The Space Merchants

by Wendie Nordgren

  Gram said, "Well, you can decide the order after lunch."

  Yukihyo and I made our decision and officially became Lord Yukihyo and Lady Teagan Alaric Montgomery Lee. Ethan insisted on updating our identification chips and permits immediately. "So, I'm really a lady now? I don't have to feel weird in shops when people address me that way?" Yukihyo lifted an eyebrow at me.

  "The title has been yours since you agreed to be my wife."

  "But you aren't from Arachne," I said. His eyes twinkled at me.

  "No, I am not."

  "Teagan, please come sit by us," Gina called from a seat next to Gram. We went over to her. Sherman handed me a dark blue silk square.

  "What is this for?" I asked.

  "It is a precaution. We have missed too many years with you, Teagan. Each of us wants to give you a little something," Sherman said.

  "Sherman, you've all given me way too much already. Gina just gave me this gorgeous dress and the shoes this morning." Sherman kissed my forehead. Thunderdrop and Cass chased a ball into the foyer. ZeeZee moved away from Eliot to watch their theatrics. Simon handed me a box.

  "This is from me. Well, open it," he said with a grin. I pulled the end of the silk silver ribbon. I put it in my lap. I smiled at Simon.

  "You know I would be happy just with the ribbon, right?"

  "I hope you like what is inside better, sweet cousin." A case was inside the box. I pulled it out and lifted the lid. Resting inside was a stunning necklace. I drew in a breath. Small opals, similar in color to the large one in my necklace from Yukihyo, and blue sapphires, like those of the spiders in my grandmother's bracelet, were affixed to a necklace woven from gold and platinum. The weave of the metals and stones made the three pieces of jewelry seem like a matched purposeful set. My fingers were at my mouth. "Do you like it?" Simon asked.

  "Yes, it’s beautiful," I whispered, and as I looked up at his face, the tears started to fall. Simon took the necklace from the case, stepped behind the couch, and I moved my hair out of the way so he could fasten it around my neck. Yukihyo put the square back in my hand so that I could dab at my eyes. "Thank you, Simon."

  "Sweet cousin, I intend to spoil you rotten."

  Eliot carried a crate over to me. He removed the lid. Inside were framed pictures. Eliot pulled one out and handed it to me. A man and woman stood together before a stand of Arachnean trees. The woman's eyes were the same white as Yukihyo's, but the man's eyes and hair were like mine. "This is my grandmother's father? This is the one I look like?" Here is where I finally fit into the puzzle.

  Eliot said, "Yes, this is Lord and Lady Montgomery. I made you your own family pictures to keep."

  "Oh, Eliot. Thank you. It means so much to see their faces." Eliot took the square from my lap and dabbed at my eyes.

  "You can't see with tears in your eyes, cousin." He also gave me pictures of Gram and Lord Alaric, Ethan and Sara Montgomery, Ethan and Sydney Alaric, and Gina and Sherman Montgomery all on their wedding days. A sixth picture was of Simon, Eliot, and Eric as boys with a baby ZeeZee clinging to Eliot's shoulder. "Oh, how cute you all are!" Yukihyo enjoyed that picture. A seventh frame was empty. "Thank you, so much Eliot." Eliot held the empty one in his hand. "This one must be filled. It is a family tradition. We must go out into the forest and capture an image of you and Yukihyo. It is not too far past your wedding day." Eliot drew me up from my seat.

  "Wait a moment," Gina said as she rushed away. She came back with a wet cloth that she dabbed at my face, and a brush. Satisfied, she said, "Okay." We all got into the large transport and drove for quite some time down the path through the woods. The trees here were old and the forest seemed to hold its breath.

  "Does this seem like a good place?" Sherman asked.

  "I think so," Ethan agreed.

  "Teagan and Yukihyo, please go and stand in front of whichever trees you like, while I power up the imager," Eliot said. Yukihyo placed my hand on his arm, and I held up the hem of my dress with my other one. Thunderdrop chirped happily and climbed a tree.

  I said, "I guess it's that one," and we followed him. "Come here, baby. Don't you want to be in the picture?" He blinked at me from upside down, but came to my shoulder. I let my hem fall.

  "Perfect! Smile," said Eliot. I kissed Yukihyo, and then I smiled for Eliot. Having my own picture with my husband and my spider made me start to tear up again.

