Perfect. The best piece she'd ever done, deserving to be a gift to her beloved. A deep sigh rose from her at the release of creativity.
Flinging out her hand, she translocated a plush velvet bag from her stock, whisked the pouch and the crystal with a brief cleansing spell to make the resonance neutral. Klay could consecrate the hexagonal point and the bag with the qualities he wished, through the ritual he wished.
FamWoman! Thrisca called. She waited by the greeniron main gate. Giniana got the impression of an amused and flicking tail. I sense FamMan, your actor lover, coming down the boulevard.
Not many gliders, added Melis. We are riding in a private glider to Thrisca's great adventure!
Maybe, Thrisca added, or perhaps he will simply drive by because FamWoman hurt his feelings.
He would not abandon US! Melis's mind voice sounded shocked. Not US.
Giniana winced. Her heart skipped a beat at the thought of humiliating rejection. She firmed her lips. She would do this. Still, she was glad she'd only eaten a nutrition bar for breakfast.
Coming, she telepathically sent back to Thrisca. Then Giniana twitched her Healing robes with T'Spindle insignia into smoothness, inhaled another deep breath, and teleported to the gate.
A blue and steel gray glider pulled up alongside the far pillar of the gate, near the wall that held the person-sized postern door. Just seeing the color had Giniana's throat tightening. Close to the same color as Klay's eyes. She hurried to the door, opened it, and Thrisca prowled elegantly from the center of the gates to the door and through it. Melis darted through the rods of the greeniron gate and to the glider.
The vehicle's passenger door opened upward, revealing the front seat tilted down and a long, padded bench in the back under the slanting rear window. The cats hopped in and arranged themselves in the back.
Klay's door remained closed. He didn't get out to help the FamCats or Giniana. He didn't look at any of them, not one glance, but stared straight ahead, fingers on the steering bar. A muscle ticced in his cheek. His nostrils widened as if her scent drifted toward him.
A quick breath in, released, then Klay said in a creaky voice, "I deeply respect you. I've always deeply respected you. You are a true and honorable and caring person. I apologize for not speaking with you first regarding your father. I also apologize for allowing myself to be manipulated by Morifa Daisy." A pause. His jaw flexed. "Now can we get on with this?"
"I have a gift for you," Giniana said, bending below the roof of the vehicle. His knuckles tightened white on the bar.
"I don't need a damned gift from you," he growled, still not looking at her.
Horror zipped through her. She'd spoken instinctively, said something that would please her mother, had completely botched the moment.
"Sor-ry." Her voice squeaked high with tension, despair, disgust at herself. All so mixed she couldn't tell what emotion ruled. She panted a couple of breaths while nausea acid slopped in her stomach. Managed one good breath of sweet summer air, steadied and quieted and lowered her voice and tried again. "I have a love gift to give you because I love you, Klay."
His body rippled as she said his name, but otherwise he didn't move.
"I was wrong to throw our relationship away impulsively, and I'm sorry I hurt you." At least now her tones throbbed with sincere emotion. She thought the tiny pulsing emotional thread between them expanded. Hope welled, and she continued with words rushing faster. "I was scared and distrustful and hurt and used my past experiences to judge you. I was wrong. I love you. Please say you don' … do … not … ha-hate … m .. me." She simply crumpled against the glider.
Chapter 31
The seat in front of her snapped up, Klay leaned over and took her right wrist. "Get on in." His voice was thick, too, but his face impassive, hiding whatever he felt. Though she thought their bond throbbed with a leap of joy from him.
"C'mere." He tugged, and she tumbled into the passenger seat gracelessly, her longer, more formal tunic twisting around her.
She forgot all about that when his lips met hers. And not only his lips, his tongue swept inside her mouth as if desperate for her taste. She leaned into him, opening her mouth, and his hands came around her shoulders, keeping her stable.
And she let him, depended completely on his holding her to not fall, which she wouldn't have done even last week.
