The Locket (33 page)

She had changed. Marie noticed it the instant that they met each other at the airport. Something was different about her, and although it was not an exceptionally bad change, it could not be claimed as pure happiness, at least not yet.

“Okay, I have a few extra things in case you don’t have any … Oh, my God.” Savannah paused when she entered the room. For a quick second, her heart beat faster than its normal rate and jumped up to her throat. Then, as quickly as it had come, it was replaced with an indescribable fear. The unwanted make-up and sample perfumes rolled helplessly along the hardwood of the floor as she dashed over to Marie and tightly slapped the locket closed. With that, the portal, too, closed. “Marie, what on earth were you doing?” she asked quietly.

It took a second for her to register everything that had just happened. When she did, she shook her head and shrugged. “I just wanted to see for myself what all this fuss was about. I mean, at least now we can honestly say that whatever you went through in that locket was real.”

Savannah opened her mouth and then closed it again. She had thought about that possibility from the second she had arrived home and discarded it every time. It wasn’t until she opened it the next morning that she was able to confirm her disbelief. But now …“This is ridiculous,” she informed her friend, ripping the necklace out of her hand.

“What is so ridiculous about it, the fact that it actually happened?” Marie demanded. “Or the fact that you want it to have happened?”

“Both,” she replied curtly, tossing the necklace back in its box.

Rolling up the sleeve of her favorite pink sweater, Marie had already mentally begun preparing for the interrogation she was going to place on her friend after an overdose of candy, chocolate, and chick flicks.

***

Meanwhile, Lance was wringing his hands, struggling not to strangle his future king. The wedding was in an hour, and that boy wasn’t even dressed! Taking in the deep breaths he was often advised to do, Lance made his way to the grand staircase and paused at the bottom. If Christian wasn’t down in five minutes, he was going to march right on up there and dress him himself!

After all, he thought, that’s what a royal adviser does for the king, and the future king. He assists them when need be, he prepares them for any upcoming event, and he makes sure that everything that can go smoothly does.

He isn’t paid to feel sorry for the poor sap.

Just because he’d watched Christian since he was born, or because he’d worked for the royal family since he was a teenager, didn’t mean that he had to be empathetic toward his rulers. That’s not what he was paid to do. One was never to mix business, especially royal business, with feelings.

But he couldn’t help it … he loved Christian and Rupert like they were his own sons. From the minute he heard those tiny wails when they were each born, he developed a weakness for them. Rupert took some time with his temperament, but Christian was easier to adore early. But it wasn’t until Christian, a boy of about three then with a splash of darkening freckles across his stubby nose, came running into his arms asking to play that Lance realized that he was in love.

Shaking the memories away, he glanced up the stairs again with only a slight trace of tolerance. Make-shift son or not, Lance was about to put a stop to this whole melodramatic business. He never slacked on his job, and he wasn’t about to start now.

Hearing no reply from his first knock, Lance opted to take the more aggressive approach and enter without confirmation. He didn’t care how many wild horses it was going to take, Lance wanted Christian dressed and presentable. Now.

Shoving open the door, he placed his hands on his hips and was ready to play the enforcer as he searched the room. But one look at the chair by the grand, opened window had a sympathetic sigh escaping his lips.

There the prince was, sitting half-dressed in that chair with his back bent and his arms resting on his legs. He had the majority of his clothing together, save for the coat, cufflinks, and shoes. But his shirt was opened and ruffled, his hair was in disarray, and his mouth was a thin line of restlessness. His face was serious and sad, unintentionally screaming out his pain. When he lowered his head between his hands, he took in a deep breath. After a minute, he turned his attention out the window to view the world below.

Had Lance ever seen a person look so pathetic?

It unsettled him to see his prince so deprived of emotion. What had happened to his enthusiastic yet characteristically irritating ruler? What had happened to the energetic boy who once asked everyone in the palace to play games with him?

Lance was willing to bet anything it had to do with this MIA Morgan girl. Oh, he knew where she was, all right. After all, he had seen her leave. She left in such a hurry, with no desire for reward or recognition for doing the royal family two substantial favors: contacting the general and recovering their prince. Despite his initial annoyance with the girl, he rather liked her spirit and sense of responsibility.

It wasn’t until he saw how much she had affected his master that he had grown to dislike her again. Out of any of the maidens in the village, Lance had never seen Christian take to anyone as much as he did to Savannah. Sure there had been women, but none of them had really mattered to him or made him think twice about who he wanted to be.

