“I hope she wasn’t too expensive.”
Natasha narrowed her eyes on the woman for a second and Warren frowned. Clearly, he was confused by the sudden insult and struggled to come up with a suitable comeback.
Natasha let her eyes settle on Warren and they warmed as she let her feelings show for a second, there was no need to pretend. “I’m Warren’s fiancée.”
Isabelle’s eyes flashed. “Really? I doubt that will stick any more than it did with me. Warren isn’t the kind to settle down. He is married to his work.”
Natasha was glad Hal had told her all about the people she knew on University Hill. Interesting that her reason for the dissolved engagement was very different to the one Warren had told her.
Natasha grinned. “Oh, hardly, he just never found anyone fascinating enough.”
Isabelle let a slight smile come to her lips. Her eyes glinted as they silently communicated. The challenge was accepted.
Isabelle shrugged and flicked at her hair in an offhanded motion. “I never knew Warren to slum it.”
Natasha cracked up laughing. The woman looked confused.
Warren asked, “Natasha?”
She waved him off with a hand as she struggled to keep upright while she laughed. Eventually, Natasha took a deep breath and said, “That is almost word for word what Hal said you would say. Man, she has you pegged.”
Isabelle frowned only the slightest bit in confusion. “Hal? Wait, you mean Halcyon McDonald?”
Natasha calmed enough to speak, but she still grinned. “Yes, I’m friends with her.”
Isabelle huffed. “Well, I’m not surprised, the freak always attracted other freaks.”
Warren rolled his eyes. “I’m friends with Hal, as well. Am I a freak now? Wait, don’t bother to answer. Tell me, what you really are doing here, Isabelle? I’ve only just returned and I want to spend time with my family. I don’t have time for your dramatics.”
Isabelle changed like a cloud moving across the sun, suddenly and just as superficial. She went all puppy dog on him. “I thought I was family. We have been friends since we were little. I wouldn’t want to be a burden to anyone.”
Her lip pushed out into a classic pout. Natasha rolled her eyes at the overacting. Did Warren really think she was for real? When Natasha looked at Warren, she realised he bought the act.
Natasha could see him falter, then he steeled himself. “Maybe tomorrow Isabelle but today is for my father.”
Isabelle huffed and returned to her previous mood.
“Fine, I will go, but don’t whine that I don’t care about you.”
Isabelle flounced out.
Once the door was closed, Natasha asked, “Are they all like that?”
He said, “Mostly. She isn’t too bad.”
Astonished, she asked, “That is not too bad? Hal was right. They are going to eat me alive.”
Warren came up to her and slid his hands around her waist. “I thought you did all right. I’ve never seen someone laugh in the face of her insults before.”
Natasha grinned at the memory. “I was serious. Hal even put on the voice and mannerism. I see why Hal likes Misha. He watches people like she does. He just plays to it and she doesn’t.”
Warren looked thoughtful. “Well, you will have to deal with her again. My father just told me the University heard of my return and they are putting on an event. A ball, probably.”
She gaped. “You can’t be serious. A ball. I mean with dresses and everything?”
He returned her smile with his crooked one that only flashed for a second. “And there will even be dancing. We have one of the largest departments and most of them are Restorationists and they love balls.”
She had never heard of that before. “Restorationists?”
He wrinkled his nose as he thought of the group of people. “Yeah, it is a group of scholars who avidly cling to the past in order not to lose our past. Of course, missing the point completely.”
Her eyes warmed as he held her closer. “Are you one of them?” She asked.
“No, but everyone else in my department is. I tend to go along. No, there are some great things here in the present which we can merge with the past. Only wanting the past makes us blind to what we have now.”
His brow furrowed as he spoke of the Restorationists. Warren had mixed feelings about the retrophiliacs.
Natasha shrugged and moved out of his arms. “Well, then it is a good thing Hal made me buy a dress.”
Chapter Six
Whatinga April, 2087
The dress had a slit up the side. With midnight blue material which sparkled a little. The balance tattoos which ran up her arms were very visible, but only looked exotic against the dark colour of the fabric and her pale skin.
Natasha slipped her feet into the shoes. Hal had insisted they be made personally for her. She couldn’t think of anything she owned at all which was made personally for her.
She had left her hair down because she really couldn’t figure out how to make it look like the models in magazines. So, she had given up before she had even started. Anything beyond a braid or ponytail was too technical for her. She did not think either of those was appropriate for a ball, unfortunately.
When Natasha walked past the mirror, she paused and looked at the stranger who peered back. The stranger was beautiful, but it wasn’t her. She spun and walked away from the mirror maybe faster than she had intended. It would be too easy to become that stranger and lose parts herself in the process. And sadly, all the parts of herself that made her happy.
Warren was at the bottom of the stairs straightening his tie in the mirror by the door. Before Natasha could go and help him Warren’s little sister, Megan, huffed and came out of the shadow of the doorway. “You were always useless at this,” Megan said.
Warren wrinkled his nose. “I just don’t see the point.”
Megan was only twelve and she had hidden most of the time Natasha had been here. Warren said it was because she hadn’t taken their mother’s death very well and didn’t make friends like she used to.
