Hope Everlastin' Book 4 (37 page)

Silence permeated the large
dining hall for a time. Beth was uneasy. It was all she could do
not to squirm on her chair, while Blue maintained a cool facade. At
a point when Beth felt as if she would burst from the tension
building up inside her, Blue made a dismissive gesture and relaxed
with resignation.

"I will tell you this much,
Beth Staples." She kept her gaze lowered, on nothing in particular.
"I was born at a time when others in my kingdom hibernate, and I
came into this world with a stigma that further set me
aside."

"Your legs?" Beth asked
softly.

Blue smiled ruefully. "No.
Reith crippled me."

The statement drained the
color from Beth's face.

"It was an accident," Blue
went on, "and is not the cause of my estrangement from him. No, the
stigma was the fact I was born with light blue skin, which lasted
through my first year. Anyway, my appointment as queen came from a
marriage that Reith shunned. That, and the three centuries I've
lived in your world, soured my outlook."

"Crippled isn't an
acceptable word anymore. You're physically challenged. You just
have wings instead of a wheelchair."

"I sit corrected," Blue
said wryly.

"Why did you have to live
in my world?"

"I was searching for my
people. My kingdom. The Sutherland held them captive. It was a
fluke that I found Reith, and later, the rest of Faerie. They were
all accounted for, with the exception of Deliah. Until two days
ago, we thought her forever lost to us."

The anger in Blue's tone
saddened Beth. "How do you expect to put all that in the past,
Blue, if you can't forgive your husband? I know you love him, and
you're miserable with loneliness."

Beth nervously wound a
light brown curl around one of her fingers. "Personality-wise, you
and I are a lot alike. We think and react from our hearts, and we
tend to withdraw into ourselves rather than face what hurts us. But
I don't have powers I can use to force Lachlan away when I'm upset
with him. I can't hide in another world. I'm not about to try to
minimize whatever Reith did to you, but I don't believe you would
still love him if he were a hopeless cause."

Blue's rigid posture warned
Beth she was going too far, but when the queen spoke, her tone was
deceptively calm. "I have never been able to deny loving him. How
can I? I was created for no other reason than to be his
wife."

"Literally?"

Blue nodded and heaved a
weary sigh. The blue and purple of her wings glittered in the
torchlight, the silver veins shimmering like mercury beneath
sunrays. Her thick black eyelashes lowered just enough to shield
her eyes from Beth. "In that, too, I am unlike the
others."

"Well, I don't know too
many mortals who have died and returned—with the exception of
Lachlan. Different isn't wrong, Blue. We're just in an elite class,
that's all."

A smile strained to appear
on Blue's mouth. Her lashes lifted and she humorously regarded Beth
for a time. "You're determined to change my mind about
Reith."

"I'm determined to see you
happy."

"That isn't in the
stars."

"Bullshit—" Beth choked as
her face inflamed with embarrassment. To her further chagrin, Blue
laughed until tears misted her eyes.

"Don't apologize," Blue
said merrily. "I've been known to color my speech. A habit from my
life among mortals."

"Lachlan doesn't appreciate
my vocabulary."

"In truth, you could sprout
warts and I doubt he would love you any less."

"Tis Lachlan the subject, I
be sure," someone said in a singsong voice.

Beth and Blue looked up to
find Deliah standing in the archway, a smile enhancing her
features. She entered the hall and stopped to bow her head in
reverence to Blue, then turned to Beth as she left her
chair.

"And speakin’ o' our
Lachlan, he be anxious to see ye and his younglin’s."

Beth's gladdened heart rose
into her throat. "Is the investigation over?"

"Aye. Two constables stayed
to ward off the reporters, but they, too, have now gone. Tis safe
for ye to come home."

With a strangled laugh,
Beth threw her arms around Deliah and hugged her. When Beth
released her, she turned to Blue with tears in her eyes. "I can't
thank you enough."

"Nor I, you," Blue replied
graciously.

Beth went to the queen's
right side and stared into the upturned face. "Are there any laws
that decree mortals and fairies can't be friends?"

"If there were, I would
abolish them," Blue said humorously, trying to make light of the
tension building inside her. "I have enjoyed our time
together."

Beth quickly crouched and
grinned mischievously. "Then come to the house for tea, or supper,
or breakfast—hell, whenever you like. I don't know how long Lachlan
and I will be staying in Scotland, but I want us to stay in
touch."

"That's kind of you," Blue
murmured.

"Don't keep yourself hidden
down here to avoid Reith." Beth clasped one of Blue's hands and
gave it a gentle squeeze. "Anytime you need to talk, I'll listen.
I'll even promise to stop playing matchmaker, okay?"

Blue hesitantly embraced
Beth. It was brief, and she withdrew as if embarrassed to have
displayed open affection in front of Deliah. When Beth stood and
looked at Deliah, she noticed a hint of sadness in her
eyes.

"Forgive me for not seeing
you through the passage," Blue said, her tone shaky. "But I shall
visit you at Baird House, Beth. In a day or two."

"I'll look forward to
it."

Deliah again bowed her head
to Blue then gestured for Beth to follow her. Beth complied, but
felt torn about leaving. She was eager to rejoin everyone at the
house, but she'd only just begun to nudge the truth of Blue's
withdrawal to the surface.

After two days of nothing
more than companionable conversation, Blue was finally beginning to
trust her enough to confide in her. Now she was leaving, and she
suspected they would be back to square one when the fairy queen did
visit the mansion.

They were nearly through
the archway when Blue called Deliah's name. Deliah turned in place
and offered another bow.

"Yer Majesty?"

Blue stared across the
table, keeping her profile to them and hiding any emotion her eyes
could betray. "Kareena tells me you and Winston are planning to wed
soon."

"Aye, Yer
Majesty."

