Susan's Summer (12 page)

“Of course,” he said, carefully placing my very full cup of hot chocolate in front of one of the chairs. “What kind of host would I be if I didn’t?”

“The kind that values sleep?” I offered.

He grinned. “I value good company more.” The heat in his eyes made me shiver happily.

“Humph,” was all I could come up with. I wasn’t used to a guy, at least not a guy I thought was so cute, seeing me sans makeup, with tousled hair. Under his gaze I felt the heat start to rise in my cheeks, so I looked away and cast around in my sleepy mind for something to talk to him about.

Family was out. What I had been doing for the past few months was out, and this house seemed to be something he was reluctant to discuss.

Luckily, he did the work for me.

“What did you think of the garden?”

Unlike a lot of people, who ask about their prize possession only to hear you compliment it, he sounded genuinely interested in my opinion.

I knew that the garden was something he deeply treasured; that would go without saying to some extent, because he was a Summer Fairy. But yesterday morning when Mae and I had come down, he had been outside working in it—getting herbs for my sore head.

“Yes, and I had some questions,” I said, thinking back to my long walk. I hadn’t wanted to ask Teegan, because it was Seth’s garden, but there had been some pretty weird looking flowers. At least they were far away from the burned earth I had seen. I couldn’t imagine them being destroyed.

Seth chuckled. He already knew what I was talking about, and he sat forward eagerly and rested his elbows on the table. “What do you want to know?”

“The flowers on the side path? Not the first turn on the right, but the second. About a mile away from the house. The flowers that were growing on the slope down to the water. There was a row of pink, a row of blue, and a row of . . . white. Yes, but the flower heads were all different colors. HOW is that possible?”

“You have an amazing visual memory,” he said, beaming.

As a fairy I could do many things with plants. Flowers were the most fun, because for a girl like me, who cared about beauty and decoration, playing with flowers was a wonderful pastime. But Seth had taken it to another level. I could feel magic in the plants, but I couldn’t change it. The flowers really were that beautiful, all on their own.

“I’ve never seen anything like that before,” I said. “It was . . . well, it was breathtaking.” I knew I was stroking his ego, always dangerous territory with a guy, but I couldn’t help it. I spoke the truth and maybe he would be more likely to tell me about the flowers if I flattered him. Some of my conflict must have shown on my face, because Seth’s smile got wider.

“It was a difficult project. I started it years ago, before I went off to boarding school. My mother used to help me, and when I left I thought I had failed. I was so disappointed, because I had asked my father for permission to trying growing that garden on the hill. I have no idea what possessed me.

“Well, that’s not true, I do know,” he said after a pause. “It was my mom’s pictures. She had these pictures of bright flowers. Of course, what my little boy self didn’t realize is that you can create any color you want with paint. Neon orange flowers with gold stems? Sure. But I think that’s what my parents gave me. A sort of boundless belief that anything was possible, and Susan, wow, my mother loved beauty. She took it in everywhere. She saw everything as beautiful, or even if something was ugly she managed to find something just gorgeous about it.

“So, my dad gave his permission. I think my mom had to prod him, but I’ll never know.” A slight pause from him there, while his eyes got far away, and then he came back to the present and continued. “I was delighted. I thought it would be so easy. I have no idea what possessed me to labor all summer—well, anyway, yeah, and I did, but nothing happened. Literally nothing. And I had started to use my powers and still nothing happened. I was so frustrated and depressed I wanted to bulldoze the whole lot, but my mother told me that was silly. Besides, we didn’t have a bulldozer.

“Anyway, I went off to school and didn’t come home again till the next summer. My mom never said a word, she just sent me out one day to find some flowers she claimed to want. The little errand took me past my hill and there it was, in all its blazing glory. It’s been blazing ever since.”

I sat there saying nothing, mesmerized by his speech.

“But,” he said, smiling faintly, “I’m boring you.”

He wasn’t at all, but I was so completely absorbed by his eyes and the way his hands delicately illustrated each point that I didn’t even think to say so. And really, his hands themselves weren’t delicate, it was just the way he used gestures so precisely to flesh out his ideas. His hands weren’t beautiful either, because that was a girl’s word. They were just . . . okay, they were beautiful. I blinked several times, sure that my thoughts were obvious on my face.