Megan was the youngest of Warren’s surprisingly large tribe. It seemed twins had run in the family. Only three children still lived at the house, but most of them were like Warren—geniuses—and therefore off on their own amazing paths.
They all looked alike as well. Dark brown hair which only showed up as curls in the boys’ hair. The girls were slender and petite with straight noses and straight hair. They all had the dark, dusky skin of their Arab father.
Megan deftly tugged and twisted the bow tie into a semblance of order as she said, “You have to go, Warren, the party is for you.”
Warren looked down warmly at his sister. “No, I mean the ties.”
Natasha smiled, but didn’t reveal herself as she watched the siblings. Her mother had always wanted a lot of children, but that had never been. Natasha still remembered the hardship of whenever her mother had another miscarriage. It was a miracle Natasha had been born at all.
Megan smoothed Warren’s tie and stepped back. “There. Now you will look pretty for your lady friend.”
“She is my fiancée,” he corrected easily.
They had decided they would try to keep as much from the rest of the family as they could. Megan snorted.
“Nonsense, I don’t believe your story for a minute. You didn’t leave because you met Natasha. The timeline doesn’t work. She would never venture up here and you never ventured further than the University. No, you left for another reason. I admit you like her, but that isn’t why you left.”
Natasha held her breath to see what he would say next.
His voice was sad as he spoke, “I had to leave, Megan.”
Megan didn’t look at him. “I know. You wouldn’t do that to me unless it was for a really good reason.” Her voice was steely in comparison to his own.
He smoothed a hand over Megan’s hair and said, “It was life or death. But you can’t tell anyone, though.”
&nbs
p; Megan flicked that off with a motion of her hand and rolled her eyes. “No problem. No one really talks to me, anyway.”
He frowned when she said that. “I thought you were working with that doctor of something or other.”
She shook her head and got emphatic as she spoke, “He’s an idiot. He couldn’t even see how his figures had gotten mixed up. I did try to tell him, but he wouldn’t listen. He got mad at me when I fixed some of his equations instead. He wouldn’t have known at all if he hadn’t stayed behind to hit on his assistant. I would have given him the credit. There was no need for him to get all huffy. If I hadn’t made the changes, he would have killed a lot of people when they were crushed. I wasn’t about to let people get squished.” She finally demonstrated by mushing her hands flat together the fate of the people.
Warren chuckled. “You should just go into business for yourself and build the buildings you want to build. That way you don’t have to bow to snobby engineers who think they are smarter than you.”
Megan snorted. “Dad would never let me go out to the Edge until I’m older.”
“I take it you already know what you want to do?” His eyes warmed with the love he held for his sister.
She said, “Yeah, the city has been working hard to make its own smaller communities except it is still a city. There is a need for different environments to cater to the needs of people. I’ve been thinking about an artists’ commune further out from the city. Like Freedom but for artists instead of scientists.”
He bobbled his head side to side as he thought of her idea and added, “I wouldn’t mind one for scientists. The University here is too stifled for new thinkers. But I wouldn’t want to go as far as Freedom.”
Megan twitched her nose as she thought this over. “You’re right. I’ll think about it.” She patted his arm and left.
Natasha said from the stairs, “I take it you are ready.”
He spun to look at her. The look on his face was very satisfying. The speechless look was worth any words he could muster. She came down the stairs and kissed him. His hands tightened on her waist.
She said as she stepped back, “You clean up handsome yourself.”
He blinked and coughed to clear his throat. “You look lovely, Natasha.”
She chuckled. “I gathered that when you started to leave a puddle of drool on the floor.”
A smile flashed on his face and went to his eyes. She realised then Warren didn’t smile very often and when he did; it was often very superficial. He was such a serious man it was nice to share with him the normality of life. So, to see a smile which lingered long enough to reach his eyes made her a little gooey inside.
After meeting Warren’s genius siblings, she didn’t envy them their lives. She had a childhood anyone could desire. She had friends and parents who had loved her and who spent as much of their lives with her as they could. She had also been able to run around outside and just enjoy being herself.
He brushed some of her hair away from her face and said, “Well, I hope you are ready as we are about to enter the lion’s den.”
Natasha laughed at his easy mood and said, “Piranhas and don’t worry, I packed my armour.”
_
The University was a rambling building which covered the hill that overlooked the city. Most of the city was sprawled on the other side of the river. Now that it was the dry season the river wasn’t much more than a ribbon of mud and which only existed because they directed the runoff from the shield to the river.
The buildings of the campus were short—maybe three stories at the most—when the rest of the city was made up predominately of tall buildings.
All the buildings in the city were either of farms within the weather shield or skyscrapers. Here, there were large wandering gardens which had flowers and no food crops.
Natasha couldn’t get her mind over the fact that so much land could be wasted on mere frivolity. The view of the city was spectacular though. The city was lit up like a constellation of stars. Something she missed while she lived in the weather shield.
