Blooms of Consequence (Dusk Gate Chronicles Book 4) (29 page)

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.”

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.”

“Yes…” He sat down beside her, taking her hand in his. “I was actually going to send a regiment from here … with Luke Willoughby.”

“Oh?”

“She’s our daughter. I want her brought back by someone I trust.”

Charlotte nodded, studying him with her too-observant eyes. She noticed everything. “You’re thinking of going as well, aren’t you, Stephen?”

“I was going to speak to you about it first.”

“It’s a little dangerous.”

“Yes, it is … but I can’t ask my men to take a risk for my child that I’m not willing to.”

“No. And it makes more sense anyway. Nobody will stop you at the border, and everyone will be safer with you there.”

“I’ll be fine, Charlotte.”

“I know. But we have a deal, Stephen – I allow you to do what you need to do without complaining, and you allow me to worry about you until you’re back safe with me.”

“Yes, that was our deal.” He pulled her closer to him, kissing her on the cheek. “Not that I’d deny such a beautiful queen much of anything.”

“All this time later, and you still think you can get your way with flattery.”

“Can’t I?” he asked with mock chagrin.

“I am helpless in the wake of your charm, Stephen.”

He smiled, burying his face in her neck, and holding her tight. “Are you holding up okay with all of this?” he asked, after a few minutes.

She shrugged. “As well as possible. At least we know she’s probably safe.”

“Yes. She’s no good to him if she’s injured.”

Charlotte nodded, but her lower lip trembled just a little. Stephen pulled her closer to him again. “I know.”

She shook her head. “It’s not even just that … it’s … this whole thing with Linnea has really made me realize what we just did to Quinn’s mother. It’s nearly the same, isn’t it? We stole her daughter to marry our son, for political gain. We couldn’t promise Megan she would be safe, either.”

Stephen swallowed hard. “William isn’t Tolliver.”

“And Linnea isn’t in another world that we can’t even always travel to.”

“I know, Charlotte. We’ve discussed this so often, but it doesn’t get any easier. We’re all going to be paying for Samuel’s choices for the rest of our lives. But Megan more than anyone.”

“And Quinn, and her siblings, and the man who raised her as his daughter.”

“That’s why it had to be her choice. And we did let her make it. We didn’t force her hand.”

“No, we just made sure we helped her along, made sure we influenced her enough that she wanted to.”

“Do you really believe that, Charlotte? Do you really believe she’s a lovesick girl who is only here because of William?”

She looked down at the floor. “No. That doesn’t sound right.”

“That’s because it isn’t, sweetheart. It’s true we might have crossed a line, sending William to her world to go to school with her – but I don’t think that’s the only thing that brought her here. And I don’t believe it was truly our influence that brought her here – that brought her home.”

“We’re not that good, are we?” she said, smirking up at him.

“No.” He brought her hand up to his lips, and kissed her gently on the palm. “We can accomplish many things together, you and I – but we’re still not
that
powerful. Quinn is here because she was supposed to be, and because she made the choice to be. It’s just very difficult for those who have to live with the consequences.”

She must have heard the catch in his voice, because she looked up at him in concern. “Have you still been having the same dreams?”

He closed his eyes, unable to look her in the eyes as he nodded. “I don’t understand why, or what it means, but I keep seeing the same thing.”

“Quinn being unable to get back through the gate.”

“Yes.
Nobody
being able to go through.”

“If that really happened…”

“I know, sweetheart. I don’t want to think about it, either. We’ve always known that using the gate was dangerous, but for Quinn not to be able to use it now would be devastating. Let’s hope this is one of those times that the dream is a symbol, and not really the way things are going to happen.”

*          *          *

“You know,” Will whispered, “I never spent much time imagining my honeymoon, but if I had, I don’t think it would have been like this.”

Quinn giggled and snuggled closer to him. No, sleeping outside for the second chilly night in a row, with very little privacy, wasn’t how she would have imagined her honeymoon, either. “Tonight
is
a little better than last night,” she said.

“That’s true.” Tonight, at least, they had a couple of small fires and a tarp shielding them from the light breeze, courtesy of the supplies Jonathan had been carrying. They were even sharing a blanket, which at the moment was wrapped around both of them as he leaned against a fallen tree, and she leaned on his chest, both of their legs stretched out toward the little fire Ben had built just for them.

Quinn’s hands had twitched as Ben had carefully cleared the area under the tarp for them, carefully sweeping away every last rock and twig, and then carefully using the tarp and some large sticks to build a neat little shelter.

