Warrior of the Ages (Warriors of the Ages) (46 page)

“Over the worm stew. You’re not laughing now though, are you?”

“Is that how it’s going to be?” There was a tightness around his eyes as he looked out over the pond. “You’re going to relish this because it will make me uncomfortable?”

“Maybe a little bit,” Beth admitted. “Honestly, Kahtar, why is it so repugnant to you? The ceremony won’t be but fifteen minutes. My Dad will be so happy. You saw how excited he got today. We owe him something after putting him through my disappearance. As cavalier as he acted today, I guarantee the last three weeks have been hard on him too. Besides, it’s not going to corrupt your belief system to have a little church wedding, is it?”

“Argh!” Thrusting his arms into the air, Kahtar fell back against the grass with a thump. “I am so thankful that you’re alive that I would have agreed to anything today. You just cannot conceive how weird a wedding will be for me.”

“Weirder than what Cultuelle Khristos has put me through? Weirder than what the Old Guard did to me? I think you can wear a tuxedo and promise to love, honor, and cherish me in front of my parents.”

The steely eyes softened, and he smiled faintly, taking her hand he held it against his cheek, rubbing the palm of her hand with his thumb.

“Well, when you put it that way…it’s been a long unconsummated day. Ready for bed, Beth?” Despite the sun still full in the sky, Kahtar seemed to think she might have missed the innuendo in his comment because he flipped her hand over and pressed it to his open lips. Beth’s stomach flopped in response. Holy mackerel, he was going to kill her. Did he not realize she’d much rather have spent the day doing wonderfully naughty things to him? Unable to stop her mind from exploring some of those things, she felt her face flush beet red.

Kahtar let go of her hand. Though disappointment colored his voice, Kahtar was a man of honor.

“There’s no hurry, Beth, I can wait. I want you to be comfortable too. How about you go get your suit and we’ll just swim for a bit?” He sat up, staring at his feet moving in the water. Gosh, he was disappointed. This was not going to be easy!

Beth swung one long leg up and used her foot to shove Kahtar right into the pond. Caught off guard he slipped under in his only real clothes. Bobbing to the surface the surprise on his face made her laugh.

“Caught you off guard! You said that was hard to do. Seemed simple enough to me.”

“It usually is, but why’d you do it?” As he reached towards her legs, Beth jerked away, scrabbling out of his reach.

“Seemed like a safer way to have this conversation.”

“What conversation?” He looked worried now.

“The one where I say ‘after the wedding’.”

“After the wedding? What do you mean ‘after the wedding’…” But understanding dawned in his eyes and he added, “You have got to be kidding me. Is that why you don’t want to…why ‘after the wedding’?”

“Because otherwise the wedding is just a sham and meaningless.”

That he already considered the upcoming nuptials a meaningless sham showed on his face plainly.

“It’s like this, Kahtar.” Crouching beside the pond, Beth implored him to understand. “You are my husband. We are two odd parts of the same strange whole. When the Old Guard brought me back here last night, nothing could have induced me to wait another second before completing our joining. They can’t separate husbands and wives, and I wasn’t taking any chances! Yet years ago I promised my Dad—that I would wait…and I won’t make our wedding completely meaningless.”

Treading water he studied her. Those gray eyes of his were so loving as he watched her, that part of her wanted to tell her Dad they’d eloped, but Kahtar nodded in understanding.

“You made a vow. You have to keep your word. I understand vows.” Momentarily ducking under the water he emerged without his shirt, tossing the wet red top into the grass.

“Suit up! I’ll teach you how to hide underwater. If you slide under the mud on the bottom, the majority of scanning warriors won’t even spot you!”

Regretfully she eyed his Olympian shoulders, something very base stirred deep in her stomach and she stood quickly.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea. I’m going to go…read or something.”

“Beth!” He admonished. “I said I understood. It’s not like I’m going to force myself on you!”

“No, Kahtar, it’s more the other way around that I’m worried about. I’ve never been very good with absolutes, and we are technically married now, and—you’re gorgeous…” she finished wistfully.

Walking away, he shouted after her, his tone quite pleased, “Really?”

“Oh, get over yourself, Kahtar,” she teased, but clutching her pumps she broke into a run before she changed her mind.

TWO DAYS BEFORE their white wedding Beth packed up her car and left Kahtar miserable. Time wasted. He could feel the seconds ticking away—time apart they could never have back. Two days they might have had together—gone forever. It made him almost physically ill. She’d insisted it was mandatory, last minute preparations, time with her parents. She told him to be thankful they’d managed to dodge the traditional wedding rehearsal and dinner. She’d only managed it by explaining that Kahtar’s parents were deceased and that even his friends couldn’t come to the wedding. She said her Dad was disappointed, but was trying to be understanding. Kahtar thought Beth’s Dad had no idea what understanding was in this instance.

