“Jill, we’ll be fine. I want to pay for it. I’ve waited hundreds of years for you and during that time I’ve amassed quite a fortune. We’ll discuss that aspect of my life later; but just know that money is no object.” He fumbled in his pocket for his wallet, pulled out a card and handed it to her. It was an American Express black card. She took it and looked at the front. Jilly’s jaw dropped--her name was printed across the front.
“Will? This is too…I can’t take this.” Her hands flew to her mouth in surprise.
“Well, when I asked you to marry me, I figured you’d need to be added onto my accounts. You’re planning the wedding, so I added you. You have a few more cards, but they’re back home. I was hoping you’d get to have a little bit of wedding fun while we were here, so I brought this one along.” Jilly wiped at the tears that were desperately trying to leak out of her eyes.
“How on earth did I get so lucky? You are the most amazing man I have ever met. It’s not the money, although that’s a nice perk it’s the thought behind the gesture. I love you so much, Will.” She threw her arms around him and kissed him. He pulled her in tighter and deepened the kiss, enjoying the feeling of her skin against his hands. Jilly pushed him back on the bed, straddling his waist. After a few minutes, they both pulled away feeling a little breathless. Jilly slid off to the side, both lying on their backs.
“I love you too, Jill, more than anything in this world,” William said as he pulled her to her feet. They heard the doorbell chime and, as they were walking out to meet Nik and Katya, he turned back to her. “Everything I said before goes for Caroline, too. I want to make her feel safe now that she’s starting over. I don’t want her to worry about anything; I just want her to find out what’s going to make her happy. I have a few cards for her, too, but those are back home. So if any of you find dresses today, just put it on your card.”
She kissed him again and brushed the hair out of his eyes. “You really are amazing, Will.” They walked out to greet Nik and Katya, hand in hand.
“I think that we should go at Sabine until she cracks, no matter what it takes to make that happen,” Nikolai said, vehemently. Katya turned to him and spoke softly in Russian; William hid a smile behind his coffee cup when he heard her words.
Finally she turned to everyone. “Please excuse him; he’s not been himself the past few days. I do agree that we need answers, but we do not have to go about it barbarically.” She turned to Jilly. “Do you think you could possibly whip up a truth serum of some sort when we get back to Boston?”
Jilly hesitated before answering. “I’m decent with potions. I’ll have to look through my grimoire and see if we have anything like that when we get home.” Katya nodded and turned back the right way in her seat.
William finally spoke up. “I do agree with Nik to an extent, but I think we should go with Kat’s plan and worry about it back in Boston. On to the next issue at hand, what are we going to do about Patrick? I cannot allow him to escape and impart his own particular brand of evil on this world.” No one spoke for a while.
Nikolai finally said what everyone was already thinking, “Will, what if we can’t do anything? What if the only solution is...”
William cut him off. “I’m not going there Nik, he’s my brother. Besides, I don’t even know if we can get close enough to do it. We need to come up with something else.” Everyone just looked at William, but no one said anything. The look on his face said it all.
Jilly broke the silence. “Okay, let’s shelve that topic for a while until we can come up with something better.” She turned to Katya. “Caroline and I have an appointment at Kleinfeld’s to look for dresses. Do you want to come with and find yours?”
Katya beamed at her. “I was hoping you’d ask me.”
Jilly smiled back. “Do you want to ride together, or meet us there?”
“I’ll have Nik drop me off on his way to get Will. What time should I be there?”
“The appointment is for 3:30, so by 3:15.” The boys were talking strategy for going back to Sabine’s place, no longer taking part in the conversation.
Katya kicked Nicolai’s foot and it jolted him to attention. “We should go, Nik, we have some errands to run before I go with Jilly and Caroline.” She waved goodbye and dragged Nikolai along with her.
Since the danger had seemingly evaporated, Jilly decided to make a day of shopping downtown before their appointment. Once the girls were dolled up, they said good-bye to William.
“Bye, love, have fun. Remember, what’s mine is yours. That goes for Caroline, too; so go nuts.” He kissed her, planted a kiss on Caroline’s cheek and sent them on their way.
“What did he mean by that?” Caroline asked when they were in the elevator.
Jilly smiled. “Well, you know how William’s pretty rich, right?”
“Yeah, so?” Caroline said.
“Well, he’s way richer than I thought. He wants to pay for the entire wedding, dresses and everything.”
Caroline got a huge smile on her face. “Oh, Jill, that’s great. You’ll get to have such an amazing wedding! That’s so exciting. But what did he mean about me?”
“He loves you like his own sister, Car. He wants to take care of you and not have you worry about money or anything at all, while you figure out what makes you happy.” Jilly stopped there, trying to gauge Caroline’s response to this news. She wasn’t sure if Caroline would be happy or offended that he would think she needed the help.
Caroline wiped away a tear from her eye. “Jill, he’s amazing. There are no other words I can use. He is probably the most loving, caring person I’ve ever met. For him to be concerned about my happiness and welfare is so sweet. He doesn’t have to do this. I have some money saved up.”
