The Impatient Lord

by Michelle M. Pillow

  Riona glanced at Mirek, unsure how to answer. He never corrected the women when they referred to her as his wife, and by her guess Aeron was the only other person on the room who knew the truth of it.

  “I’m sure she’d love that,” Aeron answered for her.

  Riona weakly nodded. “Yes. Thank you.”

  “I will only let your Coe paint me if he promises to be very kind to my post-pregnancy figure,” Kendall said.

  “I quite enjoy your figure now,” Alek said.

  “Everything is swollen,” Kendall told him. “And I forgot if I have feet. They hurt so they must be there.” She turned her head on his shoulder without bothering to lift it as she looked at Clara. “Do I still have feet?”

  “Yes,” Clara answered dutifully. “And they do not look swollen.”

  “You are a wonderful liar.” Kendall smiled.

  Riona looked at her feet and wiggled her toes.

  “You will be beautiful when you’re pregnant, Ri,” Clara said. “May I call you Ri? I feel like I know you after how much Aeron has spoken of you.”

  “Call me whatever you like,” Riona said, uncomfortable with the turn of the conversation.

  “Quit trying to up the baby count,” Kendall scolded, unintentionally saving Riona from answering. “We are not having thirty kids each to compete with your family back on Redde.”

  Clara pouted her lip. “Twenty-five?”

  Aeron laughed and opened her mouth to answer.

  Bron cut her off. “Can we show them now?” He sounded like an excited child with a new toy.

  Alek and Vlad instantly stood.

  “Oh,” Kendall said as she was forced to standing by her husband’s sudden movements. “Alek, what are you doing?”

  “Come,” Vlad said, reaching a hand to Clara. “We made you a surprise.”

  “For me?” Clara asked.

  “Each of you,” Alek answered.

  “For you and the babies,” Bron said. “In the baby garden.”

  “Baby garden?” Riona asked her sister, confused.

  “He means nursery. Nursery, plants, baby room, garden.” Aeron waved a dismissive hand. “What did you do to the nursery, Bron? We have worked very hard to get them perfect.”

  The men rushed ahead.

  “You each have one,” Alek said proudly.

  Mirek helped Aeron and Clara to their feet as his excited brothers went to the baby room. The women trailed behind their excited men. Riona held back, staying next to Mirek.

  “Oh my stars,” Kendall exclaimed.

  “What is that?” Aeron asked. “And why is it on the floor?”

  “For the nesting,” Alek announced, throwing his arms to the side in a grand gesture. “To help you get ready for the baby. You have all been very, um…”

  “Fluttery,” Vlad supplied.

  “Fluttery?” Kendall arched a brow.

  “I meant crazy,” Vlad corrected, “but in nice way.”

  “Kendall, you took away the knives,” Alek offered as evidence.

  “Clara, you cried over a broken plate,” Vlad added.

  “And you hoarded a tray of chocolate somewhere. I can’t find it,” Bron said.

  Aeron crossed her arms over her chest. “I ate it.”

  “All of it?” Bron blurted in obvious surprise.

  Riona almost felt bad for the men. She waited for the fists to start flying. To her surprise, the women didn’t readily react. Clara covered her mouth with her hand, but Riona saw her shoulders shaking with laughter.

  “Are you judging her?” Kendall demanded.

  “I don’t know what I said. Don’t be mad. I love you,” Bron said quickly to Aeron. “You’re beautiful, my lady, and smart and pretty and we’ll get more. Mirek, you did negotiate for more today, right? There’s going to be more chocolate, right?”

  Mirek chuckled and nodded. “Riona was invaluable today. She assured a quick shipment.”

  Bron sighed in relief. “See, don’t get upset. Every need will be met.”

  Aeron stepped back and firmly grabbed Riona’s arm. Her expression was tight as she tried not to laugh. Under her breath, she managed to say, “They made me a nest.”