  "These past few days have been difficult for you. You feel vulnerable. My lady wife, do not be ashamed and think your tears are a weakness. True weakness is hiding from your feelings." I squeezed his hand.

  "I have been hiding for years. I've gotten good at it."

  Yukihyo said, "There is a difference between hiding and dealing with things in your own time." Sherman, Ethan, Gina, and Sydney walked over to us. Sherman and Ethan each attached devices to the tree and activated them. I hoped they weren't going to cut it down.

  Ethan said, "The four of us have a gift for you as well. This land lies on the dividing line between our families' lands. Sydney and I are gifting some of our land to you."

  Sherman said, "Gina and I are gifting some of our land to you as well. You should be nice and safe with Alarics on one side of you and Montgomeries on the other." In confusion I shifted my gaze from one person to the next.

  "I don't understand." Sherman bent down and dug his fingers into the forest floor. When he stood back up, he took my empty hand, opened my palm, and dropped the dirt and bits of leaves into it.

  "This is yours, for as far as you can see."

  "Mine?" I felt the soil with my thumb. "So, no one can make me leave, if I'm here? I can stay here? So, if I had nowhere to go, I could put a bench here and no one could make me leave?"

  "Yes," Ethan placed his hands on my cheeks. "Do you remember the room in which you stayed the other night at our house?" I thought for a moment.

  "It had a fluffy white bed and a pretty painting in it." Eliot smiled at me.

  "That room is yours. It is yours even when you have other places to go. Anytime you want to stay in it, and for as many days or years you want, it is yours. You do not even need to ask. Do you understand?" I wasn't sure if I did understand, but I nodded. Yukihyo closed my hand around the dirt. He took the blue silk square from my other hand and opened it. He spread it out over my closed hand and held it in place as he turned my hand over.

  He said, "Open your hand." The soil and bits fell into the square and I moved my fingertips against my palm to brush the rest away. Yukihyo tied the ends closed around the soil. I thought about that room.

  "I might make you angry or do something wrong. What then?"

  Ethan said, "Neither of those things would change that being your Alaric room. Okay?"

  "Okay," I said. Ethan moved his hands from my cheeks to around my back and hugged me. When he let me go, Thunderdrop moved from my shoulder to the top of my head. Then, he leaned over and peeked into my eyes from upside down. Giggling, I said, "You're so silly."

  "Chirp." Calm washed through me from Yukihyo.

  "How will I even find this place again?" I asked.

  Ethan took my hand in his and said, "I will program this location into your transport and all of ours. Anytime you want to come here, just open the menu and press your name, and you will be led here from anywhere on Arachne. Also, you can sync your transport to Tora and be able to watch your land from your vid-screen on the ship or from any vid-screen here in our houses. Okay?" Ethan rubbed my hand with his and then moved when Sydney and Gina stepped closer to hug me.

  "There is one condition. The land stays in our families. You and Yukihyo can pass it on to your children and grandchildren, but it can never be sold," Sherman said.

  "Agreed," Yukihyo replied.

  We all returned to the transport.

  Sherman said, "Perhaps we should have an early dinner and call it a day. Yukihyo, you and Teagan will stay with us this evening, I hope." I felt Yukihyo move his free hand around my back and then rest it on my hip.

  "T
hank you. Teagan and I will feel most welcome to stay in your home." I looked back and up into the leaves lifting and dropping again in the breeze. "You feel less fear after escaping from an underground mine, than you do being lavished with gifts," Yukihyo said as he applied gentle pressure to my hip to get me moving. I noticed a strand of web in a bush and plucked it free. A drying leaf had been trapped in the strand at some point. I carried them with me. "Yukihyo, I didn't like being separated from you for so long."

  "I didn't like it either."

  "I got you a present, but it's at Simon's house." On the way back, I untied the blue silk square and placed the web trapped leaf in with the soil. I tied the ends of the square back together.

