Earthbound: Science Fiction in the Old West (Chronicles of the Maca Book 1) (12 page)

Anna saw him coming with the buggy and hurried out, closing the door behind her. As he pulled up she climbed onto the seat and sat with her shoulders straight, her hands folded in her lap.

“Mrs. Lawrence, if I may apologize.”

“Vhy? I should not have encouraged du so.” She clamped her mouth shut.

“Ye did nay, but if ye prefer, I twill remain silent.” Beneath his calm, MacDonald felt an unease grow. This was not the animated woman he loved.

“Ja, that vould be gut for now.” She looked straight ahead not daring to look at him.

By the end of the three hour drive, MacDonald was clenching and unclenching his teeth. His futile attempts to speak, to apologize, or explain had been rebuffed; sometimes with words, but mostly silence.

At the back of the general store, MacDonald pulled up with a, “Hello the house.” Before he could leave the buggy and tie off the reins, Anna was up the steps and at the door. She turned before entering the kitchen to face him.

“Mr. MacDonald, I cannot marry you. You lied to me. All of it was lies!” She clamped her lips together and dashed into the house banging the door behind her.

For a moment MacDonald could not move. Then he mounted the steps and raised his fist to pound on the door. To his surprise, Anna, shawl in hand, opened it.

“I have the right to ken why ye think I lied.” He was roaring. His voice filled the house and the outside world.

“Really, Mr. MacDonald, I should not need to explain.” Anger rolled through her words.

Kasper's dark head appeared in the hall doorway. Gerde was looking at them, her eyes wide.

“Ye owe me that much. I have nay kenning of what ye mean.” He had managed to get control over his voice and it was back to a deep rumble.

“That cannot be true, Mr. MacDonald.” Anna's teeth were almost clenched in her anger.

“Then tell me.”

“I cannot in front of other people. It might put you in danger.”

“Then put on yere wrap and we twill talk out here. There tis light enough for them to see us. I have pledged ye my troth, my heart, and my House. It binds me to ye. If ye continue to refuse me, everything that I have here tis yeres and I twill go elsewhere.”

A solemn Anna regarded him. “I cannot take what is yours. You cannot be serious.” She hesitated, knowing full well he was serious.

“Very well, Mr. MacDonald, we will talk outside.”

She turned towards Kasper and Gerde. “I will return soon. He will not do anything in full view of everyone.” Her comments left the couple puzzled. They could not conceive that gentle giant hurting anyone.

Anna swung the shawl over her shoulders and stepped outside. Twilight was beginning to throw a grey mantle around the world and the sun was slowly leaving the sky. She held her head high and her shoulders straight.

“We will go over by the cottonwood. If you start to yell again, everyone will hear you.” She did not wait for him to grasp her arm, but marched down the three steps.

He was beside her within seconds, his long legs easily keeping pace with hers.

She stopped by the tree and looked up at him. Her grey eyes were calm, her face betrayed nothing.

“When did I lie to ye?”

“The lie was the reason you gave for not having children. I knew when you hugged me in the kitchen. I heard your two hearts. I will not marry another man with two hearts. One who says there will be no children and when there are children the man hates us and tries to kill us.” Determination was in her voice and brightening her eyes. “Why didn't you tell me the truth?” The last words were hurled at him.

For a moment MacDonald stared at her, his mouth open, until he remembered to draw in a breath and speak. To Anna's surprise, his voice was a low, awed whisper.

“Yere Thomas Lawrence had two hearts? Dear Gar, woman, ye twere married to Toma.”

“I was married to Mr. Thomas Lawrence.”

“If he had red hair and copper colored eyes with gold rings around the pupils, his name tis Toma.” His voice was back to normal.

Anna's lashes blinked over the grey eyes, and she drew in a deep breath. “What else is a lie? Have you told me your real name?”

He hesitated. “I have nay. Like Toma, I was hiding my true identity for my name makes nay sense in this world. I am Llewellyn, Maca of Don.” He gave a slight bow.

“This world? Don't you mean country? Where are you two from?”

Bitterness was in his voice as MacDonald explained. “He tis a Justine from the planet Justine.”

“That is nonsense.”

