Blooms of Consequence (Dusk Gate Chronicles - Book Four) Page 27

  “I know.” He reached for her hand again, twining his fingers in hers. “Anyway, it was always so strange to me, to learn about the history in your world. How women weren’t allowed to make decisions, or own property. How, in a lot of ways, they’ve had to fight against men just to have the same kind of life.”

  “And you’re saying it’s better here?”

  He shrugged. “It’s not perfect here – you’ve seen that. You got an up-close view of how Tolliver sees women. But maybe you haven’t seen enough of the other side. My father rules the kingdom, sure, but he rarely makes a decision he hasn’t talked to my mother about, gotten her input on. And, often, she’s the one who came up with the idea in the first place. And everyone knows that, expects it. And if something happened to my father, my mother would have all of the power.”

  “Just like Sophia really does in Philotheum.”

  “Exactly. And outside of actually being the king, which is passed in a certain way through families, women in Eirentheos – and Philotheum, for that matter, can have the same jobs, and have the same rights as men do. Look at Essie and Jacob – she runs that clinic every bit as much as he does. Lily does more than Graeme. Back in their village in Philotheum, Lily was more influential in their council than Graeme was.”

  “I haven’t seen any guards or soldiers who are women, Will.”

  He paused for a moment. “I suppose that’s true. There aren’t many.”

  “Are there some?”

  “A few, actually. But they’re certainly not the majority, and I can see how it looks to you. Women are allowed to be soldiers and guards, here. If they want to do that, they can. They’re paid and treated the same, too.”

  “Oh.”

  “It’s just different here, love. It’s different than you’re thinking it is, coming from where you’ve been.”

  “Well, nobody carried you across the river, and you’re just as royal as I am.”

  He chuckled. “So hang us, Quinn. Your husband and your uncle, who both love you very much, and a couple of guards – who are growing rather fond of you as well, I suspect – wanted you to be warm and dry. And we were capable of making it happen, and there was no good reason not to. Is that really a terrible crime?”

  “No.”

  “Sometime, I’ll let you carry me across a river, if it will make you feel better, okay?”

  She looked up at him dubiously. He was a nearly a full head taller than she was. “Point taken.”

  He smiled.

  “Husband…” she said, after a few more minutes of walking. “That sounds so strange, but I like it.”

  His grin was huge. “I like it, too. I especially like that it means you have to put up with me doing things like being chivalrous and taking care of you whether you need me to or not.”

  “Is that what it’s called, chivalry?”

  He kissed her hand again. “That’s what it’s called.”

  “All right. I suppose I can learn to deal with the chivalry. But if you start undermining my decisions, or treating me like I’m not perfectly capable of doing things for myself, I still reserve the right to freak out on you.”

  “Good. I hope you do.” He pulled her hand up to his lips and gently kissed her knuckles.

  “You hope I freak out?”

  “I hope you always tell me what you’re feeling, and that we work things out when we have issues. I have plenty of moments where I need you to knock some sense into me, too. I really love the way we can talk, Quinn. I like that we can question and challenge each other. I never want us to stop that, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “Besides,” he teased, “I really like what happens after.”

  She giggled, feeling her face warm. “I do, too.”

  He paused just long enough to kiss her behind her ear. “I love you.”

  “I love you, Will.”

  * * *

  They hadn’t taken more than twenty steps in silence when Quinn suddenly stopped and froze in place, nearly making William fall with the abrupt motion. She stared into the trees to the side of them in disbelief.

  “Nice catch, Princess.”

  The new voice halted everyone else in their tracks, too. Marcus and Ben had their swords drawn before their feet even stopped moving.

  “Easy now,” Jonathan said, holding his hands up in front of him. “You can come and take my weapon, if you’d like.”

  Marcus and Ben hesitated, but Nathaniel didn’t. He walked right up to his younger brother, and reached for his belt. Jonathan kept his hands in the air the whole time Nathaniel was unfastening it.

  “Now the knife,” Nathaniel said.

