Nicoli took a step forward, bodily moving Angel until she stood behind him. In a voice laced with steel and the promise of dire things to come, he faced the High Counsel. “Be very careful what you say about my wife.”
Both Angel’s and the High Counsel’s gasps were lost in the sudden murmurs of the crowd.
The High Counsel spoke first. “My granddaughter is your wife? When did this marriage take place?”
“We were married a few days ago, in accordance with Althusian law.”
The High Counsel turned to Angel, his tone sharp. “Is this true?”
Angel looked at Nicoli, wondering what game he played. But he let nothing show on his face. She would just have to trust him. “Yes.”
The High Counsel remained silent and Angel knew he weighed the pros and cons of this new situation. An ambitious man, he would no doubt see the advantage of an alliance with the United System of Planets. After a moment, his expression changed to one of satisfaction. In a voice loud enough to be heard by the entire crowd, he addressed Nicoli.
“Colonel Nicoli Romanof, do you claim An’jel ToRrenc, granddaughter to Gil’rhen ToRrenc, High Counsel of the House of Scyphor, for your own? Do you offer her your protection and take full responsibility for her, in accordance with our laws?”
The ceremonial words echoed across the room and Angel felt another wave of panic wash over her. Nicoli mustn’t answer. “He’s not familiar with our laws and customs,” she protested.
“Quiet,” her grandfather ordered.
“Yes,” Nicoli answered at the same time.
The silence that met Nicoli’s response was a death knoll for Angel and she was powerless to alter the course Nicoli had set for them.
“In accordance with Coronadian law, I recognize your Claim as husband to my granddaughter.” Here the High Counsel paused to turn toward the stunned audience. “As such, you are now successor to the High Counsel position.”
When Victor would have protested, the High Counsel waved him to silence. “We will discuss this later, privately. In the meantime, I suggest you go change clothes.”
Victor gave Nicoli a lethal look and stormed out of the room. Affecting a smile, the High Counsel took a step forward to shake Nicoli’s hand. “We have never had an off-worlder serve as leader of our people. It will take some getting used to.”
Nicoli nodded. He had no intention of being the high Counsel’s successor and suspected the old man would not allow it anyway. He'd deal with that when the time came. Meanwhile, he'd just been given a place to start his investigation. Victor, who had been in line for the High Counsel’s position, was now Nicoli’s number one suspect for being the Harvesters’ leader.
Nicoli turned to Angel. Judging from the shocked expression on her face, he knew he needed to get them someplace where they could talk privately. And soon.
The bruise on her cheek stood out and Nicoli raised his hand to cup her chin, gently tipping her head to the side so he could get a better look at the injury. The outline of someone’s hand was clear in the darkening skin.
“What happened?” His words were softly spoken, but he didn’t bother to hide the rage burning inside him. The two guards who’d held her before, stumbled back. Nicoli saw their eyes dart toward the head guard, who, in turn, sent Nicoli a challenging look.
“I ran into something,” Angel’s tone was sarcastic, but her eyes begged him to let it go.
“Ah. I was afraid someone had struck you.” His eyes came to rest on the head guard as he spoke and he let his tone say what his words did not. That any man who caused Angel injury would suffer the consequences by Nicoli’s own hand.
By now, the guests were over their initial shock and came forward to congratulate the High Counsel and welcome Nicoli as their Counsel-elect. Nicoli studied the face of every man whose hand he shook, trying to gauge the other man’s reaction. But if any Harvesters were in this room, it was not apparent by their behavior.
Angel stood quietly beside him and he felt the various emotions emanating off her like waves of heat off the desert. He had no doubt an interesting evening lay ahead. He was about to suggest they leave, when he heard her.
“Rianol.” Angel looked at the Advisor with a bemused expression on her face. Then to Nicoli’s surprise, she gave a shout of glee and threw herself into the other man’s arms.
Rianol had the good sense to look uncomfortable under Nicoli’s scrutiny and, after returning Angel’s hug, stepped back to a safer distance. Angel, seemingly oblivious to the underlying currents between the men, enthusiastically rushed on. “Rianol, it’s so good to see you again. Look at you, all grown up. Oh, Nicoli. This is Rianol. He and I used to play together as kids. When my father taught me to use the warring blade, Rianol was my sparring partner.” There was a wistful look on her face that Nicoli found irritating.
“Colonel Romanof, please forgive my familiarity with your wife,” Rianol apologized. “She is like a sister to me.” Then he held out his hand to Nicoli. “Allow me to congratulate you both.”
* * * * *
Several hours later, a serving girl showed Nicoli and Angel to a room in the palace. While Nicoli felt they would both be more comfortable on board his ship, he was willing to indulge the High Counsel’s request that they stay at the palace. Especially since this arrangement would give him an opportunity to study all the palace residents more closely.
After showing them around the luxurious room, the serving girl left and Angel and Nicoli were finally alone.
Standing there, Nicoli remembered how he’d felt when he came back to the ship and found Angel gone. His fear that she might run into trouble had been justified, judging from the bruise on her cheek. The thought ate at his patience. In an effort to restore his control, he walked to the bedroom door and locked it. Counting to ten, he prepared to talk to Angel in a calm, controlled tone. She never gave him the chance.
“Are you out of your mind? Did an infection from your wound rot your brain?”
“Me? What about you?” It seemed the height of hypocrisy that she should be mad at him.
