“How long before the baby is due?” William asked, his eyes darting between Natalie and her husband.
“Another week or so,” Andrew told him.
William raised his eyebrows, as did Quinn. “In other words,” he said, “any time now?”
Natalie nodded. “I don’t think it’s time yet, though. It’s just been a very difficult few days for us.”
“Is this your first baby?”
“Yes, but my aunt is the midwife in Harber Village. I’ve seen plenty of babies born. There aren’t any signs that this little one is ready to come today.”
“You’re sure?”
She nodded. “I’m okay. It’s just a backache.”
Just then, there was another sound upstairs. A soft thud, perhaps a door closing, was followed by two sets of footsteps, one heavy and one that was lighter. Quinn’s heart began racing again.
“Sounds as though Tolliver has returned,” Andrew whispered.
The four of them were silent, each straining to listen to the muffled conversation that drifted through the floorboards.
“When should we expect Henry to decide to join us?” Quinn could almost see the condescending sneer on Tolliver’s face.
“He’ll be here when he gets here. You’re the one who showed up unannounced, remember?”
“Fine. Then I guess we can begin our discussion without him.”
“Ah… I rather wondered when you would drop the charade of just coming by to visit with your sister.”
“Speaking of that, darling sister, I’m thinking that it’s high time you began meeting your familial obligations and supporting your brother.”
“Excuse me?”
“Let’s not pretend you don’t know what I mean. I’m going to need your undivided support once I become king.”
Quinn’s stomach turned furiously, and William moved closer beside her.
“Whatever makes you think I would give it to you, Tolliver?”
“Do you not value your property here, this home, this life of luxury you lead?”
“Don’t make me laugh, little brother. Does your father even know you’re here? Does Mother?”
William raised his eyebrows. Quinn glanced over at Natalie and Andrew. They were listening to the conversation overhead, but they didn’t seem particularly surprised.
“Look, Ellen. I need your help with something. And you are going to give it to me.”
“Does this have anything to do with your ridiculous scheme of holding captive a prince of Eirentheos?”
William reached out towards Quinn, and she took his hand, squeezing it tightly.
“What? How do you know about that?”
“Keep trying me, Tolliver. You’ll find out what I know, and it won’t be to your benefit. So what is this asinine plan of yours with that boy? What do you possibly hope to accomplish by taking one of Stephen’s sons?”
“I’m not going to keep him. It’s not one of his sons that I’m after. And this is where your help comes in. I need someone with your … diplomacy skills to help me make the exchange.”
Ellen’s laughter shook the floor.
“I don’t know why you’re laughing, Ellen. You owe this to me, to your future king.”
“I think you have me confused with someone else, Tolliver. Are you still obsessed with the stupid stories from that fortune-teller of your father’s? You really believe you can become the “true heir of Philotheum” by forcing one of Stephen’s daughters into a marriage nobody wants?”
“The prophecy is very clear about the thrones being united, sister.”
“Uh-huh… This is the same guy that threatened grave risk to Samuel’s child, right? Too bad he didn’t see Samuel dying before he was even of age. How your father’s little oracle didn’t see the death of the stepson your father was supposed to be protecting is beyond me, especially when it was a death they were plotting together.”
“Oh, stop. My father had nothing to do with that idiot falling into a river and going over a waterfall.”
“Yeah … a skilled outdoorsman like Samuel just ‘fell into a river’ and drowned, never to be seen again.”
“However skilled you may have perceived your big brother to be, Ellen, he’s dead, and he’s not our concern anymore.”
“Our oldest brother being dead does not make you heir to the throne, Tolliver. And even marrying a princess of Eirentheos wouldn’t change that.”
“I don’t see anyone else standing in line, Ellen, do you?”
“The last time I checked, Charles was alive and well.”
“And just what do you plan to do with him? He’s not even in the kingdom – unless you’re hiding him, too. Besides which, he’s a third-born. Even with your ridiculous traditions, he’s not the rightful heir to the throne.”
“A third-born prince is better than a sixth-born nobody, Tolliver. Besides, he has an heir. And in the absence of an heir from Samuel – or from me, the crown rightfully belongs to Charles’ child.”
“The child can’t possibly be of age.”
“Do you think that matters to the people of Philotheum? Or Eirentheos, for that matter? And have you even considered what will happen if you do something to their prince?”
“I had heard rumors that Charles’ first-born was only a girl – no threat to me.”
“For a person who has no regard for our history and traditions, you seem to rely heavily on inconsequential details to protect you.”
“What do you mean?”
“The fact that thus far, all of our kings have managed to produce sons as their first-borns doesn’t mean anything. There is no rule against a girl taking the throne.”
The silence was palpable. Having had her own experience seeing the amount of regard Tolliver had for women, she had no trouble imagining the look on his face now.
“And surely, dear little brother, it hasn’t escaped your notice that Stephen has much more to offer in the way of eligible sons than he does daughters.”
