“Where’d Linnea go?” he asked, coming to sit down on the bench beside her.
“I … I don’t know. She took off to do something,” Quinn answered, trying to collect her thoughts, and willing the pink that she knew covered her cheeks to go away before he noticed.
It didn’t work. “Is everything okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, everything is fine. Why?”
He frowned, studying her expression. “What’s going on, Quinn? What happened?”
“Nothing happened. Linnea and I were just talking.”
He raised an eyebrow, and then suddenly his entire posture changed. “Oh. Let me guess. You weren’t talking about Thomas.”
She shook her head.
“Or about your father.”
“No.” Suddenly, the bee on the flower became very interesting again.
He was quiet for a moment, and then he surprised her by putting his finger under her chin and gently turning her face until she was looking at him before he put his hands back in his lap. His expression was soft, his eyes open and friendly. “I’m going to guess that Linnea just had the same conversation with you that Thomas had with me.”
Her eyes widened. The way he’d turned his body toward her on the bench, and the shy half-smile he directed at her gave her more courage.
“Do you think they planned that?”
He shrugged, smiling in earnest now. “It wouldn’t be a safe bet either way. I actually kind of think they didn’t. Those two are scary.”
She couldn’t stop the nervous giggle that slipped out. “That they are.”
They grew quiet again, neither of them knowing how to continue. Quinn took a deep breath – better to keep it going now that they’d gotten this far.
“What did Thomas ask you?”
“He asked when I’d finally kissed you.”
When she saw how closely his flaming cheeks matched hers, she almost started giggling again. “How do they know?” she asked.
“I think it’s been pretty obvious to anyone who’s been paying attention that things have changed between you and me.” His gray eyes met hers, and the joking was gone.
She swallowed hard. “Yeah, I guess things kind of have.”
He reached over and took her hand. His hand trembled, and she understood completely. “I … I should be better at this,” he said, and his hand shook even more. She covered it with her other hand and looked up at him.
“Quinn, I don’t know how to do this. I’m not smooth like Zander probably was, and I don’t have the gift of charm like Thomas – all of this just comes naturally to him, but it doesn’t to me. And I’m so worried that I might hurt you or upset you. So many things have happened to you lately – finding out about your father like this, fighting with your mom, breaking up with Zander. And I don’t know how you feel about any of this. And I want to ask, without making it harder on you. And I don’t want you to feel like you have to make some kind of a choice or a decision right now…”
By the time he stopped talking, her hands were shaking as hard as his were, but she squeezed his hands in hers anyway. She was surprised at how much it calmed her when he squeezed back. It took her several minutes to form the words she wanted to say.
When she could finally speak, she made sure she was looking in his eyes. “I’m not any better at this than you are, William. I don’t have the answers to all of those questions, and it’s true that I’m not ready to make any big decisions right now. But the one thing I do know is that I don’t need you to be somebody else. I don’t need you to be Zander or Thomas. I’m glad you’re not either of them. I like you, Will.”
He didn’t answer out loud; the look in his gray eyes was answer enough. He leaned in close, and she moved toward him, too. When their lips finally touched, she was overwhelmed at the emotion that flowed inside her. Her hands found the back of his head, and she pulled him closer as his arms wound around her back.
The kiss ended when he finally pulled away, though he brought his hand up to her face, cradling her cheek in his palm, and rubbing his thumb along the line where the blush had bloomed a few moments ago. She wasn’t blushing now; the silliness and embarrassment had all but vanished, and she lifted her hand to place it over his.
“I can see you this time,” he said, smiling.
She smiled back – their first kiss had been in the pitch-black basement. This was completely different.
Suddenly, William looked over her shoulder, and his hand dropped from her cheek, although it stayed with hers as it fell into her lap. “Good timing, Nay,” he said. “How long have you been standing there?”
Quinn turned to see Linnea standing there, looking somehow embarrassed and happy at the same time. She also looked … worried?”
“Sorry, Will,” she said, coming closer. “I never meant … Quinn, I’m so sorry. I wouldn’t have … It’s just, Will … Lily needs your help in the clinic.”
William was on his feet in the next instant, and Quinn and Linnea followed him through the gardens and down a path to the small clinic in one of the outer yards of the castle.
“I’m really sorry Quinn,” Linnea said again as they walked.
Quinn’s cheeks were red-hot again, but she looked over at her friend with a teasing half-smile. “There’d just better be a real emergency,” she said.
Before they even got inside the clinic, it was obvious that something was going on. Simon stood on the small, covered porch speaking with a dark-haired woman who looked upset. Several children milled about in the grass and on the porch. They all looked exhausted and filthy. The youngest, only a toddler, was trying to climb the steps to reach his mother. His dirty diaper hung to his knees.
“Lily needs you inside, Will,” Simon called as they approached. “Linnea? We could use you out here,” he said, motioning over the children.
“Help me, Quinn?” Linnea asked.
She nodded. “What’s going on?”
At that moment, Max came down the path from the direction of the castle; Charlotte and Rebecca close behind him. “Did you find William?” Max asked Linnea.
She nodded.
