Chapter 341 Lush
ADRIANA
I was awake before the alarm.
I jumped out of bed and into the shower. It was particularly cold that morning and I didn't know why, which made the sweating that started almost immediately afterward even more confusing. By the time I was dressed I had given up trying to understand it and simply accepted that my body had decided today was going to be warm regardless of what the temperature outside said.
Jean shorts. A tank top. I couldn't remember the last time I had dressed like this — actually dressed like this, without thinking about what a Queen was supposed to look like moving through her own house. I was in my husband's house and I could wear whatever I liked. The guards and maids had seen me like this before. It wouldn't faze anyone.
I knew Elijah wouldn't say anything about it.
I walked down the hallway and received the particular quality of attention that came when you did something unexpected — not disrespectful attention, just the noticing kind. A few maids smiled. I let them smile.
Lana's room first. Her maid Raya was already there and turned around when I came in and stopped.
"My Queen." She recovered quickly. "You look extra beautiful today. Not that you don't always — but you're glowing."
I went and looked in the mirror. The warmth coming off me had caught the morning light coming through the window at a specific angle, and the effect was — she wasn't wrong. I looked like I was lit from somewhere.
"Thank you, Raya. When she wakes up, come find me. She needs her medication today."
The infections from the first kidnapping — the knife that bastard had used, unclean, the wounds left untreated — had required a slow and careful treatment regime because of her age. The doctor said nothing serious, but careful and consistent, and I had been consistent.
The twins were already audible before I reached their door.
I opened it. Elijah was on the floor between them, both hands occupied — one with Liam's shirt buttons, the other attempting to hold Elijah junior's shorts up while Elijah junior tried to escape the situation entirely. Lorain was sitting on her bed already fully dressed, watching her brothers with the expression of someone who had been ready for twenty minutes and was managing her thoughts about that privately.
"Mummy!"
Elijah junior broke free and ran to me, shorts pooling around his feet because the buckle wasn't done yet. I crouched and fixed it while he grabbed my shoulders.
"Mum, your hair — Lorain, what's the word? The one from last week?"
Lorain looked at him. "Lu, that was weeks ago. We learn new words every day."
"The hair one. Like Mum's hair right now."
"Pretty?" Liam offered, appearing at my other side now that Elijah had let him go.
"No, that's too normal."
"Beautiful?"
"That's for faces."
I kissed Elijah junior's cheek thoroughly enough that he squirmed and kept going anyway.
"Soft?" Liam tried again.
"That's for faces and hands. It's a different word—"
"Lush!" Elijah junior's face broke into the expression he got when he retrieved something from the back of his memory. "Yeah, Mum, your hair is lush. L-U-S-H. Lorain, did I get it right?"
Lorain looked amused in the small contained way she looked amused. "Yes," she said. "You got it right. Now can we go? I want to sit at the front of the bus. The back is smelly."
The bus had been their idea — they'd asked for it months ago, not wanting to be the only ones arriving separately from their classmates. Elijah had moved them to a different school recently, wanting them to have contact with ordinary life, to know what it felt like to exist among people rather than above them. Even with a brother who would sit on the throne eventually, there was no harm in knowing the world.
Lorain stood up and took Liam's hand with the brisk authority of someone who had decided she was responsible for their punctuality. She looked at Elijah junior. He fell into step.
I stood up as they moved toward the door and turned to find Elijah already on his feet and looking at me.
He started walking toward me. I started walking toward the door.
He was faster and caught my arm before I reached it.
"Adriana. Are you okay? Why are you sweating?"
I heard small footsteps behind me and Lorain appeared between us, pressed a small handheld fan into my fingers, and left again without a word.
"Thank you, baby," I called after her.
She raised a hand in acknowledgment without looking back.
I turned the fan on and directed it at my face. "As you can see," I said to Elijah, "the problem is resolved. My daughter provided a solution."
He held my hand back as I tried to move again. "Is something wrong? You look different."
"I feel warm. That's all."
"Are you going out today?"
I looked at him. He had not asked me where I was going or what I was doing in several days, and the question now, wrapped around the particular quality of attention he was giving me this morning, landed somewhere complicated.
"I'm not going out," I said. "I have someone coming here at noon." I looked at him directly. "I'm sure you have things to do as well. Perhaps spend some time with Lucien. Or Simone. You could see them both together — one big happy family meeting."
I knew it was pointed and I said it anyway and I walked away before he could respond to it, because if he responded then I would respond and neither of us had the time for where that went.
Maybe if he would simply say what he needed to say and explain himself, we wouldn't keep circling like this. But he kept letting me walk away, which meant he was content to let things sit, and since he was content to let things sit, I was not going to be the one to force a conversation he apparently didn't want to have.
We were both very busy.
So let it be that.