon, but I haven’t disappeared – or gone blind.”
Thomas sighed, reaching down to retrieve the dropped brush, taking longer than necessary. “I don’t know, Nay. Everything was going so well for so long. And then after Quinn got here – and especially after your wedding. She’s just been different – distant. Always busy when I want to talk to her, working late hours, even when she doesn’t need to be.”
“I’ve noticed she’s hardly ever around you.”
“She’s not. Not for the past couple of weeks, at all. The few times I have gotten her alone, she’s been worried about Quinn, asking about the baby, always thinks of some reason she needs to go check on her or William – something she needs to do in their room or bring to them.”
“Have you asked her?”
“I’ve tried. Like I said, I barely get even a few minutes alone with her, ever. And the one time I outright asked her if everything was okay, she just gave me the ‘what are you talking about?’ look.”
“The one you just tried to give me?”
He chuckled, running his fingers along the bristles of the brush, pulling them back and releasing them in a rhythmic motion. “That would be the one,” he sighed. “Except I let her get away with it – unlike some people.”
She cleared her throat. “You’d have more answers right now if you hadn’t let her.”
“Maybe.”
She walked over to him and took the brush from his hands before he gave himself a rash from rubbing the bristles too harshly against his skin. “But what?”
“Maybe I didn’t want to hear the answer.”
She put her hand on his shoulder. “I don’t think it could be as bad as that, Thomas. I think you should just talk to her.”
“I will …when I actually get a chance to be alone with her.”
~ 3 ~
Princess Annie
Bristlecone, Colorado
BACK IN THE car, Zander’s thoughts were a jumble.
The whole thing down at the river had been so strange … his conversation with the old man, the weird guy up on the slope, and hearing about Quinn… If he’d thought he was confused before, it was nothing compared to now.
Without really meaning to – at least not consciously – he drove down to Bray Street, toward the house where he knew Doctor Rose and William had lived. He wondered if the house had been sold already – probably it hadn’t. New people didn’t come to Bristlecone very often, and he’d have likely heard rumors of someone new.
Zander’s father owned the real estate business that handled nearly all of the home sales in Bristlecone, but he hadn’t asked his father if Doctor Rose had listed his house.
When they were younger, sometimes he and his friend Adam would sneak a peek at the list of lockbox codes and use them to go look around the inside of empty houses. Not that he planned on going inside Doctor Rose’s place…
When he reached the house, though, he had to check twice to make sure he’d gotten the right address. There was no for sale sign in the yard, no newspapers in the driveway – he wouldn’t have guessed nobody was living there.
He pulled his truck right in front of the house and stopped to investigate further. Closed wooden blinds covered the inside windows – nobody had removed those. There were even still chairs on the covered porch. Interesting. Maybe Doctor Rose wasn’t going to sell the house. Maybe they were planning on coming back. It hadn’t sounded that way when Megan told them about Quinn leaving – but then, he hadn’t actually asked her about it, either.
That possibility cheered him a little, and he paused, losing the impulse that had almost made him get out of the car and look around more. He didn’t really want to get caught here and have to explain himself to someone.
He started the truck again.
* * *
Zander’s mother came out of the kitchen when he closed the front door behind him. “What are you doing here?”
He was confused for a second, and then he remembered – he should have still been at school. “Uh … I had this really bad headache. I just wanted to come home for a bit.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he remembered his strange encounter with Alvin, and his warning – which seemed almost ominous now – about how he was going to find himself lying.
Sort of lying, anyway. The day’s events really were beginning to give him a headache.
His mom frowned. “Those absences aren’t going to be excused, you know.”
“I know.”
“Are you doing okay, Zander? With everything? I know it’s been kind of hard for you lately…”
“I’m fine, Mom.”
“I know she was the first girlfriend you were halfway serious about.”
Nodding, he pulled his backpack off his shoulder and shrugged out of his jacket, then turned to hang the jacket on one of the hooks behind the door. “Yeah, she was. But breaking up is normal when you’re in high school, right?”
His mom was silent for a long moment, though he felt her come up behind him. Finally, he turned back to face her again. “Is that what this is about, today?” she asked.
He sighed. “I don’t know. Kind of.”
Closing her eyes for
a second, she nodded. “Okay. Do you want me to call it in for you?”
