Whenever-kobo (19 page)

“You kids gave us quite a scare.” Mom wiped her eyes and smiled at the others in the room. She went over to Lisette’s family and made the introductions. Everyone looked tired and worn out, but I had to think the Johnsons looked the worst.

A sick certainty settled in my stomach. Austin’s parents had arrived last.

They knew something.

Callum and his parents joined us in the reception room. His dad, the King, wore a strained expression and his mom, the Queen, was staring at Austin. Callum walked over to the window.

Oh god. Here we go.

The King said, “We’ve received a call from the states.” He gestured to the sofa, a tacit invitation. When everyone was seated, he sighed and put a hand to his forehead. “It seems right that we should be here together. As we were once before. Seventeen years ago.” He swallowed.

I looked at Callum, but he was staring outside.

The King said, “It seems the babies
were
switched.”

“No,” Philippe said. “That’s not possible in a modern hospital.” He tilted his head. “Unless it was on purpose? A kidnapping attempt for the royal baby?”

Mom’s mouth pinched and her Texas twang came out. “There was a hurricane, no power. Darkness, confusion, parts of the building blown away. You can’t imagine.” She gave the royals a sympathetic look.

The King cleared his throat. “The Wentworth family dug into this. There were layoffs announced at the hospital. They think the switch was intentional. A move to make a point about understaffing. Maybe a move that would be reversed.”

“Many of the workers died in that storm. A horrible tragedy,” Dad said.

“Yes, well, dead people cannot atone for their actions,” the King said, his eyes hard.

“Austin, honey, kids,” Austin’s mom said. “Hurricanes, the barometric pressures, bring on a lot of births. The nurse switched all the babies.”

Mom smiled and shook her head. “No, I held my daughter.”

“You held a baby girl,” the Queen said, her voice thick. “The girls were switched too. Hayley and Lisette.”

The room spun. Her words rang in my ears like a negative shock. Hayley and Lisette. “No.”

“Callum and Austin.” The Queen pinched the bridge of her nose. “Only the Wentworth baby went to the right home.”

“No,” I said again and shook out my hands. “This is a mix-up based on my stupid speech. We have to go home now.” My voice thinned.

Philippe threw out his hands and rose to pace. “Sue the hospital. Sue the staff. Sue the police.”

Lisette wrapped her arms around her waist and inched back into the cushion. Her grandfather dropped his hand to her shoulder. “How many restaurants do we have, Lisette?”

The question was so random.

“Four hundred,” Lisette said, her voice still sounding small.

“And in 100 years, how many have we closed or sold or let go?”

“None,” Lisette said.

“And those mean
nothing
to me.
Nothing
compared to my family.” Her grandfather motioned to Philippe. “Contact the lawyer. Arrange for custody of both girls.” He shook his head. “That my daughter and son-in-law did not live to see this. To see their daughter Hayley.”

My parents. He was talking about my parents. I couldn’t breathe. My parents aren’t my parents? My parents are dead? “What?” My own voice was thick and it was all too much. I popped up and headed to the door.

Callum got to me first and despite the crowded room, put his arms around me. “It’ll be okay,” he whispered against my ear. “I promise.”

Dad stood facing Lisette’s family. “That’s how you tell someone her parents are dead?”

“Dad.” I sounded five years old, but couldn’t help it.

He and Mom walked over to me, touching my arm. “No. Hayley baby, we’re here. It’s okay.”

“We’re leaving,” Dad said.

“Leaving?” Lisette said, sounding as lost as me.

Mom covered her mouth and sank into a chair by the door. Dad put a hand on her shoulder.

“We need a moment.” Callum took my wrist in his hand. “Come with me, Hayley.”

Dad’s arms crossed over his chest. Philippe paused, and Lisette’s grandfather waved his hands in the air. “No,” the three men said simultaneously. Dad’s Texas accent merged with the French ones. Their heads jerked and they grinned for some inexplicable reason. Lisette’s grandfather and her brother came over to Dad and held out a hand, as if to meet him for the first time.

Callum’s expression did a micro-change and I recognized the look from before we got on the jet. He’d have his way, no matter what they said.

We were devolving.