“How dare you say we’re married. Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
He felt the dam of his control break. “If you had stayed on the ship as instructed, none of this would have happened.” The reminder of the fear he felt when he discovered her gone just made him madder. “Do you realize what could have happened to you? What if one of those men hadn’t recognized you as the High Counsel’s granddaughter? What if they decided you were fair game? Were you going to fight them all? Damn it, Angel, they could have raped you.” Turning away from her, he shoved his fingers through his hair, fighting for calm.
Angel grew unusually quiet and when he turned back to her, he wanted to kick himself. The fire in her eyes had been replaced with a haunted wariness. A hand, not quite steady, had strayed to her bruised cheek. Swearing at himself, Nicoli crossed the room and wrapped his arms around her, drawing her close to him. “I’ll kill him,” he said softly.
“I’m okay.” Her words were muffled, spoken against his chest, but she made no move to pull away. “He didn’t rape me, but...”
Nicoli tightened his embrace, trying to draw her closer, as if this were the only way he could protect her. He pressed his lips to her head and felt the warm breath of her sigh across his chest. “Tell me what happened.”
She was quiet so long, he thought she might not tell him anything, but then she began. She described listening in on his conversation with the High Counsel and discovering that her mother was alive.
“I had to go to her.” He could hear the plea for his understanding. And he did.
“Of course, you needed to go to her. But you should have waited for me. I would have helped you.”
“I know, but I thought while my grandfather was with you, I could sneak in and get her.” She gave a short, self-deprecating laugh. “That plan certainly backfired, didn’t it?” She pulled herself from his arms and walked over to the bed, flinging her arm in the air, then letting it fall helplessly back to her side. “Married. I can’t believe it. You couldn’t come up with a better lie?”
“It wasn’t a lie.”
She whirled around to face him. “Come again?”
Nicoli sighed, knowing the worst was yet to come. “It wasn’t a lie. We really are married.”
She was shaking her head. “No, no, no. I think I would know if I were married.” She stared at him, perhaps waiting for him to agree with her, but he said nothing. As if her knees had suddenly given out, she sank onto the edge of the bed. “Oh God. You’re serious.”
“I am Althusian and in my culture, a man does not take a woman’s virginity unless he intends to make that woman his wife. The other day, when we made love, I accepted the gift of your virginity and pledged myself to you, making us husband and wife.”
She stared at him, mouth open in disbelief. “You deceived me.”
“I asked if you wanted me to stop. You said no.”
“I didn’t know that meant I was getting married. You conveniently left that part out.” She stood up and began to pace. “Don’t you see? I’ve spent the past eight years fighting for the right to marry who
I
want. I ran away from my home so I wouldn’t end up married to someone against my will. And what do you do? You go one step further. Not only do you marry me without my permission, you do it without my knowledge. And not just in accordance with the laws of your planet, but now you’ve done it in accordance with the same laws I’ve been fighting.”
Nicoli’s temper flared. Didn’t she understand the magnitude of what he’d done for her?
“And what were you holding out for?” He sneered at her. “True love?”
“Yes.” She sighed, some of the fight going out of her. “Yes. Is that so wrong?”
“Grow up. There’s no such thing.”
She’d been looking down at the floor, but now shot him a look, some of the fire back in her eyes. “I deserve the right to find that out for myself and you took that away from me. Why? Why didn’t you stop?”
Why hadn’t he stopped? Because he’d wanted the sex? No, Nicoli knew better than that. It had been more than the sex. But what? The answer plagued him. He wasn’t sure he was ready to face it and viewed that as a weakness in himself. He wasn’t mad at Angel. He understood why she was upset. He was mad at himself. He’d argued that everything he’d done had been to protect her. But it wasn’t entirely true. He
had
deceived her. And he would have to make it up to her, no matter what the personal cost.
A knock at the door jerked his attention from her anguished face. Nicoli crossed the room to let Yanur in.
“I thought I’d see how everything is going.” Yanur’s smile quickly turned to a frown when he saw their faces. “Did I interrupt something?”
“I told her our marriage is legitimate. She’s not happy.”
“You tricked me.” Angel sent them both accusing looks, as if Yanur had been in on the scheme.
Nicoli didn’t know why he was taking her rejection so personally, but it ate at him. “It doesn’t have to be permanent. When we’re finished here, I’ll arrange for a divorce.”
That seemed to catch her off guard. She stared at him with an expression he couldn’t read. “Really?”
“Yes. But until then,” he warned, “we’re still married. It’s legitimate and perhaps the only thing protecting us, so I expect you to act like my wife.”
He followed her glance toward the bed and knew they were both thinking about the nights ahead. It would be hard, lying next to her, but not touching or holding her.
Perhaps reading his thoughts, Angel thrust her chin out in that defiant way he’d come to recognize. “You sleep on the floor.”
He sighed and she seemed to take that as agreement to her terms. She turned to Yanur. “My mother is very sick. I don’t know what’s wrong with her. You seem to know a lot about medicine, plus you’ve got that gizmo. I was wondering, maybe, if you would take a look at her?”
“Of course.” Yanur said.
“Thank you.” She gave Nicoli a cold look before walking toward the door. “I’ll wait for you outside.”
Nicoli didn’t make any attempt to follow her. “Don’t wander off,” he ordered before the door slammed shut after her.
The two men stared at the closed door for a moment before either one of them spoke.
“So it’s true. You married her according to your ways?” Yanur finally asked.
“Yes.”
There was a thoughtful pause. “Althusians mate for life, don’t they?”
“Yes.”
“So logically, it stands to follow that they don’t believe in divorce.”
“That’s true,” Nicoli agreed.
Nicoli felt the older man’s eyes on him. “Are you planning to be the first Althusian to pioneer the dissolution of marriage bonds? I hope you realize it might jeopardize your planetary hero status.”