Thorns of Decision (Dusk Gate Chronicles) (18 page)

“As much as I’d love to hear more, you really need to get some sleep,” he said. “Quinn and I will keep watch, and we’ll bring you as much water as you can hold. You really need to drink as much as you can.”

It wasn’t long before Connie really was asleep, and William suddenly realized that he and Quinn were alone in a room together again. It was strange; he’d been alone with her many times before, but it had never felt quite like this – as if the room were charged with some kind of electric current or something.

When she stood to carry the water pitcher back to the sink to refill it, he followed her.

“Thank you,” he said quietly.

She turned to face him, raising an eyebrow. “I haven’t really done anything special.”

“That’s not true. You’ve stepped in and helped, and done so much work, without even being asked. It’s really not something you have to do.”

“First of all, Will, doing the right thing is the right thing. Second of all … it turns out that this is my world too, as least partially. I think I should do what I can.”

He was stunned. It was going to take him a lot more than three days to get used to that idea, it seemed. “I hadn’t thought of it that way,” he said.

She shrugged. “Anyway, responsibility or not – it’s a chance to spend some time with you.”

Ten minutes later, he decided that it was a very good thing they weren’t alone.

 “Are you sure you’re ready to try this, Thomas?” William asked, pulling the blankets off his brother. “It has only been ten days since your surgery.”

“Do you have any idea how long those ten days have felt to me? It might as well have been a lifetime,” Thomas answered, already sitting all the way up, and swinging his unbroken leg over the side of the bed.

“You need to wait a minute, buddy. Max said he would come up and help.”

Thomas sighed. “I know, I know. I’m just so ready to walk around further than the bathroom. And I want to surprise the girls when they come back later, since you’ll all be gone for the next couple of days.”

William nodded. “I know you do.” Tomorrow, they were taking the Hardridge family to Mistle Village. Eldon and Payla would be able to stay in Jacob and Essie’s clinic, while Connie and the rest of the family boarded nearby with an older couple who had a large farm.

“But they’ll probably be gone for a while. Linnea will have a lot of fun taking Quinn to the market, so you’ve got time to practice. There’s no rush. It might not happen today, though. You can’t push yourself too hard.” It would be a bright end, though, to what he hoped would be a good day for everyone.

Today was the big market day in the city, an event that happened only once every moon. There would be stalls filled with food and treats from all over Eirentheos. Linnea had been so excited to take Quinn. William would have enjoyed seeing Quinn’s first time there, too, but, despite his warning to Thomas not to get too excited, he wanted even more to be standing next to Thomas on his crutches when the girls returned, even if he could only manage it for a few minutes at a time.

“Do you think that guy, Eldon, is really going to be all right?” Thomas asked, and William knew he was changing the subject.

“He’s doing better. We finally got the infection under control. He’ll have some pretty bad scarring, but he’ll be in good hands with Essie and Jacob once we get him up to their clinic tomorrow. It will be good for the whole family to have a place to stay – I know being in the castle all of this time has made them a little uncomfortable. I just can’t believe we couldn’t find something closer than Mistle Village. Things are getting really crazy around here.”

“It’s hard for people to trust anyone from Philotheum when it was someone from there who poisoned their children,” Maxwell said, as he came into the room.

William looked up at his older brother. “One person from Philotheum was poisoning children, Max. Not the whole population. You can’t blame the people of an entire kingdom for something just a few are doing.”

“How are people supposed to know who to trust when the Philothean border is wide open? Anybody could just walk right in and do whatever they want. Including the kind of people who set the Hardridges’ house on fire.”

William had heard all of this before. Maxwell was in disagreement with their father and Simon on keeping the border between the two kingdoms open. “I don’t know how I feel about it Max. On one hand, I understand what you’re saying – that we have to protect our people. But we aren’t supposed to be against Philotheum, and closing the border – or treating people who make it across the way the Hardridges were treated – isn’t that worse?”

“Yes. It is worse.” Thomas said behind them. “Max, I don’t think you understand. Yes, there are some really bad things going on in Philotheum. And, yeah, there are people who are on Tolliver’s side, and they’re trying to sabotage us. But most of them aren’t like that. It was two of Tolliver’s own soldiers who rescued me from Harbin Rhinewald’s estate. If Tolliver ever figured out who they were … I don’t even want to think about what would happen if the border were closed and
our
soldiers wouldn’t allow them to get here to safety. They risked their lives for me.”

Maxwell’s expression softened, if only slightly. “I know.”

“It’s scary, Max, I know. But Philotheans are still our brothers. And there are more good people there than bad. We cannot let the bad ones push
us
into doing the wrong thing. There are Friends of Philip over there who are risking their lives every single day to see our kingdoms united again.”

Ever since Thomas had returned from his time in Philotheum, there had been moments where William could see he’d changed, where just a little bit of the carefree spirit of his little brother had been replaced by a man who’d seen more than William had – more than even his older brothers had. This was one of those moments.