“You can’t be suggesting …”
“I’m not suggesting anything, Tolliver. You are not prepared for war against your own people and Eirentheos. I’m willing to bet that your father doesn’t know the half of what you are doing, and that Mother knows nothing. And who do you think would stand behind you if a royal firstborn of Philotheum were to marry into the Eirenthean line? Whatever support you think you have would disappear overnight.
“Furthermore, I’ve met Stephen. If you allowed something to happen to his son … the Maker help you. Don’t force his hand – or mine. Return the boy. And do it now.”
Quinn’s hand was sweaty as she clutched William’s for dear life. Both of them struggled to remember to breathe.
“Do you really know where Charles’ heir is?”
“Do you want to find that out?”
“If I return Thomas, how do I know that you won’t just turn around and produce Charles and his heir?”
“You don’t.”
The silence in the air was thick, on both sides of the wooden floor. Quinn was starting to feel dizzy from straining to listen over the train-like pounding of her heart.
Andrew was kneeling beside his wife, his arms around her, his head pressed against her round belly. Quinn was amazed she could have missed it the day before. Natalie didn’t look very well.
Suddenly, Tolliver laughed. The sound turned Quinn’s stomach. “I think I’ll go out to your stables and check on my horse. Let me know when dinner is ready, will you?”
No one even breathed as Tolliver walked across the floor, and then the sound of his footsteps disappeared with the sound of a slamming door. Quinn felt like she might fall over, though William was standing so closely behind her shoulder that he would have caught her if she had.
Natalie let out a low groan, and William’s entire demeanor shifted instantly. He squeezed Quinn’s shoulder and then somehow, in the next second he was kneeling in front of Natalie; Andrew moved to her side to watch.
It was difficult to see
anything in the pale light of the candles that Natalie and Andrew had brought with them from upstairs. Quinn moved automatically to retrieve the ones she and William had been using from underneath the stairs.
Relighting them, she carried both of them over near the chair and set them on the floor.
William nodded at her as he carefully touched the young woman’s stomach. “That was definitely a contraction,” he said. “I think you’re in labor, Natalie.”
“Already?” Andrew asked, panic in his near-whisper.
“Yeah… You can’t hide this forever Natalie,” William murmured. “How long has this been going on?”
She shrugged. “Most of the day. I thought… I just wanted this to happen when we weren’t hiding out.”
“We were going to try and travel, to make it to the town where her sister is living before the baby came.” Andrew said.
William squeezed Natalie’s hand. “None of that will matter once the baby is here, I promise.”
She nodded.
“Can we help get you lying down, so I can get a better idea of what’s going on?”
Quinn took the few short steps to Andrew’s side, and bent down next to him. “Come on, there are lots of blankets and pillows in the area under the stairs.”
Andrew stood to follow her. “There are plenty of medical supplies and lots of water in the crates as well,” he said quietly to William, who looked up at him in surprise.
“Medical supplies?”
“Yes, these rooms below the safe houses are well-stocked for nearly anything. Twenty people could survive down here for weeks.”
Quinn raised her eyebrows, but nobody said anything as she and Andrew carried blankets and pillows over to William, and then walked around the basement, lighting candles and setting them on the high shelves. She wondered how many safe houses there were, complete with these underground rooms filled with supplies – and how many people were inside them right now.
She was reaching above her head to set a candle on one of the small sconces when there were suddenly three loud stomps on the floor directly above her.
Startled, she dropped the candle, and the candlestick clattered noisily against the stone floor. The fall through the air extinguished the flame, but droplets of hot wax splattered on her neck, shoulder, and down her arm. She bit her tongue to stop herself from crying out, terrified that whoever was above her would already have been alerted by the noise.
Panicked, her eyes instantly searched for William. His expression matched hers.
“It’s all right. That’s Ellen.” Andrew’s voice was calm as he came to stand beside Natalie, and loud too, or at least it felt that way. He was speaking in a normal voice, rather than the soft whispers they’d been using the entire time they were down here. “She’s letting us know there’s nobody in the house besides her, that we don’t have to be so careful.”
While William went to dig through the storage alcove to find the crates that held medical supplies, Quinn and Andrew folded and piled several blankets on the floor to create a soft bed for Natalie. Andrew helped his wife get settled and comfortable just as William returned.
“Can you come and help me for a second, Quinn?” he asked.
She nodded, and followed him over to the alcove. There was a strange expression on his face as he pointed down into an open crate.
“What?” she mouthed.
In response, he reached into the crate, and lifted out a stethoscope. Underneath it were piles of cloth-wrapped packages. The open one on top revealed several different sizes of gauze bandages. Next to it lay what looked like several feet of plastic tubing rolled into a circle. A stack of metal boxes lined the edge of the crate. It took her a minute to realize what was upsetting him. She looked up at him in surprise.
“From Earth?” she whispered, so low that she almost couldn’t hear herself.
He nodded.
“How? What?”
He shrugged, his expression as confused – and wary – as hers.
~ 23 ~
Still Trapped
WILLIAM COULD NOT UNDERSTAND what was going on – how all of the medical supplies, so clearly from Earth, had found their way into the basement of a safe house in Philotheum. Of course, there was only one person who could have brought them here, and that fact was the source of his frustration.
