The Gigolo's Bride (The Necklace Chronicles) (7 page)

She muttered, "As a brood mare."

She smiled sadly. "I'm sorry, Ashleigh. I
can't imagine how you are feeling right now, but I will tell you
that my brother is one of the sweetest, most gentle men I've ever
known. You need time to adjust to this situation, but in time I
know you'll come to love him."

"I really just want to go home to Earth."

"I know it seems impossible, but our ability
to travel through space is millennia ahead of your planet's. We're
so far away from Earth that we're already in another solar system.
Our ships use something called
yanning
, that folds space for
us, and allows us to travel great distances in a shorter amount of
time. These ships are supplied with only enough fuel and supplies
to take us to the destination planet and then home again."

Ashleigh felt tears press behind her eyelids
again. She hadn't cried since that first night, but she wanted to
cry now. She just didn't believe it. She didn't
want
to
believe it. But looking at Sloan through blurry eyes, she knew that
it was true. She really couldn’t go home. It helped some to know
that Sloan thought a great deal of Eden, and so far, he'd been
nothing but kind to Ashleigh even though she'd been difficult, but
it wasn’t enough to take away the ache of not being able to go
home. She would never see her mother again or apologize for not
calling her when she’d had the chance. She would never see her
friends again, or her boss.

"I don't know that I'll ever stop wanting to
go home, Sloan. I hope you can understand that." She sniffled and
wiped at her eyes with a small napkin.

"I do. But for what it's worth, I think that
in time you'll change your mind."

Silence fell between them, but it wasn't
strained. Neither of them had any more to say about the
situation.

Ashleigh spent the day with her, watching
vids and talking about the similarities and differences between
their people. It was a strange twist of fate that something had
happened to their females to prevent them from having girl babies.
And it was her bad luck that she was picked to help further their
race.

When she walked with Ashleigh back to Eden's
chamber, they found him pacing inside. His face split into a broad
smile of relief when they walked in. He hugged Sloan and asked her
to stay for dinner, which she accepted. Over dinner they talked
about the differences in plant and animal life between the two
planets. Their people were scientifically minded, but they were
also agricultural. Although many things were similar enough,
Ashleigh knew that their planet was going to take some getting used
to.

When Sloan left after dinner, Eden joined her
on the couch with a bowl of
ronii
, and they watched some
vids about the art history of his people.

When the nightmare came that night, and she
looked into Eden's sleep-blurred eyes and watched the terror slide
into relief, she felt another little bit of her heart lost to him.
It angered her, because it felt like a betrayal of her own kind,
but she seemed to be unable to stop it. He was sweet and kind, and
even though she hated that she’d been taken from Earth, she
couldn’t help the warm feelings that surfaced whenever she was with
him.

The fourth day, Eden took her on a long
elevator ride up to the top deck of the ship to the observation
deck, telling her they called them
transports
and not
elevators.

"I reserved this time for us, Ashleigh. There
won't be anyone else up here for the next hour. I know you're bored
in the chamber, but it’s part of the agreement that we sign when we
take a bride, that you have to be sequestered until we arrive on
planet and then another moon cycle after. Because Sloan is a
medical officer, you're allowed to visit with her, but otherwise,
you aren't supposed to have contact with anyone but me."

"Did something happen that made that a
rule?"

"I think you can guess that some women
gathered together and tried to find a way to escape. Unfortunately,
they were injured, and one of them died when she stepped into an
airlock, sealed herself in, and blew the lock. She died out in
space. I know she didn't want to be part of our world, but I don't
think she wanted to die like that."

"What happens if a woman refuses?" The door
to the transport opened, and they stepped out into a large
oval-shaped room.

"If, after the moon cycle on the planet is
over and the woman is still insistent that she cannot remain as
bride to her husband, then she is taken to the
Bordelayz
until a more suitable mate can be found."

She turned to look at him in surprise. "What
is the
Bordelayz
?"

"It's a brothel, Ashleigh. Do you know what
that is?"

"Y-yes," she stammered.

His face hardened, and he looked truly angry.
"Do you understand that a woman that refuses to marry the male who
chose her loses all rights to herself and her body until she is
chosen by another male? And she may never be. There are women in
the
Bordelayz
who have been there for years."

She swallowed hard. "What happens if her
husband dies?"

"When the mating ceremony is complete, the
bride becomes a citizen of our home planet immediately. If her
husband should die, as long as she was not the cause of his death,
she retains her freedom and citizenship and can choose another
husband if she wishes, or she can remain single for the rest of her
days."

"Freedom? How is what you are doing to me
freedom?"

"You're no less free than in a marriage on
your planet. I've done my research, Ashleigh. Human men and women
belong to each other in marriage, there's mutual love and respect,
sharing of household and family duties. It's no different on my
planet. The only difference is that you didn't ask to be taken, and
I understand your anger at the situation, but I only want you to be
happy. Ask me anything, except to take you back to Earth, and I'll
go to the ends of the universe to see it happen."

Of course he would say, "except to take you
back to Earth". Damn smart alien.

She shook her head and moved away from him,
unable to say anything to that statement. She could see the truth
in his eyes. He really did care about her; he really did want her
to be happy. She just didn't understand that. It had only been a
few days.

The lights went out suddenly, and she spun in
the darkness as fear spread through her. She felt Eden's strong
arms circle around her, and he said, "Screen clear." The light from
a million stars and planets became visible as the walls and ceiling
faded to clear glass. Dumbfounded, she stared up at the ceiling,
the inky darkness dotted with stars. She gripped Eden's arms.
"Where are we?"

His voice tingled in her ear as he said in a
low voice, "This is the Gasar Galaxy. Beautiful, isn't it?"

