“Over forty winters.” Reena nodded and sipped her coffee. “You spiked this with Gothman wine.”
“Just to take the edge off.”
“You thought it would get me blabbing.”
“You have secrets?”
Reena laughed. “At my age? We have plenty of secrets.”
“I guess that’s true. I’m thinking of Tara.”
“Is there a problem? Lord Darius hasn’t sent her packing.”
Hilda nodded. “She has been here longer than any other girl I’ve brought to him. But Reena, she’d rather play in the hills with Torgo than sew, or clean. She can’t cook. And you won’t believe it, but my son took her riding on his motorcycle, of all things. That girl was glowing when she came back.”
Reena went white as a ghost and almost dropped her cup on the table between them. Hilda was finally getting through to her friend. Maybe now she’d get some answers.
“When did he take her on his motorcycle?”
“A good half-cycle ago. Ah, yes. It was her first day here. Reena, no Gothman girl would enjoy such a thing. It’s not proper,” Hilda stressed. “Tell me why is she like this?”
“A half cycle? Yet she’s inside cleaning. Why are you complaining?”
“It’s the only thing she does know how to do,” Hilda muttered.
Reena pushed away from the table. “I’m going to go see my niece,” she said, and hurried toward the house.
“Reena!” Hilda called after her, but her old friend just moved faster.
Hilda huffed, more convinced than ever that something wasn’t quite right.
“Remember you said we would hike along the creek today.” Torgo leaned against the doorway, watching Tara put fresh sheets on his brother’s bed.
“I remember.” Tara grabbed the large comforter fr om the floor and threw it on to the bed. She wondered how many women the lord had brought to this bed. Her stomach tightened at the thought and she turned her attention to Torgo. “If I suggest something, promise you’ll keep it a secret?”
Torgo’s gray eyes– eyes just like his brothers- grew wide and he grinned. “Of course I can keep a secret. What is it?”
Tara glanced into the hallway. No one else was upstairs.
“It would be a lot easier to take a hike along the creek if I had some pants. Your mama is resting, and your brother isn’t here. If you have a pair I could borrow, it would also keep my dress from getting dirty.”
Torgo almost leapt for the hallway. He stopped in the doorway and turned to face Tara. “I’m sure I have pants for you,” he whispered. “And you’re right about your dress. Mama would have a fit if you got all messy. We can’t have that.”
“No, we can’t.” Tara grinned as the boy hurried to his bedroom.
The pants Torgo offered fit her well enough with a belt. She observed herself for only a moment in the mirror in her bedroom before joining Torgo in the hall. Halfway down the stairs however, Tara stopped and Torgo ran into her backside. Darius stood talking to two of his guards in the living room.
Tara mentally chastised herself for not hearing them enter the house. She motioned with her hand and the two of them backed up the stairs. Tara cringed with every noisy footstep Torgo made. “Let’s try the other staircase,” Tara whispered and pointed toward the back of the house where the servant’s staircase led to the kitchen.
They made it to the kitchen, and Tara reached for the doorknob on the back door, when a sound alerted her already heightened senses. She pushed Torgo behind her, as she turned and faced one of Lord Darius’ guards.
“My lord,” the guard called, and at the same time pulled his oversized Gothman bang stick on Tara.
“What are you doing, man?” Darius frowned as he pushed past the guard and spotted Tara and Torgo. “Put that away. Now!”
“But my lord, we have her in pants now. I daresay that says a lot.”
“It tells me nothing,” Darius’ voice boomed. “Out with you and your man. I will meet with you in a moment.”
Tara heard the front door open and close, but kept her gaze pinned on Darius’ large backside. Muscles twitched under his shirt, which stretched against his broad shoulders. Large and dangerous. Her heart fluttered, missing a beat while she worked to keep her expression relaxed.
Darius turned and cocked his head as he studied Tara. “I do believe I like you better in dresses.”
“The pants are mine, Darius.” Torgo stepped around Tara. “She didn’t want to upset mama by messing up her dress.”
