How could such a tiny girl see so much? "Yes, I was."

She nodded, then put down her pencil and climbed into William's lap, wrapping her little arms tightly around his neck. When she was done, she climbed back down, carefully removed a purple pencil from the box, and began drawing again.

William smiled. "Thanks for drawing with me. Do you want to keep this picture?"

She nodded.

He slid the paper under her sketchpad, and kissed the top of her head as he stood. "I love you, Alice."

"I love you too, Will."

Thomas watched William skulk out of the dining room after Linnea took Quinn upstairs. It was going to be one of those nights. Will was never great company when he got himself all worked up like this.

Across the table, Maxwell was watching, too. His eyes met Thomas' and he sighed. "Why does he always take everything so seriously?"

Thomas frowned. "You're his older brother. Can't you do something about him?"

"I thought that was your job. Use your charm to keep him happy."

"You see how well that's going."

Maxwell chuckled. "After dinner, Simon and the boys and I were going to go and play that basket game you and William were teaching us. It looks like Will's out, but what about you?"

"Well, you do owe me a rematch after that last time, but..." He glanced uncomfortably toward the dining room doors.

"Let me guess, you're going to go up and check on Quinn, and then we won't see you again until tomorrow."

Thomas shrugged.

"If I didn't know better, Thomas..."

"Since when have you ever known anything 'better' Max?" He stood and winked impishly at his brother. "We'll have that rematch soon, though."

He stopped at the end of the table to kiss his mother before leaving, and then scooped baby Hannah from her cushioned high chair. "I'll get her bathed and changed before I bring her back to you for her bedtime feeding," he promised.

"Are you just trying to charm your way out of trouble?"

"Who's in trouble? Quinn is fine, the boy is safe at home, and everything is as it should be. She made that decision today all on her own, you know. There was no stopping her." He smiled warmly. "Besides, Hannah and I haven't had any quality time together lately, have we?" He cooed this last part to the rosy-cheeked baby.

Charlotte rolled her eyes, but kissed the baby's cheek. "She had a late nap today, so she should be happy for a while yet."

The door to Quinn's bedroom was propped open. "Can we come in?" Thomas called. He didn't wait for an answer before carrying Hannah in. Quinn was sitting on the couch with her back to Linnea, who was gently pulling a comb through her damp hair. They both looked up at him curiously, the word we probably having caught them by surprise.

Quinn's eyes lit up when she saw the infant.

"How's your arm?"

She made a face. "The feeling is starting to come back."

He frowned. "Did Will bring you something for it?"

"No, but Mia knew where my bottle was from last time. She just left here a couple of minutes ago to take our dinner dishes down."

Thomas nodded. Of course Mia would have already taken care of it. That girl was amazing. "So are you feeling up to some baby kisses?"

"Always," Quinn answered, holding out her arms for the baby, though her right one didn't make it nearly as far as the left.

Thomas smiled, carefully setting Hannah down right in her lap against her good arm.

"Mmm... she smells good." Quinn pressed her nose to Hannah's hair.

"She just had her bath; now she has that clean-baby smell to her."

"You gave Hannah a bath, and didn't bother to clean yourself up?" Linnea asked, appraising his shirt and shorts, which were still caked in dust and spattered with drops of blood.

"What? I think it makes me look roguish."

Linnea rolled her eyes. "You'd think you looked roguish if you were wearing a dress."

"Wouldn't I?" he asked, batting his eyelashes. "I'd need lipstick, though."

"You're hopeless."

"True story."

"She's grown," Quinn said, after she had played with the baby for several minutes, "but not as much as I expected she would have." She looked up at Thomas and Linnea questioningly. "Hasn't it been so much longer here than in my world? How does that work, exactly? I mean last time I was here, you told me that people in this world have longer life spans, but..."