“I should head back to sleep,” he said. “Since you seem to feel that those of us who can sleep through storms should take advantage of it. Sorry for interrupting your snack.”

I shrugged. “It’s fine,” I said. He could interrupt anything he wanted for all I cared. The company had been pleasant and looking at him was even better. I was surprised to find him chatting and smiling and distracting me from all my worries.

“Thanks,” I said, “for hanging out.”

He grinned. “I would say any time, but tomorrow, when the storm has passed. . . .”

“The garden really is wonderful,” I said, with a smile.

He smiled back at me and took my cup to wash it. I started to protest, but then stopped. There was something very natural about what he did, and I didn’t want to ruin it.

Then, as he walked away, I remembered something I had been wondering about. “Who was the girl you went chasing after?” I asked, still in my seat at the table. My mind had formed all sorts of ideas about her: she was a rogue fairy attacking Arsenal, or a spy from the Supreme Council sent to see what was going on, and suddenly, now that he was leaving, my curiosity got the better of me.

Seth stood still for just a second, then said “Just a local girl who keeps stealing flowers. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but we here at Arsenal have a beautiful garden.”

“Oh, do you?” I teased.

“Yes,” he said, turning back around to me. “All the beautiful girls say so.”

Instead of just leaving after he took the cup to the sink, he walked back to me. The storm was still raging, and even if the thunder had gotten more distant I could still see flashes of lightning out of the corner of my eyes.

I busied myself with the remnants of my cheese. His sweatshirt-covered arm snaked in front of my eyes and reached past me, toward the bookshelf, then a brighter light appeared on my arm. He had turned on the reading lamp hanging just over my head.

“Just in case,” he murmured, his face inches from mine, his breath warm on my cheek. He smelled of soap and flowers. I found myself inhaling deeply.

I hadn’t even noticed that the reading lamp was there, but when he came in he must have realized that I had turned on every light I could find. Instead of pointing out what a dolt I was for missing this one or making fun of me for even needing it—I’m sure he wasn’t afraid of the dark like I was—he simply turned it on for me.

It came across as an almost impossibly sweet and understanding gesture from someone who I hadn’t thought of as sweet or understanding at all, except maybe with plants. But I hoped he didn’t think about me as if I was one of his plants. I wanted him to notice that my stems were neither green nor flat. Hum.

Just physically attracted!

When I got back to my room there was a bit of lavender on my pillow. I figured Seth must have snuck in and left it there because of its calming properties, and I couldn’t help but smile. I tucked it into the side of my bed, between the frame and the mattress, so I could smell the fragrance all night long. Even with the storm still raging outside it was easier for me to fall asleep after that.

I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed. It was nice to not wake up hung over. Recently I had been spending half my days recovering from the night before, but I hadn’t had a drop to drink since that night at the bar, so there was no question of that. If I really thought about it, I didn’t even miss the alcohol. There were other stimulations here, and they had ice blue eyes. The nasty part of me reminded myself that it really hadn’t been that long, just two days, but the road trip already felt like a lifetime away. It amazed me how quickly things could change.

Mae’s bed was empty. She had been able to sleep through the night, so that made sense. I hated to admit it, but I had dreamed of Seth, and flowers, and me and Seth and flowers outside and . . . oh man. That was bad.

Then again, maybe it wasn’t that bad. I hadn’t dreamed of throwing off whoever my betrothed was and marrying Seth instead. I had seen firsthand the destruction that could be caused when a Prince’s Rose was rejected, and it wasn’t pretty. After last night I could already see where I was headed with Seth if I didn’t do something to stop it.

I had loved Holt—not romantically, but like a brother, and that loss mattered too. Couple it with the loss of my parents, and I just didn’t think I could take losing anyone else I cared about.

And besides all that, there was the issue of Samuel. Everyone knew I had had a crush on him for years, and it was typical me to go and get a crush on the one guy I could never have. He had been quietly nice to me—kind, even—and he didn’t need to be. He would have been more than justified in giving me the cold shoulder because of the hostility between our families, but he never had.

Now he was with Autumn and Holt was gone and Logan was missing and I was left adrift, alone in a fairy world that was moving faster than I could keep up with.

