The woman shook it vigorously. “Sister Elena Jahl.”
“This place sure has changed since I was last here,” Pepper said.
“When was that?”
“Nine years ago.”
“You and I were nothing but schoolgirls in bright socks back then, weren’t we?”
“Ah, yes, those carefree days before monochrome adulthood.” Pepper smiled. “I loved my red socks.”
The two women regarded each other for a long moment. Pepper pictured the pages that dictated the clothing rules for young women. Immature females, being those whose menses hadn’t started, had wide freedom of choice in the colors of all parts of their clothing.
When their monthly cycles started, until they reached age eighteen, girls were permitted to wear bright colors in their socks only. At age eighteen, even the color of their socks was restricted to the same dull range as the rest of their clothing: pale blue, green, gray, or lavender.
As a young girl, Pepper had watched older girls go through the wardrobe changes, fading like spring flowers as they matured. She decided she would wear the brightest colors she could, for as long as she could. To do this, she learned to create red dye from the juice of the fat beets she grew. She harvested yarrow from the side of the road and turned it into bright yellow dyes.
When she was very young, her dresses were said to be the brightest in the county. Then, weeks after her thirteenth birthday, the first traces of blood appeared. Her exuberant dyeing and coloring efforts were limited to her socks.
Now she was as indistinguishable as the rest of the adult female population in Rosemoor County.
Everyone knew what ‘bright socks’ meant.
“My favorites were shocking pink.” Elena smiled wistfully as if she was remembering a happier time. Then, shaking herself back to the present, she waved at the images on her screens. “Is this place a little different than when you were here last?”
“Back then there was nothing but a row of outhouses and a water pump.”
“Yes, Sister, the Tribunal has been working hard to improve the road for weary travelers. You wouldn’t believe the number of buses that go through here now. Sometimes we get five or six a day.”
Instantly Pepper was on high alert. “Really? Where do they go?”
“Not to Rosemoor, that’s for sure.” Elena laughed.
“Why not?”
“Because Rosemoor is a peaceful farming community. As far as I know, no one there has relatives in Rosewyld, let alone on the Tribunal.”
“Right,” Pepper said, as she realized why outsiders rarely visited her hometown. No one in her county had friends or relations in high places.
“The bus goes past the highway connection to Rosemoor, but it doesn’t stop in your town.”
“It goes to Littington then?” Hundreds of miles north of Rosemoor.
“It does.”
“A long bus ride,” Pepper commented and said no more. She hoped Elena would fill the silence, but she didn’t.
A Devmaerean man came up behind Pepper, wanting a meal from the dispensing machine and Elena became involved in a long conversation about protein and carbs. Everyone knew Devmaereans needed loads of carbs, but he wanted more protein than the menu allowed. He wanted her to change it.
Pepper toured the well-appointed, sprawling rest lounge. She noticed one person in the crowd wore a bus driver’s uniform, so she assumed everyone else in the room was a passenger. Until she’d spoken to Elena, she thought that few people had intercity travel rights. But Elena had said many buses a day stopped at the rest station. That meant many people traveling. Pepper studied them closely and noted few of the women covered their hair fully as stipulated in the Handbook.
Besides what were they doing there? The Handbook decreed that only essential intercity travel was permitted. Ever. She filed the anomaly away for future reference and used the restroom where she indulged herself with the fancy soaps and fragrant hand lotion provided. Back in the rest area, she stopped and looked carefully at the bus passengers, few of whom were dressed in clothing that complied with the Handbook.
Clearly, she wasn’t in Rosemoor any longer.
One thing was the same here as at home. There were viewing screens. Everywhere. The government channel reminded citizens to work hard and live by the Handbook. Short film clips of Quinn in his public appearances interspersed the official messages. Here was Quinn at a day care center, then at a dairy. Another clip showed him at a vineyard cutting grapes.
She glanced back at Elena, who was sitting tall and still in her desk, smiling nervously at a different blue-skinned Devmaerean man. Pepper saw the flash of red at his neck and recognized Quinn from behind.
Immediately she replayed her conversation with Elena. Had she said anything to her that she shouldn’t have? She was sure he’d let her know if she had.
She couldn’t get away from him, so she may as well to join him. She shadowed him from a distance as he headed to their meeting point.
At the trailhead the guards were milling about waiting for the two of them. Quinn stopped and looked around. Seeing Pepper, he said to the guards, “Sister Pepper and I are going for a hike. Your protection in this remote location won’t be necessary. Stay here and don’t let anyone else follow us up the trail.”
The guards saluted and fanned out at the trailhead, arms crossed, forming a formidable human barrier.
“There’s a waterfall we will hike to.” Quinn walked briskly past the guards, ushering Pepper to his side.
Pepper followed, glad to be back with nature. The forest was her place of refuge and comfort. She hummed a few bars of a hiking tune that her family used to sing on their outings.
“You sound happier.” Quinn looked at her sideways.
“It’s a lovely day and I’m seeing things I’ve never seen before. Why not be happy?” And up to six buses a day go past the road into Rosemoor. There might be a way home without his help or approval.