Tara rested a hand on Torgo’s shoulder and smiled. She felt him tremble but he stood tall and faced his brother. Tara was proud of him. “It’s okay, Torgo. We’ve done nothing wrong.”
“I’m thinking I will be the judge of that,” Darius scolded. “Where is it that you are going dressed like this?”
“Torgo and I are going hiking along the creek.” Tara worked to focus her thoughts on something other than the virile man studying her. She risked suspicion and needed to put any questions to rest. “I thought it would be nice to give Hilda some peace and quiet while she rested.”
“I see.” Darius sighed and waved a hand.
Torgo took that as a dismissal and pulled the door open before his plans were cancelled. Tara turned to follow the boy who already ran across the backyard.
Darius grabbed her jaw before she turned from him. He cupped the top of her neck and turned her to face him. Without a word, his mouth covered hers.
She gasped at the heat from his lips as her mouth opened to return the kiss. Her fingers eagerly slid under his leather jacket and traced the strong chest muscles under his shirt. Pressure mounted between her legs and made her knees wobbly. She felt herself getting wet. Tara grabbed his shirt and held on.
“Be back within the hour, or I will be looking for you myself,” Darius whispered. “And, my lady, no one else will see you dressed like that. Cross me on this and I’ll see to your punishment myself.”
Tara wanted to make him hunt for her, but she would be with Torgo so she pushed that fantasy to the side. As for anyone seeing her teach Torgo how to be a warrior—well she was in full agreement they not be spotted. He released her jaw, and let his hand slide to the nape of her neck. She let go of his shirt and let out a jagged sigh.
Darius turned her toward the door, let go of her, but then gave her a quick swat on her rear end. “Be careful now, my lady.”
“I’m always careful, my lord,” she said, managing to keep her voice steady. She hurried to catch up with Torgo, but turned to give Darius a delighted smile. The kiss was awesome. The slight sting on her ass made her crave him even more. And she was so much more comfortable in pants. “You have nothing to worry about. We will be fine.”
Tara scrubbed windows the following morning and watched Darius secure a leather bag to the side of his bike. She still ached from waiting for him to seek her out the day before. But apparently the Lord of Gothman had many other responsibilities besides hunting her down. He was gone when she and Torgo returned to the house and hadn’t returned until the early morning hours.
Finally, she had all the cleaning she could take and threw her rag to the floor. Tara marched through the house to the back door. After their kiss the day before, she knew he was still interested. She saw no problem with saying hello. Unfortunately, Hilda came down the stairs at that moment.
“I must say, you do make my old house sparkle.” She smiled at Tara. “Have you cleaned most of the windows?”
“No, my lady, I’ve gotten as far as the living room and dining room.” Tara stopped and leaned back to inspect her work. She hadn’t cleaned many windows in her life, but this was the second time in almost a cycle that she’d wiped down these windows. They didn’t look like they needed any more cleaning to her. “I’m glad my work pleases you.”
“You’re still here and that pleases me more than your work. But, I’ll be needing you to take a break for now. I have a list of things I need from the grocery. The windows can wait ‘til yo
u get back.” Hilda handed the list to Tara along with the keys to her groundmobile. “I’d go myself but my head hurts this morning. Be sure and get all the news from Thelga.”
Tara returned the cleaning supplies to the pantry and paused to look longingly out the back door at Lord Darius. Several of his guards joined him and she watched them for a moment. They seemed to be in a rather serious discussion, and she was curious what they were saying. Hilda’s groundmobile was parked out front, and Tara had no reason to leave through the back door in order to hear their conversation.
Their voices grew louder, and the guard who had attacked Tara was telling the rest of them something. Whatever he said upset Lord Darius, and he lunged at the man. The man backed down but continued to grumble. Tara simply couldn’t make out what they were arguing about, even when she went to the back door and put her ear to it. She finally turned and headed out the front door to the groundmobile.