Thomas shrugged. "If you ever figure that one out, let Nathaniel know. He has stressed over it for years. Actually, I don't know that it's accurate to say that our life spans are longer, because we really seem to age at the same rate. It's just that more days pass in our world for the same amount of aging."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, look at William and Nathaniel. They both spend significant amounts of time in both worlds, and physically they've aged the same amount they would have in either place. Babies tend to grow a bit faster, I guess, at least compared to the rest of us, but, still, Hannah here is only a little bigger than she would be if she had spent this time in your world. It's just that more days have passed here."

"Wow. How is that even possible?"

Thomas opened his mouth to answer her, but he was interrupted by the sound of William's voice. "Who knows? How is anything possible? How can two entirely different worlds exist together in the first place? Maybe the days here are really that much shorter and they just feel like they're about the same length because we can't directly compare. Time is a strange concept in the first place. Why would the rules for time in your world apply to ours?"

Quinn's eyes were wide, but Thomas and Linnea only laughed. "Be careful listening to him for too long, Quinn. You'll find yourself holding on to the floor because he'll have you convinced that there's no way to know that anything is real." Thomas shot a look at his brother.

Quinn looked fascinated, though. "What you mean is, nobody really knows, right? Even though our worlds are so different, in many ways they're the same, or at least the people in them are."

For half a second, Thomas thought William was going to answer her, but then his voice shifted to its more business-like manner. "How is your arm?"

Thomas and Linnea exchanged an exasperated look. If William would just get over his ... attitude ... he might realize Quinn was someone he'd actually get along with ... maybe more than just get along with.

"It's ... okay."

"Is it still numb?"

"A little, but it's kind of starting to hurt. I can't take any more ibuprofen yet, though. It hasn't been six hours."

Thomas took the baby as William knelt in front of her. He was gentle, but utterly distant and clinical as he lifted up the short sleeve of her shirt and scrutinized the bandage. He touched lightly around the edges of the tape, raising noticeable goose bumps on Quinn's arm. "You'd be okay taking one more. It's going to hurt more than last time did. It's a lot more stitches. Once you can feel it all the way, you can put ice on it too. I'm sure Mia will bring some up for you."

As soon as he was finished, he stood and left the room, leaving Quinn staring at the floor, and Linnea shooting him a murderous glare.

"I'm going to take Hannah back," Thomas said after a few minutes. "And maybe ask Mia to bring you girls up some cake?"

"That would be good," Linnea said. "Quinn and I have some talking to do. I want to hear about Zander."

After Thomas took Hannah back to his mother and relayed the message to Mia, he made his way back to his room. William wasn't there, which didn't surprise him. He was probably in the laboratory attached to the castle clinic, working on one of his numerous projects. Depending on how upset Will still was, there was a good chance that Thomas wouldn't see him before he went to bed.

As he walked toward his dresser, he reached into his pocket and retrieved the object he had purchased today from one of the jewelry vendors. Well, perhaps purchased wasn't the right word. The man had looked startled when he'd recognized Thomas at his stand. He'd tried, a little too hard, to direct Thomas' attention to a small case of expensive-looking rings, but Thomas had already caught sight of the necklace he now held in his hand.

The man had mumbled something about having recently discovered the item was a fake a replica and then he'd told Thomas to go on and take it. By the time Thomas reached Linnea, across the square, the man had disappeared, his market stall empty.

He held the chain up in front of him, and the pendant dangled, catching the light from the lamp. That was what had caught his attention earlier, a glint of sunlight reflecting off the silver charm.

It was a gift pendant, given to a child of royal blood at the time of his or her Naming Ceremony. Thomas reached automatically for the silver pendant at his own neck, and rubbed his thumb against the etched surface. Where his pendant bore a heart, the symbol for his gift grace this pendant showed the sign of the healer, the ameliorosa flower.

Even tarnished as it was, he could tell it was real. The chain was cheap, and too clean and shiny to have been on the pendant for long, but the actual charm was as genuine as the one around his neck. Now, he took a clean cloth and polished the pendant, so that he could examine it more closely.

When he could finally read the tiny letters engraved near the bottom of the circle, he gasped. Lily Elise Rose was the maiden name of one of his cousins; she was the fourth-born child of one of his father's younger brothers. She had married a fourth-born healer from the Philothean royal line, and moved to a small village in Philotheum quite some time ago, long enough ago that their two young children had both been born there.

