It had seemed a sound idea at the time, but he could not say that the effort was going that well. Thoughts of Leez dogged him throughout the day, and even though he rarely caught more than a glimpse of her, or exchanged more than a few words with her in a handful of days, he was excruciatingly aware of her presence in his house. Her enticing scent seemed to linger in the air to tease him from the moment he entered the house until he left it. Everywhere he looked, he saw the signs that said they lived together--and yet didn’t--things that had been moved, water droplets in the shower from her bath, the smell of food she’d cooked.
He stepped in the hole before he even realized there was a trap waiting for him in his own front yard. The drop was only a few inches, but in his abstraction it was enough to throw him off balance and it was only by luck that he managed to keep from sprawling headlong in the yard.
When he’d caught his balance, he looked down at his feet. Sure enough, the walking stone was gone. Glancing around now, Ja-rael saw that the entire yard had been desecrated. He muttered a string of oaths beneath his breath, feeling his weariness and depression instantly transformed into anger.
She’d destroyed his carefully maintained yard!
She’d done it for spite. He knew that right away.
Spoiling for a fight, he stalked up the steps and slammed into the house. He was both surprised and more than a little disconcerted when he discovered that Leez was not waiting for him, a satisfied smile teasing the corners of her lips. Thwarted of an immediate target for his temper, he paused in the doorway, listening acutely to the sounds of the house. Her scent lingered in the air as always, but there was no sound to indicate her presence.
Closing the door with less violence than he’d used to open it, he moved from room to room and finally paused at the bedroom door. It was closed. It was always closed, a constant reminder that he was not welcome even if he so far forgot himself and his position as to cross the line he’d drawn for himself.
Grinding his teeth, he pushed the door open.
She was sprawled on the bed, apparently dead to the world. He studied her suspiciously for several moments, certain she was only pretending to be asleep. He could see nothing to substantiate the suspicion, however. There was no sign of tension at all. Her breathing was slow and even.
Contrarily, that pissed him off more. She’d not only destroyed his yard, she’d come in and gone to bed as if she was completely innocent of anything at all!
Uttering a low growl of frustration, he stalked to the side of the bed.
“What have you done to the yard?”
Jerked awake by the sound of his voice, Elise cracked one bleary eye at him. “I’m redoing it,” she muttered.
That calm announcement deprived Ja-rael of words for several moments, but it also gave him time to consider if he hadn’t been a little hasty in his immediate conclusion. She was obviously worn out from the effort of destroying the yard, but he couldn’t see anything in what she’d said or her attitude to indicate that she’d deliberately caused mayhem to annoy him. The reflection didn’t make him any less angry, but it made him more cautious. “I almost broke my neck in the hole you left where the walking stones used to be.”
“Sorry,” she muttered without much contrition and rolled over. “Fix it tomorrow.”
Ja-rael stood over her, staring down at her angrily, but feeling a surge of satisfaction, as well. She did want a fight! She’d willfully destroyed the yard and now expected him to take time off from his patients to repair the damage? He didn’t think so! She’d done it. She could repair it! “I have to see a patient in the morning,” he said finally.
“I’d never have guessed it. I’ll fix it.”
He was almost disappointed at the response. It completely took the wind out of his sails and left him no where to go with the fight he’d been spoiling for. He looked her over, assessing, considering whether to pursue the argument anyway. It was a lapse in judgment. He saw that when she rolled over the loose robe she was sleeping in, exposing one shoulder and a breast right down to the pink nipples that fascinated him. His throat went dry. His mind went blank.
Abruptly, he whirled on his heel and retreated.
* * * *
The following morning Elise dragged herself out of bed and staggered into the facilities. The thing she loved most about the little house that was Ja-rael’s was that the bathing facilities were the most wonderful she’d ever in her life experienced. Even before they’d left Earth, water had been a problem. Purifying the water supply was so expensive, and so absolutely essential, that bathing with it had been outlawed most of her life. Even the oldest of homes had been outfitted with particle showers and for those who remembered bathing in water, it was a piss poor substitute.
Ja-rael’s house--she supposed all homes on Meeri--was equipped with a purifying system far superior to anything she’d ever known and recycled the cleaned water through the house over and over without wasting more than a few drops. She could take a shower as long as she wanted--which she frequently did.
When she’d finished, she went into her second favorite room--the cooking area--which was also technologically superior to anything she’d ever seen. There she made herself a cup of what she liked to pretend was coffee--she’d been pretending she had coffee so long that she couldn’t even remember what it actually tasted like--and then went outside to sit on the stoop and sip it while she surveyed her handiwork.
Several of her neighbors were standing at the edge of the yard gaping at it when she arrived. She waved at them gaily and sat down anyway.
Embarrassed at being caught gawking, they moved on with their offspring.
She couldn’t say that she blamed them. The yard looked like hell--like there’d been a major battle. Briefly, she felt guilty about it, but she dismissed it. When she was done it would look fine. And then she would start on the backyard.
She’d just taken a sip of her hot drink when a memory that had been floating hazily around in her brain finally solidified. She choked, coughing for several moments before she managed to bring up the liquid that had gone down the wrong way.