“All right, little brother,” Maxwell said, “I get your point. Now let’s see if we can’t get you up on that leg a little bit so I can get back to at least beating you on the crumple pitch.”

Later, when Thomas was worn out and Maxwell had left, William sat down in a chair next to the bed. “That was pretty awesome, Thomas.” He’d made it all the way down to the hall in the common room, and even been talked into presiding over a tea party for the littlest girls before he walked on the crutches back to his room. “Your recovery’s been pretty remarkable. Nathaniel is going to be impressed when he gets back.”

Thomas shrugged. “I’ve had someone pretty awesome taking care of me, Will. You’ve sacrificed a lot.”

William felt his neck turning red – he didn’t know if anyone in his family was ever going to realize that this was what he
wanted
to do. Of course there had been times lately it had been harder than it usually was to give up his free time – now that there was something else he wouldn’t have minded doing with it, but even so, this was Thomas. There was nothing more important to him than making sure his brother got the best care.

 He decided it was his turn to change the subject. “That was a pretty interesting speech you gave Max earlier.”

Thomas shrugged. “It’s how I feel about it. It worries me, actually, that Dorian and James are still there, still near Tolliver where what they did could be found out at any moment.”

That thought put a heavy feeling in William’s chest. “Are you doing okay with everything, T? You almost never talk about anything that happened to you while you were in Philotheum, and I worry sometimes about how hard that must have been on you.”

Thomas locked eyes with him and shrugged again. “Some days it bothers me more than others, Will. I really don’t like to think about it more than I have to.”

William nodded, and they sat in silence for several moments.

“Speaking of things we haven’t talked about,” Thomas finally said, “what’s going on between you and Quinn? Linnea said she caught the two of you kissing in the garden that first day the Hardridges were here.”

“I’ve been waiting for you to ask me about that. I was starting to worry that Linnea had actually learned how to keep a secret.”

“Hey, at least she’s not keeping the good stuff from her poor, bed-ridden brother. You’re kind of heartless, really, Will.”

“Uh-huh. I’m the only one holding out
anything
here, right?” William asked, eyeing the tray of extra desserts Mia had brought up for Thomas after lunch.

“What? Mia just likes taking care of people.”

William raised an eyebrow.

“Well, she’s awfully cute and sweet, Will. Who could resist? Besides, she’ll sit in here for hours and actually tell me things about what’s going on around the castle and in her life – unlike
some
people.”

“I tell you things.”

“Yeah, you just leave out the best parts – like kissing Quinn. What’s the status of things between you two? You’re awfully chummy lately. I was a little surprised actually when you stayed here and let her run off to the city with Linnea and Rebecca today.”

“She’s been cooped up in the castle the whole time she’s been here, and she’s been working so hard helping take care of those kids, I thought it would be nice for her to have a chance to get out and ride Dusk, and get to check out the market.”

“How come you didn’t go?”

“I did think about it, actually.”

“But someone had to stay and take care of me, right?”

William caught his brother’s gaze. “No, Thomas. You did not keep me from going. Lily would have helped you this afternoon, but it has been awhile since she had a day just to herself to spend with Graeme and the kids. Anyway – I wanted to be here when you got up and around on those crutches. And I want to be here when you show off to the girls this afternoon, too. Besides, it did turn into kind of a girls’ trip. Even Howard didn’t go.”

Thomas was silent for several minutes before he finally nodded. “So, things are going well between you and Quinn, then?”

William couldn’t stop the grin that spread across his face. “Yeah, actually they are.”

Thomas’ eyes widened. ”
How
well?”

“I’m really starting to like her, Thomas. She’s always so … there, you know? Ready to just jump in and be a part of things. And I feel like we
get
each other. We can just sit and talk about everything for hours. I think I could tell her anything and she wouldn’t think less of me.”

“Well, you look happier than I’ve seen you in a long time – at least when you’re around her.”

“I am. I never imagined I would actually feel this way about someone, Thomas. Really, I never figured I’d find someone who would put up with how busy I am and how focused I get sometimes on being a healer. Even these last eight days, when we’ve both been so busy with so many things throughout the day – when we finally do get to see each other, she just gets it. She’s always spent the whole day doing her own thing, or else she’s willing to spend time with me helping me do things.”

“Are you actually courting her, Will?”

He felt heat at the base of his neck again. “Yeah, I kind of am. I told her my intentions, anyway, and she’s still spending time with me.”

Thomas chuckled. “Yeah, that might not be entirely official, but it sounds like courting. Have you told Mother and Father?”

William shook his head. “I think they both know something is up between us, but we’re just not ready to make it public yet. She has so many things she has to figure out; what with her life in Bristlecone, her mom, Nathaniel … We don’t know enough about where we can really go with this to involve everyone just yet.”

 “She does have an awful lot going on, doesn’t she? … How do you think she’s doing with the whole Nathaniel thing?”