He continued. “My fither twas a Justine and my mither a Thalian from the planet Thalia. The Justine on the ship I came in planned to abandon me here on Earth, but his plans went awry. While we searched for Toma, the inhabitants of this planet killed him. I twas left in control of the ship. I can take ye to it and prove everything I have said.”

Anna was shaking her head. “Mr. MacDonald, that is worse than a fairy tale.”

“Does it sound so foolish if I tell ye that in addition to his two hearts, yere husband could control certain people with his mind or that he had the ability to go into other people's minds and know what they were thinking?”

The anger left Anna's face and she was silent for a moment. “He tried to go into my mind, and I wouldn't let him,” she whispered.

“How did you know?” Her voice was strong again on the last phrase.

“I told ye. He tis a Justine, and ye are one of those that he could nay control. Why did ye go to Texas with him if ye kenned what he could do?”

Anna stamped her foot. “I was being a good Frau. Now do you see why I won't marry you? I will not go through years of no love, no conversation, except suddenly the thought occurs and then there is another baby, and silence grows in the house because you are certain that the baby can't be yours. Then when you realize that the baby is yours, you will view it as a monster; something to be destroyed. You fear that if people know you have two hearts they will not understand and try to kill you.”

“My darling heart, if the Justines are wrong about the abilities of a mutant being able to fither a child and there tis a baby, I twill be the happiest man in Texas. Yere reasoning that I twould stay away from the marriage bed tis wrong. Thalians are known for their, uh, frequency in pursuit of happiness.” He was almost stuttering. How to put the Thalians' enjoyment of sex into words that would not offend Anna eluded him.

“I twill seek ye in the bed every evening if that tis yere desire.” He blurted the words in his own manner.

“What?” Anna's eyes widened. “Mr. MacDonald, how can I believe you?”

“Anna, Mrs. Lawrence, I have nay lied to ye. Ye twill be part of my House and all that I have tis yeres. If ye dinna marry me, I twill sign over my land and home to ye and ye twill live in my heart forever. All that I ask is that I be allowed passageway to the foothills.”

“I do not want your land or your money…” Her voice stopped. “Why the foothills?”

“That tis where I have hidden the vessel that brought me here.”

She stared at him. “Mr. MacDonald, do you realize how dangerous your position is if that is the truth?”

“It does nay matter, if ye believe me.”

“Mr. MacDonald, I do not want your land.” She stamped her foot in exasperation.

“Then what do ye want?”

“I want a husband that loves me, cherishes me, attends church…”

Instead of waiting for her to finish, MacDonald swooped her up into his arms and kissed her, pulling her closer, tasting her lips, her neck, and then again on her lips. Anna forgot to fight him and suddenly she was kissing him back, feeling the warmth of him, the hardness. This is my man ran through her mind and she tightened her arms around him. Finally he released her and set her down, and then he did a surprising thing.

He laid his head on her right shoulder and made a “tsk” sound in her ear, and then his head was on her left shoulder and the same sound in her left ear.

“That tis one of my traditions.” He was smiling broadly.

“Mr. MacDonald, we should not be kissing until we are married and even then not in public.”

She took a deep breath and continued. “Not telling the truth is very much like lying. Why didn't you tell me?”

His hands still rested on her shoulders as though fearing she would run from him. “I did nay tell ye about the two hearts for fear I twould frighten ye away. If ye told Kasper, he twould tell Mrs. Schmidt, and she twould tell someone else. The world twould ken and there twould be those who twould wish to lock me up or put me on exhibit. That twas the fear that stilled my tongue. I did nay ken how to tell ye that we canna have wee ones. According to Justine biology, I am a mutant; like a hybrid, a mule. There tis nay seed.”

“Mr. Lawrence made some ridiculous statement about not being able to have children, but we had children, and three of them still live. What will you do when we find them?”

“If we are so fortunate, they twill be part of my heart and my House. If they wish, I twill be fither to them and adopt them. The inheritance of my House twill be theirs.”

Dusk was upon them, twilight having fled. The night was becoming grayer and soon the moon would begin to cast silver light through the clouds.

“This thing, this vessel that you came in, what is it?”

“It tis a spaceship, a craft made for transport among the stars, but for now it remains hidden.”

