Wistful Remembrance (Wattys 2014 HQ Love Award Winner!)

14. Damsel In Distress, I Definitely Am Not

Chapter 14

Damsel In Distress, I Definitely Am Not

 

 

With two weeks and all of us going through the thousands of books in the hidden, underground library, we’d only gotten through about ten shelves when we had dozens more.

Hattie was pretty much a whiz with every single book.  If any of us thought we’d found something that even hinted at where the book was located in the library, we would give it to her.  And every time she shook her head, it brought us down a little more.

A few of us had other duties to attend to while we continued to look for the book.  Elena and Grant had gone back to London for three weeks to get the baby’s room ready at their house.  The nursery furniture had been custom ordered by Kate and was arriving any day, so they wanted to take a little time to themselves to set everything up before coming back to the manor.

Juliet had to make a weeklong trip back Pallandino since she was head of the Knight council and was needed at a meeting.  Theo went back with her, who had been needed at the hospital there, and so did Jude and Tory.  Since Kate was also a part of it, she had to go, too, but was back within a few days’ time.  Aiden and Sterling had stayed with us since they were more than content with hanging onto me all day. 

Anna was gone as well, back to Georgia because of a work thing, but Hattie was able to stay with us.  She was more than happy when her sister had told her she could…and I was happy just because Anna was leaving for a few weeks. 

As for the rest of us, our days consisted of mostly hanging out in the library room, combing over every book we got our hands onto.  Mom and Dad were beside themselves and probably the most excited I’d seen then in forever, pouring over each book that was handed to them.  Drake and Jason, though, they were more preoccupied in knowing everything that was going to happen once we had the book…which included tagging along whenever we went to get the pages…and learning a few fighting moves so we wouldn’t have to protect them all the time.

“No,” Mom said almost immediately after Jason had mentioned it one morning over breakfast.  “Absolutely not.”

“What?  Why?” Jason asked.  “Emmy got to do it, so why not us?  I’m not letting everyone else protect me.”

“Who says you’re going in the first place?” she questioned.  “Something has happened to Emmy almost every job she’d gone out on to get whatever it is they were looking for at the time.  I’m not letting my children go – and that includes you, Drake – when there’s danger involved.”

“Mom, we’re literally going to be walking into a library, picking up a page that they’ve kept locked up for a few decades, and then heading right back.  Sure, we’ll be flying back to D.C. for one of them, but the others are in Paris and London.  There’s hardly any danger in that,” I reasoned.  I had Aiden on one knee and Sterling on the other as they colored a picture on the table.  I’d been helping when directed by them and so were Jamie and Ryan, who were sitting beside me.  “Besides, I think it’d be an adventure.”

“We can teach them a few self-defense moves,” John offered, sitting on my other side with his arm draped along the back of my chair.  “We were going to do some brushing up with Emmy, so it wouldn’t hurt to teach Drake and Jason a few things, too.”

“Besides,” I continued.  “You’ve always said that it would be good to learn a few moves just in case something was to ever happen…and that was before any of this started.”

Mom narrowed her eyes at me, lips pursed.  “And you have no idea just how much I regret that now.”

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