Ja-rael had woken her the night before about the yard.
A faint smile curled her lips and she sat pondering the situation for a while. She hadn’t really considered when she’d been doing it that Ja-rael might object, or that it would be something to get his attention. She’d just needed to do something.
Maybe, instead of wasting so much time trying to think of some subtle way to waylay Ja-rael when he came in at night, all she really needed to do was make it impossible for him to forget her presence?
She suffered a qualm or two over the idea. He’d told her she was a guest, and what she had in mind--what she’d done already--was not the sort of thing a guest should consider if they wanted to remain welcome.
He’d said before, though, that she was his mate. He’d insisted on it, in fact, in spite of her protests. He couldn’t undo that, could he?
And, if she was his mate, then she had as much right to decorate as he did, didn’t she?
She studied the butchered yard for several moments and finally decided she did.
Setting her cup aside, she went into the yard to decide how she wanted to arrange the stepping stones that led from the road to the house. Every single residence around the green had virtually identical yards. Everything was absolutely symmetrical. The walk divided the yard in half and went straight up to the stoop. Nothing but the grasses they used for their lawns broke the monotony and the grass was a monotony in and of itself.
She decided a curving walk would be much more pleasing. It might not be quite as efficient since it would take a few more steps to reach the stoop, but what difference did that make when it would be prettier?
First though, she decided she needed plants, flowering plants. She knocked on three doors before one opened to her. She smiled at her neighbor, cast around in her mind for a name and came up blank.
“Hello! I’m Elise, Ja-rael’s
… mate. We met when I arrived?”
The female smiled back. “Yes. I am Kloe. May I help you?”
“Actually, I was hoping you could. I want plants for our yard.”
Kloe blinked several times. “Plants?”
“Yes. To make it pretty.”
Kloe frowned. “The grasses have died?”
Elise chuckled. “Not yet. I just dug it up. I want flowering plants.”
“Oh.”
She sounded more confused that enlightened, but Elise supposed that was because none of the houses on the green had them. “My people use them to decorate.”
The female nodded as if that explained everything, but she still looked confused. “We don’t.”
Elise smiled with an effort. “But I do. I don’t suppose you have any idea where I could get some--plants, I mean?”
“The forest?” Kloe said doubtfully.
“Not at the market?” Elise countered, feeling disappointment overshadowing her enthusiasm.
“We go on Cincing. You can go with us tomorrow and look,” Kloe offered.
It seemed doubtful she would find what she wanted there, but Elise thanked her and, after asking what time they would be going the following day, returned and set to work on the walk way. She was exhausted by the time she’d managed to shift the heavy stones to form the pattern she wanted, far too tired to consider doing anything else and it was growing too dark to work outside anyway.
As tired as she was, she still felt better than she had in a very long time, more content and light hearted. Brushing as much of the dirt and grass off as she could, she headed inside and soaked until her skin had pruned and she’d removed every speck of soil from beneath her nails. When she’d finished her solitary meal, she went into the living area and looked around until she found the writer, which was actually very similar to those designed by Earth technology, and sat down to play with it until she decided she had the hang of it. She was still trying to decide which layout she liked best when she heard the door open and then close.
Glancing up, she saw that Ja-rael was standing in the doorway. Smiling at him absently, she returned her attention to the writer.
“You said that you would repair the damage to the yard.”
“I did,” she said without looking up.
“There are holes.”
“Oh. Sorry. I didn’t get around to filling them in. Tomorrow--wait, maybe not. I’m going to the market tomorrow with Kloe and some of the others.”
She could feel his gaze on her and after several moments she set the writer aside and got up, stretching to relieve her cramped muscles. A wave of warmth flowed over her, followed by that chemical scent that made everything inside of her clench. With an effort, she pretended she hadn’t noticed. “Sorry. Guess you’re ready for bed. I’ll just take this in my room.”
Grabbing the tablet up, she strolled past him without a glance and down the hallway. The faint dizziness had passed by the time she closed the door behind her, but the craving hadn’t. It destroyed any hope of concentrating on anything else. Finally, she set the tablet aside, commanded the lights off and climbed into bed. Sleep was slow to come, though, because she imagined she could still feel Ja-rael’s desire.
The following morning, Elise took her tablet and her ‘coffee’ out to the stoop and sat down to study her plans and her progress on the yard. She was pleased that the walk looked far better even than she’d realized the evening before--maybe the stones weren’t entirely level but it shouldn’t take much to remedy that--and she wondered if she could find some sort of small plants to border the edges--perhaps taller grasses?
The females were chattering almost excitedly when she joined them mid-morning. She assumed it was because of the trip to market--sad thing when a trip to buy food was the highlight of the week--but since the chattering stopped abruptly at her approach she revised that assumption.
They’d been talking about her.
Smiling with an effort, she greeted Kloe. Kloe re-introduced her to the others--Sinata, mate to Timus, who lived across the green from Ja-rael and owned a house twice as large, and Ania, mate to Mazel, who owned a larger house still. The females seemed friendly enough--in a snotty superior sort of way.