"I realize you are now part
of both worlds, but I strongly request your vows be exchanged in
the tradition of your people."

Deliah's head lowered. "I
respectfully wish to be married wi' ma friends. We are hopin’ to
have a triple weddin’."

"I wouldn't exclude them
from the ceremony," Blue said stiffly. "I'm not that unreasonable,
Deliah."

"No' unreasonable at all,"
Deliah countered. "The fact ye now be ma queen doesna change the
fact we were once friends."

Instantly contrite, Blue
shifted her gaze to Deliah. "I value our friendship, Deliah, but as
queen I must insist your vows be exchanged within the Circle Of
Magic."

"Wha' o' ma brither?"
Deliah asked in a tremulous tone.

"The ceremony can be
performed in the outer world," she said dully, as if it had taken
all of her strength to grant this.

"And Reith?" Deliah asked
anxiously.

"Why else hold it in the
outer world? I can't allow him to enter the kingdom, but I also
can't deny your right to have him attend your ceremony."

"Wha' o' ye, though? In
exchange, will I lose the company o' ma queen and
friend?"

Blue shook her head and
sighed. "No. I'm too selfish to deny myself the pleasure of seeing
you wed. You, too, Beth. I'm a sentimental fool when it comes to
vows of the heart."

"Because ye love so
unequivocally."

Blue was about to respond
to Deliah's statement, but instead she made a dismissive gesture
with one hand. "Perhaps we can discuss the plans when I come for
tea?" she asked with an impish grin directed at Beth.

Beth chuckled. "Then you'd
better make it supper. Juggling plans for a triple wedding is bound
to be harrowing—even for a queen of your worldliness."

The strain and tension
evaporated from Blue as she laughed, the sound filling the dining
hall. "I'll strive to use my worldliness for your ceremony. Now go,
before Lachlan decides to dig his way here to fetch
you."

Deliah led Beth into the
main corridor. Even here, the compacted dirt walls bore murals and
were lit with torches, the smoke of which rose into the painted
ceiling. They passed entries to other corridors, and through a
vast, open room where Deliah explained that the Circle of Magic
used in bad weather to hold their rituals. When they came to the
end of the corridor, a crisscross of roots stood before
them.

Here was the passageway to
the outer world.

The human world.

"Aren't we getting the
twins?"

"They be sleepin’. Dinna
worry. Ma sisters will return them as soon as they
awaken."

"I know they're safe," Beth
said.

"Afore we cross over," said
Deliah, her grave tone sending a chill up Beth's spine, "there be
somethin’ ye should know."

"Is it about
Lachlan?"

"Taryn. She left yesterday
morn."

"I was hoping to talk to
her."

"Aye. I wasna happy to see
her leave afore she and Roan mended their relationship. But now we
believe she left in haste for a reason."

"Oh, God, what?" Beth
groaned.

"The dirk be
missin’."

Beth jiggled her head in
confusion. "Why would she take the dirk?"

"Efter we had ye securely
down here and Winston had left for the police, Roan noticed there
was blood on the sleeves o' her blouse. But she wasna injured, nor
had she touched Lachlan efter his fall. She was defensive when Roan
asked where the blood originated. Lachlan had been searchin’ for
the dirk. If ye remember, Roan had tossed it aside efter removin’
it from Lachlan's chest."

"Yes. It fell near the
stoop."

"Aye."

Beth frowned. "Taryn was
crouching near there."

"Roan said the same. The
dirk was never mentioned to the police nor the injuries, for I had
healed them. The police were told the Phantom had attacked Lachlan
in the master suite, and while strugglin’ he had fallen through the
window to his daith."

"Taryn backed up the
story?"

"Aye, and convincin’ she
was. But the dirk wasna found. Efter she left, the boys were
playin’ in the attic and found a pendant which had belonged to
Lachlan's mither."

"I don't understand the
connection."

"Apparently, Taryn had been
goin’ through his mither's trunks."

"For what
purpose?"

"Twas ma question, too.
Lachlan thought perhaps she'd been browsin’ through them ou' o'
curiosity, but Winston picked up some peculiar trace impressions
when he handled the pendant. Apparently, our Taryn was searchin’
for a lead to the origin o' the dirk."

"In Lachlan's mother's
trunks?"

"Aye. And she found
somethin’, but neither o' us could determine wha' it was. The
pendant has a strong aura o' energy protectin’ it. Unfortunately,
it makes scannin’ the piece verra difficult."

Beth released a breath
through pursed lips. "So Taryn's after another story. But why that
damn dirk? She can't write about it nearly killing Lachlan for the
second time. She wouldn't expose him like that. Even if she traces
the origin of the dirk, who cares? Lachlan's murder has been
grossly overwritten, already. What could she be hoping to
gain?"

"Reith may have given us a
clue," said Deliah solemnly. "Lachlan showed him the pendant last
night. We were all in the parlor, tryin’ to come up wi' a viable
motive for her actions, when Lachlan commented tha' the demon faces
carved on the pendant resembled those on the dirk."

Now Beth frowned in amused
bewilderment. "Okay. Demon faces. Why aren't I
surprised?"

"No' demon faces, Beth.
Lachlan thought them tha', but in fact, they be
gargoyles."

Beth laughed, "Which means
what?"

"Weel, there be few relics
remainin’ o' the time o' their reign."

"Their what? Weren't
gargoyles first made as water spouts?"

"Aye, for their speech
resembled tha' sound."

"Gargoyles. You're saying
they were once alive?"

"Aye, but they have been
extinct for thousands o' years. Beth, maist myths were real at one
time. To ma knowledge the Picts were the last to worship the
gargoyles. Accordin’ to Winston, their temples remain. One be
called—"

"Stonehenge," Beth
interjected breathlessly.