The King stood, eyeing his son as if seeing the imminent scene. “Why don’t we let Callum show Hayley the medieval portion of the house.” He pointed through the picture window. “Just there. See. Open to the public much of the year.”

As they turned, Callum pulled my wrist, tugging me away. We exited the house and crossed the lawn, our steps hurried. I felt as if I were walking in a bubble. I knew the sun was shining and the lawn smelled of flowers but it was a distant knowledge. We entered the south part of the castle through an arched doorway cut into the stone. The inside hit me with a shocking familiarity. I’d sung at a table near the fireplace with Callum and Jamie. Over there, I’d sat at a bridal banquet while King Mael sealed his allies.

Callum turned me and pulled me to him. He held me without speaking. His body pressed into mine.

Callum. My breathing slowed. My muscles eased. His fingertips touched my cheeks, wiping away wetness.

“Did we do this? Mess with time? Mess up our reality somehow?” My words were spoken against his chest.

“I think we both know the truth of this.” He bent and lifted me into his arms, carried me over to a chair and sank down with me on his lap.

I braced my hands on his shoulders. My gaze flew from his to the exit. “I can fix this.”

Callum kissed the inside of my wrist. “My family will bend time to get what they want. But what is it you would fix?”

“I could go back.” My voice held a rush of desperation. “Back to the decathlon. Stop the speech.”

He shook his head, his dark hair falling across his forehead. “Those are just words you’d stop. Not the truth. The truth will come out.”

I rubbed my temple, trying to think.

He said, “Would you go further?”

“What do you mean?”

“To the date of the hurricane? Stop the switch?”

As the implication hit me—to never know my family—a sob broke through.

Callum wiped my cheeks again. His index finger trailed over my cheek. “These answer for me. You’d not. Maybe there is a bit of Evreux in you because the McLarens are yours, if not by blood then by choice and you’d not give them up.”

I wouldn’t. Not my family. “Never.” I shook my head. Some things were clearer to me than ever before. “No wonder I get along with my little brothers. Who does that? No one.”

“Your parents are nice people? Good parents?”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe they raised good kids. Happiness matches happiness.”

“And your family?”

“I love them, but a truth I’d never tell…”

“Yes?”

“I’d not choose to be a prince.” His voice was serious, almost a whisper. “I’ll never let go of my family either.” He waved a hand at the room. “Or this history that you and I helped build. But to have so many choices.” His voice lifted. “That’s a future I never imagined could be mine.” He paused and raised an eyebrow at me. “The Johnsons?”

I knew what he was asking. “They’re professors. Quiet. They come to all of Austin’s events. Sports. Academics. Doesn’t matter. They both make them all.” I swallowed. “I like them.”

Callum took my hand, kissed the back of it, and then reached over to the wall, guiding our fingers. He ran my palm over the rough stone. “From our time with King Mael, I know you’d not let others decide your fate.”

“No.”

He twined our fingers together, placing them over my heart before shifting and pulling me up. “I’d better take you back before the men in your family try and steal you from me.”

When we were standing, he paused there in the middle of the great hall within the ancient castle. He pulled me to him again and kissed me, a slow press of our lips together. A kiss that felt more intimate somehow than any other kiss we’d shared. A melding. A truth. A promise.

He pulled back, opened his eyes a moment, staring me with a complicated blue gaze. “Come along.”

“Okay.”

“We’ll join the others for tea.”

“Tea fixes everything?”

“It does.”

We rejoined them and the atmosphere remained subdued. The King and Queen were telling the others about the uniquely well-preserved medieval portion of the house with practiced neutral words. The telling had the right effect, calming everyone in the room, including me. I followed Callum to the side board and stared at the floral-patterned china service.

Callum looked at me. “Girls pour.”

I didn’t like the sound of that but appreciated the thought of having a clear task. My fingers trembled as I reached for one of the smaller pots, lifting the lid. “What’s this?”

“Milk”

“In tea? Ew.” I lifted another lid and saw white crystal bits of sugar. “Where are the ice cubes?”

Callum made a cut off sound and his hands led mine away from the tea service. He poured milk in the cup and then the tea and then the sugar, each step a well-rehearsed motion. “If you are using a tea bag, you’ll want to scald the cup first.”