“I don’t think it matters much, Mom. There’s a month left of school.”
“Still, I don’t want you to make a habit of this. You’re better than that, Zander.”
“I know.”
“All right. Then I’ll be glad you’re here. I was hoping to run to the grocery store before I had to pick up Ashley and Owen at school, but the little girls are still asleep. You can stay here with them for me.”
“They’re going to wake up the second you go.”
“Probably.”
“Can I go back to the headache story?”
She raised an eyebrow. “There’s medicine in the cabinet. Be nice and I won’t ask you to chop the vegetables for the salad while you’re at it.”
“Fine.”
“Thanks honey.”
“You’re welcome.” He carried his backpack over to the couch and plopped down.
She was halfway to the chair where she’d left her purse when she turned back, coming to sit on the coffee table in front of him. Zander sighed.
“Look, Zan … I know this is hard for you. It’s been kind of hard on all of us, Quinn breaking up with you and leaving like this. Megan and I always sort of secretly hoped… Anyway, whatever any of us hoped, it’s still going to be okay.”
“I know, Mom. I still have my whole life ahead of me and I’m going away to college anyway, and all of that. I’ll be fine. I just … I wish she’d said good-bye, you know? Why did she have to leave so fast without telling anyone?”
His mother shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t really know. From what I understand, Quinn was pretty upset when she found out her mom had been lying to her about Nathaniel – I don’t know if I can blame her.”
Zander fidgeted with the zipper of his backpack. He didn’t blame Quinn for that either – he’d seen how tense things had been between her and her mother before spring break, and he’d been there the night her boss had told her that her father and Doctor Rose had been friends. Of course, even that had turned out to be a lie. Megan had been hiding the truth from everyone.
“Even so, Mom – would you just let me take off and go to Europe with someone? If I had just found out they were my family? Don’t you think that’s a little strange?”
She sighed. “I’m not keeping any secrets from you about your family, so it’s not exactly the same. I think Megan has a lot of guilt about that too. I got the feeling it wasn’t just Nathaniel. Megan isn’t sharing too many details right now, but I think Quinn has a whole set of grandparents and cousins and everything else she didn’t know about, either.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, and in any case, secrets or no … in a few months, I’m going to have to let you go off to wherever it is you want to go – without an uncle to take care of you. You’ve been accepted at a college in Massachusetts. I’m sure you could go to one in Europe if you wanted to.”
“I could just stay here, though. I’ve been accepted at Mesa, too.”
“You could. And of course, there’s a part – a big part – of me that would love if you went there. To have you close, and keep you close forever. I love you, you know?”
“I love you, too, Mom.”
“But you’re not going to go to Mesa, are you?”
An uneasy lump formed in his stomach “I was thinking about it – for a while…”
“But it wasn’t because you wanted to stay close to Mom and Dad, was it?”
He shook his head.
“That’s okay, Zander. That’s normal. Dad and I tried to raise you to grow up and be independent and have a life of your own. I’m not going to say I would have thought it was a great idea to pick a college because of a girl, but … you’re growing up. And it turns out you didn’t need my lecture on the girl thing.”
“No.”
“I’m sorry about that. There will be other girls, though, and lots of other adventures. I know it’s been really hard on Megan to let Quinn go – but I think she also knows in the end she wants her daughter to be happy and fulfilled more than she wants her to be in her house where she can see her every day. I think going with Nathaniel was Quinn’s decision, and Megan felt she had to let her make it. Honestly, I hope I can be as strong about it as Megan when the time comes with you – very soon.”
Zander was silent for several moments, thinking about it. His mom reached out and took his hand. He squeezed it and looked back up at her. “I just don’t understand why she didn’t even tell me – why she didn’t even say good-bye.”
“That’s called a broken heart. It wouldn’t have been any easier on you – or Quinn – if she had. Maybe she just couldn’t face you. If you were the one who had to choose to leave, and you had to break up with her, would you have been able to call?”
“I don’t know.”
“I think this opportunity came up for Nathaniel really quickly, and he just had to take it. And then with Megan and Jeff getting ready to move anyway…”
His head snapped up. “What? Megan and Jeff are moving? To where?”
“To Atlanta. Zander, you know this. You were there when Megan told us – the same night she told us about Quinn leaving.”