  Curious, Aeron lifted on her toes to better see. The nursery was cutely decorated in pale greens and flourishes of gold. A rounded bed had been set up against the wall and stood only a few feet off the floor. Large cage-like bars came from above to surrounded it and keep the baby within. A lever would lift and drop the bars for easy access. Nothing was amiss in that. In fact, the bed looked very expensive. Clara turned and walked from the room toward Aeron. She was having a very hard time not laughing out loud.

  Riona finally saw what the women were looking at. A giant rounded nest had been placed in the middle of the room. Instead of sticks and forest debris, the men had woven a large basket pattern to create the base. Inside, furs were piled.

  “Now, we didn’t want to line the nest with animal carcasses like a baldric, because I know how you like the house to smell nice,” Bron explained. He kneeled by his creation and lifted a fur. “So we used fur instead. But if that’s not right, we can go hunting and fix it.”

  “Please don’t put dead things in the baby’s room,” Aeron managed.

  Bron nodded in agreement.

  “But we put in a secret pocket,” Alek added. He leaned down and pulled at the side. “For the chocolate. That was my idea.”

  “I brought the fur,” Vlad inserted as he went to his wife. Clara smiled at her husband and kissed his cheek.

  “And—” Alek hurried over to the other side the best he could without bothering to stand up. His knees pressed into the floor as he walked on them. “Over here is another secret compartment—” Alek reached in and pulled out a sharp blade, “—for the knives.”

  “Oh, look at that,” Kendall said slowly rubbing her stomach in a protective gesture. “So there is.”

  “Now you don’t have to make a stockpile up high. You will have a nest on the floor where it’s safer,” Alek said.

  “Alek, dear,” Clara said. “You can’t give babies knives.”

  All three fathers-to-be looked confused.

  “They’ll hurt themselves,” Clara said.

  “But…” Bron frowned. “Don’t you want them to be warriors? I remember my parents giving us knives.”

  “I’m guessing you were older,” Aeron said.

  “But—” Alek began.

  “No,” Kendall firmly stated. “No knives for the babies.”

  “Sword?” Vlad asked.

  “No,” Clara said.

  “Hatchet?” Alek asked. “For throwing practice.”

  “Nothing sharp,” Kendall decreed.

  “But you like the nesting, right? We did a good job on it?” Bron gestured to the floor. “I know we don’t know a lot about pregnancy, but Mirek told us that you were nesting.”

  “Mirek knows things,” Vlad said. “And it makes sense. That’s what baldric mothers do. They’re protective of their young, just like you ladies.”

  “Mirek talks to pregnant aliens on missions,” Alek added. “And Kendall, you did say not to treat you like a pregnant ceffyl about to have a baby in the field.”

  “You tried to feed me solarflowers,” Kendall stated. “And asked if I preferred a bed or straw for the labor.”

  “I want to make sure everything is perfect,” Alek explained.

  “Do you like it?” Bron asked Aeron, still waiting for her approval.

  “Yes. It is a very good nest,” Aeron said. She again grabbed Riona’s arm and squeezed hard. “Isn’t it, Ri?”

  Riona nodded and couldn’t help saying, “Fit for a bird, um, baby.”

  “Try it,” Bron urged. He pulled his wife’s hand and then lifted her up into his arms. He paused long enough to kiss her before setting her down in the center of it.

  “Huh,” Aeron said, wiggling around in the circular bed. Her head rested on one side and her calves rested on the other, elevated by the concave
design. “It’s really comfortable.”

  “Really?” Kendall asked skeptically.

  “Yes. It feels like a weight has been taken off my legs and lower back.” Aeron snuggled down into the furs and sighed. She closed her eyes. “Leave me here. I’m not getting up until this baby is born.”

  Bron frowned. “Brothers, we made a serious error in the design.”

  “How so?” Vlad asked.

  “Too comfortable?” Alek guessed.

  “It only fits one.” Bron studied his wife as if contemplating how he was going to lay next to her.

  “We need bigger,” Vlad and Alek said in unison.

  The husbands began discussing design plans. Aeron tugged a piece of fur over her stomach and didn’t move. Kendall and Clara laughed down at her.

