Water World Warrior: A SciFi Alien Mail Order Bride Romance (TerraMates Book 1) (2 page)

"Ashlyn!" Maura shouted from the front, and I jumped, feeling guilty. "You got that dress done yet? I thought you said you'd have it done today. You know Miss Moody. If she doesn't have her dress done on time, there'll be hell to pay."

I took a deep breath as Maura's head poked through into the workroom.

"I almost have it done, I'm hemming now," I said. "It'll be ready, don't worry. I always get my work done on time, don't I?"

Her stern, lined face relaxed a little.

"Of course you do. I'm sorry, Ashlyn, but she's called three times already this morning. And what with all the other dresses we have to have finished for the President's ball, you know I get crazy. You know these rich ladies like their perfectly tailored dresses — nothing else will do."

"I know. And our shop is the best in the city, so we're the busiest. It's a good thing, Maura. Don't worry, okay? I'll get them all done, even if I have to take some home."

"All right, Ashlyn. I know you'll do it. You always do."

She smiled and went back to the front.

I sat back down at my workbench and took up the dress again. I carefully finished hemming the beautiful frock, and when it was all done, I held it up in front of me and looked in the mirror. I would look like a princess in this dress!

I laughed at myself. As if a girl like me would ever get to wear a dress like this. It was foolish to be thinking about it. The damn thing cost about as many credits as a year's worth of mortgage payments. And I was still taking care of my brothers. I wouldn't be silly enough to waste all that money on a dress I would wear once, even if I had the money to waste, which I most certainly didn't.

I needed to remember I was a seamstress, not a princess. And we weren't in the 1800s anymore. There would not be anyone swooping in to save me. I was a smart, hard working girl.

I would have to save myself.

I shut the door and pulled on it to see if it was locked. Then I turned away from the shop and saw my friend Samantha coming down the street.

"Ashlyn," she called out. "Ashlyn, wait."

I turned to see her running up to me, out of breath.

"Hey, Sam. How was work?" I said with a smile. We began to walk towards our neighborhood.

"It was awful. Just awful. I can't believe those people with such sticks up their butts as if their shit doesn't stink. We're not in the middle ages here. Does it make a difference whether I only pour coffee for a living or work out some old moldy theory in a university? I mean, really? Are those academics that much better than me?"

"Calm down, Sam. What happened? The professor that's been giving you the eye, did you ask him out like you said you were going to?"

"I did. And you should have seen the look on his face. I wasn't good enough for him. It was maddening, I tell you, Ash. What an asshole. Looking at me like he wouldn't mind throwing me behind the bushes, but go on a date with me? No way. Not with someone who hasn't graduated from high school."

"You have a diploma. Like that matters. If he turned you down, he's an idiot."

She sighed.

"I'm sorry. You had a pretty bad crush on him, didn't you?"

"I wouldn't even care, Ash, if he'd been polite about it." She looked hurt.

I let out a huff of breath. "You can't let them get you down, Sam. These people, the rich ones and the smart ones, act like their money or their brains make them better than us."

"Don't pretend like you haven't got a head bursting with as many brains as them, Ash." Sam turned her anger on me in a moment. "Aren't you the one that graduated top of our class in high school?"

Her eyes were flashing, and I knew I had poked the bear this time. I didn't say anything.

"And weren't you the one who got the scholarship to go to the most prestigious university in the country?" I nodded.

"You were accepted into the environmental science program. It's difficult to get in and only takes twenty students each year."

"Yes," I said. I needed to change the course of this conversation, but there was no stopping her now.

"And aren't you also the one…" And at this point her voice got quiet and a little sad. "…whose mother died, leaving her to take care of her brothers, get them through high school, and pay the mortgage and the bills? Wasn't that you, Ashlyn?" Her voice had calmed down, and she looked at me compassionately.

I stared at the ground as we walked past the huge houses in the neighborhood where all the university professors lived. We had to walk through it to get to our regular houses. I didn't answer her question. She was right, of course. I still felt that if I were so smart, I could have figured out a way to follow my dream of being an environmental scientist.