Awed, she could do nothing but stand there
and stare, mouth open, at the awesome expanse of space. She moved
from his arms and he let her, and she walked to the glass and
touched it, finding it slightly cooler than the air in the
room.

He moved next to her while she gazed out at a
galaxy she had never heard of. The inky darkness, dotted with
stars, was mesmerizing. She kept reaching her hand out and brushed
it against the cool glass.

All too soon, he said the time had come for
them to return to their room, and she was still so surprised by
what she had seen that she didn't correct him by reminding him it
was
his
room and not
theirs
.

Before she went into the bedroom that night,
he said, "You don't have to keep coming out here."

"What do you mean?"

"My nightmares. I, I appreciate that you come
out for me, but it's not necessary."

"If you don't want me to, I won't." She felt
strangely disappointed.

"It's not that; it's hard enough to be here
in this room with you while you push me away, but when I wake up
and find you in front of me, concern on your face, it just makes it
that much harder."

The pained look on his face made her want to
walk over to him and hold him tightly and tell him she was sorry,
but she did what she'd been doing since she got there, and walked
away.

Chapter 4

The next several days were the same. They ate
together, watched vids, and talked, but there was a tension between
them, and she didn't know how to fix it. She hadn’t gone out to him
when he had his nightmares, and it tore at her to remain in bed
while he was being tortured in his dreams.

She was still keeping Eden at arm's length,
even though her feelings for him were growing steadily. Grudgingly,
she had accepted that she wasn’t going to be taken back to Earth
and was sad for what she had left behind: her job, her friends, her
family. But she was surrounded by things that probably would not
have happened in her lifetime back on Earth. She was in a spaceship
traveling through space in a way that her people never imagined
possible, going to another planet to live. She was living a dream
that her people likely wouldn’t realize for generations.

She was stuck on the ship, in his room, for
two months and then another month on the planet. He was gorgeous,
funny, sweet, attentive, and kind. Of course she was going to care
for him, fall in love with him. No matter the amount of physical
space she put between them, she couldn't help but appreciate
everything about him. He never lashed out at her when she rebuffed
him. He never pushed her. He’d never done anything in their time
together except hug her a few times. She could have certainly ended
up in a far worse situation.

And she certainly didn't want to refuse him
and wind up as a whore in a brothel.

She asked to visit Sloan again on the seventh
day. Eden made the arrangements, and Sloan came to pick her up. As
they walked through the halls and stepped into the transport, Sloan
said, "Is there anything special you'd like to do, Ashleigh?"

"Could you teach me how to use the
cooker?"

Sloan's brows rose in pleased surprise.
"Sure. Was there something you'd especially like to make, or did
you just want to learn how to use it in general?"

"Eden liked a salty thing,
esot
I
think it was called, that was rolled up?"

"Oh,
esot
with
guiu
and
freks
. That's his favorite. I used to make it for him all
the time when we were young. I'd be happy to show you how to make
that."

Inside Sloan's tidy kitchen, she showed
Ashleigh how to turn on the cooker and use a control pad in the
counter to adjust the heat level. Ashleigh sliced up the
esot
, which was a pyramid-shaped meat like a ham, with two
thick bones through the center of it. The
esot
beast, which
was a stocky creature with spikes along its furry back, was
butchered and the meat prepared using a brine, which gave it the
salty flavor, before it was roasted over an open flame.

While the strips fried on a pan heated on the
cooker, Sloan showed her how to make the flatbread, which they
called
varjak
. Two scoops of yellow flour, one spoonful of a
thick oil, and enough hot water to make a dough. While Sloan
watched, Ashleigh kneaded the dough and then cut it into three
pieces, rolling them into large discs. Another pan was heated on
the cooker, and each flatbread was toasted until it was cooked and
then left to cool on a platter.

"Why do you come on these trips, Sloan?"
Ashleigh asked, touching the strips of
esot
with a
long-handled fork and moving them around the shallow pan.

"This is my first trip, actually. I wanted to
come to support Eden and to meet you. I am qualified to be here,
and I, well, I wanted to make sure that you were treated well from
the beginning."

Ashleigh stopped fiddling with the meat and
looked at Sloan. "What?"

"I'm the one who handled your in-take,
Ashleigh. I implanted your translator, and I examined, bathed and
dressed you. I know that might embarrass you, but you shouldn't
worry about that. It was important to me that you were treated with
the utmost respect. I even watched the entire group of women in the
room, and I spoke personally to Commander Riya and made sure you
were the last one taken."

"Why?"

"You handled yourself so well. You didn't
fight or cower in fright. You tried to encourage the others to stay
calm. I've seen the vid they show inductees, and it's not very
informative, but instead of panicking, you kept your head. I
thought that being the last one taken would help you have time to
come to terms with things. I hope it didn't make you panic too
much, all that waiting." She smiled.

"No, I don't know if I would have been more
upset to be taken earlier or when I was. I just was trying to be
calm and not fight. It didn't seem to work for any of the other
women."

"The men are trained to handle the women
without hurting them. Commander Riya is very careful of the men on
his team and chooses them wisely."

Did Ashleigh detect a bit of affection for
the handsome officer? "He was kind, so thank you for speaking up
for me, even though I didn't know you had done that at the
time."

"He would have treated you well no matter
what, but he assured me that he would be extra kind, and I'm glad
that he was."

When the sandwiches were put together,
Ashleigh and Sloan ate on the couch with their plates in their laps
and talked. When the time came for them to return back to Eden's
room, Ashleigh wrapped up his sandwich in a napkin and carried it
with her.

When she handed the sandwich to Eden, his
eyes lit up, and he thanked her by kissing her cheek. That night,
as she watched him eat the sandwich she had made, she felt happy
for the first time since she'd come on board.