Blooms of Consequence (Dusk Gate Chronicles Book 4) (22 page)

“Flattery? Did you not look in a mirror before you came down here, sweet sister?”

She rolled her eyes. “I did look in a mirror, and it’s still flattery. But I like the sound of the word sister.”

“Me too, sweetheart.” He grabbed her and pulled her into a tight hug. “I like it a whole lot.”

“I’m going to miss you.”

He shrugged. “You’re not going that far. And I’m not that easy to get rid of. Dance with me?”

“To the Hokey Pokey on repeat?”

He chuckled. “Why not? I’m only going to get one chance to dance with my new sister on her wedding day. I don’t care what song it is – in fact, I wouldn’t care if there was no music at all.” He didn’t wait for a response before taking her hand and holding it up to twirl her around.

“Hey, get your own girl,” William said, several minutes later when the song had finally changed.

“I was only keeping her safe for your return,” Thomas said, grinning. “Now that you’re back, she’s all yours.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead again, and then gave her another hug before spinning her back to William’s waiting arms. “I don’t think I could be any happier for you two.”

After several happy hours that Quinn and William spent mostly with Megan, alternating Annie and Owen between their laps, it was finally time to bring things to a close. Most of the dishes had been cleared from the long buffet table when Stephen rang a spoon against his glass, and offered one more congratulatory toast to Quinn and William. Then he and Charlotte walked across the room and hugged them both.

“It’s so wonderful to welcome you to our family officially, Quinn.”

“Thank you, Stephen. It means a lot to me to hear you say that.”

“I mean every word.”

Charlotte had tears in her eyes as she kissed Quinn on the cheek.

“Thank you for everything, Charlotte,” Quinn whispered. “It was a beautiful day.”

“It wasn’t nearly as much as I wanted for the two of you.”

“But it was more than enough, Mother. We both appreciate it more than you could ever know.”

And then, at last, it was time for the part they’d been dreading. Quinn and William made their way to a secluded back hallway. Megan, Owen, and Annie, had changed from their fancy outfits into sturdy, rain-proof clothing. The few items they’d brought, and the many more they’d been gifted, had already been carried out to the saddlebags by Ben and Marcus, who would be accompanying them to the gate.

There wasn’t anything to say; they’d said everything they could over the last couple of days. More words now would only make this harder. They just held each other tightly for as long as they could. William kept his hand on Quinn’s shoulder as they both knelt down in front of Annie to give her the necklace they’d had made for her, a replica of the pendants she and William wore, only Annie’s was half silver and half gold, and bore the symbol that connected their two kingdoms, the one that matched their Friends of Philip tattoos. On the back of her pendant were the words,
Love you forever Princess Annie.

Owen’s gift had been more practical, and was already tucked in a watertight bag and packed away in one of the saddlebags. It was a set of Eirenthean schoolbooks, a bit advanced for his age, but appropriate for Owen, that he had become obsessed with during his days in the castle. William had slipped a couple of his personal books in there as well, though Quinn didn’t know what those ones were.

She’d also written each of them, Owen, Annie, and her mother, long letters, filled with her favorite memories of each of them, and telling them how much she loved them. Linnea had helped her bind each one into a little book, and Thomas and William had worked with her to stamp designs on soft sheets of leather that they’d then sewn over the pages.

All too soon, Ben appeared in the corridor behind them. He nodded, and after one last hug, Megan took Annie’s and Owen’s hands and they followed him outside.

*          *          *

“There’s a reason,” Linnea said, appearing in the hallway behind them, “that it’s traditional for the married couple to leave the building and
go somewhere else
, at a predetermined time.”

“So they can get away from their annoying little sisters?”

“Funny, Will. Are you really planning on staying down here the whole night? I know it’s sad, but it isn’t like you’re never going to see them again, and people do actually leave their families when they get married.”

“You’re right, Linnea,” Quinn said, swallowing back the last of the thick feeling in her throat, and blinking several times. “This is what we planned on.”

“Good.” Linnea smiled brightly, though it didn’t reach
all
the way to her eyes, and Quinn had never appreciated her friend quite so much as she did now. As hard as this was, it was done now, her family was gone, and there were other things she needed to focus on – starting with her first night with William as her … she almost couldn’t even think the word yet …
husband.

 “Let’s go.” Without waiting for a response, Linnea turned and headed back up the hallway.

 William smiled, and she realized his cheeks were a little pink, too. When he took her hand, a little electric current raced up her arm, and it took her a second to catch her breath.