“Zelia usually goes with us, but her mate, Clautz, has taken her away for a few days,” Kloe added as they turned and began to follow the road toward the heart of the city.
“I know. Clautz told me. Ja-rael was supposed to check on their … uh … newborn.”
The females exchanged a look. “Clautz told you?”
Elise gave her a look, firmly tamping the irritation that surfaced. “He left the message for Ja-rael. Whose glider are we taking?” she added, changing the subject abruptly.
The reaction to that question only irritated her further. Kloe merely gaped at her. Ania and Sinata snickered. “Do the maned lioness’ use their mate’s gliders?”
Elise opened her mouth to demand to know why the gliders would be exclusively for the use of the males and then shut it again as it occurred to her that she was going to have to live around these females a long time--even if Ja-rael took her home, longer if she had her way. “You mean you don’t?” she countered.
“Oh! I couldn’t possibly….”
“I’d be terrified even to try it!”
“This is so very strange! Do the females do all of the work?”
“Why would you ask that?” Elise demanded, irritated in spite of every effort to remain civil.
Sinata gestured toward the yard as they passed it. “You were seen.”
Else frowned. “And?”
The females exchanged glances. Sinata sniffed. “We are far too delicate for such labor. Males have the strength to do such things.”
Elise gave Sinata a once over and refrained from pointing out that a little exercise wouldn’t do her any harm.
“Ja-rael claimed your bride price was thirty zihnars. Is it true?”
Elise fixed the female called Ania with a hard look. “Are you suggesting he lied?”
Ania turned red, made several aborted attempts at speak and subsided into silence.
“You mustn’t mind Ania,” Kloe said soothingly. “She doesn’t mean to be rude. She just can’t seem to help herself.”
Ania sent Kloe a look that was part embarrassment, part resentment. “I beg pardon. I didn’t mean to insult you. It’s only--well it is so huge a bride price. And no one I know commanded such a price--And Ja-rael is a healer, after all.”
“Meaning?”
Kloe shrugged, drawing Elise’s attention from the stammering Ania. “Healers forgo wealth in the pursuit of their calling, for they must heal any in need and, unfortunately, the poor are more in need. He is a very good male, and we are blessed to have him--so you must not think we mean to insult him. Undoubtedly, he is also a very skilled trapper to have managed to capture so many of such a rare beast.”
Or desperate.
Elise hadn’t really given much consideration to that particular custom, aside from being insulted about Ja-rael’s assumption that he could buy her. She glanced back at the little house nestled between two far larger homes. It was, in fact, the smallest of all the homes on the green.
But it wasn’t like he’d needed a lot of room. He had no family. Until she’d arrived, he’d lived there alone.
And it was a very nice little house.
She could tell they felt very superior about having larger houses, though.
Ja-rael didn’t seem to mind that he had fewer and less elegant possessions than his neighbors. He seemed devoted to his practice, devoted to his patients.
Except that he’d wanted a mate so desperately that he’d been willing to risk being jailed for trafficking with Torrines in order to raise the money for a bride price.
The thought dulled her enjoyment of the unaccustomed treat of an outing.
Chapter Twenty Two
Elise had just stopped before yet another stall in the market place when she felt an unmistakable tug on
her hair. It didn’t hurt. In fact, it was almost unnoticeable, but she had felt a similar touch at least a dozen times in the hour they’d been wandering around the market. Even though it didn’t hurt, that time she turned to glare at whoever had sneaked a surreptitious feel. Ania snatched her hand back guilty.
“I beg your pardon. It’s just---is it hot?”
Elise frowned in confusion. “Because it’s red, you mean?”
Ania looked equally confused. “Not the color. It covers your head and neck and then grows down your back and it does not appear to be light like the clothing we wear. I thought it must keep you warm.”
Elise couldn’t help but be indignant. “It does not grow down my neck and back!” She lifted the hair to show Ania that it was only attached at her scalp.
Ania stared at the fall of hair in awe. “It grows so long!”
Elise smiled wryly. “And fast. If I don’t cut it soon it’ll be down to my ass.”
“You mean it just keeps growing?” Ania asked disbelievingly.
“Of course….” Elise broke off. Ania wouldn’t know. None of them would. She was the only ‘maned lioness’ any of them had ever seen. “Yes. But it isn’t as heavy as it looks and it doesn’t make me hot--at least most of the time it doesn’t.” She lifted a lock of hair and allowed Ania to examine it.
Eagerly, Ania grasped the strands of hair, rubbing it between her fingers and then stroking it. “It’s so soft!” she said in a breathless voice. “It’s beautiful. I do wish--but envy is an ugly thing. My pardon. You must be very proud of it?”
Elise chuckled and finally shrugged. “To tell you the truth I never liked the color much. I always wished it was sleek and black and silky--like my mother’s.”
The young female gaped at her. “There are many colors? But--would that not look strange? It would not match the hide, surely?”
Elise burst out laughing. “The … uh … hide comes in many colors, too.”
Ania’s look was disbelieving, but she chuckled, as well. “Now you are teasing me.”
Elise shook her head. “I’m not. I swear.”
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