Unfortunately, who he wanted to be was not someone he should have been, and Lance would always be grateful to Savannah for that. She made him see where he was supposed to be and why.

Except now, he was no longer happy to be who he was, but rather was simply accepting of it. Was that better? He didn’t know.

Clearing his throat, Lance stepped forward. “Are you ready, Christian?”

The prince did not move, save for his head, which turned toward him. As the day before, Christian’s face had been stuck in a state of sadness and confusion. His free time was spent staring out windows, pondering his future and the facts of life. His nights had been, apparently, spent restless, as seen by the bags under his eyes.

“Oh, come now, Your Highness,” Lance didn’t wait for the reply that probably wasn’t going to come anyway. “Adelaide is not all bad. She’s really a sweet girl once you get to know her.”

Motioning with a hand for him to stand and turn around, Lance helped Christian into his dress coat. Walking over to the dark maple cheval mirror, he started straightening out any wrinkles in the clothing, trying his best to make the prince look presentable. “Oh, quit looking so glum, Chris. It is not as if you are signing your own death certificate.”

When Christian gave him a hostile look in the mirror, Lance thought it was best to change tactics. Letting out a breath, he shook his head and said, “Look, I did not want to tell you this before, because I didn’t want you to do something drastic and I didn’t want to hurt you, but … I felt the portal open earlier this morning.” For once, he gained Christian’s absolute attention. “I had the area completely surrounded and thoroughly searched, but there was nothing there, Sire. There wasn’t anything found that came through it.”

“That is because the royal guards are idiots,” Christian retorted.

“True. That’s why I, myself, also checked the area, and there was no one around.” The prince took a deep breath and sighed heavily while Lace fixed the cufflinks on his shirt sleeve. “Face it, kid, she does not want to see you anymore,” he answered calmly.

“I just wish that I could see her one more time—to somehow show her how much I care for her and how bad I feel for what I’ve done.”

“That may be, but take a moment to reflect on everything that you have said and done while you were in that forest. Would you forgive you for what you did?”

It was then that Christian realized the extent of what he must have put Savannah through. He lied to her, told her that he was not who he really was, toyed with her emotions … and yet somehow he had a gut-retching feeling that he might not feel as shameful if it weren’t for the fact that he had fallen in love with her.

That was not supposed to happen. He was just supposed to run through the woods, try his best not to get killed, and hide from the guards—at least until sunset, when they would probably stop searching for the night. Then he would have run to another kingdom and changed his identity to whomever he wanted. That way, he could marry any girl he wished, wake up and do as he pleased, when he pleased, and work only to raise money for himself rather than to rule everyone else in town.

It was the perfect plan … until he met the woman who had changed his life. “No, I would not.”

“There now, you see?” Lance nodded his head in triumph, finishing the last cufflink. “You wouldn’t even forgive you. Why would she?”

Christian shot him a deadly look. “Thanks.”

Stopping what he was doing, Lance peeked at him through the mirror. “I’m sorry, Chris. I wish there were something I could do, but I’m afraid she’s gone.” When he only stared at his reflection, his mind obviously somewhere else, Lance put his hands to his hips. There were times when you could be sympathetic and gentle and times when you had to be direct to get the job done. He had already played the part of the compassionate friend. Now it was time to do his job.

“Listen. Today you are going to marry the princess from the next kingdom and you are going to forget all about Savannah Morgan. She is no longer part of your life and never will be again. Understood?”

Christian nodded his head, secretly disregarding all that his assistant had to say. Instead, he just gazed up at the light in the sky and prayed for a miracle.

***

“Oh, Anna, there you are!” Aunt Jenny called from the open doorway of Savannah’s room. She popped her head in and found her niece staring silently out the window, her arms folded. “Are you ready to go? Marie’s already in the car waiting patiently, so why don’t you hop in while I go grab some extra tissues from the kitchen.”

She nodded without tearing her eyes away from the world outside, taking a quick look up at the bright sky. It was so beautiful and had held the only comfort to her for the past few days. A minute after her aunt headed toward the kitchen, she hurried off to the car and plopped herself in the seat next to her best friend.

“Wanna talk about it?” Marie wondered.

“Nope,” she replied, taking extra care to make it sound matter-of-fact.

“Either situation?”

“Nope.”