She smiled shyly back up at him, and he bent down to kiss her cheek before they followed Linnea.

“Where
are
we going, anyway?” Quinn asked when they reached the main staircase, suddenly thinking about how awkward it would be to head back to one of their bedrooms, where they’d be surrounded by his family.

Linnea’s answering smile was a little smug. “Just follow me.”

She led them up the stairs, but didn’t turn at the entrance to the family’s quarters. Instead, she headed for a different hallway, where there were guest suites for visiting dignitaries. Unfamiliar warmth blossomed underneath the surface of Quinn’s skin, and she heard William begin to breathe just a little faster.

Linnea stopped just outside the door of a room Quinn had never been inside, and turned to them.

“Congratulations, both of you. I love you so much.” She hugged William tightly, before turning to Quinn. “Do you need anything before I go?” she whispered. “Help with this?” She fingered the soft material of Quinn’s gown.

The soft warmth that had been slowly building burst suddenly into a roaring flame. “I … I think I can manage,” she stuttered, knowing her cheeks were probably shining brightly enough to guide a plane in for a landing.

Linnea, to her credit, only nodded and hugged her before turning and disappearing down the hall.

She’d barely turned the corner when William let out a giant snicker. A second later, they were both laughing so hard that tears were running down their cheeks and Quinn was gasping for air. He tried to turn the knob to let them into the room, but his laughter shook him so badly that it took several attempts before he finally got it open. Once he did, they both practically fell into the room; William landed against the back of the door as he closed it, his chest still heaving.

“Aren’t you supposed ... to carry ... me across the threshold?” Quinn asked when she’d finally calmed enough to sort of talk.

William raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t I supposed to
what?
”

“Carry me through the door.”

“Why? Is that a tradition in your world?”

“You never watched any romantic movies while you were there?”

“No. You’re not really serious, are you?”

She nodded.

William eyed the door dubiously. “I am not going back out there. What if somebody comes down the hall?”

Her eyes widened.

“If it’s really important to you, I could like, pick you up and throw you on the couch or something.”

That was all it took to start the giggles going again.

William reached to pull her into his arms, and she held her head against his chest, listening to the glorious, deep sound that kept time with her own. Slowly, they sobered, and she became aware of another sound in his chest – the heavy, rapid pounding of his heart. Her mood changed instantly.

William must have felt the shift, must have been right there with her, because he reached down with his finger and tipped her chin up until her lips met his. The kiss started out gentle and sweet, but it quickly turned into something more, something deeper. Instinctively, her hands went up to help him shrug out of the jacket of his tuxedo, and as soon as his hands were free, they reached around to the top button of her dress.

QUINN WOKE WITH A start; her heart racing though she wasn’t sure why. The room was quiet and dark. She’d fallen asleep with her head on William’s chest; his breaths were as deep and even as hers were shallow and erratic. As soon as she lifted her head to sit up, though, he stirred, and his eyes opened.

“Hey, beautiful,” he said, pulling himself up next to her. His hand was warm on her back as he leaned in to kiss her temple. She could almost hear him frown as he registered the irregular pattern of her breathing. “What’s wrong? Why are you awake?”

“I don’t know. I just woke up like this, feeling like something’s wrong. But nothing is.”

“Everything’s fine, love.” He ran the back of his finger down the side of her face and then he kissed her, first on her forehead, then her cheek, and finally moving to her lips, planting a soft kiss there before pulling back to look at her again. “Better than fine, I’d say.”

She blushed, remembering the night before, how strange it had been as they’d walked into the bedroom together, her heart beating like a hummingbird at the sight of the large bed and the huge vases of flowers on the night tables on either side.

They’d both stopped at the same time, with the sudden realization that this was real, they’d actually gotten married – and neither one of them knew what they were doing.

She’d been standing there in her long slip, him still in his pants, with his dress shirt mostly unbuttoned, both of them blushing and awkward. Then they’d started giggling again.

His thumb traced the warm spot on her cheek now, and, though surely he couldn’t see it in the dark room, he kissed it again, while she put her arms around his neck.

He kissed her lips again, running his hand down her face, to her shoulder and then to her back, but his hand stopped halfway down, and he pulled back a little. “Your heart is going a million miles a minute, Quinn. And I don’t think it’s from me.”

She sighed. “No, it isn’t. I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s going on. I just feel really weird. Anxious.”

He moved away from her slightly, and a second later she heard a soft click, which was immediately followed by the room filling with blinding light. In truth, it was only a soft bedside lamp, but for a few tense seconds, it felt like he’d turned on the sun. “Sorry.”