The argument between Darius and his guards proved a good distraction, so no one noticed Tara teach herself how to drive Hilda’s vehicle. It was newer looking than Reena’s. The exterior was a puffy blue and the interior seats were overstuffed and covered with smooth, highly polished seats. It had very large windows and wouldn’t suit at all to ride into battle. Granted, with it being Hilda’s groundmobile, that wasn’t likely to ever happen.
Tara had read about groundmobiles on her landlink, and she knew the mechanics of them, but driving one proved a slight challenge. The groundmobile lunged forward, and the engine lurched to a stop. Tara killed the motor several more times before she was able to make the small contraption move slowly along the road.
Bryton was lively with people going in and out of different shops. Children and dogs ran up and down the sidewalk, and women and older girls gathered here and there catching up on the latest gossip. Tara parked the groundmobile in front of the grocery store and smiled politely at four women standing outside. They smiled back but then returned to their conversation with more excitement than ever. She heard them say her name but didn’t bother trying to overhear what they said. She was sure gossip would spread about her living in Lord Darius’ house.
“Ah, good morning to you, girl.” Thelga smiled broadly as Tara entered the store.
“And a good morning to you.” Tara smiled in return and picked up a basket from the door.
“It’s quite an honor you have done your old aunt, being claimed by his lordship, and all.” Thelga clucked. “And you only being in our town for such a short time.”
Tara grabbed her basket again to keep from dropping it. She looked at the old lady, stunned. “What are you saying?” Tara couldn’t do more than whisper. “I have not been claimed by anyone.”
“Oh, do you say, maybe you haven’t been told. I’m sure I’m right. It was my claim who told me. He heard from the lord’s guards.” Thelga leaned on the counter and her eyes twinkled, knowing she got to be the first to share the news. “It happened this way to my granddaughter, too. She was claimed, and the men folk had such a merry party over it they forgot to tell her.” Thelga laughed at the thought. “I know for a fact there isn’t a prettier girl in town than you. I’m not the least bit surprised, to be honest.” Thelga saw the look of shock on Tara’s face and was trying to be reassuring. She reached over the counter and squeezed Tara’s arm with her rough fingers. “There isn’t a life a girl could ask for as nice as the one you’ll have. Your sons’ll be lords.”
Tara was so surprised by what she’d just heard that she turned to walk back out of the store.
“Ah, my lady, your list?”
“Oh, yes…here it is.” Tara handed the list to Thelga, then just stood there. She wanted to give Thelga the third degree and find out every bit of information she knew about this claiming. A guard had told her claim? When had Thelga heard this? How long had she known? Tara kept her mouth closed however and stood awkwardly in the middle of the store while a young errand boy took the list and ran through the store gathering the items.
Two young women not much older than Tara entered the store and smiled politely at her. They moved over to the produce, and Tara heard their conversation easily.
“My mama took a pie to her aunt the other day. The old lady said it was what they’d planned all along.”
“I daresay she wasn’t in town but a day when the lord claimed her. Imagine the likes, all of us having our hopes so high for so long. She comes along so merrily like, and he claims her right off.”
“Yeah, and I heard she can’t cook. She apparently is only good at one thing.” The two girls laughed, then noticing Tara overheard them, started whispering.
Tara’s blood boiled. This was too much. Hearing that Reena had planned her claiming all along put Tara into a rage. Was it true Darius had claimed her before she’d even gone to live in the house? The only time he’d seen her prior to that was in the alley when she’d kept Torgo out of that fight. Did Reena know at that point and Hilda, too? The entire town seemed to know this casual bit of information and somehow had overlooked sharing it with her.
The young errand boy brought the basket to the counter with the items from the list. Thelga arranged the items in a brown box with no lid and smiled at Tara.
“Don’t you worry yourself none about the comments of girls such as those.” Thelga didn’t move her lips when she whispered. “They’ve all tried for the lord and failed. They’re jealous of you. You hold your head high. You should be proud. You are a lady.”
“You’re right and thank you.” Tara left the store and walked to the groundmobile.