Hoping that it wouldn’t be a long ride, Marie nodded just as Aunt Jenny finally scrambled out of the house with three boxes of tissues. “All right, girls, you ready?” she asked, buckling herself up in the driver’s seat. With a quick check in the rearview mirror, Aunt Jenny started the car and they made their way to the cemetery.

Forty-five excruciatingly silent minutes later, they pulled into the lot. Dozens of people crowded around the inside of the gate, each wanting to be the first to give their condolences to the only child of Terrance and Gwendolyn Morgan.

It didn’t take long for Savannah to realize that the quiet car ride was nothing compared to the painfully awkward pre-ceremony that she had to endure. I guess one is never fully prepared for the constant face of dignity you have to put on for the world, regardless of the claws that secretly rip you from the inside out, she thought dismally.

It was a nightmare to have to listen to and answer the ever popular questions of “How are you feeling?” or “Are you all right?” or her personal favorite, “I know of a great psychiatrist if you need one.”

It was strange, considering the atmosphere, but Savannah couldn’t find the tears to allow herself to cry. Perhaps she had wasted them all already. Maybe there was a limit to how much water was in your system dedicated to tears. Maybe she was physically unable to show any other emotion besides desolation. She didn’t know. All she knew was that it seemed the world was here to mourn for her mother’s death, and she couldn’t even pretend to cry.

Scanning the area around her as the reverend began the ceremony, she took in everything that that day had to offer. She took in the fresh breath of air from the summer afternoon and the wave of the flowers in the breeze. She took in the filtered light that rained down from the clouds, matching its blue-grey color to her own emotions. She took in the feel of that soft, though bitter, wind that blew against her heated cheeks. Lastly, she took in the pain, resentment, and complete torture that she felt at that moment in time, knowing that one day this pain would have dulled. Savannah resented that time would heal her. She thought that time should not be so kind, that perhaps she deserved to live the rest of her life with the same sensations that she felt now.

“And now I believe that it is time that the sole child of Gwendolyn and Terrance Morgan will speak a few words,” the reverend announced out to the crowd. Like in a movie, everyone turned around to fix their eyes on her, as if they expected her to break down any moment. Savannah slowly walked up to the stand, her body numb and her heart sore. As the reverend stepped down from the podium, he held her hands in his and said quietly, “God bless. I didn’t know your parents, but I know how difficult it must be for you. But you must always remember that God has a plan for everyone, and perhaps this is part of His plan for you.”

She nodded, and he released her hand. “Thank you.” Turning to the audience in front of her, she began her speech. “I think that I will start off by saying, thank you everyone for coming here on such short notice. It was a great tragedy to my mother and me when my father died that one afternoon all those years ago. Somehow we learned to live through it, which is what I intend to do now. We both loved my father very much, but through the good times and the bad, we never forgot that he was still with us in our hearts. He would always want us to know that he had never really left us; just that he was gone for a while, until we could meet again. As clichéd as it sounds, that is what helped us in those hard times.

“I think that when something big happens—whether it’s good or bad like a birth or a death—it is our human nature to refer back to what we know and all those silly clichés. It gives us comfort to know that others have experienced what we have, and those phrases are their words of wisdom that we just keep passing on.

“That is what I think now. I believe that my mother is somewhere up in heaven, happy to meet with my father and smiling down upon me, wherever I am and wherever I may be. Deep down I know that I will never forget either of them and that they will never forget me. Every breeze that sooths my hot skin is their kiss upon my face. Every ray of sunshine that warms me when I am cold is their tight embrace. And every raindrop that falls from the sky is their tears, wishing me a happy and healthy life.” Savannah swallowed hard as she repeated the words that her mother had once told her after Mr. Morgan died.

“As for right now, I believe that I will live a happy and healthy life, knowing that they are both watching me. And I will go on to pursue my dreams because I was given their blessings and encouragement. I am sure that my parents miss you all and wish you the same thing as they wish for me.”

As she walked back to her place next to her mother’s grave, Savannah’s thoughts clouded with questions of life and memories of the past. She had been able to adapt to losing her father. As much as she loved him, she had only known him for a short while before he left. But her mother … she had been her best friend all her life, along with Marie. How could she cope, knowing that there would never be another trip to Darian Lake, another summer with the weekly trip to the ice cream shop, or another Halloween with their scary movie fest and overdose of candy and popcorn? Her throat tightened, and still no tears could make their way to the surface.