Anna was shaking her head again. “How can I believe you? I want to, but it all sounds—sounds like magic, like the work from the hands of God. That cannot be.”

“It tis nay the work of God. It tis the work of beings using their intelligence. Thalians are not as advanced as the Justines in their knowledge, but we too had spacecraft.”

“If they are so powerful, will they not come again?”

“They canna. My mither destroyed their planet and most of the Justines.”

Anna's eyes widened. Stamping her foot conveyed nothing to this man and did not stop his strange tale. “See, the story grows bigger and more, more… reason says I cannot believe you, but I want to believe you.”

Llewellyn drew in a deep breath. “Aye, but if ye twere to go with me, I can prove how true everything tis that I have told ye.

“I love ye, Anna Lawrence, and I wish ye by my side as my counselor, my wife. To ye I have pledged my heart.”

“You tell me the rest. Then I decide if I will go with you and see if what you say is true.” Neither one seemed to realize they were facing each other, gripping the other's hands as though fearing the other would let go.

He let out a sigh and continued. “If ye twill let me explain without interrupting, I shall try to tell ye everything.

“There twas a war waged by the Justines and their allies, the Kreppies, against Thalia. We had the Brendons from another planet as our allies. The Justines destroyed our war fleet and killed over a million Thalians. Then they attacked Thalia and Brendon. More of us died. In my land, women fight as Warriors the same as men. My mither twas one of the best. They exiled her to a barren asteroid. She managed to beguile her Justine guard, kill him and the Kreppie guards before escaping in a Justine vessel. She then had to teach herself the finer points of handling the Justine spaceship. While she did so she realized she was pregnant. I dinna ken how she managed, but she was able to birth me alone and take me to her brither on Thalia along with a crystal explaining everything. Then she drove the spaceship into the Justine planet. Most of the Justines died that day, but enough survived that they established a colony on an asteroid and put the Kreppies in charge of guarding Thalia and Brendon. When I was twenty-one, I fought in the dinner arena and won. They discovered I had two hearts. The Justines condemned me to isolation from Thalia and then abandonment when I was mature. That tis why I twas on that ship. I twas to be left here to die.”

“But why? If you could not have children, how would your being there matter?”

A small smile twisted one corner of his mouth. “In their science, beings from two different planets canna exist. That I existed twas an abomination to them.”

“Mr. MacDonald, have you told me everything?”

“Nay quite, for if somehow we could return to Thalia, ye twould be Mistress of Don and help rule my land.”

“Now you are going to tell me you are King of Thalia, yes?” Scorn was in her voice and she tried to extract her hands, but he stepped closer.

“Nay, I am nay a king. The land of Don tis a continent, but I am the last of Don's ruling House. I am from a line of kinemen; that tis cattlemen here. All Thalians are considered Warriors.”

It was Anna's turn to breathe in deeply. “And your king would welcome you back?”

“There tis nay king. Thalia tis ruled by a Council of the Realm, but that too tis under the control of the Justines. I canna return till I learn to handle the spaceship.”

“And if I don't want to leave here, then what? Am I to be abandoned?”

“Nay! Ye are my heart.” MacDonald's voice started to rise in irritation. With effort, he brought it under control.

“Let me explain. It twill take seventy-five or eighty years for me to learn the math and the system. There tis much I have to learn and there tis nay here to teach me. Kasper has taken me as far as he tis able with the math that he kens.

“If ye still doubt my words, my offer to take ye to the
Golden One
and show ye everything that I have said tis true still stands. In truth, I twould like for ye to see it and see how we lived.”

“Mr. MacDonald, who would be with us on that—that
Golden One
?”

“Mrs. Lawrence, nay twould be with us.”

“Mr. MacDonald, I do not trust myself alone with you. I will trust that you have told me the truth.”

“What made ye change yere mind?”

Anna looked straight at him, her chin lifted. “Because, Mr. MacDonald I love you. I will go with you after we are married.”

Once again MacDonald swept her up into his arms. This time Anna was quick enough to put her hands on his chest.

“Mr. MacDonald, you are taking liberties with me. The world already thinks me a shameless hussy. When we are married, then we can do that.”