Brianna (11 page)

Meri grinned ruefully. “And she has a tail. She’ll cause quite a stir on Mediria when she’s older. An ivory-colored Hardan princess with a tail! Grandmother will have fits.”

Brianna sank into the room’s other chair and continued to watch the baby nurse. “She has gills.”

“Thank goodness for that, but I would have loved her no matter what. So will my parents.”

“Haven’t they seen her yet?”

“No. She was born right before we left Drakan so she’s just over seven months now. Ademis’ parents wanted me to stay with them, but I refused. Char was kind enough to invite us along, and I was glad to accept. This was only supposed to be a two-month voyage, but Char’s little side trip has drastically changed things. I’m very thankful that I came along. Ademis would have missed so much, and I would have gone crazy without him.”

“Did I hear someone talking about me?” said a voice from the doorway.

“Adem!” Meri exclaimed joyfully as she jumped up and bounced across the room and into her husband’s arms. The baby squalled once but quieted immediately when she found her mother’s other nipple.

Brianna watched her new friend’s reunion with her husband wistfully.
What kind of life will I have now, married to an alien?

Meri shrugged herself out of her husband’s arms, took his hand, and led him to where Brianna sat. “Adem, this is Brianna.

Brianna, my husband Ademis.”

Brianna stared at him. She had thought that Chardadon was tall, but this man was at least another two or three inches taller.

He was also broader and more muscular, though he was certainly not the equal of Kahn.

Ademis grinned at her perusal and bowed. “So you’re the woman who is tying Char’s thoughts into knots,” he said as he put his arm around his wife’s shoulders.

Brianna felt her cheeks flush. Both Meri and her husband grinned wider.

“How do you do that?” Meri asked. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“I can just tell I’m going to love your planets,” Brianna grumbled as she got to her feet. “Isn’t there a race anywhere else in the universe that blushes?”

“I’m afraid not, fair lady,” Ademis said as he took his daughter from his wife’s arms and lifted her high in the air.

She screamed with delight.

“You’d better burp her, my love,” Meri said dryly, “or you’ll end up with her supper on your head again.”

Brianna smiled at the picture in her mind.

“I didn’t expect to see you back so soon, Meri,” Ademis teased, handing Celene back to her mother so that she could nurse more. “There are still a few hours left until dinner.”

“Men!” Meri snorted as she caught Brianna’s eyes and shook her head. “It will require at least that amount of time for Brianna and me to get ready. You don’t expect us to wear just anything, do you?”

Celene chose that time to stop nursing and reach for her father. He grinned and took her into his arms. Meri buttoned her tunic and grabbed Brianna’s hand. “I knew she wasn’t that hungry. She’s just not used to not having me around. Having you here will be good for her. Now I can visit you and let Celene get used to being without me. You stay out of our bedroom, Ademis. We’ll come out when we’re ready.”

“Married barely two years and already I’m being denied access to our bedchamber. I had friends who warned me this would happen when I married out of the true bloodline.”

Meri laughed. “And I’ll bet every one of them was female.

Char’s sister-in-law was livid when Ademis married me,” she explained as they entered her bedroom where she stripped off her clothing and headed for the shower. “She’d already decided which of her full female friends would make the best wife for Ademis and wouldn’t listen when he said he wasn’t interested.

She wasn’t completely convinced he wouldn’t terminate our marriage until Celene was born.”

“Why didn’t Chardadon’s sister-in-law want you to marry Ademis?”

“She thinks full-blooded Drakians shouldn’t taint their bloodlines with ‘alien’ genes,” Meri answered from the shower.

“She certainly won’t be thrilled with me, then,” Brianna mumbled mostly to herself. “I guess she’s more of a barbarian than Char.”

Meri walked out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel. “You called Char a barbarian? I’d have loved to see his reaction.

What did he do?”

Brianna began to blush and Meri began to laugh. “I think this marriage may work after all.”