“Car, he knows that you’re independent; but he wants you to take some time and really figure out what you want in life. You can try and argue with him, but you won’t win; so you might as well enjoy it.” Jilly winked at Caroline as they hopped into a cab. She gave the driver the address and they were off. “Oh, and he said he added you to all of his accounts; so when we get back, he’s got all the cards and checkbooks and stuff like that for you.”
Caroline was taken aback by this. “Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously, both of us. But for starters, he gave me this.” Jilly pulled out her wallet, took out the card and handed it to Caroline.
“Wow, I’ve never actually seen one of these. That’s so cool! I can’t wait to find you a dress.”
William and Nikolai pulled up in front of Sabine’s hideout and jumped out of the car. Nikolai gave the driver instructions to pick them up in two hours. William removed the spell barring the door and they entered cautiously.
“I’ll take the upstairs, if you want to look around on this floor, and we can do the basement together,” William said as he headed to the stairs. The first room he came across looked like an office. There were piles of papers on the top of the small desk in the corner, along with a very new looking laptop sitting on the chair. He opened the laptop first and tried to see what he could get from it, but it was password protected. He set it aside for one of Nik’s people to examine. He grabbed a stack of papers and sat down on the chaise lounge that was against one of the walls. They all looked like blueprints of some sort of machine, but he could not make any sense of the drawings. Thinking Nik might do better with them, he put them with the laptop and moved on. Thirty minutes later, he had gone through the desk and all of the papers on top and had yet to find anything useful.
William moved on to the next room down the hall. It appeared to be Sabine’s bedroom. Pictures of Caroline and Katya were plastered all over the walls. Seeing them made his blood boil. How could she have gotten this close without them knowing? He tore down all the photos in a rage and threw them on the floor. In addition to the ones of Katya and Caroline, there were several of another girl William didn’t know. She looked to be about fourteen. She had long black hair and green eyes with a haunted look about t
hem. In every photo, she looked nervous. William felt protective of her, but he couldn’t put his finger on why. Maybe it was just because Sabine wanted her for something or maybe because she looked so fragile. He wanted to find her and see if he and Jilly could help her. He grabbed one of her pictures off the wall and set it with the collection he was saving before continuing his search of the room. After an hour of searching the top floor and being no closer to an explanation, he grabbed what he had found and headed back down the stairs to find Nik.
Jilly and Caroline had just dropped off all of their shopping bags at the hotel and were now headed over to Kleinfeld’s. When the cab pulled up, Katya was waiting out front for them. She waved as they got out.
“How was your shopping?” she asked, as they walked into the store.
“It was great. I had forgotten how amazing the stores were in New York,” Jilly said.
“I’m so excited for you to try on dresses, Jill,” Caroline said as they gave their name to the receptionist.
“I know. I feel like this is all real, now. I’m actually going to get married! It just hit me this morning; I haven’t had a chance to really think about it and be excited with everything that’s happened.”
“I know. It’s been a crazy week,” Caroline replied.
Katya smiled. “I’m so pleased for you and William. It’s nice to actually see him smile and be happy. I’ve known William for a very long time and he’s been searching, always restless. Now he’s found you and he’s found a home. It does my heart good to see him finally at peace. I love him as if he was my own brother, and I love you just as much. It means a lot to me to be here with you and Caroline.” Jilly was touched and hugged Katya, tightly.
“Let’s go and find you a dress,” Katya said with a smile. The bridal consultant came out to greet them and led them back to a private room where they could discuss what Jilly wanted.
“I think I want a trumpet shape or a mermaid; but I’m open to trying on ball gowns, too. I may even want to do two gowns, one for the ceremony and one for the reception.” She turned to her sister. “What do you think?”
“I think that’s a great idea. You should do a ball gown with a long veil for the ceremony and then something sexier for the reception,” Caroline said.
“I agree, you should go for two dresses for sure. It’s not like William can’t afford it,” Katya said with a laugh.
“I know, but I don’t want to go overboard,” Jilly said hesitantly.
“Jilly, there is no such thing as overboard when it comes to your wedding. William wants you to have the wedding of your dreams; so we’re going to find two gowns that will blow his mind when he sees you in them,” Caroline said. Katya nodded her approval.
They decided to begin with the ball gowns. The consultant went out to pull some dresses and Jilly sent the girls out to wait. Her first dress was all silk taffeta, so it had a shine to it that Jilly liked. It was drop waist. She was not entirely sure it was her favorite style, but she went out to get a second opinion. Both Katya and Caroline agreed it was pretty, but not the gown for her. Five dresses later, her consultant buttoned her into a stunning ball gown with a silk taffeta top, an empire waist and a flowy tulle skirt with a cathedral length train. When Jilly saw herself in the mirror, she was stunned. When she walked out into the showroom, everything stopped. All eyes were on her as she made her way to the pedestal. The consultant brought over some heels and a cathedral length veil to complete the look. She looked at Caroline in the mirror and saw that she had tears in her eyes.
“Jill, this is the dress. You took my breath away when you walked out in it. You look amazing.”
“I agree, you look stunning. This is definitely the dress for the ceremony. William is going to flip out when he sees you in it. You look so light and ethereal, as if you’d float away if a strong breeze blew by ,” Katya said.
