Tab Bennett and the Inbetween (5 page)

I heard a noise I recognized but couldn’t quite place.

Alex’s husky laugh sent a shiver through my body. “Unwrap your legs, love,” he whispered. He let me slide down until I was straddling his knee with my skirt pushed half way up my thighs. His hands free, our bodies blocked by his coat, he slide his hand up, caressing the hollow at the top of my thigh, brushing his strong finger against the lace of my panties. I pressed closer and a jolt pleasure so intense it hurt shoot through my body.

“That feeling you have right now? We call that Homecoming.” He was out of breath and his voice had an irresistible quality that made him even sexier. “It feels good, doesn’t it? It will get better. Wait and see.”

And he was right. There in his arms I felt like I was home. It was intense. It was incredible. It was completely fabricated by outside forces. But, of course, I didn’t know that yet.

I heard the noise again and this time I realized it was Pop, clearing his throat.

“You’re so beautiful,” I said, reaching up to kiss him again. He brushed his lips against mine and smiled down at me. “And you are even more beautiful than I thought you’d be but I think we need to calm down and turn around before Bennett sets Francis on me.”

Even his mention of our assembled audience didn’t break the spell he created around me. I felt foggy headed and disappointed as he set me down. I swayed a little on my feet. He chuckled. “Can you stand?” I wasn’t entirely sure that I could but I didn’t want to admit it. “I can if you can,” I said breathlessly.

He took my hand and we turned to face the crowd.

***********

After that, you’d think Pop would have sent a chaperone into his study along with Alex and me to make sure things stayed decent while we waited for him to finish thanking the last of the guests but it was just the two of us in there. Alex was looking at me. I was doing my best to ignore him because I knew if I so much as glanced in his general direction I would find myself with a rug burned bottom and a lot of explaining to do.

“Tabitha?” I looked without thinking. “You can kiss me if you want to.”

“I want to.” I stepped into his arms but his lips had barely brushed mine when I heard the door open behind us.

“That’s enough you two.” Pop took a seat behind the desk and Alex and I stepped reluctantly away from each other. “Your lack of self control is inexplicable and unforgivable.”

“It’s worse than that. It’s slutty,” I muttered.

 “I apologize, Bay,” Alex said through a smile. He grabbed my hand and brought me closer to him. “I was unprepared for my reaction to her. I didn’t expect the enchantment to be so…strong.”

“Yes, that was unexpected, wasn’t it?” Pop was pretty clearly not amused. Alex, for his part, seemed unaware of the icy gaze the old man was giving him.

“I meant no disrespect.” Alex looked over at me. “I hold her in the highest esteem.”

“If I thought otherwise we wouldn’t be standing here now. Her guards were ready to defend her. Matthew or Francis would have had you on the ground in moments if I thought you meant her any offense.”

“Your men have served the princess well.” Alexander bowed deferentially to Pop and gave my hand a playful squeeze.

I had no idea what they were talking about. Princess? Guards? None of it made sense. Nothing had made any sense since I’d walked up the stairs to meet Alex.

“Where’s Robbin?” I asked, suddenly frantic. “He’s waiting for me. I have to go.” I needed to find him, apologize to him, beg his forgiveness. I had to find my engagement ring and put it back on. I promised I would never take it off again if he was waiting for me.

I heard Alex say, “What do you mean she doesn’t know?” without registering the surprise and anger in his voice. I was already in the hall calling Robbin’s name.

********

I found him sitting outside on the top step of the porch. He was holding my engagement ring, turning it over and over in his hand. I saw his shoulders tense when I walked up behind him but that was the only indication he gave that he knew I was there; he didn’t say anything and he didn’t look at me. I told myself he was mad, that he deserved to be mad considering what I’d done, but he would forgive me. He wouldn’t be waiting for me if he hated me beyond repair.

I wanted to apologize but nothing I thought of seemed like quite enough to make up for vigorously making out with a stranger right in front of him. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to say. I can’t explain any of it…” I babbled on for a while after that, apologizing again and again while his back got tighter and tenser and straighter. Eventually I concluded with, “So anyway, could you say something please? Or at least look at me?”

I heard him take a deep breath before he stood up. When turned to face me, he wasn’t himself. His eyes held none of their usual chocolaty warmth. His lips were set in a grim line.

“I’m sorry,” I said again.

“Please don’t apologize, Princess.” There was no trace of emotion in his voice, no trace of love or anger. He sounded removed, polite. “You did exactly what you were supposed to do.”  

“Stop calling me that.”

“Whatever you say, your Lightness. It has been my honor to serve you, but now I am going home.” He started walking towards his truck.

“Wait. I don’t want you to go yet.”

Without looking back he said, “It’s not my job to care about what you want anymore.”

“Why are you doing this?” I was holding myself together by a thin thread – a very thin thread – but I was close to snapping. I guess he heard that in my voice because he finally stopped and turned around. 

“Don’t tell me he still hasn’t told you,” he snarled. “He still hasn’t told you, has he? Unbelievable.”

He took a step towards me, ready to be my hero just as he always was, before something stopped him. I saw a flash of hostility move across his face and I didn’t have to look to know that Alex was behind me. I could feel him there.

