Thankfully, he didn’t try to stop her when she left.
She had the stupidest urge to burst into tears when he didn’t.
Bastard! He’d gotten her into this damned mess! And did he step in and insist that she was his woman when she needed to hear that? Hell no!
She had no idea of where she was going, no idea of where she might find peace and quiet for reflection.
And bawling her eyes out—for whatever reason she felt like doing that.
And she didn’t know why she felt that way, just that she did.
It sucked a hairy one that she had nobody to confide in.
She’d thought Neal was a friend—not really a close one that she’d want to confide in, but a friend and he’d turned into a told dickhead. She thought, briefly, about turning to him, and then discarded the idea.
She wasn’t of a religious disposition, but that was why it occurred to her finally to hunt the chapel. The fleet was required to have one on every battleship even though almost no one practiced a religion of any kind anymore.
It was for the handful of holdouts or citizens from more primitive societies.
And that meant that the chances were good that it would be empty.
Thankfully, she did find the chapel and it was empty, dark, and quiet. She settled in a corner to think.
She discovered she was far too troubled in her mind, at first, to make any sense of the thoughts and images tumbling around in her head. But slowly, she began to feel a sense of peace. Her thoughts ceased to leap from one to another.
She fell asleep.
It was the chaplain that woke her. He was so stunned to find anyone in the chapel, he gasped with fright and that slight sound woke her.
“Oh my! You startled me!” He seemed to consider the situation. “Have you been waiting for me long?”
Still groggy, Charly merely stared at him, trying to figure out what he was talking about. “Uh …. I wasn’t actually waiting. I just needed to find a quiet place.”
The chaplain’s smile was wry. “Well, this is definitely a quiet place.”
Discomfort wafted through Charly. She didn’t want to be impolite, but she also didn’t want to deceive him. “Sorry. I need to go.”
“Don’t run away on my account,” he responded with a touch of amusement. “This place is hardly ever used, but it is a sanctuary.”
Just the mention was enough to make her feel warmth.
She didn’t have bad feelings tied to her experience with Galen.
Quite the opposite, in point of fact.
Soooo …. Could she honestly say that she was against what had happened?
She realized she couldn’t.
The truth was, she was absolutely stunned by Galen from the moment she’d first set eyes on him. She might not know how he felt about her, but she’d be lying to herself if she tried to claim he’d had no impact on her.
Sure, she’d chosen to be a career soldier and it had been the right decision at the time, a completely acceptable life for someone who was certain a spouse and family of her own just wasn’t in the cards.
But now her mind was filled with possibilities she’d never allowed herself to even consider and she was terrified of making the wrong decision.
What if she just tossed his offer in the trash and she regretted it forever?
What if she leapt at it and she regretted it forever?
The churning in her belly told her which way the wind was blowing, which decision she had to make.
Unfortunately, by the time Charly decided that she needed to talk to Galen to try to work things out, he was gone.
Chapter Thirteen
Charly stared around at the empty cabin in a state of disbelief and indecision.
He was gone.
Why would he be gone?
Where?
She paced for a little bit, thinking, and finally decided he must have gone to sit with his father.
Tired from the emotions more than the pacing, she settled on the bunk to wait, reasoning that he would eventually return to the cabin.
She waited for hours, debating whether to just sneak down to med bay and check. The fear of being spotted stalking him convinced her to stay put and eventually she fell asleep, her stomach growling and demanding food she couldn’t bring herself to go look for.
Morning call, blasting over the com, woke her.
She leapt up and rushed to get ready to present herself before she realized she wasn’t aboard her own ship or even TDY. She was supposed to present herself for another day of questioning, however.
With that thought in mind, she finished grooming and dressing, straightened the cabin, and headed down to the mess hall for food.
She was absolutely starving until she got there and then her stomach just sort of knotted in on itself and blocked her appetite.
Her squad was seated together at a table near one wall, but she didn’t feel like one of them anymore—not since Neal had acted like such an ass the day before.
Worse, Hallie and Lee were sitting with them as if they did belong.
Shrugging her reluctance, she got in line for a tray and headed toward one of the empty seats at the table. They glanced at her, greeted her as their superior officer, and then focused on their food.
That was fine, Charly told herself.
She didn’t feel like talking anyway.
In point of fact, she felt like she had a hell of a hangover.
Must be the result of dehydrating because she’d cried like an idiot until she was just about sick.
Tara settled beside her. “Mornin’ Lieutenant.”
Surprise flickered through Charly—and then relief and gladness that she hadn’t been totally shunned. “Mornin’.”
Tara flicked a long look at her face. “You ok?” she asked in a quiet voice.
Charly instantly felt like bawling again. “I’m ok,” she managed.
“Man! This is the worst debriefing I’ve ever had to do.”
