Emma frowned, remembering the way Leena had looked them both over. She doubted either one of them had had any problem finding lovers. What hypocrites! “I suppose it was pretty rough on Colwin, too?”
Abby shrugged. “Not as rough, really. He’s always been strong and healthy and he had the good fortune to look like they do. They are so … snotty about their breeding! But, yes, I suppose so. He had an easier time fitting in than Aydin because of his looks and I think his personality, too, and Jordan’s almost had it easy with two big brothers, you know, and of course Claire.” She chuckled. “Let’s just say the males aren’t nearly as prejudiced about such things. She had plenty of males vying for her.”
“I take it the tribe is golden, then?”
Abby nodded. “I’d forgotten you hadn’t really had much chance to see them. Beautiful people, but as I say ….”
Emma shook her head. “Dresden is dark. I saw centaurs with sorts of different coloring in the lost city.”
“Dresden is dreamy!”
Emma stared at her a moment and then laughed. “I’ll bet Teagan and Chandler wouldn’t be too happy to hear you say that!”
She shrugged. “Well, they won’t! I still think he’s handsome!”
Emma shrugged. “He is. He isn’t nearly as handsome as Aydin, though … or as sexy.”
Abby flicked a triumphant look at Aydin, who’d stopped in the kitchen doorway like he’d hit a brick wall. “He does take after his father,” she murmured with amusement when Emma glanced around. “Did you come for supper, sweety? It won’t be done for at least an hour. Why don’t you show Emma around the city?”
Aydin cleared his throat and sent his mother an irritated look. “I had come to ask her if she would like to take a walk.”
Emma bounded up from the stool she’d been sitting on. “I’d love to!”
She was pleased to discover that Colwin intended to join them. She hadn’t seen much of either one of them since they’d reached the city. It was also as if there’d been an unspoken agreement that she would stay with their mother and Abby had assured her that they were just busy catching up on business that had been neglected while they were away. She’d been impressed to discover that they were stone masons of some repute having gone into their fathers’ business, but Aydin had a thriving business on the side sculpting and Colwin made musical instruments—such as the pan flute Aydin made such beautiful music on.
They showed her around the city, pointing out buildings they’d helped erect, giving her the history of the city, and explaining that the summer camp they’d spoken of was where they spent the growing season since the plateau where the city had been built wasn’t suitable for it. That was when they were most vulnerable to attack by the hoonans, who’d never launched a successful attack upon the city itself.
Since the city was permanent and the summer camp changed year by year, the city was their cultural center. Despite the fact that she’d had plenty of time to become familiar with Abby’s home, she was still impressed with how modern it was. Electronic technology wasn’t something they had a particular interest in, but they were just as interested in their comfort as the people on her world were. They had fully functioning, completely modern plumbing—hot and cold running water, sewage treatment—the works! It wasn’t just Abby who had a modern home. They utilized and worked with nature and the site for city had been carefully chosen, not just for its defensibility but also to take advantage of what nature had to offer.
It was almost eerie in a way since most everyone was away at summer camp and the city was so empty, but it was pleasant, too, to be able to stroll along the streets without a hustle and bustle around them. The took her to the market place anyway and then a short distance beyond the city to show her the experimental farming underway, explaining that they’d been trying to perfect a method of growing specific crops under the less favorable conditions of the altitude and rocky soil.
She was pleasantly tired when they started back. “I suppose you realize we’ve probably missed supper and we’ll be in Abby’s black book!” she murmured, linking arms with them as they walked on either side of her.
“She knew we’d planned to take you to our place for supper,” Colwin said.
“She did? When were you planning on telling me?” she asked teasingly.
Colwin grinned unrepentantly. “When we got there. I figured if you knew ahead of time that we doing the cooking you would excuse yourself.”
Emma chuckled. “Well, I haven’t had rabbit in a while. Maybe I can face it.” She was too excited at the prospect of going to their place to be hungry anyway, she reflected ruefully. She just hoped sex was on the menu!
The house they took her to was a complete shock. It looked far more like a mansion than a ‘house’—not that it was huge, but it was certainly big and beautifully ornamented with carved friezes and fluted columns. It looked almost more like a temple than a home—from the outside. “It’s beautiful!” she gasped. “Did you two help build this one?”
They looked pleased. “Yes,” Aydin responded. “All of that work there along the roof is mine, the columns, as well.”
Emma had more than half expected to discover it was apartments. She was stunned discover it wasn’t. The rooms were spacious, but oppressively so—a little sparse of furnishings. When they’d shown her around the first floor, they all gathered in the kitchen. She discovered that they’d been ‘cooking’ while they’d shown her around the city. A stew was bubbling on the stove top—a seamless slab of stone that looked like marble and was heated by wood fed into the firebox below it, which also heated the oven.
She loved the kitchen. It was the perfect size, and the perfect design, a marriage of beauty and functionally that would’ve been hard to surpass by anyone.
Colwin pulled a crusty loaf of bread from the oven as Aydin served up stew from the pot. As they settled around the eating counter, Aydin brought wine from the cooler. Abby studied the bottle a little longingly but resolutely declined in favor of water—which was icy cold from the refrigerator.
She discovered once they settled together to eat that she was nervous now that the moment of truth had arrived. She’d spent days trying to think of the perfect time and place and way to tell them and now she couldn’t remember anything at all that she’d practiced.
The bedroom really seemed like the place, but was it? Would it totally spoil the mood? And if she did decide to tell them then, how was she going to get both of them into the bed at the same time.
It was obvious as big as their house was that they didn’t share a room.
She thought the living room might be a good possibility, but then again, there wasn’t a lot of furniture. It would be hard to get comfortable.