“S’okay.” She blinked, and put her hand over her eyes. He stretched his hand toward her forehead, even though his lips had just been there.

“I’m not sick, Will. It was probably just a nightmare that I don’t remember or something.”

“It’s okay. Whatever it was, I’m here.” His fingers still went searching for the pulse at her wrist, and she rolled her eyes.

“Really, I’m fine.” She pulled his hand away from her wrist, though she held on to it. “I promise.” He wrapped his other arm around her and pulled her against his chest, stroking her back for a long time. Finally, her heart rate slowed, and she relaxed against him, feeling more normal.

“Do you want to try to go back to sleep?” he asked, his breath warm against her temple.

She shook her head. “I’m wide awake now. What time is it?”

He glanced around the room. The bedroom of the guest suite they were in was well-appointed, from the fresh flowers on the bedside tables, and the candles in crystal holders on the mantel, but there was no clock in here. “Dark? Unless those are the best curtains in the castle.”

“Do
you
want to go back to sleep?”

He shook his head. “Are you hungry?”

Sometime late in the evening, when they’d finally stopped to check out the rest of their surroundings, William had discovered a note that Thomas had slipped under the door of the sitting room, letting them know that Ben and Marcus had returned, and Quinn’s family was safely through the gate. It had also mentioned that there was dinner outside the door when they wanted it.

He’d opened the door for long enough to bring in the large silver tray filled with plates of sandwiches and fruit on a bed of ice.

Much care had been taken in the preparation of this little suite for them – for the only honeymoon they were likely to get anytime soon. The armoire had been stocked with several changes of clothes for each of them, and the bathroom shelves held all of their personal items. They’d even found bathrobes for each of them hanging on hooks behind the door.

It had made Quinn feel a little strange to see all of their things side-by-side like that, sharing space – a heady mixture of excitement and nervousness that this was real. They were actually married. And now he was here, with her, in bed.

“Quinn? Do you want some food?”

In truth, she
was
a little hungry, but it wasn’t really food that she wanted right now. She almost told him what she did want, but discovered quickly that she was still a little too shy to come out and say something like that. So instead, she nodded.

William took her hand to help her off the bed, but before he led her out to the sitting room, he leaned in close to her ear. “We’ll get better at this,” he said, giving her the peculiar sensation that he’d read her thoughts. “We have the rest of our lives.” And the way he smiled at her right then told her that he hadn’t read her thoughts at all – he was having the same ones.

It was a long time before they made it to the sitting room.

Later, William was standing at the little buffet table, putting more glasberries on Quinn’s plate when there was a sudden loud pounding on the door. Quinn leapt from the couch like she’d been shocked, and William dropped the plate, shattering it, sending shards of glass and green berries everywhere.

He looked at Quinn, alarm on his face. “Who is it?” he called.

“It’s Thomas. I’m sorry, but can you open the door?”

William glanced down at himself, and then at Quinn – checking to make sure they were both covered, she supposed – before crossing the room in three quick steps and turning the lock – the feature in this room they’d both been the most impressed with.

“What’s going on Thomas?” he asked.

“Linnea isn’t in here, is she?”

“What? No. Why would she be?”

Even as William spoke, Quinn’s insides quickened and froze into hard, black ice. “How long has she been missing?”

Thomas entered the room, and she noted immediately that he was dressed in regular clothes, but his hair was messy, and still bore traces of whatever he’d used to style it for the ceremony yesterday. He hadn’t showered. And from the looks of the dark circles under his eyes and his sunken in cheeks, he hadn’t slept, either.

“I don’t know,” he said, running his hand through his hair – that was what had mussed it up so badly. “Mother noticed it late last night when she went to say goodnight to her. I thought she’d gone to bed early or something. I can’t even remember the last time I saw her. Not since the ceremony, I don’t think.”

“You didn’t see her after she walked us up here?”

“No. And as far as we can tell, nobody else has, either.”

The sitting room did have a clock on the mantel. Quinn saw William look at it at the same time she did. “It’s almost six in the morning!” he nearly shouted. “And you’re just telling us now?”

“Not…uh…
disturbing
the two of you was sort of a priority,” Thomas said. “They didn’t want me to come in here even now. Mother is highly distraught about taking the only peaceful night it looks like you might get, but I knew you’d be even more upset if I waited any longer.”

“All right. We’ll get dressed and meet you…”

“In Father’s office. The little ones are still sleeping. We don’t want them to know yet.”

William nodded.

“I’m really sorry for bothering you.”

