Chapter 52 A Familiar Friend #2
Everyone in the room fell silent. Tam’s gaze shot to his mother.
“Thomas Julian sacrificed himself so that I could… I could come back. The Gods weren’t going to let me return without an exchange.
He took Witch’s Brew somewhere nearby. He…
He said he had been waiting for a chance to help us with the first witch.
Said he… he wanted to die a hero so that his family knew the truth.
He never betrayed us, he simply… spied. For years.
And waited to help.” The long speech was making Tam’s remaining energy wane all the faster, and his eyes fluttered despite his best efforts.
Even so, he saw Annika’s alarmed stare at Fin, and even Kat gaped down at him, looking thoroughly horrified.
“Eli is back… safely… right?” he asked next, hoping his family would recover enough from the shock to answer him before he lost consciousness.
His father must have sensed that Tam was fading, as he hastily responded, “She’s upstairs and has strict orders from the physician to rest and not leave her bed for the remainder of her pregnancy, barring basic functions.”
Tam wanted to ask more about that development, but his mouth wouldn’t work, and his eyelids had once again taken control from him and shut themselves, forcing him back into darkness, where his mind drifted away into a dreamless, restful sleep.
★ ★ ★
The next time Tam opened his eyes, the pain in his ribs had spread throughout his torso, and he was in agony.
He wasn’t even certain he could move if he wanted to.
“Godsdamn… did Kat hit me after I fell back asleep?” he muttered to himself while lifting an arm up to rub his face.
“While I’d like to assure you that is not the case, I’m sorry to say I’m not sure.”
Tam’s head snapped around. While the move made the room spin unpleasantly, he didn’t care. Not when his eyes landed on Eli, who was sitting in a wheelchair like the one his sister had used years ago, with a book in her lap and a cup of tea in her one hand, while her other rested on her middle.
He smiled. “Hey.”
Eli’s eyebrows quirked upward. “Hello, my lord.”
Tam gave a breathy laugh and regretted it instantly as the pain racked through him. “Have I… done something while unconscious to upset you, my dear one?”
Eli’s flat stare in response almost made him laugh again.
“Not particularly. Though you have been sleeping for the better part of a week.”
Tam watched as her one hand left her middle to join her other in cradling her teacup.
A chill claimed the tip of Tam’s nose, telling him that autumn had settled its mantle over the world while he’d been recovering.
“How have you been?” Tam asked while reaching out a hand to Eli.
She slipped her warm fingers against his palm with a small sigh. “I’ve been enjoying the rest. Though I’d enjoy it more if my betrothed were awake and able to stop the three princes from influencing our children.”
Tam allowed himself a small smile, but he wasn’t brave enough to succumb to a laugh. “What’ve they been doing?”
“You mean aside from dismantling multiple decorative suits of armor to try them on?”
A long snort of a laugh wheezed its way out of Tam.
“Or swapping out Mr. Howard’s wine with red wine vinegar?”
“Oh no.”
“Or when they decided to try making a kite large enough that it would help one of them fly?”
“That one doesn’t sound as bad!” Tam reasoned weakly.
“Where do you think they got the fabric, Tam?” Eli asked with an edge refining itself in her words.
“Uh—”
“Bedsheets. Tunics. Curtains.”
“I didn’t even know they knew how to sew,” Tam mused aloud.
“They didn’t. Penelope, on the other hand, does. She taught them how.”
“What?” Tam couldn’t mask his disbelief. “Truly? I thought this was all going on despite her best efforts!”
“At first she tried, but she thought there was merit to the kite idea.”
Tam raised a hand to his face and rested it over his eyes. “How’re we punishing them?”
“Well, the armor venture was harmless enough. They just had to reassemble and polish them. The wine crime, however, nearly made a grown man cry. So they are all working every morning doing chores to earn money and pay back Mr. Howard for at least one of the two bottles they dumped out.”
“Mr. Howard does have expensive tastes.”
“As for the kite, I’m to have a meeting with Their Majesties about it later this evening.”
Tam gave a smile mixed with a grimace. “How’re Kat and Eric?”
“A bit tense, but they’re working on things. The king wants to speak to you at some point,” Eli replied, setting her teacup down on the table beside Tam’s bed and handing him a goblet of water. “I’d help you sit up, but I’m not allowed to.”
Tam took the goblet appreciatively and drank what he could from his awkward positioning. It was then he discovered his torso was tightly bandaged. “At least the children sound like they aren’t too shaken by the battle events.”
Eli’s lips pressed together. “Luca is the one keeping everyone in fine spirits. Penelope is tense, and it has been next to impossible to get her to eat anything— your father has been very helpful and diligent about making sure she doesn’t miss any meals.
I think she was reminded about losing her parents the first time when she saw things the day of the battle. ”
Tam’s eyes lowered to his and Eli’s joined hands. “I’ll talk with her soon. It won’t help when we tell her about her mother and Thomas Julian.”
“No, it won’t,” Eli agreed softly.
Tam brought Eli’s hand to his lips and brushed a kiss across its back. “We have more grief to manage, but… it’s over. We’re home, and we at least know better things are on the horizon.”
He looked up just in time to see Eli nodding, a subtle smile warming her face in the firelight.
“Thank you for being beside me for all of this. For having faith. For trusting me,” he said with every ounce of sincerity he possessed.
Eli’s smile widened. “Of course, my lord.”
Tam tugged on her hand with a quiet growl. “Start calling me that again and the instant I’m able to, I’ll be reprimanding you in more ways than one.”
Eli flushed a bright pink. “Gods. You’re barely alive and you’re still so base.”
“You bring it out of me.”
“I’m glad my wheelchair heats your loins.”
“You don’t want to know what I want to try to do in that wheelchair.”
“Oh, for the love of—”
“Eli?” Tam interrupted her irritated outburst with a grin.
“What?”
“I love you.” She stared at him until he gave her arm a small shake. “Say it back.”
She grumbled, then said. “I love you, too. Just stop being so…”
“Crass?”
“I was going to say tempting.”
Tam’s jaw dropped.
Eli arched an eyebrow at him, and a coy smile curled her lips. “What? I said I wanted more children, didn’t I?”
Tam felt his entire body burn. Did he have an infection, or was he really still able to lust after his betrothed so aggressively?
Eli pulled her hand free from his grasp, then lowered herself over him enough to brush a chaste kiss across his forehead. “Remember, my lord, you’re the one who called me the master of torture.”
It took Tam a long while to think or speak in coherent sentences after that, but at the very least when he did, despite his future wife’s skilled flirting, he found himself feeling like a rather lucky man.