“Good. I’m going to ride into the clinic in the city and see if I can find another healer to help. Lily and Will aren’t going to be able to do everything and help with Thomas, too.”
“Wait,” Quinn said. “What is going on here?”
“Simon and I were out on a ride just past the city today, and we came across another encampment of refugees from Philotheum. Several families this time; this camp has apparently been growing for a couple of days. I guess this family here found them late last night. Their father was injured in a fire when their house burned just before they left Philotheum. One of the girls is ill as well. They’ve been traveling like this for six days without any help. On foot.”
Bile rose in Quinn’s throat. “Why? How could something like this happen?”
“How do you think it happened?” Max asked. “Tolliver’s army destroyed an entire village last week when they found out their mayor was in the resistance.”
Quinn’s jaw dropped. “What?”
“Look, I’ll be back later,” Max said. “These people need help.”
Rebecca and Linnea were already trying to round up the children, who all looked frightened. Charlotte had gone up to the porch to talk Simon and the mother of the children.
“We need to get everyone clean and fed, at least,” Quinn said, walking over to join them. “Where can we do that?”
“There’s a shower in the clinic,” Linnea said, “but Lily took one look at their father and told me to keep everyone outside and away.”
“So we need to get them inside the castle, then.”
Rebecca nodded. “We could use one of the guest apartments and have some food brought up.”
“The children are frightened of us,” Linnea said.
“Why?” Quinn asked, surprised.
“Oh, apparently there are some interesting rumors floating around in the villages in Philo
theum about things we’ve done to refugees from there.” Simon had come down from the porch and joined them.
Charlotte was still up there, her arms wrapped around the young woman. The baby had made it up on to the porch now, and was clinging to his mother’s skirts.
“If they’re so afraid of us, why are they here?” Linnea asked.
“Well, we brought them to the castle, remember? They were too afraid to even try the clinic in the city alone. And the parents – their names are Connie and Eldon Hardridge – never really believed the rumors, although after the way they were treated in a couple of the villages, I think they started to. Anyway, they didn’t have the choice to stay in Philotheum; they knew their children weren’t safe there. Their house “mysteriously” burned down after the wrong person found out that they’re Friends of Philip.”
Quinn’s eyes widened. “They’re Friends of Philip?”
Simon nodded. “Nearly all of the refugees who have come into Eirentheos are.”
“But not all,” Rebecca added.
Simon shot her an odd look. “I would hardly call the other ones refugees, Rebecca.”
At that moment, one of the children, a little girl probably five cycles old, tripped over something in the grass, and fell to the ground, crying loudly. Her mother rushed down the stairs toward her, and Charlotte picked up the filthy toddler and followed her.
“Well,” said Quinn, “we’re going to have to work on the trust thing, and get them inside.”
9. The Hardridge Family
Quinn didn’t see William again for several hours. By the time they’d helped the young mother, Connie, get all of her children calmed, clean, and fed, it was past dinnertime. Rebecca, fortunately, had managed to make a good connection with the young mother. She offered to walk with her down to the clinic to see her husband and daughter while Charlotte left to feed Hannah, and Quinn and Linnea went back to see Thomas.
When they entered Thomas’ bedroom, Quinn was surprised – and relieved – to see William already in there, sitting next to the bed. She realized, now, that they’d all been away from him all day, and she felt bad.
“Hey,” Thomas said as they entered the room. “How are the kids?”
“Better,” Linnea said. “It took a while to get them to come into the castle with us. The oldest ones were convinced we were going to capture them, and send their parents to Tolliver.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” William said. “Why would they ever think we would do something like that?”
Quinn shrugged, but Linnea had talked to Connie at length while Quinn had played with the younger children, trying to get them to eat. “They’re from a town not far from the capital city in Philotheum,” Linnea said. “Their town is enjoying some pretty interesting prosperity and power under Tolliver’s rule. Most people in their town actually support Tolliver, if you can imagine. A lot of the families are related to the royal line, but who’ve never been directly in line for the crown, and Tolliver has been making some sweeping promises about ‘restoring’ Philotheum to the way it ‘should’ be.”
“And what way do they think it should be?” William asked, his voice incredulous.
“Well, Tolliver is rather fond of the idea that it’s ‘unfair’ that only a first-born from the line of first-borns can assume the throne under any circumstances – I can’t imagine why he wouldn’t love that concept.”
“No, I can’t think of a single reason why the son of a usurper would want to change that.” Linnea said, rolling her eyes.
“Still, that doesn’t explain why they think we’re in support of Tolliver, or that we would send people who come here to him.” William sounded just as confused as Quinn was.
“I don’t understand all of it, Will. I do know that Tolliver has somehow managed to convince his supporters that his marriage into our family is imminent. Or he had, anyway. Maybe they really believe Eirentheos is in agreement with what he is doing.”
“There are really people who still believe he’s going to marry you?”
“Let’s just say that Tolliver’s buddy ‘Captain’ Rhinewald wasn’t so thrilled when I said something to him that was intended to disabuse him of that notion.” Thomas said.
Quinn’s eyes popped open wide. “That’s what happened?”
