Fantastical (Fantasyland #3)(99)

But I’d already made my choice, no matter how difficult. And I made it because Tor could not be a prince in my world, his people depended on him and he’d expended great effort (and had the scars to prove it) to rebuild his kingdom. I couldn’t ask him to give up enjoying the triumphant result of something he felt so strongly about he gave it five years of his sweat and blood and his efforts to regain it were marked on his face and body nor could I ask him to give up the eventual succession to rule a kingdom that was his birthright.

I was an administrative assistant, only Dave depended on me and the only wounds I ever got were from paper cuts.

I didn’t think about my parents or Phoebe or Dave or the Oscar pre-shows or any of that. I couldn’t. I had to focus. I was in love. I was pregnant. My man was far away from his family, who he cared about, and his people, who depended on him.

And I had a sister to get to know.

The rest I would deal with when the time came. And if I couldn’t then I knew Tor would help me or, at least, do everything he could to try.

Before we left the coffee house, Marlene had turned to Tor.

“You hear tales of her?” she asked.

“Indeed,” he answered.

“And she’s, um… happy?” she went on, her voice low, her eyes intense and Tor’s answer obviously meant the world to her.

At this, I tried not to look at Phoebe but that didn’t mean I didn’t search for her hand on the table, find it and hold it tight.

“They are said to be a love match, she is revered as a goddess, so yes, I would assume she’s happy,” Tor replied quietly.

She nodded then enquired, “Is Korwahk far from your kingdom?”

“Very far,” he answered and she looked disappointed but nodded again then she licked her lips and looked away.

So I called her name and when I had her eyes, I asked, “Is there something you want?”

Marlene studied me. Then she nodded.

“I’d like to get a message to her, just… to let her know I miss her and I’m glad she’s happy,” Marlene said quietly.

Hmm. Marlene was sweet and seemed quiet, unlike Phoebe who was a different kind of sweet but not all that quiet but it would seem Marlene was Circe’s BFF just like Phoebe was mine. This made me smile at her but it also made my hand grow tighter in Phoebe’s.

“We will see to that upon our return,” Tor offered and Marlene looked hopefully at him then Tor went on, sharing honestly, “However, this land is far away, routes of communication are not dependable, this king is nomadic and therefore I cannot assure you it will reach her but I can assure you we will try.”

I fought the urge to kick him under the table for it was cool he was being honest but she didn’t have to know about the undependable routes of communication, for goodness sake.

She nodded at Tor then looked at me. “He took her when I was with her. I was actually standing right next to her. I saw her disappear. She just… melted away.” Holy crap! There it was again! “And we’d just been talking about how she didn’t want to go back when, suddenly, she was gone.” At this, Phoebe clenched my hand and I clenched hers right back. “I know everything is okay with her now and she’s happy but… it would have been cool for her to, you know, meet someone from home, to, like, know she wasn’t alone. It sucks your kingdom is so far away.”

“Maybe, after I have the baby, Tor and I can take an adventure,” I suggested to bring that hope back to her face, it worked, her face brightened but Tor’s grew dark. “Just saying, maybe…” I muttered in his direction.

His eyes went back to the ceiling.

When Marlene left she promised to do what she could to find this Clarabelle and get back to us tout suite.

But my thoughts were, Clarabelle was AWOL and I had been on Tor’s world for nearly two months. This meant we could be here that long, or longer. And who knew when or if we would find Clarabelle.

So, as far as I was concerned, I was moving forward, business as usual.

“Sweets?” Tor called and I looked from my list to him. “Put down your paper and come lie with me,” he commanded.

I looked at the TV then back to him.

“I’ve got to do this and I’m not into baseball,” I replied.

“I’ll change it,” he returned.

“I’ve got to do this,” I told him, his eyes went to my knees then back to mine.

“You can do it later,” he stated.

“No, I want to get it out of the way.”

He turned to his side, gave me his full attention and when he did I noticed the change in his eyes and I noticed it in three specific parts of my body.

“Put it aside,” he said softly, “and we’ll both go to your indoor waterfall.”

Those three specific parts of my body twanged at the thought of a shower with Tor.

“Five minutes, honey,” I replied just as softly. “I’ll be done and we can shower.”

He rested his head on his hand, elbow in the couch. “What are you doing?”

“Making lists,” I answered, looking back down at my paper.

“Lists of what?” he asked and I looked back at him.

“Contingency plans.” His eyebrows rose so I explained, “We don’t know how long we’re going to be here. So, if we’re here awhile, like I was in your world awhile, there are things I have to do and things I don’t want you to miss.” I looked back down at the paper and started enumerating. “I have to go to the doctor, get the pregnancy confirmed medically, get some vitamins or whatever, start that whole gig. I want you, Mom, Dad and me to go to the seafood place where Dad asked Mom to marry her and where we go every year for all our birthdays. I want to take you for a drive down the coast so you can see all my world isn’t dreary and some of it is actually really gorgeous. Since you’re interested in baseball, I want to take you to a Seattle Mariners game before the season ends. And I want you to go over to Phoebe’s so she can make you one of her dirty martinis, which are divine. And I forgot to buy you gum at the store so we have to get you some gum so you can try –”