“I love it, too. I feel like a bride in it. I knew the second I put it on that it was the one. Now, let’s talk jewelry.” All the girls laughed and Jilly stepped down to go look at what they had to offer.
William and Nikolai sat around a table on the first floor of Sabine’s hideout, going through the photos and plans from upstairs. “What do you make of these plans, Nik? It looks like some kind of machine, but I don’t know enough about engineering.” Nikolai sat staring at one set of plans, tracing his fingers over various lines in the diagrams trying to better understand its purpose.
“I’m honestly baffled by this; I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m going to send copies of these to a friend in Germany. He may be able to shed some light onto its purpose. But, I think our first priority should be finding this girl.”
“I agree, she needs our help. She’s obviously running from more than just Sabine, judging by that haunted look in her eyes. She’s in London; I recognize the street she’s on in this picture,” William said as he pointed out a building behind the young girl. “I think I’m going to take Jill with me and go look for her after we get back to Boston. She might respond to Jill more than she would to me. I don’t want to freak her out any more than she already is.”
“I think that’s probably a good idea. Maybe Kat and I will come with you guys. We can go on to Germany for a few days once we find her, so I can talk to Greggor in person after I send him the plans.”
“What are we going to do with Sabine while we’re gone, though?” William asked.
“We can leave her with my men, they’ll keep her under control. We’ll just seal her into a cell and let her sit until we get back.”
“She’ll be ready to talk by then,” William said with a laugh. They gathered up all the papers and the laptop and left the building, hopping into Nik’s car.
Jilly stood on the pedestal in front of Caroline and Katya in the fourth reception dress she had tried on. “I think this one might be it. What do you think?” she asked.
Caroline stood up and walked behind her, taking in all angles of the dress. It was white chiffon, gathered at one shoulder and it clung to her body until a little past her hips. It made her look like a goddess.
“Jill, you look amazing. This one is for sure the dress you should wear at the reception. You’ll be able to dance the night away,” Caroline said as she helped Jilly down.
“Okay, I’m going to go get changed back into my clothes. Then we can look for the bridesmaids dresses.” When she came back out, the girls were already perusing the racks to find what they liked. Jilly had decided to let them choose whatever style dress they wanted as long as it was the same color. Being stuck between emerald green or a deep plum, she left it up to them to decide which color flattered them the most. It was fun to watch them try on dress after dress. They finally narrowed it down to two choices each and decided to bring Emily with them next time to make the final decision. They said their goodbyes to their consultant, and Jilly paid for her gowns. They all piled into a cab and headed back to the hotel.
“This has been a long but fun day,” Caroline said as she leaned her head on Jilly’s shoulder.
“I know what you mean; I’m exhausted, but I had the best time,” Jilly said.
“Will is going to go crazy when he sees you in those dresses,” Katya said.
“Thanks Kat, I feel really good about both choices. I’m starving; I hope the boys ordered dinner.” A few minutes later, their cab pulled up in front of the hotel and Jilly paid the driver before getting out.
The girls found William and Nikolai sitting at the dining room table with maps and plans in front of them along with a laptop.
“How did it go at Sabine’s?” Jilly asked as she walked over to William and kissed his cheek.
“Not as informative as I would have liked actually, but we still got something out of the trip. We found a bunch of plans for some sort of machine. Nik’s going to send them to a friend of his to see if he can figure it out,” William said, and then paused for a minute, trying to figure out how to bring up the wall of pictures he found. “There’s something else. I f
ound some photos of both Caroline and Katya in Sabine’s room. There were pictures of Caroline and Jack, Caroline and her friends, and Caroline getting on a plane. There was also a bunch of pictures of this girl on the wall.” He held out a stack of photos of the mystery girl and all the women grabbed one.
“She’s just a child,” Jilly said in outrage.
“What does Sabine want with her?” Caroline asked.
“I would think she wants her for the same reason she wanted us, Caroline,” Katya replied.
“Do we know where she is, yet?” Jilly asked.
“I think she’s in London. At least she was. I recognize a few of the places in the pictures,” William said.
“We have to go and find her before one of Sabine’s men gets her. She needs our help,” Jilly said passionately. William smiled at her and pointed to the screen on his laptop. Jilly leaned in and saw that he was arranging travel and hotel accommodations for them. She sat on his lap, tilted his lips up to hers, and kissed him. “This is exactly why I love you. You saw someone in need and you knew you had to help. When do we leave?”
“We all go back to Boston tomorrow morning and you and I, along with Nik and Kat, will go on from there.” He arched a brow at Caroline. “Do you want to come, too?”
“I do, but I think someone needs to be home holding down the fort. Jill and I have both been gone for almost a week; so I think I should check in on things,” she replied.
“That’s probably a good idea. You can keep us updated on what’s going on with Patrick. Take Em with you and redo all the wards once a week,” Jilly said. “Okay, now that all of that is settled, I’m starving. I need to eat or else I won’t be very pleasant to be around.”
“I’ll order dinner,” William said as he walked into the other room to order room service.
Chasing the Witch (Boston Witches) Page 6