There was a round of agreement at the table.
“You think we’ll be done today?”
“They’re looking for a scapegoat,” Hallie offered, fixing Charly with a significant look.
Like she hadn’t figured that one out! She was in command and she wasn’t high enough in rank to get the ‘good old boy’ treatment. She was the designated fall guy if the shit hit the fan, and it seemed like it had.
Just as well she’d decided to ditch her career, she thought with a slight lift to her spirits.
Of course, if shit hadn’t gone down the way it had on Bacsheer she wouldn’t be in this position, but she was fair-minded enough to realize she was at least partly to blame. She’d made some poor decisions and they’d cost her.
On the other hand, she didn’t think Galen was a poor decision.
She also didn’t think she could’ve resisted him if she’d known she would end up in front of a firing squad, so she wasn’t exactly certain that could be considered a ‘decision’. She was pretty sure, in point of fact, that her brain hadn’t been engaged any of the time.
She’d managed to eat a fair portion of her meal in spite of nerves when Neal cut her heart out. “I don’t suppose anybody knows why pretty boy—the prince—decided to tear off back down to Bacsheer? I’d thought he had plenty to occupy him here.”
Charly met his gaze, feeling completely betrayed, hurt, abandoned. “You are such a dick,” she growled when she finally managed to focus. “I wonder why I never noticed before.” She glanced at Hallie and then the other members of what she’d believed was a tight nit ‘family’. “Oh yeah! Hard to see the forest for the trees.”
She knew when she got up and ditched her tray that she should head down to the office for the debriefing immediately, but she just didn’t give a damn at that moment. She’d almost reached the cabin she’d shared so briefly with Galen before she even realized where she’d headed instinctively.
But he wasn’t there.
He wasn’t even on the ship.
She stood indecisively for a few moments and then went in and settled at the computer console. It was seriously belated, but she wanted to see what data they’d collected regarding the mating practices of the Oloote.
And there it was—just as he’d said.
The stolen bride was a completely acceptable form of courtship for them—when the bride hailed from a different tribe and couldn’t be bartered for in any other manner.
But the end results were the same.
When they mated—or went through the binding as they called it—they were bound for life.
She hadn’t known that.
But he had.
And he’d chosen her.
She cried until the com unit squawked to life and ordered her down to the offices for debriefing.
She told them she would come right away and then she headed down to the med bay instead.
She wasn’t sure of why she went … until she saw the king.
She stared at him for a long time, thinking how much his son Galen favored him and how much she missed him. When she pushed away from the observation window, though, and started to leave, he motioned to her.
The urge to run smote her, but she went in and stood uncomfortably by the door. “You need something?”
He summoned her.
Reluctantly, she moved closer.
“You are the Goddess Charlotte.”
Charly felt her face heat up with discomfort. “Lt. Charlotte Black, Sir … Your Highness.”
He studied her face. “That is not the face of someone content with their decision.”
Charly sniffed. “I did something really stupid,” she responded unhappily.
He nodded. “You broke my son’s heart.”
Charly promptly burst into tears and blubbered for a good five minutes before she could regain control. “I didn’t mean to hurt him.”
“But you did.”
She bit her lip, struggling to keep from crying more.
He surprised her by patting her hand. “You can fix this. But it is you who must.” He was silent long enough she’d just decided he’d dozed off when he spoke again. “He knows he handled it poorly, but he is a proud man—and he did try considering how difficult it was for him to … ask for acceptance.”
Charly searched for tissue to blow her nose. When she had herself in hand, she returned to his bedside. “I understand that … now. I was just … so shocked.”
“You can make him understand if you try. He loves you. He wants to believe you care for him.”
She thought for several moments that she was going to break down again, but she managed to get a grip and nodded. “I do care.”
She had to stop by the restroom and splash cold water on her face to eliminate some of the redness and swelling, but she felt better when she was done. Leaving the lavatory, she went in search of a med tech.
She found the doctor.
And basically bullied her into doing an exam.
She’d been ‘fixed’ as most young women did who wanted a career and had no means for a child.
The doctor found her fertilized egg floating near her womb.
Charly’s heart seemed to stand still in her chest—and then it expanded with love and joy unlike anything she’d ever known. Even knowing that she had normal cycles, she also knew her tubes were cut and it had never occurred to her that this method of birth control simply made it impossible for any fertilized egg to develop. It didn’t prevent her from releasing eggs or prevent them from becoming fertilized.
“Can you … Could you collect it and … uh … drop it in the basket?”
The doctor looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “Well … uh … I might be able to. But …. You do realize you’ll be discharged if … I mean when they discover you’re pregnant?”
“Yes. I know. Do you think you could reattach the tubes while you’re at it?”
The doctor gaped at her.