He had realized last night that Nathaniel had been here before, that he was familiar not only with the house, but also with Ellen and Henry. Did Nathaniel know that Ellen was Tolliver’s sister, as well? None of this made sense to him anymore.
All of these things were running through the back of his mind as he tended to the young woman. Her labor was advanced – if nothing changed, if they weren’t rescued soon from this basement, he would be delivering this baby by himself. This thought terrified him. He knew what to do – in theory. He had read about it in medical textbooks, and even been in attendance at four births with Nathaniel, but even his uncle delivered babies only rarely. On Earth, he wasn’t an obstetrician, and here, in their own world, mothers were almost always attended by experienced and skilled midwives, not healers.
As if the fact that he was going to be delivering his first baby in a dark basement while hiding from Tolliver wasn’t enough, his thoughts were in a muddle over what had just happened with Quinn. He didn’t understand it at all. One minute they’d been laughing and the next … he hadn’t seen that coming, at all.
He had often wondered, during this trip, how it could come so easily to his younger brother, how Thomas could just up and kiss the girl, not even considering the consequences. He’d never pictured himself doing something like that.
Guilt churned in his stomach when he thought about Thomas. He wondered, yet again, why his brother had kissed Quinn. Did he really have feelings for her? He must, on some level. Although interacting with girls was a natural skill for Thomas – and certainly he’d kissed more girls than William had – he would never have done something like that if he didn’t really care for Quinn.
Did he actually intend to pursue a relationship with her, though? William had no idea, other than he couldn’t imagine Thomas not making his intentions clear to Quinn if that were the case.
He shook his head, trying to shake the convoluted thoughts loose. He couldn’t worry about it right now. Not about how Thomas felt, or how Quinn did, or even how he, himself did. They were where they were, and there were things to do. First and foremost, there was a baby to deliver.
William held up his stethoscope for Natalie and Andrew to see. “This instrument will let me hear the baby’s heartbeat, so I can check on him – or her.” He placed the drum on Natalie’s stomach, searching for the baby’s heart. He smiled when he found it, right where it should be, thrumming vigorously.
“It sounds perfect,” he said. “Would you like to listen?” Once Natalie had finished marveling over the sound, he helped Andrew fit the stethoscope over his ears. He couldn’t help smiling when he saw the young man’s eyes light up with amazement and pride.
A surprising sense of jealousy hit him as he watched the scene. Andrew was only a cycle or two older than William. An unanticipated drawback to his life of traveling between the two worlds and spending his energy and efforts on building up the clinics here, had been the lack of time – and the opportunity – to meet and court any young ladies in his world. Being alone, and not starting a family, was the price Nathaniel had been paying for his choice for many cycles – would that happen to him, too?
* * *
Time stretched interminably in the dark basement. There was no way for Quinn to even guess how long they’d been here.
William, Andrew, and Quinn all tended Natalie as best they could. Andrew had located a large storage container filled with water, and they’d used it to drink and to wet several small cloths that they wiped across Natalie’s sweaty forehead to keep her comfortable, whenever she was sitting or lying down.
Most of the time, she paced the room, leaning on her husband as he supported h
er. Quinn stayed near William, alternately walking around and sitting down on some of the crates they’d dragged close to the makeshift pallet they had created for Natalie on the floor. They couldn’t see much in the pale flickering candlelight, and they kept as silent as they could, whispering to one another only when it was absolutely necessary, even though it had been quite a while since any sound other than Ellen’s light footsteps had come through the ceiling above them.
She could tell that William was nervous, and she did what she could to reassure him – which wasn’t much since this whole thing kind of freaked her out, too. But time kept passing, and nothing really changed.
Despite the stress of the situation, for the first time in as long as she could remember, she was beginning to feel bored.
And then, everything changed at once. Natalie had let out small groaning noises several times before, but the sound that came from her now was different – louder and more urgent. William stood and flew across the room to her.
At the same time, there were new sounds upstairs. A loud bang shook the floor – the front door hitting the wall as someone threw it open, followed by several pairs of heavy footsteps.
Tolliver’s voice resonated through the basement ceiling. He was laughing – a sound that turned Quinn’s blood to ice in her veins. There was another man’s voice, one that she didn’t recognize. He was chuckling, too.
“So, what about it, Ellen?” Tolliver called loudly. “Have you finished slaving over dinner yet? Your husband has finally decided to grace us with his presence; he’s just coming up the road now.”
Tolliver’s voice was different, less polished than usual – slurred? She wasn’t sure what to make of it. She looked over to William, to see if she could decipher his thoughts on it, but his attention was on something else entirely.
Andrew and William both had their arms around Natalie, gently guiding her down onto the blankets. Her breathing was heavy and rough. Her whole body twitched with every sound that drifted through the floor, and Quinn could tell that she was having great difficulty remaining silent.
Roots of Insight (Dusk Gate Chronicles -- Book Two) Page 22