  Riona took a small step back from the scene. Each couple painted a very perfect picture of married life, and as a whole they made a family. Mirek lightly rubbed the back of her arm. A shiver worked over her, bringing with it a wave of sadness. She did not belong in this scene. These happy, contented women were not like her. Mirek deserved to be in there with his brothers. He deserved that life. Instead, he was stuck with her. Riona didn’t know how to be in a family. She wasn’t sure she wanted to risk her heart like that. People would wax poetic about love and loss, but those people had never had her kind of loss. Somehow Aeron had managed to get past it. Riona didn’t know how.

  Everything inside Riona told her to run, to find the nearest ship and fly away to parts familiar.

  The others were busy and not paying attention to her. She gave Mirek a meaningful look and then quietly made her way to the front door. The sound of debating could be heard as Bron, Alek and Vlad talked over size and structure. The discussion was punctuated by feminine laughter.

  “Riona?” Mirek asked, following her out of the home into the corridor leading to the stairwell that would take them to the main level of the fortress. “Are you ill?”

  “No. They’re having family time. I think it was time I left,” she answered. Riona began to consider staying at the fortress as she watched the family interact, but knew that she couldn’t. Her personality wasn’t made for onworld life. Besides, what did she know about being a part of a family?

  “But you are my—” Mirek quickly corrected himself. “You’re Aeron’s sister. That makes you family”

  “They’re pregnant and happy.” Riona lifted her hand in dismissal of the subject and walked faster.

  “And you are sad because you read in your medical file that a side effect of the medicine is that you may not get pregnant for several years,” Mirek concluded. “I did not realize seeing them like that would hurt you.”

  “I missed that part of the file. I was focused more on my mortality.” Riona stopped almost at the bottom of the stairwell. She turned and watched as he came down. When he was a couple of steps away, she said, “I’ve never thought about having children. I’ve lived my whole life thinking pregnancy equaled a death sentence. It occurs to me that having a baby should have been a concern with what we are doing, but honestly it’s the farthest thing from my mind. It’s like breathing oxygen. I know about it, I know I can do it, but I am not in the habit of thinking about it.”

  “You think pregnancy is like breathing?”

  “Necessary to the survival of a species. Yes.” Riona continued down. Even she wasn’t one hundred percent sure what she was talking about, she did know she wanted the conversation to end.

  “I find your mind very interesting.”

  “Do you? You shouldn’t.” Riona found herself rushing again toward the front of the fortress. She knew there were side doors she could take, but she chose to keep going straight. Suddenly, she stopped and he nearly ran into her back. She stumbled a little but caught herself. She started to walk again, only to stop and face him. “I lied to you about the religious thing. I can be in tents.”

  He quirked a brow and looked like he might laugh.

  “And I can have people write about me. I don’t want them to though because I don’t want my story out there. I don’t want people talking about me and saying where I can be found.” She took a deep breath, happy to have cleared up that little lie. “I probably know less about children than your brothers do. If I’m presented with two options, in most cases I’ll take the stupidest one because it looks like more fun.” In between rushed sentences, she walked a few more steps only to stop and come back to him. “I’m sassy and unpredictable and flighty and probably a little addicted to danger. I gamble. I stole fuel once. I felt really bad though so I illegally transferred space credits in the amount I took into the fueling dock’s account.” She frowned. “I’ve never told anyone that.”

  “Ri—” he tried to interrupt.

  “I don’t live my life standing in one spot,” she said. “I’m always moving.”

  “Just make sure it’s adventure calling you forward, not something behind you making you want to run away,” he answered.

  “I don’t know if I’m running away or toward. The rush makes me feel alive. I need a rush after seeing what happened. I have to live because they cannot.” Riona’s breathing deepened. “It’s a pathological necessity I can’t seem to control.”

  “I understand. Your free spirit is one of the qualities I appreciate about you.”