Warren strode through the gardens without even a glance to either side to admire them or to stare at them in wondrous disdain as she did. He must be very familiar with these gardens and his father’s greenhouse was much more spectacular than the roses on the edge of the path. Did she want to live in a world where life was so easy that people had already forgotten what it had been like to live out in the world unprotected by the weather shields?
Natasha reached out and touched one of the flowers. Warren said she was like roses. They certainly were beautiful and they felt like heaven. Especially when she observed them with her new senses.
There were lights planted along with the flowers in the garden which led them to the building where the ball was being held.
She caught up with Warren with a quick skip. Give her a machine or something with rust and she would be fine, but dancing, well dancing scared her. She held onto Warren’s arm a little tighter. After her meeting with Isabelle, she knew Hal had been accurate to describe them as piranhas.
Natasha could hear the music before they entered the building. Classical music played by people standing to the side with string instruments and brass. She wondered how the instruments had survived all these years or if they had been manufactured recently. The thought of trees being cut down when there was no need, bothered her.
She was quickly distracted from her thoughts when she saw the dancers. They were playing a waltz and pairs danced in perfect harmony. Some wore ball gowns reminiscent of Regency England while others wore gowns similar to her own. Natasha assumed the Restorationists wore the proper ball gowns.
A man approached and patted Warren on his shoulder. “Where have you been, Warren? I thought you might have finally been consumed by your work.”
Warren pulled her closer. “I fell in love. Please meet my beautiful fiancée, Digger.”
Digger looked her up and down with an appreciative gleam in his eyes. She knew that look and she wanted to step away. He was a stout man and wore a black suit which he wore with complete ease. He wasn’t tall but he still had presence.
Natasha leaned into Warren and said, “I’m going to get a drink. You want anything?”
Warren declined and she slipped away with a breath of relief as she escaped the odious man. Unfortunately, her relief was short lived.
Isabelle slid up next to her and slipped her arm through hers in an overly familiar gesture. “Are you enjoying yourself, Tasha?”
“Natasha,” she corrected her quickly.
Isabelle waved her hand in an overly dramatic fashion as she said lightly. “Tiff. Tasha, Natasha what is the difference?”
“One was given to me by my mother and the other is not.” Natasha drawled in a bored tone she hoped would annoy the woman.
Isabelle made a tutting noise. “You are prickly. I don’t know how Warren doesn’t bleed to death after an encounter with you.”
Natasha smiled, sometimes the woman made it very easy to strike back. “Oh, men don’t mind being drained of bodily fluids and Warren is all man.”
Isabelle blushed as she got the very obvious innuendo. The blush was very telling.
Natasha couldn’t resist digging a little deeper. “Oh, was Warren a little more circumspect with you when you two were engaged. Mmm, I wonder where he learned all his… skills.”
It was a challenge not to laugh at the look Isabelle gave her. She wondered what the woman would think if she knew the truth.
Natasha sidestepped. “Please excuse me, I have better things to do.”
Natasha then went to a table of drinks and poured herself one. She didn’t even pretend she had anything important to do.
One of the girls by the table hissed softly. “Ouch. You certainly don’t hold your punches.”
The woman was young and wore a pale pink confection like the other Restorationists.
The woman patted at her frilly skirts as she said, “Isabelle has been the ruling qu
een here for years. She will get you back, you know.”
Natasha said, “She can try all she wants.”
Isabelle had no idea what Natasha revered, so she couldn’t take it away. Natasha smiled at the woman as she thought this. Isabelle would try to take away Warren and Natasha wished her luck. Isabelle couldn’t keep him when she was the only competition. Natasha doubted she would have better luck now.
The girl in frilly pink offered her glove covered hand. “I’m Amelia.”
Natasha took the hand and shook it delicately as she thought the girl might break if she gave her a proper handshake.
“Natasha,” she introduced herself.
The woman’s eyes sparked with this unique chance to gain information before anyone else. “Oh, I’ve heard of you. You are the reason Doctor Warren Nasser ran off.”
Natasha said, “What can I say, I’m irresistible.”
Amelia covered her mouth as she giggled softly. “Let me show you around. There are some rather spectacular things here at the University you wouldn’t see in the city.”
Natasha wasn’t keen on wandering around on her own and it didn’t look like Warren would be free anytime soon. “I don’t know about that. I’ve lived in the Edge and that is spectacular.”
Amelia went pale. “You lived outside the weather shield?”
Natasha chuckled at the look on the woman’s face. “Oh, yes. We have some wonderful storms and the sea can have a life of its own during the stormy season.”
Amelia’s eyes grew wide. “Aren’t you worried it will wash away you or you will run out of food?”
Natasha liked Amelia for that comment. It gave her hope that not everyone on University Hill was oblivious to the state of affairs in the rest of the city.
Natasha motioned to the room. “Why don’t you show me the wonders of University Hill while I’m here?”
Amelia caught her arm and tugged it into the crook of her arm. “Well, this place was one of the original buildings here. During the war most of the buildings on the Hill were destroyed as they used it as a stronghold by bandits and in an attempt to root them out the neighbourhood was destroyed.”
Betrayed Hero (Atramento Book 2) Page 6