Nathaniel had been working with Lily and her husband, Graeme, as they established a medical clinic in their village there.

How would her pendant have ended up in a market stall in Bay Run? They hadn't visited since Sarah's Naming Ceremony. They had sent kind regards and a gift for Hannah's Naming, but Graeme's sister had been full-term in her own pregnancy at the time, and both Lily and Graeme had wanted to be there for the birth of that baby.

He couldn't make it make sense. Perhaps they had already traveled near the capital city and were staying with relatives? Maybe she had dropped it along the way, and some wayward thief had picked it up? It had to be something like that. Certainly, she wouldn't have sold it. It still didn't sit right with him, but he decided he would just return it to her and ask about it when she arrived for the wedding.

* 12 *.

The Wedding

"HOW ARE YOU BEAUTIFUL ladies doing?" Thomas asked, walking into Linnea's room. "Anyone need any more help?" He looked around at the flurry of activity in the room. Quinn, Linnea, and Rebecca were all here, getting dressed and ready for the wedding. Mia was standing behind Rebecca, doing something to her hair.

With Rebecca sitting down in the form-fitting dress she was wearing, Thomas could see something he had been suspecting: a tiny bump was forming between her hips. He smiled. Rebecca caught his gaze and followed it. Her cheeks flushed slightly pink as she gave him a glare he would dare not disobey today. "Actually, Thomas, since you're just standing around, would you please fetch my wrap for me? I accidentally left it on the bed in my room."

"I can get it, Master Thomas, there is no need for you to ..."

"It's not a problem, Mia," he interrupted her. "You have enough to do, and I have time. I'll be right back."

He hurried down the hallway, still grinning. He wondered if he would soon be meeting his first niece or his first nephew. Knowing his sister, she hadn't yet shared her news so she wouldn't detract from Simon and Evelyn's big day. Rebecca had been the first of his siblings to marry, and now there would be a grandchild for his parents. He wondered how long it would take Simon and Evelyn to produce an heir.

Rebecca's wrap was easy to find, on the bed exactly where she had said she'd left it. The bathroom door in the apartment was closed, but even as thick as it was, he could hear Howard's deep voice as he sang to himself in the shower. Thomas chuckled.

He was walking down the hall back to Linnea's room when he heard footsteps behind him. He glanced around, and then quickly wished he hadn't.

"Thomas!"

Gavin was several years older than Thomas, though he didn't usually behave like it. He was the son of one of Charlotte's older brothers. Like Thomas, he was a fifth-born, but Thomas liked to think that was where the similarities ended.

"Hello, Gavin."

"Letting those girls use you as their servant-boy again?" Gavin asked, eyeing the purple fabric in his arms.

It wasn't easy, but he managed to restrain himself from sighing out loud. "I try to help where I can." He tried reminding himself that Gavin was the youngest of five boys and didn't have any experience with sisters, but it didn't help much.

"So, after the wedding, are you still going to be tied up doing girly things with your sisters, or will you be up for meeting some real girls?"

"You know me, Gavin. I wouldn't know what to do with a real girl if I found one. Have fun, though."

"I don't know about that Thomas. I heard you've got that Quinn girl here with you in the castle again. Surely, you'll be keeping her entertained tonight. Or is she free?"

His blood ran cold for a split second before it began to warm up again violently. "Watch your words, Gavin."

Gavin chortled. "Or?"

"Or we'll watch them for you." He hadn't heard Maxwell approaching, but his older brother now stood behind him.

"Take it easy now, Max. It was just a little friendly man-talk."

Gavin always had been a coward when he was outnumbered.

"Let's just agree to keep that kind of 'man-talk' outside the castle then."

"Of course."

"Thanks, Max," Thomas said, when Gavin had disappeared down the hall. "Not that I couldn't have handled him, but it's probably better I stay clean for the wedding."

"Probably," Maxwell chuckled. "He's not worth it, anyway."