“We’d rather know, Thomas,” Quinn said, suddenly more than a little freaked out about waking up the way she had a little while ago. What did it mean?

“You okay?” William asked, after he closed the door behind Thomas and turned back to her.

“No.” Her hands were shaking furiously, and she wasn’t sure that she wasn’t going to throw up. “Are you?”

“No.”

William walked into the bedroom and pulled open the armoire, throwing clothes toward the bed without really looking at them, while Quinn headed for the bathroom. “Wasn’t Ben supposed to be guarding her?” she asked.

“I’m guessing she disappeared while he and Marcus were going to the gate with your family,” he said. “That was just a seriously overprotective precaution, anyway. She was
inside
the castle, for the love of roses. There’s not somewhere
safer
.”

Quinn knew he was right. She also knew that the other questions that were floating around her brain, like were they
sure
they’d searched everywhere in the castle, were ridiculous. They’d never have come to William and Quinn if they weren’t sure this was really an emergency.

In under five minutes, they were both dressed and back in the sitting room. William paused before he opened the door. “I’m sorry,” he said. “This is not how I imagined our wedding night.”

“I think at this point, it would be a little disingenuous to be surprised,” Quinn said, wrapping her arms around his waist. “In any case … I thought the first part was pretty good.”

“Just pretty good?” he asked, mock chagrin on his face.

“Hmm ... maybe more like earth-shattering?”

He cocked his head to the side, looking up thoughtfully. “I can live with earth-shattering. Even if we’re not technically on Earth.”

“Fine, Deusterros-shattering, then,” she said, trying out the name she’d only recently learned, after she’d realized that Eirentheos and Philotheum didn’t make up the whole of this world.

He grinned and leaned down to kiss her one more time.

*          *          *

Quinn’s transformation was complete before they even reached his father’s office. Upstairs, with him, she’d been so ... soft, somehow, blushing and uncertain ... so warm, and so beautiful.

Now, she was still beautiful, of course, but there was nothing soft about her at all. As they’d walked –
dashed
– through the corridors, she had pulled her hair up behind her, fastening it with an elastic band she must have slipped on her wrist while she was putting on the linen pants and shirt, and the thick, cream-colored sweater. The drafty hallways were a little chilly this morning; he wondered if it was still raining.

The crowd in his father’s office was small and distressed. His mother and father were there, along with Simon, Thomas, Marcus, Ben and Nathaniel. William was shocked at how distraught Ben looked; he was nearly tempted to cross the room and give the guard – usually such a stoic – a hug.

“I’m so sorry!” Charlotte burst out, as soon as they entered the room. “I
told
him not to go and bother you yet.”

“It’s all right, Charlotte,” Quinn said. “We would rather know.”

“Did he wake you?”

His father shot his mother a look that he didn’t quite understand, until a second later when Quinn stumbled over the answer. “Uh, no. We were ... awake.”

Heat flashed all the way to his toes, and he saw that pink had already spread down Quinn’s skin.

Either nobody else in the room caught the innuendo, or they were all polite enough to ignore it.

Quinn cleared her throat. “So Linnea has been missing possibly since late yesterday afternoon, right after the wedding.”

“Yes.”

“So, clearly, someone took her.”

“We know there’s no way she would have left to go anywhere on her own.”

William nodded. Linnea had a defiant streak, and he knew she occasionally felt a little claustrophobic about the restrictions that she’d been living under recently, but he remembered the haunted look she’d carried when Thomas was missing. No, Linnea would never do that to them. Not even for a few hours. She would have at least told Thomas if she was sneaking off somewhere.

“And the suspects are pretty much everyone who’s not in this room.”

“We can probably clear the children,” Thomas said, without a trace of humor.

“I don’t have any reason to suspect any of the guards who are Friends of Philip, all of whom were immediately accounted for and who are now conducting searches of the castle and the grounds, and questioning the other guards who were on duty,” Stephen said. “All of our visitors from Philotheum were also found in their rooms asleep when we began the search. They seem as concerned and upset as we are.”

“Does Tolliver ever come up with something more inventive than kidnapping and fires?”

William put his hand on her arm, stroking it softly with his thumb. “Do armies in your world ever get tired of bombs and guns? Fighting is about being effective, not creative.”

“In any case, we’ve always known that Linnea was who Tolliver was really after, if he could somehow get her across the border and to the castle … I will be deploying additional troops to the border today,” Stephen said. “For the time being, we will hold off on actually sending troops in to Philotheum, but if I get any indication that Linnea has crossed the border, then that will change.”