If he hadn’t already been sitting down, he would have needed to. How could he not have heard that? “Have I really been that out of it for the last month, Mom? I really don’t remember.”
She sighed, reaching over and tousling his hair. “You haven’t been yourself lately, no. But I didn’t realize you didn’t even know that. I’m sorry. We’ve been talking about it – I thought you were there for some of the conversations, but maybe you weren’t.
We’re watching Annie and Owen this weekend while Megan and Jeff fly to Atlanta to look at houses. You really didn’t know?”
He shook his head.
“Oh, Zander…”
He shook his head, appalled with himself. “No, I know. That’s just crazy. I guess I need to snap out of it. I’ll work on it, okay, Mom?”
“Okay.” She wasn’t convinced.
“You’d better go, or you’re not going to have time before you have to pick up the kids.”
“All right. We’ll talk more later, okay?”
Talking with his mother any more about this was the last thing he wanted to do, but he nodded. She stood and kissed the top of his head.
Once his mother was out the door, he had to stand and walk around the living room a few times. He was an idiot – he really must not have been listening at all that night. Was he really such a lovesick kid he could miss that much of the conversation? It all made a lot more sense now. Why wouldn’t Quinn leave to go with her family, if she was going to have to move to Atlanta anyway?
No wonder nobody at school was as worried about it as he was. This was just him not knowing how to deal with his first broken heart. Maybe I should spend the weekend watching chick flicks and eating chocolate, he thought, beginning to chuckle at himself.
Finally calming down, he sat back on the couch and opened his backpack. At least he could get some of his homework done.
At almost the exact second he set his binder on the coffee table, he heard one of the back bedroom doors opening, and then small footsteps coming down the long hallway.
Of course.
“Hey, Annie,” he said, when the little girl appeared at the entrance to the living room.
“Zander!” She ran across the room; he barely had time to brace himself before she threw herself into his lap. “You’re home!”
“Yep.” He ruffled her brown curls. “Did you have a nice nap?”
“I didn’t sleep. I wasn’t tired.”
He chuckled, rubbing the sleep from the corner of one of her brown eyes with his thumb. “All right. What did you do, then?”
“Played with my horse.” She reached into her pocket, struggling to extract something from it; when she finally succeeded, she set it in Zander’s hand. He held it up – it was a beautifully carved little wooden horse, very detaile
d.
“That’s a nice horse, Annie. Where did you get it?”
“William made it for me.”
Oh. William Rose was still the one piece of this he really didn’t understand at all. “Your cousin William?”
Annie frowned. “No, he’s not my cousin. William is my brother now.”
“What do you…” he stopped himself. Annie was four. If he thought all of this was confusing for him, he couldn’t imagine what it must be like for this little girl who was missing her sister.
“Did you know I’m a princess now?”
He smiled. “I didn’t know that. How exciting. What kind of princess are you?”
“Look!” She leapt off his lap and ran across the room to retrieve her little backpack, all purple and white stars. She unzipped the front pocket as she carried it over to him. Reaching inside, she pulled out a delicate silver chain with a round pendant hanging from it; half of it was silver, and the other half was gold.
“Annie, is that something you’re supposed to have in your backpack? That looks real.” It looked very real – heavy and expensive.
“I can have it if I want it. It’s mine! See?” She held it up, setting the pendant in his hand. “It has my name on it.”
He held the pendant between his fingers, using the light from the window to study it. There was some kind of design on it – a circular design he’d never seen before.
“The other side, silly,” Annie told him.
“You’re silly.” He flipped it over. There was an inscription on the back: Love you forever Princess Annie.
“See? I’m a princess.”
“I guess you are. Did your Daddy bring that back from Afghanistan?”
“No. Quinn got it for me in ‘Renthos. That’s where she lives now. In a castle. And William gave it to me, too.”
“A castle, huh?” Annie had always had a great imagination. Or maybe they’d been reading Owen’s books about Europe and medieval times, or – who knew – maybe there really was a castle wherever Quinn was living now, and she’d told Annie about it. “Have you been talking to Quinn on the phone?”
“No. They don’t have phones in ‘Renthos. We have to wait until we can go visit. Mommy said maybe this summer when we can go for a long time, and then I can wear my princess dress again.”
Canes of Divergence (Dusk Gate Chronicles) Page 4