I blinked several times. Sunlight was gushing into the room; Mae must have opened the curtains when she got up. It was the sort of brilliant day that could only come after a massive storm, and I was sure that if I walked outside the air would be clean and fresh with no hint of the rain of the night before except that every color would be a little brighter. I sighed. In a way I wished it was still raining, because I could handle rain and dark weather during the day. It was at night that I had all the problems.

“Morning,” Mae called from the bathroom. “Katie told me that one of the Marchell girls is coming over today, and I wanted to make sure I was ready. I need to make a good impression! I hope she’s nicer than Lydia and Leslie Cheshire, but that shouldn’t be hard, rattlesnakes on crack are nicer than Lydia and Leslie Cheshire.”

She stuck her head out of the bathroom and gave me a look that said I should really consider doing the same.

Taking the hint, I looked down at myself. I was crumpled from sleep, my hair was a mess, and my shirt was rumpled. I wondered if I had looked that good in front of Seth during the night. Awesome. The embarrassing memory of needing a bunch of lights on everywhere, and how he had obviously noticed, came back to me, and I blushed. He must have thought I was such a child. . . .

“I’ll shower,” I said, climbing out of bed. My favorite part of the bathroom was the hint of vanilla. It was like showering and brushing your teeth in seas of buttercream.

Mae and I had spent a long time unpacking the day before. If anything had said that I was reconciled to staying a few days, it was that. I had told myself that I just wanted to make sure my clothes looked good, not wrinkled, for however long I was there, but I knew it wasn’t true. I liked the Arsenals’ house. I was feeling more peaceful than I had in a long time, almost like I could heal. Almost.

“You ready?” Mae asked. She was wearing a summer dress, a burst of pastel color, and her hair was still damp. If she stood next to certain walls in the Arsenal house she would blend in perfectly. I had chosen a white dress, my staple for summer, and was busy braiding my deep blond hair so that it would be up and out of my face.

I nodded, finished the braiding quickly, and followed her downstairs, bracing myself to see Seth. I didn’t think I’d be able to take it if he said anything about the night before; no one knew I was afraid of the dark, not even Mae. If she hadn’t noticed I was gone, I wasn’t going to tell her.

“Seth went out,” said Katie in wonder when we walked into the dining room and found her there. She was wearing pink shorts and a green top, with jewelry everywhere.

“Is that odd?” Mae asked as we settled at the same breakfast table as the day before. “Twenty-something cute guys do go places from time to time. I know. I gawk when I see them.” She winked and Katie giggled.

Katie nodded emphatically. “Yes, it’s odd. He doesn’t go out. I mean, not really. He likes going to Everton from time to time. Everyone knows him there. Like, we go to the grocery store and stuff, but that’s about it.”

“Where’d he go?” I tried to be casual as I grabbed some toast.

“I have no idea,” said Katie, throwing up her hands in despair. “He’s under the insane impression that he doesn’t have to answer to his little sister. That’s why I need him to get married. I need reinforcements.” She busied herself nibbling some bacon as I thought about what she had said. “His future wife will SO be on my side.”

“Can I have some orange juice?” I asked. Maybe if I stuffed my face full enough, my red-cheeked reaction to Katie’s words wouldn’t show.

“You have a drink already,” Mae commented, pointing to a mug in front of me. I glanced at it and saw that it was a cup of hot chocolate. I smiled involuntarily and looked over at Katie, who instantly looked down. She must have known that Seth had put it there.

“Never mind Seth, Terry’s coming over,” said Katie, fidgeting with her silverware.

“We don’t like Terry?” Mae asked.

“Umm, she—well, she’s been after Seth for YEARS. Somehow she thinks she’s entitled to a Rose, and his is the one she wants. She’s just power hungry. All our land. . . . If Seth makes an alliance with the Marchells, our land will become even more powerful. And on the list of eligible men, my brother is kind of at the top with Samuel off the market and Holt. . . . ” Her voice trailed away as she glanced at me and then away again. “Sometimes she’s all right, but other times she’s evil. You just don’t know which one you’re getting.”

“So, why doesn’t he offer it to her?” Mae rushed on quickly. “You said yourself you want him to be happy. Wouldn’t you want him to marry her?”

I forced myself to breathe. People mention Holt, I told myself. They should. It’s a wonderful way to remember someone you loved and lost. Or even respected and lost.

“I definitely want him to be happy, but Terry is . . . well, you’ll see,” said Katie, shrugging. “Don’t get me wrong, she’s a nice girl and we’re friends. She’s just not . . . what I want for him.”