Thrisca made cat-snickering noises from the backseat, echoed by Melis. The last thing other than Klay that Giniana paid attention to, because his taste swirled through her and uncontrolled love upsurged through her and her mind spun and thought left her for pure sensation. The strength of his fingers supporting her, but not tightening around her to hurt, the continuing probe of his tongue in her mouth that she tangled her tongue with his to absorb his taste, even his scent—relief and earthy herbs.
Again she felt tears, these of joy, slip down her flushed cheeks.
And her core throbbed and yearned, but her heart craved his taste and scent and touch more. She dropped the bag and it clunked.
"Ouch." Johns pulled back, said a spell Word and the steering stick sank into the dashboard, his seat moved back. He scooped up the velvet pouch by the thick tie that carried through a thread of gleaming silver.
"What's this?"
Embarrassed heat flooded her, flushed her cheeks. She settled correctly into her seat, cleared her throat, and turned her head to meet his equally gleaming blue-steel eyes. Her lips trembled with admission, "I didn't think that you'd be so easy to convince that I loved you."
His sexiest grin flashed. "Oh, yeah, with you I am the easiest guy you'll ever know."
"Lie," she muttered, "you are moody and complex." She straightened her shoulders, determined to do this right. "I love you, and I thought I'd have to prove it, so I made this gift."
Klay's expression fell serious and he murmured, "I never needed solid proof of your love."
She flinched. "No, that's just what my mother needed. Probably my father, too, if he'd remained. Though, as I recall, he liked endless fulsome compliments."
Strained silence as Klay watched her. He weighed the pouch in his hand, dipped his head in acknowledgment, then dropped his gaze and slowly opened the gift. As he drew out the crystal, a beam of sunlight shafted through the window and accented the silver lettering. I love you.
His face softened in wonder. "It's beautiful, the best gift I've ever received." And he looked at her with love, with a tender gaze that warmed her through, even as it crisped away any doubt. He stared at her the way she'd seen HeartMates watch each other, as if their spouse were the most necessary person in the universe. He gazed at her the way she knew no other man would ever look at her, and her heart leapt … and wept.
He loved her.
More than anyone else in the world ever had, or ever would.
How could she not feel the same?
He accepted her with her hesitations and faults and problems.
As she would him.
She closed her eyes briefly, and, yes, tears feathered under her lashes to slip down her face.
Then she felt his large forefinger brush them away.
"I will always love you," she said, her lashes lifting.
He opened his mouth but no words emerged. And she realized—she thought they both realized—that he couldn't say the words now, repeat her vow. Not telepathically, and definitely not aloud. He’d stutter them, she’d hurt him so.
Her heart constricted and more tears, these not so happy, flowed from her eyes and she turned away. "I'm sorry."
"I …" He stopped and she heard the breath he dragged in. "I lo—"
"No!" she snapped, struggled with her own emotions, repeated quietly, "No." She put her hand on his thigh, found tense muscle. "Don't force it, please." She looked at him, watched him swallow, then stare toward the front again.
"Words are my business," he rumbled.
That explained everything. "And acting. I don't want you to act this, Klay." She stroked his thigh, blinked at t
he shining crystal, let the light ease her, spoke her truth. "I didn't believe you, didn't trust you, and hurt you. Now you hesitate to trust me." Still focused on the gift that he'd accepted, the feelings that cycled through them both, love and pain, she sipped breaths and continued, "You will say the words when you are able." The words she now yearned to hear with all her heart.
She waited until he met her gaze again, gave him her own smile. "I will wait for you."
"Good," he said gruffly, "Because I am definitely not giving up being with you." He grinned and that sincere emotion reached his eyes. "Definitely not giving up on sex with you. Nightly." He gestured. "Daily."
"Of course."
He stretched out his hand and set his fingers under her chin. "I would never have doubted your words of love."
Truth.
"Last night was nasty though." He shuddered and Giniana knew the action for real, no show for sympathy, no playing on her feelings. She rather recalled her father doing something like that, and watching under his lashes to see if it worked.
