B00CH3ARG0 EBOK
Page 25
“Oh.”
“I hoped to ... spare your feelings, as you put it.”
She nodded and studied her food, taking deep breaths. “I thought it didn’t matter how I felt about it.”
His hand curled over hers. “Of course it matters, beloved. I cannot change our ways, but I will do what is in my power to ease your adjustment to them.”
Beside her, Laura cleared her throat.
“When I get home, the Paran and I are going to have a talk,” she said. “He never mentioned this.”
Marianne hiccupped a laugh. “Uh oh. Batten down the hatches.”
“Perhaps he has not received a request during your time with him,” the Sural said.
Laura threw him a sidelong look. “Maybe. Maybe not. But he still has some explaining to do.”
“He can no more deny all requests than can I.”
She pursed her lips and turned in her chair toward him. “I won’t make the Paran’s life difficult if he has to be with other women, but he’d better tell me when it has to happen. I won’t live with him sneaking out on me.”
The Sural nodded. “He will agree to that.”
Marianne cocked her head and blinked at him.
He shrugged a shoulder. “It is a reasonable request.”
“God,” she breathed. “What have I gotten myself into?”
“A new home,” Laura said, her voice soft. “One where you will always be loved and cherished and protected.”
Marianne flung her arms around Laura and hugged her close. Her eyes stung. “I’m going to miss you.”
“I’ll miss you too.”
“Do you have to go?” Marianne sighed and pulled away.
“I miss my Paran.”
Marianne sniffled. “I’m not the only one who found a new home.”
“Maybe next time ... you will be the one visiting, and I’ll be the one with a new baby.”
“Really?”
Laura nodded and blushed. “I think I’d like to have a little boy who looks just like the Paran. And his daughter has a little boy too – he wouldn’t be too much older. They could grow up as friends. But we’ll see.” She stood. “Don’t see me off. It’s easier if you don’t. I’ll just find the Paranian servant who came with me and go.”
Marianne’s eyes stung again and blurred with tears. “All right,” she said, her throat tight.
Laura went over to Rose, asleep in her nurse’s arms, and gave her a light kiss on each tiny cheek. Then she spun on her heel and headed out the refectory door.
The Sural’s long fingers stroked Marianne’s wrist. “She goes to her happiness.”
“I know.” She looked over at him and wiped away her tears. “Beloved...”
He met her eyes.
“Thank you.”
His smile could have lit a city.
Other Titles by Christie Meierz
The Marann (Tales of Tolari Space #1)
"A beautifully realized story that proves that politically driven space opera and tender love stories do not have to be mutually exclusive." Kirkus Reviews
"For anyone who enjoys tightly written, wonderfully imaginative Science Fiction wrapped with romance, this one is a must!" InDTale Magazine
A story that will appeal to fans of Marion Zimmer Bradley and Zenna Henderson, The Marann recounts one woman's experience on a world where everyone can read her emotions.
Marianne Woolsey is a high school Spanish teacher in rural Iowa, when Earth Central Command decides her linguistic talents would be better exercised if she spent 26 years teaching the daughter and heir of an alien ruler on a planet 24 light years from Earth. Now she's alone on a planet of aliens so humanlike that she has to keep telling herself her student's noble father is just her boss.
Handsome – and deadly – the Sural has ruled his province and led his planet far longer than he can admit to his daughter's human tutor. He hides much more from the space-faring races of the Trade Alliance than he is willing to reveal. What he doesn't want Central Command to know, he has to conceal from Marianne, but Marianne is concealing her own secrets from him – and as an empath, he knows it.
The Marann is a sweet romance. Might not be suitable for young teens.
A portion of the proceeds from The Marann goes to support Warming Hearts, a charity dedicated to providing winter firewood to the poorest of Navaho elders.
Into Tolari Space ~ The First Contact Stories
Free!
Two short stories from the author of The Marann.
First Contact
Earth’s Ambassador to Tolar, Smithton Adler Russell, gets a call in the middle of the night.
Field Work
The ruler of Monralar is ambitious, ruthless, and out to unseat the Sural. Can one laborer put a stop to the Monral’s scheme before Tolar’s advanced technology is exposed to the Trade Alliance?
Great Expectorations
A short story by the author of The Marann.
At the beginning of the 25th century, Cassie Johnson is a debt worker just starting a new life on a new planet. When she finds a pest in the basement of a building she’s inspecting, things change.
About the Author
Christie Meierz was born in Chicago, grew up in Santa Barbara, California, and met her husband at the 1983 WorldCon (World Science Fiction Convention) in Baltimore, Maryland. She now lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with her husband, her youngest son, her piano, and a very sharp oboe. When she’s not writing, she enjoys knitting, quilting, reading, and trying to keep her menfolk from telling the odious puns they relish so much.
If you enjoyed this story, please leave a review in your own words on this book’s sales page. If you want to be the first to know when a new book or story is coming out, you can friend Christie on Facebook, subscribe to her Facebook author page, follow her on Twitter, or read her blog.
Safe journeys to you, dear ones.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Other Titles by Christie Meierz
About the Author
Table of Contents
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Other Books
About the Author
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