“Idina,” I called when I made it to my rooms afterleaving the women.
Well, not my rooms.
My rooms wereourrooms.
It was just that, I’d asked one thing of my world from Lorenfor our wedding, and that was that he wouldn’t see me until our garland waswound around our arms before we walked to the altar at the temple.
So last night after dinner, I left him and slept in theserooms, which Idina had set up to be Get Ready Central, and he went to ours.
He had not liked it, likereally, and that wassweet.
But he was Loren.
I’d been right those many weeks ago, he couldn’t deny meanything.
So he gave me what I asked.
“Idina?”I called again when she didn’t answer.
And she again didn’t answer.
She, and Mom, and obviously Mary, were self-appointedWedding Planners Extraordinaire.Therefore, she was probably off doingsomething wedding related.
But she’d be back because my hair had to be done, and no waywould she fall down on that job.
Mary, by the by, had been filled in about everything, and tosay she was shocked was an understatement.But in the end, Edgar being a dicktimes two, and this spanning entire worlds, wasn’t surprising to her.She hadadored Corliss and was glad to have a version of her, even if she couldn’t havethe real thing.And she regarded me as a bonus.
Plus, she was an extreme patriot and would do nothing toendanger the kingdom, so she’d vowed in her inimitably dramatic way to keep hermouth shut.
And obviously Ansley knew, because Tor and Loren let him inon it, and his fealty to crown and country was even stronger than Mary’s.Butmore, his son was in love with a parallel universe chick, and in his way, hewas too.
In other words, we were good on that score.
FYI, Ansley requested us to delay the wedding another twomonths, because, after the goings-on at the magistrate’s court, Mom and I gotsuper-famous and super-popular, and Ansley and Loren already were.This meantAnsley was getting some pressure to make this a grander, more political affair,and as such, since it took forever to get anywhere in this place (they didn’teven havetrains), we needed to give time for the invitations to goout, and more time for people to show up.
Loren wasn’t a fan.
But, shades of that aforementioned fealty, I could tellAnsley struggled with not doing what was requested by his king for his country,and it had to be said, just to be polite, so I talked my man around.
I could wait.I had him.And I knew he wasn’t goinganywhere.
I moved to the window and looked out.
It was now nearly winter, and we were inDalwinCastle, which was situated on the northeastern cliffs ofHawkvale.Loren told me we were parallel toBellebryn, whichwas at the same latitude, just on the western coast.
I probably didn’t have to say, castles wereda bomb-diggity-bomb-bomb.
Talk about fairytale.
It had turrets and banners and moats, the whole shebang.
It waseverything.
Adding to the ambiance, it was chilly and crisp here.I’dalways been a fall and winter girl (I lived in Phoenix, so fall and winter werethe best), and Loren told meHawkvaledidn’thave the fierce winters thatLunwyndid.Sometimesthere were only dustings of snow in the northern regions, but in the centraland southern ones, the temperature changed only slightly.
So I thought it was perfect the seat of his House was here,where it got cold(ish), and I could wear long sweatergowns that clung to my body and made my man hot and hungry (so sometimes, Ididn’t wear those gowns very long before he took them off).
I stared at the Riven Sea that, miles and miles east, led toThe Mystics, and as such, reminded myself how beautiful this place was, withits glittery, gray rock cliffs and that blue, blue ocean that was so clean andclear, it was a blue we didn’t even have in my old world.