Klay set crystal and pouch on the dashboard. His strong hands gently framed her face. He leaned toward her and pressed his mouth softly against her lips.
"Well. This is interesting," said the mellow voice of T'Spindle. Jerking back from another kiss, Giniana noted the man standing next to Klay's open window. The FirstFamily Lord's brows bobbed up and down. "I trust you are seriously interested in a long-term-relationship with my Healer, Saint Johnswort?"
Klay straightened away from her, glanced up at her employer. "More interested in her than any offer you might make me regarding my career, GrandLord."
T'Spindle gave the top of the glider two thumps. "Good. Good." He stared at them both, at Thrisca on the back ledge. "You all look good together." With a gesture, he indicated the larger, expensive and sophisticated glider parked in front of them. "I'd anticipated handling the transportation needs of Giniana and Thrisca today."
"Giniana's character naturally commands loyalty," Klay said, and had her flushing.
"Yes, like attracts like." T'Spindle leaned down and offered her what she knew as his most winsome smile. "I'd like to—ah—observe the treatment."
Giniana blinked. He'd been right in his scolding of her, sincere in his claiming of her and Thrisca as dependents and wishing to help them, when it cost him little, but her so much. But his words emphasized the fact that he was, as all FirstFamily Lords and Ladies were, nearly insatiably inquisitive. She didn't know how many of those people had witnessed such an experiment, but had no doubt in her mind that there weren't many. T'Spindle would be one of a few who could tell others precisely what went on in this new procedure.
A trickle of relief wound through her. "D'Willow knows you paid for the experiment," Giniana murmured. "You're welcome to watch in the observation room with me."
"My thanks."
"And you don't have to take us through our preliminaries with D'Ash. We can meet you there."
He grinned, something she'd rarely seen. "Thank you!" He glanced at his wrist timer. "I will be at D'Willow's Time workshop a half septhour before the experiment."
He inclined his head, but his blazer-like gray gaze latched onto hers. "You will be all right until then?"
Of course, Thrisca said smoothly, then spoiled it with a long and hacking cough that twisted Giniana's insides.
Melis licked her.
Klay looked back at the FamCat … their FamCat. "You all right? You need me to initiate emergency mode for the drive to Animal Healer D'Ash?"
I love D'Ash, but she cannot Heal Me, Thrisca stated pragmatically. She can only examine.
"But can she relieve your cough?"
"Not today," Giniana answered for her Fam. "No medications or Healing or anything. I don't know why." She glanced up at T'Spindle. "I’ll see you later."
He nodded, "Later then, Giniana, Thrisca, Melis and Johns." The lord teleported away.
"All right, then," Klay said, and pulled the steering bar from the dash, carefully took the crystal spear from atop the dashboard. As his fingers moved over the stone, slipped it into the pouch, his emotional bond pulsed with fervent delight and Giniana finally relaxed in her seat, drew the door shut, closeting herself in with her family.
They would face the experiment together.
Danith D'Ash scrutinized Thrisca from eartip to tailtip. The animal Healer confirmed Giniana's own conclusions that Thrisca had steadily deteriorated.
Thrisca ignored the diagnosis, but stayed on the examination sponge as it lowered to the ground instead of leaping off it. Then she left the small room with a low and flicking tail showing her annoyance at the whole proceeding.
D'Ash emitted a tiny cough and gave Giniana big eyes from a small, cute woman, asking that she be allowed to observe the time experiment. Not one of her patients had gone through the procedure and she wished to watch.
Giniana gently suggested that the woman make a request of D'Willow, one FirstFamily Lady to another and was told that D'Willow had already refused such an inquiry.
Since Giniana and Thrisca were only allowed one "guest" to observe, Giniana reluctantly refused the woman, but said she'd keep her in mind if she heard of an opportunity through Healing Circles. She already struggled with the notion that T'Spindle would be accompanying her instead of Klay.