  Jonathan nodded down toward his right leg. Nathaniel took that weapon too, pausing to check Jonathan’s other leg before carrying the blades back to where the rest of them were standing.

  Quinn didn’t look away from Jonathan to see what Marcus and Ben were doing, but she could tell they were searching the surrounding area with their eyes, looking for more people.

  “What are you doing here?” Nathaniel spat, once he was a safe distance away.

  “Looking for you. Well, for Princess Quinn and Prince William, specifically, but I’m happy to see the rest of you, as well.”

  “How did you find us?”

  Jonathan let out a low whistle, and a moment later, a bird flew down from the treetops, landing a few feet in front of him. She was beautiful, almost pure white except for the midnight-black feathers on the tips of her wings and right at her neck.

  “Your niece,” he said, glancing once at Quinn before turning his gaze back to Nathaniel, “has a gorgeous little seeker who is not yet quite experienced enough to be subtle and remain hidden while he travels. Avriel here had the chance to become acquainted with that bird before we left Stephen’s castle.”

  Quinn thought she was going to be sick. William’s arm curled automatically around her shoulders, steadying her. “Does that mean Tolliver knows where we are as well?”

  “No, Princess. Fortunately for you, neither my father nor my half-brother ever quite developed the knack of training a companion bird. They’re both convinced, of course, that the birds that flew away from them were defective or sabotaged somehow. But I think we can all agree that seeker birds are simply too intelligent for that.”

  “Why are you here, Jonathan?” Quinn asked. “Kidnapping me once wasn’t enough?”

  Jonathan’s face grew very serious. “I’m not here to kidnap you, Princess. But I am very much hoping that you’ll consent to coming with me – all of you of course,” he added, when Marcus and Ben moved to raise their swords.

  Quinn frowned. She couldn’t read his expression well at all. He looked sincere, but she’d chosen to trust him before, and then he’d run off again, with no explanation. And now he’d ambushed them in the woods. “Come with you where?”

  “To meet my mother.”

  “You’re in luck,” Nathaniel said. “Because that’s where we’re headed. You should know that – it was your advice, wasn’t it, that we bring Princess Quinn back to Mother at the castle?”

  “I was very much hoping that’s what you would be doing, yes.”

  “If you were hoping so much to see us, why did you leave the way you did, taking off in the middle of the night?” Quinn asked.

  “What did you expect me to do? Wait around there for someone to figure out where I was and report it to my father and Tolliver?”

  “Didn’t they already know?” Nathaniel said, unable to keep the irritation out of his voice. “Aren’t they the ones who sent you to Eirentheos in the first place, to spy on us?”

  Jonathan’s gray eyes were icy. “You’d do well to remember that some of us have been fighting this battle from the inside for the last twenty-odd cycles, Nathaniel. Not hiding out enjoying life in another kingdom – or another world.”

  He walked toward them now, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Marcus and Ben’s swords were all the way up now. “You don’t have any idea how difficult it
is to constantly hide your real intentions, to fight against someone while making sure they still trust you.”

  “And how do we know that’s not what you’re doing to us, right now?” Quinn asked.

  Jonathan looked back at her. “You don’t, Princess. I’ve told you that already. You don’t have one reason to trust me. But you should understand that you don’t have a better option. You’re not going to get to my mother without me.”

  “And how are you so sure about that?”

  Jonathan raised an eyebrow. “Two guards, two princes, and a princess. How were you planning on getting inside the castle? Don’t answer that, because it doesn’t matter anyway. My mother isn’t at the castle.”

  “Where is she?” Nathaniel demanded.

  “She is staying at the Miller Estate.”

  Quinn blinked. “That’s where we’re headed.”

  Jonathan nodded. “I wondered as much, when I caught wind of the direction you were traveling. And that’s when I became desperate to find you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because, if you continue to the Miller Estate alone, you’re walking into a trap that is going to get you killed.”

  “I thought you said nobody else knew we were here.”