Sam was not stopping. "And if that hadn't happened, wouldn't you be doing something different with your life? You didn't need to be stuck working for Maura and sewing dresses for the rich women in town so they can go to their silly President's Ball." She held up her hands, then, palms facing away from herself. "Not that that's not honest work, Ash, it is. But I know you wanted more for yourself."

"I did, Sam. But somehow the bills keep piling up and with Jeremy's tuition and, of course, the mortgage, I just can't get ahead." I shook my head. "I'm not sure I'll ever be able to go back. The scholarships aren't for twenty-something seamstresses, they're for brilliant high school students. It was all different before. I don't know. I've tried, but I can't see how I'll ever be able to make it happen."

Sam looked me in my eyes. "Don't talk like that, Ashlyn O'Connor. You've got more in you than people see on the surface. I know that you'll get that dream."

I smiled sadly and sighed, shaking my head.

"The Maldives will be underwater before I ever get a chance to study them and figure out a solution," I said. "They're now only about three feet above sea level. By the time I'm an environmental scientist whose earned her Ph.D. and got funding to study them, they'll be underwater, and the people will all be environmental refugees."

"Then you'll study some other islands. I know you're going to do it, Ash, I have faith in you," she said.

"Thanks, Sam," I said as we passed out of the rich neighborhood, back on to a street with small businesses.

"Of course, you could just go in there, and all your troubles would be over," she said. She grinned at me with a mischievous look in her eye, as she pointed at TerraMates, the mail-order bride agency.

"Stop," I said, getting annoyed. "That's for people who… God, I don't even know what sort of people are so desperate that they would let someone arrange their marriage for them. I have other plans, all right?"

"I'm not saying you should do it to find your Mr. Right. I'm saying you should do it for the money. You could pay off the mortgage, you could go to university, you could start your seamstress shop, you could go on a vacation for the first time in your life."

"I would never, ever, ever do anything like that. It's like selling yourself."

"But it's only for a year."

"What?" I looked at her suspiciously. "How do you know that?"

"What?" she looked at me innocently, shrugging her shoulders like it was nothing. "I happened to grab the brochure one day, just to see."

"You didn't!"

"I did, and I'm not sorry. Well, except that I don't qualify to be an interplanetary bride."

"An interplanetary bride? You're insane."

"It's like the wild west. Remember? There were all those men and no women. They would correspond with some woman, and if they decided they liked each other she would go out there and they got married. You check out the portfolio and choose a few that meet your standards, and they match you up. At the end of the year, if you're not happy, you can get divorced, and you get to keep the money."

I paused. "What money?"

"Five hundred thousand credits, Ashlyn."

"Five hundred thousand…" I said, faintly.

"It would set you up for life. All you have to do is go live with some guy for a year. They screen everybody. There's no serial killers or anything like that. It's all perfectly safe, and they monitor to make sure everything's all right. No chance of the guy being abusive." Sam laughed. "I sound like a commercial."
I shrugged. It didn't matter. I wasn't going to be one of those brides. Who would take care of the boys if I left for a year? I guess they weren't children. All of them were in their twenties, but they still needed a mother figure.
"You're crazy, Sam. You go and sign up if you think it's great," I said.

"I told you, I can't. Remember when I went on the school trip to Africa and got malaria? They won't take me. But they'll take you."

"Stop it, Samantha Morrows. You're talking nonsense."

She sighed.

"Okay. But I think you're missing out on a great opportunity!" she said.

"Yeah, right," I said, turning in at one of the plain houses that lined our street. The grass was overgrown. I would have to ask one of the boys to cut it. "Well, here I am."

"Ash," Samantha said, turning to me. "You work too hard, and you never have any fun. Come out with me tonight. Please?"

I shook my head, and she rolled her eyes.

"I can't. The environmental scientist dream might be out of reach, but you know that I'm working on my courses so that when I go back to university, I'll have a few of them under my belt. I have to study. I don't have time to go out clubbing."