“The stew is wonderful and the bread is fantastic!” she murmured appreciatively when she discovered they were waiting to see what she thought of their efforts. “Who cooked?”
They shrugged. “We both did,” Aydin said. “I started the stew. Colwin started the bread. Then we just sort of toss things in as it cooks. It is never the same.”
Emma chuckled. “What if you really like the way it turned out and you wanted to do it the same way again?”
Aydin grimaced. “It is never the same way twice.”
“That must keep things interesting.”
Aydin frowned at his stew. “I would not mind if it was something that I could expect to be the same,” he said finally.
Emma realized abruptly that he wasn’t talking about the stew—not per se. It sent a tingling warmth through her. “You’re saying you aren’t as adventurous as Col?”
He didn’t look like he wanted to say that all and Colwin didn’t seem particularly pleased to be thought adventurous.
“I think that I have had my fill of wild adventures,” Colwin said flatly.
“You didn’t think our adventure together was … thrilling?”
Aydin shifted uncomfortably. “I was not particularly thrilled about being chased by hoonans or ending up in the prison in the lost city.”
“Or in the middle of a battle with ogres and then the centaur army and the hoonans,” Colwin added. “I do not think I would have found it especially to my liking if you had not been there, but it was downright terrifying to have you in the middle of it.”
Emma put her fork down. “It had it’s moments,” she said, smiling faintly.
They both glanced at her warily. “What we are trying to say is that we do not usually do that sort of thing … ordinarily,” Colwin said uncomfortably.
Emma nodded. “Usually, you build things and you make beautiful things—like this house.”
“And plant and harvest and hunt.”
“We are not gone a great deal of the time—except when we work, of course, but not on excursions like that one,” Colwin added.
“And you’re even great cooks!” Emma said teasingly.
They blushed. “Mother said that it was absurd for anyone not to be able to take care of themselves,” Aydin said a little stiffly.
“She taught you to cook?”
“And of course other household chores.”
Emma finished her stew and then got up and collected everyone’s plates and forks and carried them to the sink. It gave her pleasure to turn on the faucet and watch water fill the sink, to pick up a dish of soap and watch the bubbles it created. Maybe, she thought, coming through the gateway was the most wonderful thing that ever happened to her in more ways than one?
She’d learned to enjoy and appreciate the simple things, things she’d always taken for granted before.
“You do not have to do that,” Aydin murmured, moving up behind her and slipping his arms around her. “You are our guest.”
Emma sighed, leaning back against him. “Maybe I don’t want to be a guest.” Pushing away from the sink, she turned in his arms and discovered that Colwin had moved closer, as well. He was leaning against the counter near the sink. “I don’t think you believed me when I said it before—either of you—but I really do love you.”
Aydin swallowed audibly, searching her face. “You will stay?”
“I will stay.”
Aydin stared at her surprise for several moments before than sank in. “With me?” he asked a little doubtfully.
“And me!” Colwin snapped irritably.
“Of course with you and you!” Emma said, chuckling. “I’m not going to stay with your mother!”
Aydin grinned at her abruptly and dipped his head to kiss her. It was more divine even than his stew, Emma thought dreamily.
He passed her reluctantly to Colwin when he broke the kiss and shut the water off before the sink overflowed.
Laughing, Emma kissed Colwin with equal enthusiasm. “That was almost our first domestic disaster!”
Aydin leaned against the sinking, folding his arms. “You like the house we bought for you?”
Surprise flickered through her. “You bought it for me?”
“Yes—from the man we had built it for. Actually, it was more of a trade—the house that we had built for us plus more work for him in the future. Ours was not big enough for a family.”
Emma didn’t know whether to be insulted that they’d been so sure of her or pleased that they’d gone to so much trouble. “Good thinking! We’re going to need a nursery in about six months or so!”
They stared at her blankly.
“For the baby,” she added.
Colwin and Aydin exchanged a look and she grabbed their hands, placing them on her belly. “This baby.”
“You are pregnant?” Aydin asked shakily. “You are certain?”
“Yes I are!” Emma said teasingly. “Very certain.”
“It is mine!” Colwin said, excitement threading his voice.
Aydin whipped his head toward his brother and glared at him. “It could be mine!” he growled.
“It’s ours,” Emma said firmly, “and whoever fathered it won’t father the next one! I want to have both of your babies!”
* * * *
Emma studied the red headed toddler wobbling back and forth between Colwin and Aydin hard, trying to decide whether she looked more like Aydin or Colwin.
“It’s a hard call,” Abby said after a few moments. “I’m think Aydin.”
“Really?” Emma said doubtfully. “I was thinking she looked more like Colwin.”
“Well, we’re going to have to figure it out!” Abby said briskly. “They’re getting antsy to breed again.”
Emma could relate. She hadn’t actually wanted to wait until Ursula was half grown to have another baby! She’d wanted them close enough together in age to be company for one another and two years had seemed like a good spacing. Ursula was already a year old, though.
“If I figure it from the possible conception to birth, she’s definitely Aydin’s.”
“The king claims the royal scientists can do a paternity test now.”
“Really? I don’t suppose he filched that little procedure from back home, huh?”
Abby shrugged. “Not personally, but he wasn’t pleased to discover his scientists hadn’t advanced as much as he’d thought. Anyway, what do we care as long as we get to enjoy the technology? You could always get the guys to take you to the royal city to have the test done.”
Emma sighed. “I was really hoping the baby would look just like her daddy.”
“I don’t think either of her daddies mind her looking like you. They adore you, you know!”
Emma warmed at the praise, smiling at her family with pleasure. “I adore them. It’s only fair!”