They drove to the estate where D'Willow practiced her time experiments craft. Not the newly rebuilt D'Thyme Residence on the edge of Noble Country, and, of course, not T'Willow's FirstFamily estate, but a third workshop and laboratory the Lady had set up for herself. This place sat in a northern central area of Druida City, mostly deserted. In the first decades after landing, the colonists had built Druida City with the great machines they'd brought from Earth, expecting their descendants to fill the walled city, then overflow in large numbers to civilize the planet itself.
What with disease, sterility, and low birth rate, that hadn't happened. Many of those buildings yet stood, some crumbled and had been knocked down, though not much had taken their place.
At the place D'Willow used as her laboratory, workshop and treatment room, they piled out of Klay's glider. The building looked like a regular house, not a space for scientific experiments.
When they entered the small lobby, relief filtered through Giniana. Everyone who'd signed up for the Time Healing Procedure had shown up. Her share of gilt would have been sufficient. Most of the people in the room didn't sit, but lined up in front of double doors that led into the former mainspace now bisected into the narrow-width observation room with a half-wall of glass, and the main treatment chamber.
Klay glanced at his wrist timer, but Giniana knew they'd arrived in good time. Palli, D'Willow's personal assistant, met them with a frown in the front room. She held a tablet.
T'Spindle rose as they came in,
"You have too many observers," Palli snapped. "Three people and one FamCat are too many beings. You are only allowed one person if a Fam is a client—" Palli pointed to Giniana, "and that's you. And you are allowed an additional observer. You have two others." She sniffed.
Thrisca sniffed in turn, more wetly. She nosed Melis kitten. This is not an observer or a FamCat. This is My kitten. She does not count.
Giniana stated. "Only I and Melis, whom I will hold, and FirstFamily GrandLord T'Spindle will be observing."
"I'll be waiting here," Klay said smoothly. He smiled at Palli. "Giniana has many friends who wish to support her. I'd imagine that she could fill the observation area. As it was, we refused FirstFamily GreatLady Danith D'Ash. We are following your rules, and Melis will not take up any space."
Palli stared at Klay. "Oh," she breathed out, completely focused on Klay, her face softening into an expression never aimed at Giniana. The woman remained distracted until the doors opened to the next room, revealing the half-glass wall, and the space beyond where the Healing would take place.
Everyone began to file into the next room, including T'Spindle who cast them a wicked smile. Giniana bent a
nd picked up Melis, held the little being, and stated, "My guest, T'Spindle, has already taken a place at the window." In the center of the window, of course, where he'd obtain the best view. As the highest status person in the building, including D'Willow, no one would dispute his choice position.
Thrisca glided slowly and elegantly through the doors, then the far door to the experimental chamber itself.
Palli jerked from her trance, scowled. and made ticks and comments on her tablet, hurrying into the other room.
Once Giniana reached the threshold, she glanced back at Klay, who remained standing with a few others in the lobby. To her surprise, Palli did not shut the doors as usual, and the additional relatives gathered in the opening to see what they could.
Naturally, a space along the window next to T'Spindle gapped, and Giniana stopped there. She folded her arms so Melis could lie on the shelf of them and the GrandLord shifted toward her, enveloping her in his aura filled with energy, Flair and upbeat attitude. She relaxed every muscle and watched the five people lower themselves to the spongy floor. D'Willow herself helped them. No one else went into the room.
Silence hung, tense and dreadful, with tiny sparks of hope firing through the atmosphere and fading.
Thrisca sat in the middle of the floor, surrounded by a few people sitting, a few lying near her.
Then the door clanged shut.
No one in the observation room moved, all gazes focused on their loved ones participating in the time Healing treatment.
Giniana watched, too, wondering if there would be much to see.
A brilliant rainbow-colored fog flowed through the room, and she gasped along with everyone else. Billows of the stuff—time itself? only D'Willow knew—thickened and thinned, gathered and dissipated, revealing portions of the chamber and the people inside.
Lightning flashed, blue-white forks zipping up and down the walls, chained throughout the room, but no thunder sounded.
Script of the Heart Page 29