Quinn smiled at her apparent cheerfulness and even sang a few bars of the song she’d just hummed. He walked by her side until the path narrowed and then he took the lead. Pepper followed, enjoying the sight of his flexing hamstrings and buttocks. Her desire for him sharpened. Her body wanted him in ways that her head told her it shouldn’t.
When he posed questions about life in Rosemoor, she listened to his words, trying to figure out what he really wanted to know. Most of the time, she decided, he was being polite, maybe even asking her questions that he already knew the answers to.
Some of the time she sensed he was asking questions to make sure she was still behind him. Had she noticed the white flowers and blue flowers on the side of the trail? She had. When he told her that the bulbs of the blue ones were edible but the white ones poisonous, she said it was surprising how tricky nature could be. She resisted saying every kid in Rosemoor County knew these basic facts. They studied edible and medicinal plants from the time they could walk.
To stop the flow of new-old information, she started singing some of the songs she’d learned with her parents. They were old songs from another planet, but Quinn knew the words. His baritone and her mezzo soprano voices blended well, creating a fleeting bond between them. For a few hopeful minutes, Pepper pretended she was on an innocent ramble through the forest.
Several small creek beds cut the path. The water in the beds was low because there had been only been one fall storm so far. The real rains would begin in a few weeks. When they reached a short, steep rocky pitch in the path, Quinn offered his hand to Pepper to help her up.
A mutinous streak made her inclined to push his hand away, but she thought better of it. She barely touched his hand as she lifted her skirts and climbed up beside him.
“It’s easy for you,” she said. “If I could wear trousers, I could climb anything with more grace than a mountain cat.”
“I’m sure you could. I’m working on the Handbook, opening up more options for our citizens but you need to be patient.”
Pepper smothered a snort of disapproval at that comment. The track was getting steeper and she’d save her breath so she could keep pace with the strong Devmaerean man and his long legs and steely muscles.
Conversation and singing stopped. Neither said anything until they stepped into a clearing where a rocky creek flowed from a big pond that was fed by a thin waterfall, cascading down a rocky ridge.
“You have a lovely voice, little sparrow,” Quinn said. “It would fit right in with all the other birds in the spring. It’s magic up here when the snowmelt is feeding the waterfall. Maybe I’ll have to bring you back then.”
“Spring?” Pepper stood, panting from the exertion of keeping up with him. His tone was so tender when he called her little sparrow, she almost let his statement pass but that would have shown weakness.
She sat on a stone beside the pond. “I’m not going to be in Rosewyld in the spring.” Her voice was calm. “I’m going to do whatever I have to do and go home as soon as I can.” She dipped her fingers into the cool, clear water of the pool. Her breathing slowed and the burble of the creek soothed her.
“That’s only if I don’t decide that you are an essential member of my staff and have you transferred indefinitely to Rosewyld.”
“You can’t do that.” She spun around, nailing him with her eyes.
“Can’t I?”
Rising to her feet and planting her hands on her hips, she glared up at him. “You do not want to do that.”
“No?”
“No.” She turned and started down the path back to the rest area.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Away from you.”
“Come back here. Now.”
Pepper heard the ice in his voice. She kept walking.
“Sister Pepper Thornback, stop where you are.” His voice hit her like a spear.
Without looking back, Pepper broke into a run.
Chapter Seven: Going Nowhere
Cheetahs on home planet Earth could hit forty miles an hour in three strides. Pepper had read that in one of the old nature books in the library. As she ran away from Quinn, she imagined herself as a long, lean cat, trying to escape a soulless trophy hunter.
She didn’t know why she ran or where she hoped to get to. One thing for certain: this might be her last chance to escape before reaching the capital. She had to act first and think second. She prayed she could run faster scared than Quinn could run mad.
She and Lily needed to find a different country, a country where citizens could make their own decisions and live without having their lives dictated by a stupid Handbook.
Elsinanian citizens were told over and over that they lived in the best and purest country on the planet. The only person she’d ever heard question that statement was her father and he’d only spoken such treason in their home when the doors and windows were closed.
All she could do now was put as much distance between herself and Quinn as she possibly could.
From behind her, the fury in Quinn’s voice lashed the air. “Stop! Pepper Thornback, you stop right now!” It was the voice of a man who expected obedience.
Pelting downhill, Pepper knew she had an advantage over him. Being smaller, her center of gravity was lower. She was petite and agile compared to him. He had to use more energy and effort to stay upright.
But once she reached the flatter part of the trail near the rest area, his long powerful legs would overtake her in no time.
She thought of following the track back to the rest area but realized that was pointless. What would she do if she got to the rest area and escaped the guards? Beg a trucker to take her to Rosemoor? Hide on a bus until it was ready to leave and hope that no one found her there?
Her only escape was the forest. Surely it would be better to reign in the misery of living wild than serve Quinn and the Tribunal whenever and however they demanded her services. Her survival skills were excellent, learned from her parents who had loved fishing and hunting.
Everyone knew there was no cure for the Waking Illness. If Quinn took her to Rosewyld, she’d never see Lily again.