I had no clue what he was talking about, but the length of the ritual was oddly soothing. He put the heated cup in my hands and I tasted the hot, sweet tea. The warmth eased my throat. Good.

“Hayley!” My little brothers, James and Van, burst into the room as I felt my world tilting. My brothers.

“Hayley!” the twins yelled simultaneously.

They shoved by Callum and he took the drink from me so it wouldn’t spill.

James grabbed me and Van did a karate chop. “We missed school,” James said.

“And rode in a big plane.” Van ran in place as if being cooped up had been too much for him.

James’ eyes looked worried. “And my volcano’s going to get turned in late.”

Hearing their concerns and seeing their familiar faces put my world in perspective. I pressed a hand to my hot cheeks and sank down, hugging each of them. “Your teacher won’t mind. You get to turn it in late if you weren’t at school.”

“Good, ‘cause we worked too hard to make it explode.” James made explosion gestures with both hands. His right hand had red and blue smears on the side, like someone in the staff had given him candy. My brothers had a talent for locating candy. They had even found some here in this country of fruit and cracker snack food.

Van shoved into us and grabbed my arm for attention. “And the pilot gave us wings.”

“Oh wow. It’s a really long flight.”

“Yes, and we sat and sat and had to wear a seatbelt the whole time.” Van threw back his head in his re-telling. The sun glinted on his fair head and I looked over it to see Lisette. She was crying and her brother had his hand on her shoulder.

I shifted my gaze and met Callum’s dark blue one. It calmed me. I’d been through worse than this. I could handle this. He’d lost so much more than me. I breathed in. “Boys, I just heard the craziest thing.”

“Hayley,” Dad said.

“Yep. The hospital where I was born didn’t tell Mom and Dad we had a sister.”

James froze and even Van stilled. “What?” James asked. “Like a baby or like me and Van in third grade?”

“Like me,” I said.

James’ shoulders eased.

“Her name is Lisette and she’s super nice. And she comes with an older brother for us too.” I didn’t try and sell them on Philippe. Lisette had been kind when she’d called him a
firecracker.
“And another grandpa.”

“That makes three grandpas,” James said.

“It does. And two sisters and two brothers. That’s a nice size family, right?”

“Yep,” Van said. “She can share with you. Like me and Jamie.”

Well, probably not, but they were taking this okay. “Come meet Lisette.”

Lisette held out a shaking hand to the boys. “Lisette Chloe Evreux.”

I held out my hand to Philippe. “Hayley Ainslie McLaren.”

“We’re French, not Scottish,” Philippe said, looking down his straight nose at me, though something in his gaze had softened and became conflicted. “We’ll have your name changed.”

“You’ll try,” I said. “You’ll fail.”

“I’d offer to share mine, but I don’t quite know what it is,” Callum said.

“It’s Cétchathach,” the King snapped.

“Gesundheit,” Austin said.

OMG, how could they joke right now? Was this gallows humor? What was my name? Hayley. My name is Hayley, not Lisette. I breathed in and out, and again, caught Callum’s gaze. He smiled and I breathed out. I could do this. We could both do this.

I slipped into my black dress, grabbed my evening bag, and went down the hall to Mom’s room so she could fix me. We were still getting used to living in the Evreux guest house, but it seemed a worthwhile compromise so we could all see each other more. Even Philippe was transferring from his university in Paris to Darmire U. He wasn’t happy, but he had a strong sense of what should be done and I kind of admired that, even while wanting to kick him most of the time.

Of our new family structure, the boys and Grand-père got along best. They ran around the gardens and appreciated trips to the
big house
for Wednesday and Sunday dinners, quite the adventure. I had tutoring lessons in French and a secure lock on being valedictorian now that Austin’s parents took a position at Ireland’s Trinity University in order to be near Callum. I was still at THS, though Grand-père was becoming insistent that I transfer to Trallwyn Prep. No.

Lisette fit in great; she was so easy-going I’d almost be jealous, but truth was, she was nice and fun, and not the worst addition to the family. Not if you met my cousin Tory’s in-laws. I couldn’t wait for them to meet Philippe. My brother Philippe, how weird was that.

“Oh, you look so pretty.” Mom sat me on her vanity, twisted my hair into a loose braid, and pinned it up. She used faux-emerald studded pins and clipped them into select strands.