  After dinner Eliot placed the previously empty frame into my hands. Within it now, Yukihyo stood. Strong shoulders and arms, a narrow waist, and a handsome face with dove grey hair and white almond shaped eyes framed by thick lashes stared out at me. He stole my breath. Eliot had taken the picture just as a gentle breeze lifted Yukihyo's hair. My right arm and his left entwined, and my fingers clutched his biceps. I stood beside my strong, tall husband in a light blue princess dress, glittering with jewels, with Thunderdrop on my shoulder. Opals like stars and sapphires like the night sky were draped across my throat. I thought the sapphires in my grandmother's bracelet and in the necklace from Simon must have been selected with Arachnean Silk spiders in mind. Thunderdrop's abdomen was a similar shade. I looked tiny next to my husband. He looked powerful, and my thoughts turned from the picture to having him to myself with some privacy. I took the picture over to the others Eliot had given me. Finding the one with great-grandfather Montgomery, I examined his likeness and mine searching for similarities. Other than our eye color, I thought our chins kind of looked the same.

  I said, "We also have in common our choice in mates." Lord Montgomery's wife could have been a relative of Yukihyo's with her dove grey hair in its intricate braids and her white eyes, free of discernable pupils or irises. Gina placed another frame on their mantle amidst others resting there. I felt Yukihyo's hands on my shoulders, and calm serenity filled me. He had prepared me for seeing a copy of our picture there on the Montgomery mantle next to the one of Eliot, Simon, and me with our spider companions. I laid my pictures down, went to Gina, and tightly hugged her.

  Sherman and Gina had shown us to a room far at an end of a hall. The room had been decorated in shades of blue. I slipped out of my shoes and felt my feet sink into a thick rug. I found the bathroom and while the tub wasn't on the same scale as Gina's, it had been made of the same molded stone and could easily fit two. I began to fill it with hot water. I loosened the ties and lacings of my dress and slipped out of it, placing everything I wore in the laundry basket. I stepped out of the bathroom and to Yukihyo who watched my approach with pink and gold flashes within his eyes. He had removed his shoes and shirt. I ran my hands from his stomach up his chest. He reached up to hold my breast. I jumped back and laughed. He came after me.

  "Please, take those pants off before you join me in the tub, husband." Yukihyo practically growled as he watched me stepping into the deep water that filled the tub. His pants fell to the floor. Yukihyo placed his foot in the water, and I watched as the water rushed to envelop it. His foot sank to the bottom, and the water encased his muscular calf and then reached his knee. My gaze traveled up his body as his other foot joined the first. Light curling grey hair on his legs darkened in the hot water, and my hands moved of their own accord to touch those on his thighs and lower stomach. He lowered himself into the tub and pulled me against his chest and onto his lap. He kissed me. His fingers moved through my hair. His lips broke from mine and moved to my eyelids only to return to my lips moments later. He pressed my chest close to his wrapping his arms tightly around me. We held onto one another and made up for three days’ worth of kisses before finally washing ourselves. By the time we were dry, we both sported shriveled fingers and toes. Yukihyo sat naked against the bed pillows with me leaning back against his chest. He dried my hair with a towel and then carefully brushed through it. Afterwards, we did our best to make up for the three nights we had spent apart. Between our bouts of lovemaking, I slept with my head resting on Yukihyo's chest, my arm across his stomach, and the tops of my toes pressed into the soles of his feet. I woke to the feel of his warm wet mouth closed over my left breast. An ache spread from his mouth down to my center. I spread my legs and wrapped them around his waist. Yukihyo felt like stone and moved inside of me with a fierce possessiveness. An aching tension grew inside of me becoming almost painful in intensity. I gripped him tighter inside of me.

  "Yukihyo, please!" I moaned against his neck. My back arched thrusting my breasts against his chest. A tingling spiral of feeling burst inside of me, and then I collapsed against the bed boneless and feeling as though bubbles were bursting from under my skin. Yukihyo's breathing had grown harsh and fast as he increased the power and speed of his thrusts into me. He jerked and pushed as far into me as he could reach. Then, he pushed again, yelling into the pillow behind my head. I felt him shudder, and he laid panting on top of me. I released my legs from around his hips and stretched. "Umm...." I sighed, feeling very pleased. I rubbed my foot down from behind his knee to his calf, enjoying the feel of the soft springy hair beneath the sole of my foot. Yukihyo kissed me and pulled himself from within me.

  "Someone is coming," he said. He hopped out of bed and vanished into the bathroom. A knock sounded against the door.

  "Teagan, are you in there? It's Gram. Can I come in?" I panicked and yanked the blankets up over myself. The door opened, and Gram came in with a servant who carried a tray with a carafe and two cups. He placed it on a table and left. I felt something Yukihyo had left behind slide from me to the sheets and felt my face turn to flame.