Brianna groaned and flopped face down onto the bed. “Is there anyone on this ship who doesn’t know everything that’s happened to me since I got here?”

Meri grinned. “Of course, but those of us who will be closely involved with you have to know everything so we can help.”

“I feel like a biology experiment!”

Meri laughed again. “By the time I finish with you, Char will want very much to experiment.”

Brianna rolled over and stared morosely at the ceiling. “But what about what I want?”

Meri sat on the bed next to Brianna and began to brush her hair dry. “There’s nothing we would rather do than take you home, Brianna,” she said in a quiet voice. “Unfortunately, since Bakom knows you exist, Char would face legal ramifications you wouldn’t believe if he took you back. Besides, Bakom knows where your planet is. If you weren’t here, he’d just send one of the Academy ships back as soon as he could summon one. Do you really want him going back and kidnapping some unsuspecting person for his experiments?”

Brianna stared at the ceiling. “That’s where they’ve got me.

How could I let anyone else go through this? And what if they kidnapped a child?” With a sigh, she sat up, took the brush, and began working the tangles out of Meri’s wet hair. “I know you’re all thinking not only of me but also of everyone on Earth. But marriage! I don’t even know this Chardadon! What kind of man is he?”

Meri turned and took Brianna’s hands in hers. “If you’re truly against this marriage, we won’t force you into it.”

Brianna withdrew her hands from Meri’s, rose from the bed, and walked across the room.

“I know this is the best way, but how much of a marriage will it be? What will be expected of me? How will his family react?

Will they understand why he’s married me? Will they want to protect me from Bakom, too?”

Meri sighed as she watched Brianna. She could understand her fears. She herself had experienced some of them, and she’d known that Ademis wanted her for a wife. Brianna had no such assurances. Marriage would make protecting Brianna easier but would present numerous problems if either she or Char wanted to end it at a later date.

“Char would never willingly hurt you. I know you don’t know him very well, but I do,” she said as Brianna turned to face her.

The uncertainty and misery on Brianna’s face tugged at Meri’s heart. “None of us knows why Char suggested marriage,”

she began slowly, “but I have my own theories. Char’s been piloting his family’s starships since he was eighteen. He’s never shown an interest in family life, but has certainly had his share of affairs with women from every human planet. None lasted more than a few months. The last few years, he has seemed less than satisfied with his life. He’s even gone so far as to meet some of the women his sister-in-law has chosen as suitable marriage partners.”

Brianna sighed. “I bet she’ll really love me.”

Meri smiled. “Don’t worry about Crystas. We’ll deal with her when the time comes. Anyway, as I was saying, after Miklan brought you on board and Char was forced to rescue you from Bakom, there have been subtle changes in his behavior. You’ve sparked his interest. Both Adem and Lorilana agree on that.

You’re different. Drakians have always been drawn to the exotic.

We Medirians fascinate them because of our long hair. All Drakians have brown hair, in various hues, that barely reaches much past their shoulders.”

Brianna pushed a lock of hair back over her shoulder. “I’ll definitely stand out in a crowd then.”

Meri nodded her head affirmatively. “Exactly! Your coloring is more exotic than any except the Gattan, and they stick to themselves. The fact that you saved two members of his crew, however, demands action from Char. Any respectable Drakian would show his protective instincts and sense of responsibility towards you.”

“Yeah, but marriage isn’t based on protectiveness and a sense of responsibility.”

Meri stared at Brianna and decided to be blunt. “Those aren’t the only reasons Char wants to marry you. He wants you in his bed.”

Brianna’s blush rose to the roots of her hair.

“And, if I’m correct,” Meri continued, “that’s just where you’d like to be.”

Brianna blushed even more. The prospect of making love to Char was becoming more and more intriguing as the hours went by.

Growing up in a royal court made reading people’s expressions a necessity, and Meri was very good at it. She hugged Brianna and then held her at arm’s length. “Would making love to Char be taboo on your planet?”