Finally, she’d gone to help Nathaniel and William set up the rest of the camp – a short distance away from the shelter for her and William. Everyone was still very serious about the idea of giving the two of them whatever privacy they could. She wasn’t sure if she would ever get over being embarrassed by that.

Marcus had gone with Jonathan to scope out the perimeter of the Miller Estate, half an hour away from their campsite. They’d all been wary of sending Jonathan off alone with one of their guards, but Quinn had decided that it was time to put it on the line. If they were going to trust Jonathan, then they needed to really trust him.

And they’d both returned safely, less than three hours later, with the news that they were fairly certain Tolliver hadn’t yet arrived at the estate, but that the area was quite heavily guarded, and they’d had to be careful even getting close to the property.

Over a warm dinner of fresh roasted vegetables, also thanks to Jonathan, they’d discussed their plans. Quinn thought they should just go ahead and try to get her and Nathaniel into the estate to see Queen Sophia. Jonathan was wary. He was afraid of doing it with no military backup, in case things went badly with the soldiers outside, or Tolliver arrived too soon.

For now, they’d compromised. They’d sent birds off with messages to both Stephen and Charles, telling them as much as they could about the situation without giving themselves away. And now, they waited. Camped out in one of the most rural parts of Philotheum, away from any village, a place where smoke likely wouldn’t be investigated, so long as they kept it to a minimum. Nobody would expect anyone to be out here.

“Are you warm enough?” William asked, wrapping the blanket more securely around the front of her.

She nodded, still staring into the flickering flames of the fire. “I’m rather comfortable at the moment, actually.”

“Me too,” he agreed, kissing her just behind her ear. His hand found the bottom of her shirt and slid inside, soft and warm as it rested against her belly, making her shiver from something very different than the cold.

“You know,” she said, finding his hand with hers, and twisting her fingers with his. “I could probably imagine worse honeymoons than this one.”

“Really? You can imagine something worse than sleeping on the ground, and other people being around constantly, and worrying about being attacked by an army at any moment?”

“Sure. I can imagine having to face any one of those things without you. Anywhere I am with you is going to be our honeymoon, Will. Forever.”

“Forever sounds good to me, love.”

*          *          *

She didn’t understand how she’d gotten there, but she knew exactly where she was. The stone bridge stretched across the river in front of her. The shadows from the surrounding trees were long and wide; it was nearly dusk.

Suddenly, she realized she wasn’t alone. There was a man on the bottom step of the bridge. His hair was an unusual shade of gray, almost true silver, though there were light brown strands that snaked through at odd intervals. His neatly trimmed beard and mustache were the same strange color.

She’d never seen him before; nothing was familiar about him at all, and yet she knew who he was.

She sucked in a breath as Hector made his way up the steps of the bridge, just as the sun began to sink below the horizon.

Her blood ran cold when he disappeared, taking the sun with him and plunging the whole world into darkness.

In the next instant, it was light again, but the scene was different. Although it was dusk, just as it had been before, the grass under her feet was newly covered with frost. As she looked down, uncomprehending, she realized there was no grass at all. The entire ground was covered with dandelions, mostly withered and frozen under the frost, except for one.

A perfect dandelion bloomed at the foot of the bridge, the largest one she’d ever seen. As she watched, its pristine yellow petals changed, in slow motion, to the familiar white seed-bearing tufts.

She wanted to run, to pull it, to throw her body over it to prevent what she knew was about to happen, but her feet wouldn’t move. It was as if she, too, were frozen to the ground.

She could do nothing when the wind began to blow, to lift the seed heads up and off the plant, diffusing them everywhere, until the air was filled with thousands of them, blowing in every direction.

Still frozen, she stared in shock as Hector reappeared, but this time, his hands weren’t empty, and he wasn’t alone.

Right behind Hector were three police officers. She couldn’t see all of their faces, but she recognized instantly the one she could. Louis Chavez, her best friend Abigail’s older brother was just behind Hector, his gun drawn.

For a moment, she thought the weapon was pointed at her, but then she realized it was aimed just over her left shoulder, and as she turned, she saw Stephen standing there, reaching toward her. And then the gun went off.

“Quinn! Quinn! Wake up, love, please, Quinn!”

She struggled in William’s arms as she slowly came to consciousness. Her heart was racing, and tears streamed down her face. She heard herself yelling, but she couldn’t understand the words, or what was going on.

“Quinn, love, I’ve got you, I’m right here. Shh…” William pulled her tight to his chest and held her there, rocking her and smoothing her hair back until finally, finally, she stopped struggling and opened her eyes.