  "Gram, thank you for the coffee. I'll see you in a few minutes in the living room, okay?" Gram poured a cup and placed it in my hand as I clasped the blanket tightly to my chest. She settled her pale blue eyes on me, and I burst out with unexpected laughter. "Gram, please get out. Shame on you. You know exactly how embarrassed I am." A small smile made her soft cheeks wrinkle.

  "Fine. Go get in the shower. I'll have clean clothes on the bed for you both when you come out." Gram left the room, and I darted from the bed and into the bathroom.

  "Thanks for nothing," I smacked Yukihyo on the butt with my hand. He chuckled darkly.

  "I warned you." While he scrubbed my back, I forgave him.

  Wrapped in towels, we cautiously peered out of the bathroom and found the promised clothing on the bed. I watched as Yukihyo dressed in black pants and a fitted black shirt. The clothes were divine and hugged his physique in all of the right places. "Please, do not tempt me. Your feelings at the moment make it difficult for me. I want nothing more than to rip the towel from you and ignore your Gram when she enters the room."

  Blushing, I dressed as fast as I could. The dress was a dark grey with a few electric blue swirling stripes on the left that framed a slit from the side of my knee down to the hem. Luckily, the Band-Aids were gone and my knees were just a little pink. Phillip would never know. I slipped soft shoes of a matching blue onto my feet. Yukihyo helped me with my jewelry.

  We had breakfast with the entire family. Afterwards, Yukihyo explained our flight plan to our new family. Gram was not pleased. "Yukihyo, Teagan would be perfectly safe here with us. You can go off to Scipio and Malta and then return here. That would give us more time to get to know each other."

  Terrified, I said, "No! I will not be separated from you for three or four weeks. No way." I shook my head. "If you try to leave me behind, I will have to do something desperate, like hide on a freighter and follow you." Yukihyo kissed Gram's hand.

  "She would do it. She may cry when she's happy and seem to be emotionally fragile, but she has powerful determination and does whatever she decides to do. Perhaps I can convince Hiroshi to stop here for a night or two on our way back from Scipio. You may also communicate with Teagan as
much as you wish on the vid-screens. She has one in her quarters and in her favorite room on the ship."

  "Where is that?" Gina asked.

  "The kitchen," he answered. I nodded. I did love that room.

  "Oh, Yukihyo! My grandmother had recipes. I can't wait to play with those."

  Somewhat mollified, Gram kissed me and allowed us to leave and follow Simon to his house. Stewart helped us load things into the transport. While I had Yukihyo alone in my room, I took out the silk bag. "I got his for you. I hope you like it." I placed the bag in his hand. He gave me a sweet little smile and opened the bag. He pulled out the small box and opened it. "I got it for you before everything got so out of control." After checking on which finger I wore my ring, Yukihyo put the ring on his left ring finger. I was relieved it fit.

  "This is a perfect ring for the lucky husband of a beautiful Arachnean bride. I am honored, lady wife." Yukihyo slipped his fingers into the back of my hair and placed a tender kiss upon my lips.

  "I love you, Yukihyo."

  "As I love you, Teagan."

  Earlier Simon had sent men with Thunderdrop's sculpture to Tora where Hiroshi and Phillip prepared the ship for departure. Thunderdrop had made certain that we collected each of his toys, and he checked both his backpack and toy bag carefully. I made sure I had all of my things as well. Simon gave me a strong and protective hug before allowing me to leave. He kept his arms around me when he said to Yukihyo, "Do you promise to bring her back in a week?"

  "We will spend at least two days on Scipio, but I promise I will return her soon." Only then did he release me. Simon's pale blue eyes met mine.

  "The only reason we are allowing you off of this planet is so your heart doesn't break from missing Yukihyo. I'm not saying that to be cute either." There was a hard seriousness to Simon's eyes I had never seen in them before. It was a dangerous look. Rather than making me mad, I felt wanted, like I truly mattered. I threw my arms around Simon's neck and didn't let go until I was sure I could keep from crying. Then, I kissed him on his cheek. In that moment my feelings of friendship for Simon evolved into the familial love that I felt for Hiroshi and Phillip. I pulled back and looked deeply into his eyes.