Strangers and Lies (25 page)

Someone brought her new clothing, which was a clean base garment for the armor, just in case she had to fight again. It was a good plan as far as she was concerned. She kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it didn't come.

Bethany hugged her then, a lingering thing that she didn't let go of for a long time, nearly half an hour. When she finally spoke it was a little dark sounding, but the words were clearly a joke.

"Doctor Debussey
did
seem to think that I was her nemesis, didn't she? No doubt I'll be seeing her again then." There was a sigh and a shake of the head. "Well, it will give me a chance to finish our dispute, won't it?"

Gwen smiled, not really feeling it at all.

"Yup. Let me know when she shows up, I have a few things to work out with her myself."

The entire world was put on hold for days after that. Or very nearly. To everyone's surprise Gwen insisted that the kids still get their summer camp, even if everyone
was
preoccupied. The only person that backed her, at first, was Countess Goebbels.

"Gwen is correct. We
promised
these children training and an adventure. Are we people of our words or not?" There was a clipped correctness to her voice, which had almost everyone else falling into line pretty fast after that. When Ferdinand showed up about an hour later at Park Street and crashed their meeting,
he
didn't even blink at the idea.

 "Make it happen. While this current crisis has passed, we only gain from the students of our kingdom feeling they can trust that we mean what we say." Without waiting he pointed at Gwen with his right hand, fingers closed, and then included Heather, Beth and the Vernors, all of whom had been working on the various projects at hand. "Come with me please? We have matters to discuss."

It sounded horribly dark, as if someone was going to die or something, even though Gwen hadn't heard of any new attacks. It had to be possible that some of the group involved had escaped, but if so, they'd be best served by hiding and disavowing all knowledge of the events. It's what she would have done.

The general consensus of magicians and academics on the matter was that no one would be replicating the work anytime soon. Everyone that knew the techniques used specifically had died, and anyone else that might have done it had good information from the telesar that was telling them about how close they'd all come to dying. That didn't mean some nutjob might not just go ahead and try anyway, but, for a while at least, no one with the skills to actually make it work should be attempting it. It was one of the problems with magic. A single person or small group could create vast damage, under the right conditions. It was probably true anywhere, but far more so here.

When they got to the front sitting room, Ferdinand leading them, he let them all sit before talking. He stared at Gwen the whole time, his face a mask of stone, unmoving.

"Mr. Prentiss has confessed to killing you, with full foreknowledge of what he was doing. He has requested that I pass another apology to you personally."

The man sank to his knees, and bowed his head, not looking at her.

"I believe him to be a man of good will, having spoken to him many times in the last days. One driven to extremes by his power and the desire to save his world. If it is within you to forgive such a thing, I think it would make his last days just a bit brighter." Then he waited, his face looking tired, but still young. He was only in his late twenties after all.

Gwen felt embarrassed by the kneeling, but didn't know what to say or do. Agatha the manners lady could have told her, but
she
didn't have a clue at all. It was going to take time for her to adapt to this new place, with its vastly different social rules. She sighed, feeling a little frustrated, but not at anyone in particular. Beth came to her rescue then, waving her hand to get her to speak.

"Seriously? I'm supposed to
forgive
him?" She sounded doubtful, she knew, and the monarch flagged visibly at her words. "For saving an entire world from untold tortures? It
worked
too. I don't know that I would have volunteered for it, if given a choice, but it hasn't turned out that bad for me. Katherine kind of got screwed over, but that was her own choice. She's even still alive in here, probably watching all of this. It's not great, but it beats prison, doesn't it?" She flipped her palms up, the movement catching his gaze.

He didn't rise, but there was a straightening of the posture that made him look regal again, even on his knees, begging for forgiveness for a man that he hardly knew at all. If that wasn't a clue as to what she was supposed to do herself, Gwen didn't know what would be.

"So, do I get a... um... boon for this or something? Is that even a word here? It sounds right, but we don't use it at home much. A gift or something. A prize for being me." She said the words softly, not even knowing if that
was
a thing here. The King just nodded though, his face still unmoving.

"Gwen... You saved the entire world and
all
the lives in it, paying a price that no one should have asked of you. I'm certain that anything you need you can have. Do you wish me to stand aside, so you can take my position? I'll do it if you wish."

She blinked but shook her head a little. She could see how he might want to dodge out on that one, but it was his duty, not hers.

"
Heck
no. Let Jeffery go and we'll call it even? Yes, I'm not totally happy with everything that he did, especially the part where my body is dead now, but..." What else could she say? It took a few seconds for it to pop into her head. "Well, my world is far away and a person might do anything to survive, and even more to protect those he loves. I can't stand the thought of more death over this. It's enough. He won't do it again, I'm sure."

Actually she could stand the idea of more death, but darn if it didn't sound good when she said it that way. The man got up from his knees, smiling.

"Truly? You'll allow the man that had you killed, to go free?"

"Sure, anytime that it's done to save that many lives. To do less... Makes us all... I don't know, smaller?"