“My man …. My husband, Galen, might want another baby,” she explained.
They sent a pair of MPs to collect her a few hours later. Since she was still in recovery, they had to kick their heals until she was able to be taken down for questioning.
* * * *
Lt. Charlotte Black was assigned the duty of escort when the King of Bacsheer was finally well enough to return to his home and his people. It had taken weeks … and all the while she’d been waiting for her reassignment.
She wouldn’t be officially discharged for months, but she’d put in her paperwork for a discharge and she was assigned as a military advisor for the people of Bacsheer in the meanwhile.
Not that they needed any kind of advice when they were barbarians and trained to fight almost from birth.
But it looked good on paper—especially the part about settling a political blunder by assigning an officer to make peace with the Oloote.
Galen turned as white as a sheet when she entered the Great Hall with his father.
He had been appointed as Prince Regent in his father’s absence.
She would’ve liked to put his condition down to delight at his father’s safe return—the entire kingdom seemed to be hysterically thrilled at the return of their king.
But somehow the very fact that he refused to meet her gaze was a strong indication, she thought, that it was her.
Well, no doubt it was a shock to see her.
She felt really bad about it, but there had been no way, really, to warn him.
And, truth be told, she wasn’t in a lot better shape.
She was terrified thinking this was her very last chance to make things right between them and she was going to fuck it up.
Fortunately, she had duties to perform and her training to fall back on.
Because the Prince Regent acknowledged her presence as if she was a stranger and nothing more.
This was a good thing, she told herself. She would never have been able to behave like a sane person if he hadn’t erected a barrier between them.
It cushioned her as well as it did him.
She was certain she was about as spontaneous as a robot, but she was at least functioning.
If she could just make it through all of the public stuff without making a complete fool out of herself she would be forever grateful.
Because she needed time alone with Galen to work out their differences and make up with him.
To her dismay, it transpired that that was a lot harder to manage than she’d thought it would be—because he was a very important man and she was an outsider.
Chapter Fourteen
Charly had been back on Bacsheer for several days, nearly a week, when it was announced that a celebration was planned for the return and recovery of the king.
He wasn’t recovered. He had a long road ahead of him.
But he was stubborn.
Like his son.
Or vice versa, she supposed. Hard headed.
He didn’t suggest that a celebration of his recovered health was premature. He let the plans go forward and continued the pretense of being well enough to govern by appearing at court for a few hours at least a couple of days over the course of the week after their arrival.
He was not a well man, though, and there was no way to tell if he would ever really recover.
They’d done what they could—used all the tricks they had in their bag of modern medicine. They’d scrubbed his blood of the toxins. They’d grown new organs to replace the most damaged. He’d gone through roughly a procedure a week in the time he was on the ship, having the damaged organs replaced one at the time as they reached full maturity in the growth process.
He wasn’t a young man, though, and the procedures themselves took a toll.
Galen had stepped down as Prince Regent as soon as his father returned, but he didn’t leave and return to his own holdings.
Charly couldn’t decide whether it was due to her presence or because he was concerned about his father.
She was pretty sure, though, that it wasn
’t her, that it was just wishful thinking that it had even occurred to her that she meant enough to him to convince him to hang around when he made it clear that she was dead to him.
She must have been out of her mind to throw her entire life away!
She should never have listened to his father!
Unfortunately, she’d already filed the paperwork for a discharge, citing her pregnancy as her reason for leaving and told them the child was the product of an Oloote man and requested the assignment on Bacsheer.
It had almost seemed like everything was just falling into place.
She should have known better, she thought, angry with herself for her stupidity.
Nothing in her life had ever been easy.
She’d had to fight for every damned thing she wanted.
That was why the career as a Star-Trooper seemed such a perfect ‘fit’ for her.
It was as well she reminded herself that she was committed and she was a fighter. It helped her keep depression at bay, gave her purpose and direction.
She was pregnant. She had a child to think of—not just herself.
Since Galen was hell bent on pretending she didn’t exist, she focused on learning the language of the Oloote and the customs—and understanding them—which was actually a different thing. It was the ‘why’ of the customs and the actual thought processes connected to the speech.
She was so depressed—and so focused on her relationship problems—she didn’t even think about clearing out her locker on the cruiser they’d arrived in until her unit arrived from the battleship Obama to reclaim it.
She was sorry she hadn’t thought about it because she damned well needed the stuff and she could’ve collected it without having to see her old ‘friends’.
She was tailed by a group of Oloote soldiers when she left the castle to meet up with her former unit.
She didn’t know why, but since telling them to go back didn’t have any effect, she decided to just ignore them.
Maybe, she thought, feeling her heart skip beats, Galen had sent them to be sure she didn’t try to leave?
Maybe.
The Barbarians: Stolen Bride Page 8