  “They don’t. But they would if you got anywhere near the Millers’. You see, because some of us can be subtle and keep a secret, Hector and Tolliver have no idea that the Millers are members of the Friends of Philip. We’ve used that to our advantage. Enough so that Tolliver decided to hide my mother there and have his new…bride brought to her.”

  “Linnea is at the Miller Estate? Now?” William’s arm tightened almost uncomfortably around Quinn as he spoke.

  “Yes. She arrived yesterday afternoon – she’s fine, from what I hear. Upset, I’m sure.”

  “You haven’t seen her?”

  “No, I haven’t. As I said, I would prefer that it wasn’t common knowledge that I was at Rosewood Castle recently. I’m assuming that Princess Linnea is aware that I was?”

  Quinn nodded.

  “There’s enough of a risk she’ll mention it to someone who shouldn’t know without actually seeing me. We’re balancing on a very precarious edge here. Ideally, we need to get Linnea out of there, and returned to Eirentheos, before Hector and Tolliver realize that I’m working against them.”

  “You don’t think it’s possible they’ve realized that already?”

  Marcus’ voice almost startled Quinn. It was the first time he’d spoken in the conversation, and she had grown used to his silent presence.

  Jonathan’s eyes grew wide when he turned to study Marcus for the first time. “Marcus Westbrook? Is that you?”

  “I’m surprised you remember, Prince Jonathan.”

  “Yours would be a difficult face to forget, Marcus. You still look the same as you did when I was a boy.”

  Marcus chuckled. “You’re a flatterer, Jonathan. But then, you always were.”

  “I’d always hoped you were still alive somewhere. There was a part of me that always knew you must be – and the same for my brother.” He looked at Nathaniel. “You’ve been missed more than you know.”

  “Have you told Mother, then? That I’m alive?” Though so subtle it would have been hard to catch if you weren’t listening closely, Nathaniel’s voice caught on the last part of his question. Quinn was overcome with a sudden impulse to hug him.

  “I spoke with her yesterday morning. She knows about you – but not about Quinn,” he added quickly, anticipating their question. “Sharing the news about you, Nathaniel, was emotional enough, and she’s always held out some small hope that you might not actually have died. Keeping this secret is a big enough challenge. She needs to see you, Quinn, safe in front of her, before we can risk telling her.”

  “How do you think she’s going to react to finding out about me?” Quinn asked, and William’s hand tightened on hers – he knew this was one of the things she worried most about.

  “She’ll be pleased, I think, Princess. But as I’ve said, we have to handle this very carefully. She must find out about you before Tolliver does.”

  “And before Tolliver forces Linnea to marry him.”

  “Yes, that, too.”

  “Is Tolliver at the Miller Estate?”

  “He wasn’t when I left. I don’t know when he’s planning on arriving – I try to communicate with my half-brother as little as possible. But whether Tolliver is there or not, we’re not going to be able to just walk onto the grounds of the estate. There are soldiers everywhere.”

  “Are you including yourself in that we?” Quinn asked. “Because I don’t understand why you can’t just go back to the estate by yourself.”

  “I am including myself, yes. I don’t intend to go back to my mother without a solution to this problem – without you.”

  “Is that all I am – a ‘solution to your problem’?”

  “I’ve only just met you, Quinn. I don’t know anything about you except that you’re my brother’s daughter and you apparently grew up in an alternate world. So, yes, I’m going to have to learn a little more about you before you’re anything except a means to keep Tolliver off the throne.”

  She knew better, but still his words irked her a little. “How do you know I’d be any better a ruler than he would?”

  To her surprise, Jonathan’s mouth broke into a huge grin. “I didn’t–until just now. Yes, Princess, I think you’ll do just fine. Now, where’s the rest of your group?”

  Quinn raised an eyebrow.

  “Well, I know you didn’t walk all the way out here by yourselves, just the five of you. Where are the horses? Where are Ellen and Charles, and whoever else was traveling with you for that matter?”