"Fine, Ash. But all work and no play makes Ashlyn a dull girl."

"I'm not dull, Sam. I'm sensible. I'm responsible. I'm taking care of my family. And if I can somehow find a way to have my dream, too, well then, I'm going to go for it. But it takes work and dedication. And clubbing isn't part of my plan. I'm sorry."

"Right. Well, if you change your mind, just let me know, okay?"

"Okay, Sam. See you tomorrow? I'll walk you to work?"

"You bet. Don't we always walk to work together?"

I smiled at her.

"All right. I'll see you then."

She walked away down the street, and I let myself into our house. It was small and clean. Everything was nice because I kept it that way. I probably ought to make the boys do more, but I didn't. I felt so badly after Mom died that I didn't want to make them help out. I know they're spoiled.

"Hello?" I called, putting my things down on the couch. "Anyone home?"

There was a funny sound from the kitchen and I wandered in, wondering who was in there. When I walked through the door, I froze.

My brother, Marlin, was sitting on a chair in the kitchen. He was crying. And he was so beaten up that I hardly recognized him.

ASHLYN

I ran to my brother.

"Jesus, Marlin. What the hell happened to you?" I said. "Come with me to the bathroom, and I'll get you cleaned up."

I swallowed my nausea. I've never been very good with blood — a definite liability with three rambunctious boys in the house. Even though he's twenty-three, the man I thought of as my little brother had bruises on his face. There was dried blood in several spots, and his lip was bleeding.

I felt like crying myself, but he needed me, and I wasn't going to fall to pieces on him, no matter how much I wanted to.

He could hardly walk, so I brought a bowl of warm water, a cloth, disinfectant and bandages to the table where he sat. I sucked it up and started to clean him up. I checked his torso; it was black and blue. Someone had bruised his legs, too, but it didn't seem like anything was broken.

Then I helped him to bed.

"Marlin," I said, still standing beside him. He was lying there, eyes closed, looking like he would fall asleep. "You have to tell me what happened."

"I got beat up," he said after a long minute of silence.

"That's obvious, love, but why?"

"I don't want to tell you."

I frowned.

"That doesn't sound good."

"You'll be disappointed in me."

"Mar, you know I'll always love you. Whatever you've done, I'll forgive you."

He sniffed.

"You've always been so good to me and Jeremy and Tim, though. And all I've ever done was let you down, Ash. And now I've done it again. I hate myself."

"Marlin, don't say such things. Just tell me. We'll fix it. We can get through anything if we stick together. Isn't that what Mom always said?"

"Oh," he almost wailed. "Don't bring Mom into this. She would be even more disappointed than you."

"Hey," I said, gently. "Just try me."

He drew in a shaky breath.

"I've been gambling."

I nodded.

"Okay. We can work through this."

"I've been gambling a lot. I kept thinking if I could win enough, I could pay off the mortgage. I know it's hard for you, Ash. I'm always close to winning!"

I closed my eyes in pain. Marlin always thought that he could get things without working. I hope I didn't encourage it, but maybe I did inadvertently.

"Okay," I said, again, hoping I sounded calm.

"I started to borrow money to play. I was so close, Ashlyn. I swear. I almost won tonight. I almost made it all back."

I stared at him, my heart aching for him. Why did he do these things? He was always getting himself in trouble.

"But I didn't. And my creditors came after me. When I couldn't pay, they beat me up."

I sighed. Creditors. It was a euphemism for loan sharks.

"Well, I don't think you deserved it, Marlin, but you did bring it on yourself," I said.

"That's not all."

"Not all?" I frowned. "How much do you owe? I'll pay it. But you have to promise not to do this again, Marlin."

"That's the thing, Ashlyn." He was crying again now. "You can't pay it."

"I can, Mar. Don't worry. I have a lot in savings. Enough to cover your debt."

"You don't understand." Tears were running down his swollen face. "You don't have this kind of money, Ash. And there's no way of getting it."

I felt my face fall.

"How much do you owe, Marlin?" I was afraid of the answer now.