“Among other things. Harbin Rhinewald didn’t find me as, uh ... charming as most people tend to. But then again, I don’t feel so charming when I hear people talking about using my twin sister as a pawn to get what they want.”
Linnea was aghast. “Did you really have to talk until he was mad enough to beat you half to death?”
Quinn wondered the same thing.
“In retrospect, it may not have been the best idea,” Thomas answered, eyeing the needle on the syringe that William was preparing. He sighed, and Quinn took his hand, squeezing it hard, although she looked away – she still couldn’t watch.
After Thomas had caught his breath again, he looked back up at them. “It did put Tolliver rather in a dither when he found out I was injured. Kind of hard to beat a guy’s son to a pulp and then say, ‘so, Steve, how about you let me marry your daughter?’”
Nobody laughed.
“Now that he doesn’t have me hostage anymore, and that possibility is slipping away from him, I think we’re going to see him change a lot of his tactics.”
“Probably.” Linnea said. “When you’ve hung your supporters’ hopes on the idea that you’re going to marry an Eirenthean princess,” she shuddered, “and you’ve apparently gotten them to buy into some prophecy that that will make you the ‘true heir’, then you leave yourself with a lot to live up to.”
“Which is all just nonsense anyway,” Thomas said. “Even his father’s own oracle or whatever he was never said that anyone could somehow magically become ‘heir to the throne’ by marrying one of us.”
They all looked at Thomas in surprise. The first time any of them had heard anything about Tolliver’s “fortune-teller” had been while Quinn and William were in Philotheum, trying to rescue Thomas. Although they’d discussed it at length, and come up with their own theories, none of them knew any details.
“How do you know what the oracle said?” William asked.
“The topic came up when Tolliver was visiting with Rhinewald after I’d been injured. Bright enough, those two are, to think that a few broken bones would somehow interfere with my hearing.”
Nobody smiled, but Thomas’ expression was still darker than Quinn had ever imagined it could be. “Either that, or they really didn’t anticipate my ever having the opportunity to share what they were saying.”
Quinn’s stomach churned, and she gripped Thomas’ hand again. “So what did they say?”
“It wasn’t a lot. Tolliver was extremely angry when he found out how badly I was hurt. Not that he wouldn’t have liked to do it to me himself – I think the fact that he didn’t get the satisfaction was part of his problem.
“He was in a rage, demanding to know what Rhinewald suggested he do now, and the idiot was trying to convince him that it didn’t matter. He said the prophecy never said that the two kingdoms had to be united in order for anyone to take the throne, only that the “true heir” would become known by his ability to bring the two lines together and restore things to how they should be. He thought Tolliver could fulfill the prophecy by having children and having one of them marry into our line.”
“Yeah, because that’s more likely,” William said, rolling his eyes.
“It’s all just some purposefully vague, fake ‘prophecy’ anyway,” Thomas said, looking around at them. “Something the oracle made up to keep Tolliver’s father happy and believing his son could somehow take over the Philothean throne and have it be the right thing. I could probably make up crazy stuff like that, too, if my life depended on it.”
“Well, he seems to have an awful lot of people believing it. And he’s going to have bigger problems than he already does when more people find out that he was responsible for h
urting Thomas like this.” Linnea said.
“How do people not already know?” Quinn asked, stunned.
“News doesn’t travel as quickly in our world as it does in yours, remember? The whole thing wasn’t on the evening news,” William said. “On the Philothean side, most people never even knew that Tolliver had Thomas. And he’s certainly not spreading around what happened. And the majority of the people who know about it are probably keeping it quiet for their own safety.”
“So they don’t even know what kind of a monster Tolliver is,” Quinn said.
“Plenty of them do, I think,” Linnea said. “But fear of what he will do is pretty motivating to some of them as well. I think Connie Hardridge has a pretty good idea of who was involved in burning down their house, but she almost sounded as if she expected something like that to happen She said something about knowing what chances she was taking when she joined the Friends of Philip. Tolliver’s soldiers aren’t kind to those who know people in the resistance.”
“Some of them, anyway,” William said. “We can’t forget that there are members of the Friends of Philip who are in Tolliver’s army, doing what they can to fight for the right thing every day. We owe Thomas’ life to James and Dorian Blackwelder. And they’re still soldiers in Philotheum.”
Thomas nodded. “I thank the Maker for the two of them every day.”
“I need to get back out to the clinic,” William said, covering Thomas’ leg with a blanket after he’d finished checking the dressing.
Quinn raised an eyebrow. “Have you eaten yet?” she asked.
“I’ll have something later.”
“Later when, Will? We all know you’re going to go back down to that clinic and the next thing you know six hours will have passed.”
He looked at her in surprise. “I’ll eat, Quinn, I promise. You should all eat now, though. You can have some trays sent up.”
“I’ve eaten,” said Thomas. “Mia brought me a tray a little while ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if she brings me a snack in another half hour, although I’ll probably be asleep by then. I’m already feeling the stuff you just gave me.”
Thorns of Decision (Dusk Gate Chronicles) Page 10
