Chapter 510

They had decided that lunch in the Memory Garden while everyone else was in the dining room would be preferable, and Elain did not regret the decision at all. She sat happily on the blanket she had set on the grass with Nesta on one side and Sheera on the other. Sheera lay on her stomach, hand in reach of the closest garden bed, and Elain watched her friend idly pulling weeds from the soil as they all soaked up the pleasant sunshine.

"I don't think…" Nesta mused, and Elain's eyes slid to her sister who lay on her back, "that I can remember a time where I have been able to sit idly for so long…"

Smiling, Elain leaned back on her hands, watching Nesta. Her sister seemed content; eyes closed against the sun and a pleased look on her face. "Are you bored?"

"Not at all." Nesta replied, "It just seems that, for so very long now, there has always been some pressing matter to take care of. Or, those around me have been unable to just… stop."

"I know what you mean." Elain replied, "That is why I have always loved being in the garden. It's not urgent or demanding and I can work at my own pace… or just sit and enjoy the day…"

"This whole Court feels like that." Nesta said gently, and Elain smiled more brightly.

"I suppose that is why it was so quick to feel like home."

"I am glad." Nesta told her, and Elain knew that to be the truth.

"Perhaps if you feel that here, it might be your home…" Elain would have dearly liked her sister to find a place here, but that had to be Nesta's choice.

"Perhaps." Nesta said, eyes still closed, "But I still would like to see all of the Courts before I decide what feels best."

"You are going to see the Courts?" Sheera asked, glancing over her shoulder at Nesta.

"That's the plan."

"I have wanted to do the same."

"Where would you go first?" Nesta asked, head tilting toward Sheera and her silvery-grey eyes opened just a little.

Sheera smiled and rolled over a little to be able to see the both of them. "The Spring Court." The dark-haired faerie grinned at them, "It sounds wonderful and Tamlin, I mean, the High – Tam…" She frowned and Elain grinned.

"You can call him Tamlin." She told her friend, "You don't have to be so formal."

"Okay…well… he said I would be welcome to come and see the Gardens…" Even with her dark skin, Sheera was evidently blushing and Elain had to swallow her laughter. She couldn't tell what her friend was more enamoured with; the idea of the Spring Court Gardens, or the High Lord of the Spring Court himself.

"Elain went to Spring first." Nesta put in and Sheera's green eyes flicked to Elain.

"Did you? It was first in your book…"

"Well, I suppose it was the Night Court I really saw first…" Elain mused, "But if we're talking about the trip I took with Lucien while working on the book, our first visit was to the Spring Court…"

"Was it as you expected?" Sheera sounded excited.

"It was." Elain closed her eyes as she remembered first seeing the Gardens around Tamlin's manor. "Lucien had told me before we went that he thought if I were to create a place just the way I wanted it, it would be like the Spring Court." She smiled again at the memory, and her reaction to that when he had said it to her, "He was right." She added, opening her eyes to look at Sheera. "When I saw it, it was perfect and just the way I would have created a garden, if I had had the chance."

"You can now." Sheera told her. "That garden off of your rooms…"

"Yes." Elain smiled, "But I have changed now. I have grown. And that garden needs to represent who I am now, as well as Lucien. It is his home too. It needs to have both of us in that place, and be a place for our future together."

Sheera smiled at her, nodding in understanding. "It will be."