“To some people, maybe, because he’s an alien, but not to many others.”

“Are you virginal? Haven’t you ever been with a man before?”

Brianna’s scathing look answered that question.

“Well then, what’s the problem?”

“The problem is that I think I’d like it too much!” Brianna practically shouted as she shook off Meri’s hands and strode across the room to stare unseeing at a painting.

Meri gazed thoughtfully at her new friend. “I don’t understand.”

Brianna turned back to Meri. “Neither do I,” she admitted with a sigh. “I feel so overwhelmed.”

“Do you want to go through with this marriage?”

Meri watched the play of emotions race across Brianna’s face and let out the breath she hadn’t realized that she’d been holding when Brianna nodded and said, “It’s the most logical thing to do for the good of everyone else on Earth.”

“You had expected marriage to be based on more than logic?”

Brianna nodded again and returned to sit on the edge of the bed with her elbows propped on her knees and her chin cupped in her hands. “On Earth, people get married because they’re in love.”

Meri laughed brightly. Sauntering back across the room, she once again took up her brush and began to work on her hair.

“Brianna, you’re a delight. You’ll have Char completely wrapped around your fingers in a matter of days.”

Laying the brush on a dresser, Meri unwrapped the towel and shrugged into a comfortable robe. “You’re more afraid of yourself than you are of Char. That’s something that can be overcome.”

“Humph.”

Meri walk over to the wall and pushed a button. A door slid back and revealed a surprisingly spacious closet. “Come here and help me pick out a dress for you. You want to look beautiful for your own wedding, don’t you?”

“Wedding! What wedding?”

“Whose marriage have we been discussing for the last fifteen minutes?”

“But I thought…”

“You thought you’d have more time to get used to the idea. I wish that were true, but the sooner you’re married, the harder it will be for Bakom to fight it.”

“But who…?”

“Lorilana will perform the ceremony.”

“Don’t we need a priest or something?”

“On Mediria we have priests, as you must have on your planet since you’ve mentioned them, but on Drakan anyone designated as an elder can perform marriages. Lorilana has presided at hundreds.”

“Oh.”

Still talking, Meri disappeared into the closet, but Brianna stopped listening, immersed in her own thoughts. She was walking a fine line and her sanity, if not her life, was at stake.

Brianna thought back to when she’d been in Chardadon’s arms.

Maybe Meri was right. Why shouldn’t she try to have a little fun before she went home? Char was handsome, in an alien sort of way.

Shaking herself out of her revelry, Brianna rose from the bed and walked to the closet. “I guess I should just make the best of the situation. What have you got for me to wear?”

Meri emerged from the closet grinning. In her arms, she carried a length of silvery material. “This dress will be perfect.

Here, let’s try it on you.”

Brianna removed the tunic and pants she was wearing, and Meri dropped the dress over her head. “I don’t think it fits, Meri. I can’t get the bodice in place,” she said trying to fit the dress over her breasts.

Meri laughed again. Adjusting the dress so that silver ribbons looped around Brianna’s neck and nestled between her breasts, Meri turned her to face the mirror.

Brianna’s shocked face looked back at her. “I can’t wear this! I’m half-naked!”

The silver ribbons that lay between Brianna’s breasts were attached to a stiff cummerbund fitted snugly underneath her breasts, helping to lift and support them. Shimmery, silky material cascaded from the cummerbund and draped gracefully to the floor. It was a beautiful dress, but, as she had said, with her breasts fully exposed, she was half-naked.

“Meri!”

“Here’s the jacket. I didn’t think you’d want to go without it,”

Meri said with a grin. “Although on Drakan, baring one’s breasts is perfectly acceptable.”

Brianna shrugged into the short-sleeved, high-necked, form-fitting silver jacket. Once buttoned, it hugged her body, accentuating as much as covering her full breasts.

Meri nodded. “I knew that dress would fit. The color is perfect on you.”

“It would be more perfect if I had some shoes.”