Mae nodded understandingly, but I could tell she didn’t agree with Katie. When Mae thought she knew best, there was nothing you could do to argue her out of it.

I tasted the hot chocolate. It was rich, with a hint of cinnamon. Seth hadn’t used the instant hot chocolate I had found from the night before, for sure. He had taken more care. I felt warm inside and out.

~ ~ ~

“Hey, Terry,” said Katie, suddenly rising while my attention had wandered. Her hands were clasped politely in front of her.

I turned around to see the girl breeze in. I had never met this branch of the Marchells; I had been too busy living it up in Castleton with the Roths. She had ice blond hair flowing down in sheets, almost to her waist. Her eyes were dark brown and her skin was milky white. She wasn’t as tall as I was, and she walked with a practiced grace. I disliked her instantly, but maybe that was because she wanted to marry Seth.

“Morning, girl,” she twittered at Katie, walking up and kissing her on each cheek. Mae smiled pleasantly at her.

“You must be Terry,” said Mae, coming forward.

“Yes, of course,” Terry simpered. “I’m delighted to see that the Arsenals finally have some visitors and very pleased that you’ve accepted dear Teegan’s proposal to visit tonight. Poor Teegan gets so lonely. It’s wonderful that there are some girls of his class around now.”

I nearly choked on the piece of toast I was eating.

“Anyway, I know you’ve been traveling. Please don’t feel obligated to look presentable. It can be such a trial. And I do hope you find our house acceptable after being here. There’s not a lot that can compare to the beauty of the Arsenal property.” Terry’s voice flowed like honey, and Katie nodded emphatically. I wondered what Terry would do if she knew that Seth had made me hot chocolate that morning. I had a feeling she’d blow her top, which, I had to admit, would be kind of amusing to see.

“So, is Holt really dead?” Terry asked, turning to me.

This time I did choke. Mae spit out a bit of her milk and Katie’s eyes got as wide as saucers.

“Terry,” Katie breathed in horror. “That’s so inappropriate and insensitive.”

Terry shrugged. She obviously couldn’t have cared less. “Teegan came home ranting and raving about the girls staying at the Arsenals’, and how they had known Holt Roth. When he told me who they were I instantly knew that you didn’t just know him, you were like his sister. Holt, Logan, Autumn, and Samuel have been the talk of the fairy kingdoms for a year now, ever since Samuel’s mother lost her top and threatened to destroy everything and everyone of importance in the fairy world. Can you imagine how devastating it would have been if the Roths and the Cheshires had gone to war?

“Anyway, what happened? Where is Logan? Is Holt really dead?”

Teegan did not seem like the ranting and raving type. Her description of him alone was enough to make me dislike her, but then she had gone on and on until my ears started to ring. Waves of despair were washing over me in dark rivulets. I set the rest of my toast down carefully, but my vision had disappeared into one fine point. I couldn’t really see or hear what was going on around me, there was just a pounding fury in my veins.

I tried to speak, but words wouldn’t form. Pain blossomed behind my eyes. Everyone had been very careful around me since Holt’s death to the point that people had stopped mentioning his name when I was within hearing distance. They had all danced around it, except for Mae. But I had spent so much time with Mae that she didn’t have a choice, and after the attack in the bar she was more than justified in questioning my sanity. It was my own decisions, after all, that had gotten me into that mess.

Terry didn’t appear to notice how upset I was becoming.

“So, I was thinking about it and I realized that it makes no sense whatsoever that Holt should just die by accident, and especially at the hands of his brother. I mean, that’s what they’re saying: that Logan did it intentionally. When you think about it, that part of it makes sense. I mean, with Holt gone it’s Logan’s throne, isn’t it? I would have expected one of the Cheshires to do it if he didn’t. Maybe one of those nasty cousins, what are their names? They start with L . . . oh, Lydia and Leslie, that’s right. Those two have never liked the Roths. Anyway, Logan should have waited until they had done it so he could keep his hands clean. Now everything’s a mess, but who does that surprise? No one.”

I couldn’t take it anymore. My eyes found Terry’s, and when she looked at me she realized what a mistake she had made. I knew she had been intentionally trying to upset me, but I don’t think she realized just how furious I would get.

Without so much as a word, I lunged.