The King didn't wait for her to assure him she meant it, and from the smiles on everyone's face it was decently close to what she was supposed to have done it seemed. She'd probably screwed it up in a dozen places, but hey, it got the job done in the end. That was what really mattered wasn't it? Ferdinand walked from the room quickly, to use the telestator in the other room, giving the rest of them time to talk.

Heather gave her a single nod.

"So... It seems we're the same person? That's interesting, isn't it? I have a brother too. Of course he's insane, but hey, you can't pick your relatives. That
is
the saying, isn't it?"

"As far as I know it is. I prefer to think of him as eccentric." Gwen answered softly, her voice smooth and a little lower than normal. That was mainly because she was a bit tired, she thought.

Then they had to explain to the Vernor's about the whole thing, which got Heather an invitation to stay with them full time, even though she had to refuse.

"Thank you so much though. No one had ever offered to let me live with them before. Is that what having a family is like?"

Ethyl nodded.

"Yes, dear. You have people now. Or, really, you always have, but now you have more. Please let all of your Westmorland family know they can call on us at any time." It had the ring of words that were meant, a hint of magic trickling into them.

"Witnessed" Gwen said, smiling as she did it. Everyone else just nodded, but no one mentioned it again.

After that they were invaded by a strange collection of people. Not that they didn't belong, since they were all welcome as far as Gwen could tell, but it didn't seem to make sense that they'd all be hanging around together, not overly.

Billy walked in through the front door without knocking, which got everyone else to stand there politely, while Winslow glared at him for a few seconds, then had to fight snickering.

"Please, come in everyone."

This all took place in the hallway outside the front sitting room door, so Gwen was able to hear it. She already knew who it was, which, she realized, was precognition. She really needed to get that trained up soon, but she had time now that the world wasn't just about to end, and all the people that had tried to kill her were dead or in prison already. Except Jeffery, but, in the end, he was her hero, wasn't he? You didn't kill the man that saved the world.

Groundling and Gloria walked in with Admiral Welk and Katherine's cousin, Reginald. Right behind them was Kelvin Westmorland, who stepped around the others carefully and walked over to her, a bunch of flowers in his hand. They were pretty, though clearly things he picked himself. Then, she didn't think they had florists here.

"For you Miss Farris. I was hoping that I could ask you to dinner soon? At your convenience of course." He had a playful look on his face, and for a few seconds she wondered if he was teasing her. She glanced at Beth who tilted her head, but didn't say anything one way or the other.

"I'd love to. These are beautiful, maybe we could get some water for them?" She glanced at Winslow, who nodded, holding his face in very correct fashion now that he'd recovered from contact with Billy and stepped out of the room as if he knew exactly what to do.

She smelled the flowers and closed her eyes. She'd gotten flowers before, but this was the first time a
man
had given them to her. It made her feel special. If it turned out he was teasing her it would really hurt, but he just smiled and gave her a single wink, moving close enough that only she could hear him easily.

"I
was
just going to ask if you wanted to have sex, but Duke Morten overheard me saying it and he and the engineer there threatened to drop me over the ocean if I didn't do it all properly." He smiled about it though and started to reach for her arm, which got half the people in the room to clear their throats at him and Bethany to actually push him back slightly, chuckling.

"Excuse me, Kelvin, but don't take liberties with my assistant, thank you very much."

Gwen stared at her friend for a second and smiled, feeling a little sad about the whole thing.

"But I'm not really needed for that anymore, am I? The bad guys have been caught, and stopped. Everything is, more or less, fixed. I don't know what to do now, but... Yeah."

Bethany tilted her head a little and smiled.

"
So
? Trust me Gwen, there's always something that needs a keen mind and sturdy bearing to figure it out. Besides, it's either traveling around with me, standing Special Service guard duty or losing your armor. We don't just let anyone have that kind of thing you know. So, are you with me?"

Everyone looked at her then, even as she nodded.

Suddenly something occurred to her that took her by surprise. She was
wanted
. After thirty-five years of life, if inhabiting Katherine's body got to count too, she was finally in a place where people didn't just tolerate her, but actually wanted her around. For the very first time in her life, since she was old enough to understand the concept, she felt...

Loved.

"I'm in. What do we do first? Solve a murder on a train? Maybe uncover an evil magician using magic to control young girls' minds?" She was just talking to cover the fact that she didn't really know how to handle the feelings she had at the moment, but Beth nodded.

"
Exactly
. You've been reading the papers then? I hadn't thought you'd have the time. We'll leave in the morning."

Gwen smiled and gave her friend a hug. Then, one by one she went to each of them and did the same. It got a blush from Groundling, but Ferdinand came back in at the tail end of it and smiled when she gave him one too.

He hugged her back, warmly enough that Mr. Vernor cleared his throat, getting a laugh from the room.

Gwen finally felt something that hadn't been there before, she realized,
another
new thing, in a day that seemed to be full of them. She felt at home. In a very real way, these people, in this strange world she'd been stolen away to, were her family.

She was finally someone worthy of being loved.

No, that wasn't right, she'd always been
worthy
of love, even if she hadn't known it. Now she had people that were simply worth loving back.

It was a good thing and she smiled as they all went back to plan for the future in the other room. A future that, amazingly, included her.