She ran harder, until the sound of his footballs behind her grew distant. At that point she ducked into the woods. It was a temperate rain forest, cool and damp under the shade of the canopy. Underfoot a mess of mushrooms, lichens, ferns, shrubs, and fallen limbs from the towering evergreens threatened to trip her. She hauled her dress up and tied it at her waist so it wouldn’t entangle her as she ran. As the sound of Quinn clambering down the nearby trail grew louder, she kicked herself into a faster gear.
She galloped along for another hundred yards or so when a narrow animal corridor opened in front of her. Pepper stomped some footprints into the thick mud and had them veer off back into the dense underbrush where the rocky terrain showed no tracks at all. Then she picked her way backwards in her tracks and looked for a place to hide at a healthy distance from where her boot prints led.
An enormous stump of an old fir tree offered her the refuge she wanted. It was six feet high and about three feet wide, draped in heavy moss. Small saplings sprouted from its rotting core. It sat on a massive boulder above the animal corridor. She climbed up the rocky face and hid behind the stump. She sat with her back pushed into moss-covered bark, her knees drawn under her chin as she steadied her heaving chest.
She’d been there only a few seconds before she realized something was wrong. She held her breath and listened. The sound of Quinn’s footsteps had stopped. The only thing she could hear was the distant hammering of a woodpecker.
Pepper squeezed her body tighter, trying to make herself invisible. When she couldn’t hold her breath any longer, she took slow, shallow gulps of air through her mouth. She closed her eyes tight like a child who thinks if she cannot see, she cannot be seen. Eternity plus a day passed but she didn’t move.
A heavy silence, full of foreboding, covered the forest.
When a large blue hand clamped down on her shoulder, Pepper shrieked with alarm and jumped. She tried to twist out of Quinn’s grasp, but he held her too tightly.
“Okay, missy,” he said. “You’re going to get what you’ve been asking for since the moment we met.” He lifted her by her forearms and stood her on her feet, hanging onto her right arm. His hair was crimson with anger.
She quickly undid the knot in her dress and shook it free.
“What’s that? You to mind your own business and leave me alone?” She strained against the power of his single hand. She’d lost her modesty cap on her mad run through the forest. The long ringlets of her lustrous tiger-striped hair curled around her shoulders.
No man had seen her hair loose since childhood. She felt as exposed as if she was naked. This wasn’t allowed. He should know to look away. With her free hand, she tried to catch her locks and twist them behind her head.
“You’ve been asking me to spank you since your first impertinent comment,” Quinn said. He slipped his hand from her upper arm and locked it around her wrist before guiding her toward the main trail. At a walking pace, they had a good distance to cover.
“I didn’t even hear you coming,” Pepper complained.
“I know what I’m doing in the woods,” Quinn said. “I trained in the military and learned how to move unnoticed. The irony is the less you do in the forest, the more you see and hear. On the trail, I would ultimately have overtaken you with speed. In the forest, I simply went into stealth mode. I found my center, softened my eyes, and stalked you like a fox.”
Quinn handed her the modesty cap. “You crashed through the woods like a wrecking machine, as if you had a surplus of adrenaline and a shortage of common sense. All I had to do was follow the broken branches and crushed plants. Now pick up the pace.” He took the lead, hanging onto her tightly.
No further words were spoken until they reached a small opening in the forest, just shy of where the trail was. A large tree had fallen across it.
“This spot will do just fine,” Quinn said.
To Pepper’s relief, she saw that the color of his hair had normalized back to blue again. Whatever he planned to do to her, she was grateful he wouldn’t be doing it in the full heat of his anger.
She glanced around. “Fine for what?”
“Fine for me to teach you a few lessons in honesty, respect, and submission.” Quinn sat on the log and drew Pepper between his open legs. Even seated, he was still taller than her, but at least she didn’t have to crane her neck to look him in the eye.
As he trapped her with his knees, she tried to put her modesty cap back on. Quinn took it from her and threw it to the other side of the clearing.
“You won’t need that for the next while. Now clasp your hands behind your back. I want your undivided attention to what I’m about to say.”
He helped her with this instruction by gently guiding her hands where he wanted them. Pepper was acutely aware of how that position pushed her breasts forward and how her hair tumbled around her shoulders, loose and wild.
Quinn slid it behind her ears, his warm hands stroking her face as he drew them away.
“The realities of your life as it is today: first, you are coming to Rosewyld with me for as long as it takes to stabilize the health of the senior members of our government. That may take months. For the duration of your stay, I’ll be your guardian. You will live in my house, according to my rules. You will be expected to understand what I want even if I haven’t articulated every single nuance. If you are in doubt, you will ask for clarification.”
His eyes narrowed as if he was appraising her ability to do this.
“Until I’m confident you are compliant with my wishes, there will be certain restrictions on your movements. These restrictions will be in place for your own personal safety. Because I cannot watch over you every second of the day, I will be looking for a sign that you can be trusted not to put yourself in harm’s way.”
Pepper had started to look away. Quinn caught her chin between his thumb and forefinger and made her look at him.
“You don’t realize how much trouble you’re in, do you?”
Bound to the Commander Page 5