Her eyes burned with angry tears as she drove back to Lord Darius’ house. Her hands shook and Hilda’s vehicle died so many times that Tara wanted to pull the circular handlebar off the dash and hurl it out the oversized window. She remembered Reena calling it a steering wheel but at that moment she didn’t care.
Darius had asked her about being claimed when they’d driven into the hills together. Had he already claimed her by then? Was that why she was sent to his home to live?
Tara remembered watching him from her bedroom window her first day there. Darius had raced over the hills to get home. Now she knew why he had hurried home that morning almost a cycle ago. She had been made to believe she was hired help. Apparently the joke was on her.
She drove the groundmobile up the hill to the house with enough force that the tires skidded on the gravel road. Grabbing the box of groceries, Tara ran into the house. A piece of fruit fell out of the box and rolled across the floor. Tara didn’t care. She tried not to sneeze when an array of fragrances from the spices Hilda had asked for drifted to her nose. Darius was in the living room with his guards, and she stormed past them into the kitchen.
“I don’t see why you don’t listen to reason, my lord,” the large guard who’d attacked her growled loud enough for her to hear.
“Judo, the reasoning isn’t sound. Not another word.” Darius’ growl chilled her blood. “And Mikel, my mind is made up.”
“What’s wrong with you? Why won’t you listen when it comes to that lass?” Mikel, Lord Darius’ younger brother, shouted.
“I said I was done discussing this.” Darius used a tone Tara hadn’t heard before. He spoke softly but there was a cold edge clipping each word.
“Your brain isn’t doing your thinking for you, my lord. We found the bike, and you yourself have commented on her abilities. Her thighs are wrapped around you so tight you can’t see the truth. She’s your Runner! You’ve let her into this house, and now she’ll bring down Gothman.” Mikel sounded just as pissed. “Our papa would be disgraced if he knew what you were doing.”
“That’s enough!” Darius roared.
Tara shook with anger. She wasn’t going to do anything to Gothman and she sure wasn’t going to be anyone’s claim.
Tara fought to clear her head. Right now she needed to think and not worry about a claim that had no bearing on her anyway. It was foolish being upset by it when she had bigger problems on her hands. Darius’ m
en knew her true identity. And from the sound of it, wanted her taken down. Yet Darius hesitated. She only pondered for a moment that he hesitated because of a mutual attraction. Darius ruled a very powerful nation. His hesitation might be for other reasons. Tara needed to think straight if she were going to second guess his thinking.
How many men were in the living room? Three or four? Her first course of action needed to be how to take them all on and escape the house to her bike.
The front door slammed, and the house grew quiet.
Had they all left? Where was Hilda and the other servants? Tara needed time to think. In the past, when her temper threatened to get the best of her she’d take off on her motorcycle and drive until she calmed down. When that wasn’t possible, she’d pick a fight with someone in her clan until she’d released all her anger on her poor victim.
The house was still quiet. Tara wandered out of the kitchen.
The living room was empty. She headed upstairs. Hilda must have been asleep in her room, or at least resting. Tara wasn’t sure how anyone might sleep through the yelling match that had just occurred in the living room. If Hilda had overheard, she might now be fearful that she had a Runner in her home.
There wasn’t time to worry about that right now.
She stepped quietly past the closed doors to her bedroom. The balcony seemed the only likely spot to sort through all her thoughts and make a plan of action.
Her smartest move was to leave Gothman and put as much distance between her and this nation as possible. Oddly enough, it also sounded wise to stay. “Why would he hesitate?” she murmured to herself. Maybe the Lord of Gothman saw that Runners weren’t his enemy. If that were the case, she might ruin potential communication between her people and his.
“Tara, you’re back. Will you come down? I’ve waited for you forever.” Torgo stood in the yard looking up to her. He smiled and waved. “Hurry, I have a surprise. Put on a pair of my pants if you want. But hurry.”
“Alright, boy. Calm down. I’ll come down.” Tara went to Torgo’s room and found a pair of his pants. If she needed to hurry to her bike for any reason, it would be easier to escape wearing pants instead of the impractical dresses she wore every day.
Nuworld: Claiming Tara Page 10