  “You should probably kick me off this planet. I start fights. I run my mouth off and I don’t know why. I am a mess. I owe fifty-thousand space credits to a pirate. A pirate, Mirek. Who makes bets like that, even when they should be a sure thing? No doubt he’s got a bounty on me, which is why I don’t want my face out there on a stupid medical case study.” Riona knew she looked erratic. If she were Mirek, she’d have herself quarantined. “I shouldn’t be here. I came to help Aeron because she asked, and she never asks. I should have just left like I planned, and then your life wouldn’t be disrupted. But I saw your brother take her and thought the worst, so I went after her to save her. That’s when I fell in the yellow stuff and ruined your life.”

  “You did not ruin my life,” he put forth. “I chose you at the campgrounds before that moment. It is because I chose you at the wrong moment that the gods put your face in the yellow.”

  “What? No. I did that myself. I didn’t want your brother to see me watching him.” Riona finally reached the outside. The light was dimmer because of the later part of day and a rare shadow was cast down from the mountain over where she stood. “And I chose to have sex with you because I wanted to. I like to think the gods have nothing to do with what we do…naked…in bed. You should know, I really like sex with you, but I’m afraid it’s a way for me to be with you without having to be completely exposed and vulnerable. I’ve been thinking about it a lot. And, well, you see I’m a survivor, and I’m not sure I can be trusted.”

  “Riona,” he stated.

  She hurried, trying to get everything she needed to say out before he could interrupt. “I’m a bad sister, and I actually care deeply for Aeron. I don’t know how to be a good sister. She is better off her with Clara and Kendall than with me.”

  “Bad sisters do not stay behind to save their sister when they think there is trouble.” He sounded reasonable.

  Blast him for sounding reasonable. It made her look all the more insane.

  “Riona? What is this?” Mirek tried to touch her but she didn’t let him.

  The cool air caused a chill to work over her. She gestured erratically and then lifted her hands helplessly to the side of her shoulders. “A marriage proposal?”

  Mirek’s eyes rounded in surprise.

  Riona froze. Had she just said that? Her? To him? Out loud? Even stranger was the fact she didn’t want to take the words back. She’d been trying to convince him why he should run far and fast from her, but instead she’d ended up…proposing?

  She eyed him, nervously waiting to see how he’d react. What would be worse—his laughing at her or his accepting? Laughing would make the most sense, but it’s not the answer she wanted.


  Mirek’s mouth opened but no words came out.

  “See, I make no sense—” Riona began to once again fill the silence when a small laugh came from behind a jutted rock near them. She turned her head sharply to the side in time to witness a boy’s ducking head. Grabbing a rock, she aimed it higher up the mountain so it wouldn’t hit the child when she threw it. The loud smack was enough to get him to come out of hiding. He hopped out in dragon form to face her.

  “You need to learn to be a lot quieter than that if you want to eavesdrop,” Riona scolded. “Now go find that Trant kid and tell him I owe him a rock. Where I come from, you don’t throw a stone unless you’re ready to receive one.”

  “Riona,” Mirek said with a note of censure in his voice. The dragon boy ran off as fast as he could.

  “I’m not going to hurt a child, Mirek,” she shot back.

  “I know,” he dismissed. “I want to talk about what you just told me.”

  “Forget it. I’m drunk,” she lied.

  “No, you’re not.”

  Riona arched a brow. “You could have just gone with that lie like a gentleman.”

  “Gods’ bones, woman, do you ever stop talking?”

  “You’re saying I should add loquacious to my list of attributes?”

  “We don’t have that word,” Mirek said.

  “It means talking a lot,” Riona defined.

  “I’m not really one who can judge successful marriage proposals, but I’m pretty sure listing what you feel are negative qualities about yourself is not the way to do it.”

  “It should be.” Riona crossed her arms over her stomach. “That way you know what you’re getting.”

  “Okay, then I work too much. I’m impatient, as proven when I claimed you instead of waiting a year as the gods clearly intended. I forget to eat when I’m busy and then get grouchy because I haven’t eaten. I might have known I was wrongly encouraging my brothers to build a nest for their wives as revenge for making me write some really long reports they had no intention of reading.”

  “Now that’s funny,” Riona inserted. “They looked really proud of those nests.”

  “I didn’t tell you, but after we made love for all those times the first night we came together, I had to go to a medical booth because my man bits were really sore.”