“This is my first chance to thank you for your service, Robbin Turnbough,” he said. “You have our deepest gratitude.” Personally, I would not have described Alex’s tone as grateful.

“It was always my pleasure to serve the princess.” It was impossible to ignore the way Robbin lingered on the word pleasure.

Alex was standing behind me and Robbin was in the darkness just beyond the circle of porch light, which meant I couldn’t actually see either of them. I could feel the tension though, covering the three of us like a blanket – a thick, scratchy, smallpox-ridden blanket. For a second it seemed one of them was definitely going to punch the other. It was just a question of who would move first. I waited, hoping one of my cousins would hear the brawl and get there quickly to break it up – maybe even before anyone got hurt.

“Perhaps we should save this reunion for another time,” Alex said.

“You say when,” Robbin called as he climbed into his truck.

Alex gently took me in his arms and I let myself be folded close to him. I laid my head against his chest and my body relaxed there, all the tension of a horrible day evaporating in an instant, leaving me with a strange kind of peace. I heard Robbin’s truck start up and rumble down the driveway and I remember thinking, Robbin is leaving you. Go after him but I didn’t move. I was in Alex’s arms; there was nowhere I wanted to go.

I lifted my head from his shoulder. He was very close and we studied each other in the dark for a breathless moment before he laid my hand over his heart.

“I’m sorry, Princess. When I came here today I assumed you would know who you are.”

“And who am I, exactly?”

Alex told me the story of how I came to live at Witchwood Manor. It didn’t start with “once upon a time,” but it might as well have.

“It will be hard for you to believe this but there are things in the world that you cannot see unless you know to look. Inbetween places and on the underneath of things there is sometimes magic, either light or dark. Our people are part of that magic.”

A sputter of air, not a real laugh but close, left my mouth. “Alex, I…”

He held up his hand, silencing me.

“We are called by many names, sometimes the trooping fae or the Alfar or my personal favorite, the hidden people but I think you will know us best by our simplest name, elf. We are of two kinds. Those of the Light,” he gestured to include us both, “rule the kingdom above the World of Man while They of the Dark rule the kingdom buried beneath it. The two kinds have been at war in some capacity or another for thousands of years. The violence always building and waning until sometimes a short and vicious war erupts.”

“Your mother, the Queen Gwendolyn, was strong and powerful and the dark elves feared her. While she was queen, They stayed below where They belong and there was peace in the kingdom for an Elves age, which is a very long time. We grew careless, believing They had been conquered, but They were plotting in secret, grasping and waiting and lurking the way that things that thrive in darkness always must.”

I pictured something small and pale and wrinkled crouched among the roots of the flowers. Alex slipped his jacket over my shoulders, mistaking my shiver for cold.

“Shortly before you were born They attacked as the Queen rode through the countryside. She escaped without serious injury but she was weakened. Bringing you into the world weakened her further and she never fully recovered. You were Gwendolyn’s only child and she was thrilled, of course, to have you. She loved you very much. In the short time she remained amongst us after your birth she doted on you. She passed on to the land of Eversummer before you were a full season old.

“Without fear of Gwendolyn, They of the Dark grew bold and began attacking We of the Light, starting the war again. When the other members of your mother’s council were killed, it became clear it was too dangerous for you to stay amongst our people. Bay Bennett, your mother’s friend and most trusted advisor, volunteered to bring you here, to raise you away from the violence and destruction that was raging in the Inbetween. He has kept you here in secret, safe, for all these years but now it is time for you to return to your kingdom.”

I didn’t know what to say. “So you’re telling me that I’m . . .” I gestured for him to finish.

“You are Tabitha Bennett, born Aurora, acknowledged Heir to the Throne of your Mother, Gwendolyn, born Spring, herself the Daughter of Summer. You are an Elvish princess.”

I touched my ears. He smiled and brushed my hands away from them. “That’s fiction.”

“And you are?”

“I am Alexander Hilldale, son of Adair, General of the Queen’s 100, and the man you are going to marry.” He sounded so confident, so sure of himself and his place in the world; I had a sudden, smarting desire to kick him in the shin and run. He rested his hand on the side of my face, turning my desires in another direction. “We have been promised to each other since the day you were born.”

 “I don’t remember making any promises to you.” My voice was all breathy and soft but I was not flirting. At least, I didn’t mean to be. 

“There has been a certain lack of romance, hasn’t there?” His smile made all kinds of very exciting promises, sending a shiver of anticipation up my spine. “There will be plenty of time for us to make it up to each other now that we’re together.”

I could feel something pushing me toward him, urging me to touch him, like a voice whispering in my ear.

 “But what about Robbin?”

“Turnbough will be rewarded for his loyal service. As will the other members of your guard.”

“My guard? Right. Because these people aren’t my real family.”

“Not by blood, no. George Waverly will act as your advisor, just as Bay once did for your mother. Francis Oakman commands your personal guard and Matthew Waverly is his second in command.”

“How interesting.”

He looked puzzled by my lack of reaction as he continued with his story. “Mollinda and Rebecca led the Winged Circle – an ancient order of teachers, guardians and guides. They accompanied you to the World of Men to assist in educating you about your role as queen.”