  Nobody answered him for a long moment.

  “All right, then,” Jonathan said. “I’ll walk away for a few moments–go tend to my horse or something while you decide whether you’re going to trust me or capture me and try to do it your own way. The only option you don’t have is getting rid of me. Just shout when you’re ready for me to come back.” And with that, he turned and disappeared into the trees.

  “Well, he did leave his weapons here,” Marcus said, nodding toward the sword and knife that were lying on the ground.

  Nathaniel reached down to pick up the knife, running his fingers over the floral design on the sheath. “He could have ten more back there somewhere. And fifty soldiers.”

  “What would be the point of that?” Quinn asked. “Why wouldn’t they have ambushed us already?”

  Nathaniel sighed. “I don’t know what his motivations are, Quinn. All I know is that the first thing he did when he got into Eirentheos was kidnap you. That makes his motives a little suspect to me.”

  “Do you have a better option?” she asked. “We let fear of him win, and then what do we do?”

  Her barb hit its mark; Nathaniel looked chagrined. “That is what I’m doing, isn’t it?”

  Quinn shrugged. “It’s a little harder to tell when you’re making real decisions than it is when you’re discussing the hypothetical, I think.”

  “Do you trust him, Quinn?”

  She closed her eyes, drawing in several deep breaths while she thought, while she tried to sort emotions from facts, but finally she opened her eyes and nodded. “Yes, I do. Or at least, I’m willing to try.”

  Nathaniel stared at her for several seconds before he sighed. “Okay. All right. We’ll go with him. But can I at least keep his weapons?”

  William chuckled, but Quinn shook her head. “No. If we’re going to listen to him, we need to show him we trust him. Besides – if he doesn’t actually have more weapons somewhere else anyway – an unarmed person could be a liability if we run into any trouble. He’s more useful if he has them. And I’m guessing that Jonathan is better with swords and knives than you are, Nathaniel.”

  23. Dreams

  Stephen opened the bedroom door quietly, not wanting to disturb the baby if Charlotte was putting her down for her morning
nap. When he saw her leaning over the cradle, he was even more careful as he closed the door behind him.

  Charlotte still heard him, though. She straightened and turned to watch him cross the room to her. Coming up behind her, he wrapped his arms around her waist, and bent down to kiss her neck. Her hand lifted automatically to his cheek, a habit borne of twenty-five cycles of marriage, one that made him feel complete.

  Together, they stared at the tiny girl in the carved wooden cradle, the beautiful, sturdy little bed that had held each of their thirteen children. Hannah’s dark curls splayed out against the white sheet on the soft mattress, looking so much like Linnea’s, although, in her infancy, Linnea’s curls had always had Thomas’ fingers wrapped up in them as they slept in this cradle.

  “We think we know where she is,” Stephen whispered in Charlotte’s ear.

  She turned to him in surprise, taking his hand and leading him out of the bedroom and into the sitting room of their apartment. “Where?”

  “Nathaniel’s bird arrived just a little while ago. Apparently, he’s discovered that Linnea has been taken to the Miller Estate in Philotheum.”

  Charlotte frowned. “I don’t think I even know who that is.”

  “Brian Miller is related to the Philothean royal family–a third-cousin, maybe. Nathaniel obviously didn’t send a lot of details with the letter, but the estate is outside of Casprian.”

  “Why did they take her there?”

  “I don’t know. But now we know where she is. It’ll take a while to get anyone there, but at least now we have a direction.”

  “She could be long gone by the time anyone gets there.”

  “Or Nathaniel’s information could be wrong, and she might not be there at all. But it’s all we have. Maybe this will be the break we need to get her back.”

  Charlotte nodded. “Is Nathaniel headed there as well?”

  “I would guess that he is, but of course he wouldn’t include that information in a letter that could be intercepted. He did say that everyone is all right.”

  “Good.” Charlotte sighed, sinking down onto a couch. “So we can divert at least one regiment to the Miller Estate, then.”