Spring went into full maternal mode, tucking Summer into bed like she had when they were children and brushing her hair back off her face. “You just rest. I’ll make sure no one disturbs you.”
“Thank you, Vivi.”
“Anytime, darling.” Spring’s arms slid around her in a final hug, but instead of releasing Summer right away, Spring loosened her embrace and pulled back only enough to look into Summer’s eyes. “Just to be sure, before I leave, Summer... if Dilys Merimydion did more than just kiss you when he ran into you earlier, you would tell me, wouldn’t you?”
Summer held her sister’s gaze steadily. “Of course,” she lied with perfect sincerity.
After a long, searching look, Spring nodded. “Good.” She stroked Summer’s hair and pressed a kiss to her temple. “I leave you to rest, then. I love you, little sister.”
“I love you, too, Vivi.”
“Well?” Down the hall, in her private library, Khamsin practically jumped on Spring as she entered and closed the doors behind her.
Spring sighed and shrugged. “She says nothing happened. She claims she was just tired from her walk and went to her room to rest.”
“Hmm.” Khamsin didn’t believe it. One of the servants cleaning an upstairs bedroom in the east wing had reported seeing a huge splash in the fjord, then seeing Gabriella running back toward the palace with her hair mussed and her dress awry, while Dilys Merimydion shouted after her. “What do you think?”
Spring sighed. “I think she wants us all to mind our own business.”
“So you think something happened.”
“She’s hiding in her room, her lips are swollen, and she has a mark on her neck that looks like someone took a nibble on her. Something definitely happened.”
“But nothing serious enough for her to tell you about it.” Kham hid her crossed fingers in her full Wintercraig blue skirts. Wynter was still stomping around swearing he wasn’t going to let any of the Seasons step out of their bedroom without an armed escort. If Autumn and Spring’s little matchmaking scheme had gone awry—if Dilys had let things get out of hand—there would be Hel to pay.
“Nothing that Summer thinks I need to know, in any case.”
“Do you know why she’s so dead set against Sealord Merimydion?”
Spring sat down in one of the ice-blue leather library chairs. “Because he makes her feel things she’s not comfortable with.”
Kham frowned. “What do you mean?” She’d spent most of her life in isolation, outcast from Summerlea’s royal court, and cut off from her family. Her sisters and her brother had all made a point of sneaking away from the court to visit her when they could, but she hadn’t spent half as much time with her siblings as they had spent with each other. These last months together in Wintercraig had brought them much closer, but the Seasons would always share a much deeper bond with each other than they would ever share with her. They knew each other’s secrets.
“She’s afraid she could fall in love with him.”
“But that’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
Spring smiled sadly. “Not necessarily. Not for us.”
“Explain.”
And Spring did.
Half an hour later, still mulling over the fear she’d never realized each of her three sisters harbored, Khamsin entered Wynter’s office.
“Well?” he asked when she came in. He’d heard the reports of Summer’s race back to the palace, too, and only Kham’s insistence that they let Spring talk to Summer and find out what happened had kept him from hunting down Dilys Merimydion and causing an international incident.
“According to Spring, she says nothing happened.”
“Do you believe it?”
“Not for a minute.”
Wynter’s fingers curled into a massive fist. “I’m going to beat that fish bloody.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Watch me.”