On the morning of the wedding Kahtar dressed himself in the intricate tuxedo Beth had left hanging in his closet. It was completely snow white—even to the shiny white patent leather shoes and silk socks. Cultuelle Khristos wore white for funerals. Carefully he dressed in the clothing his wife had managed to secure for him, again feeling the maddening sense of wasting time.

AT THE CROWDED little church Kahtar was quite the spectacle. It seemed like every member of Saint Phillips United Methodist Church had come for the wedding of Ted White’s daughter. After Ted himself pinned a yellow rose to Kahtar’s lapel, and led him to the front of the church, they were stopped every few steps.

“Welcome, Kent, you’re Chief of police over in Willowyth? Where is that?”

“Congratulations! You are marrying into a lovely family.”

“Welcome, son.” From a myopic older man who leaned far back to peer up at Kahtar. “My, my, aren’t you a big fellow? Of course the Whites are giants in and of themselves aren’t they?”

A blue haired old woman with red lipstick and beautiful skin patted his hand. “Welcome.”

Greetings followed every step he took. By the time Kahtar was shuffled into his spot by his soon to be Father-in-law, his heart felt lighter and he was fighting back laughter. They were a lovely lot. He couldn’t have been more surprised.

Then his Father-in-law sniffed loudly next to him and Kahtar realized that the man was fighting back tears. He shot a look at Ted. Though he was a burly six and a half feet tall, he had very little hair left and he’d left his reading glasses perched on his nose since pinning Kahtar’s boutonnière on.

Kahtar leaned towards the man and whispered, “I’ll take good care of her.”

“You’d better.”

“I adore her.”

“Everybody does. At first. But Bethy doesn’t need to be adored. She needs a man who is honest and tolerant.” Ted White glared at him through unshed tears as he growled, “Be that man for her.”

Ted White looked away and Kahtar looked out over the sanctuary. Part of his quick mind automatically took in physical details, yellow roses and white daises, blue ribbons, the sun shining through the stained glass windows and dancing across the two hundred and fourteen members of the congregation, but most of his mind filled with Ted’s reprimand. Tolerance was a stretch for a man with Kahtar’s background of black and white laws, but he was here among Seekers, at a church wedding, his church wedding, all for Beth. Honesty…he’d always considered himself an honest man, but he had not been honest with his wife. He’d told her that he repeated, but Beth had no idea what that meant. If he was going to be honest with his honest wife, shouldn’t she know everything?

Then she appeared at the back of the church and music swelled, and it wasn’t traditional church music. It was one of Beth’s punk rock songs that she was so fond of, without the lyrics. Kahtar stared as she walked down the aisle towards him. He fought the urge to go meet her halfway, to tell her everything and be the man she needed. Kahtar didn’t realize he’d started to move until Ted White casually took hold of his elbow and kept him in place at the altar.

Beth advanced with a bouquet of daisies, breathtaking in a simple white sheath that hugged her long body all the way to the floor. When she got to the altar and turned to set her flowers down, she revealed a dress with no back at all. The ever present heels brought her level with his nose as she took her place beside him.

Anxiously Kahtar took her hand and spoke in second voice.
“I love you, Beth. I will try to be the husband you need.”

Beth squeezed his hand and glanced at her father through narrowed eyes. For the second time ever she spoke into Kahtar’s mind.
“What I need is a man who will rub my feet after this, they kill.”

Her second voice was loud and it reverberated hard. Kahtar noticed his quiet Mother-in-law sitting in the church pew in a pretty pale blue gown, her shorn hair sticking up wildly. She was fighting back a smile. He was certain Carole had heard Beth.

When the Minister got to their vows Kahtar had another moment of anxiety. He hadn’t spoken to Beth about this. He could not take a vow he would not keep, not even for her. But it was simple, short, a slight variation of words that had been spoken for centuries. Beth had managed to have them altered just slightly. He wondered that the Minister had agreed.

Kahtar promised to, “Love and honor as long as I am.” Beth promised to, “Love, and honor as long as I am.” She smiled brilliantly up at him.

From the pews an old woman whispered loudly, “What’s all the, ‘I am’ stuff, mean? Why do the kids always have to change it?”

Ted handed him a ring to put on Beth’s finger, but she had known better than to get him one. He slid it on at the appropriate time and her second voice explained,
“It was my Grandmother’s—My Dad’s Mom.”

“Beth? I wish you had reminded me about rings. I would have gotten you one.”

Beth’s smile got bigger and Kahtar bent to kiss her freckled nose way before the Minister got to that part.

After that it was a hodgepodge of the misery Kahtar had expected from the start. The people were lovely, but introductions dragged and even Beth didn’t know the guests, there was food to be avoided—and he was not the only one dodging it. Both Beth and her mother pointedly ignored it. There was no escaping the wedding cake, a huge confection covered in flowers that had to be fed to each other while pictures were snapped.