Burning for Love (Kindred Tales)

“I didn’t faint on purpose!” Princess Ka’rissa objected. “Nor did I faint for my own amusement or to make a scene—how could you think such a thing?”

But Lady Mildew—a rather unusual and unfortunate name, in James’s estimation—just kept grumbling about the impropriety of the situation until at last the Steward muttered to a herald who declared that Reception hours were over and the ball was about to begin.

At this pronouncement, the Nobles began to file out of the Reception Hall, though many threw backwards glances at the dais where the Steward still sat on his throne and Lady Mildew continued to chastise the Princess.

James simply stood there and kept an eye out for threats. Such times of confusion and transition were excellent opportunities for an assassination attempted, so he scanned the crowd carefully and made sure to put himself between the Princess and Nobles.

At last, however, the hall cleared, leaving only a few servants and the Royals on the dais.

“There—you’re mostly decent now,” Lady Mildew remarked, making a final adjustment to the Princess’s dress. Then she turned immediately to the Steward. “Your Stewardship, I must protest this situation!” she exclaimed, her faded eyes flashing. “The Princess cannot be given over to this strange man. It is simply not proper!” She pointed directly at James, her lip curling in anger and disgust.

James wondered what he had done to cause such strong emotions. He had only caught the Princess when she fainted and cooled her down—why would that make the older female so unhappy?

The Steward seemed to think the same way.

“Please, Lady Mildew, I have no time for this right now,” he muttered, frowning up at her from his throne. “I have a ball to oversee, as you well know.”

“What I know is that this matter will be swept under the rug if it is not dealt with at once!” Lady Mildew exclaimed. “We all thought that the Kindred were sending us a robot—not a huge, monstrous male of questionable parentage!”

“Actually, I have no parentage,” James interrupted, turning towards them. “My DNA was mixed by a Tolleg surgeon and I was grown in a tank on Zeaga Four.”

“What?” Lady Mildew gave him a blank look. “You were not…”

“I was not conceived in the conventional manner that most of the people in the universe are,” James said. “But I am a Dark Kindred—we have no females on our planet and so the growth tanks are a necessity.”

“A whole planet with only males?” Princess Ka’rissa’s eyes went wide. “How very singular!”

“How very improper, you mean!” Lady Mildew exclaimed. She turned back to the Steward. “Your Stewardship, surely you are not going to allow this…this creature to replace me as the Princess’s Constant Companion and chaperone!”

“I thought you’d like having some time to yourself, Lady Mildew—you constantly complain about how waiting on the Princess is extremely onerous and how you are too old for such difficult duties,” the Steward said, frowning. “And besides, you cannot protect the Princess’s safety in the way this large, er, male can.” He eyed James uncertainly. “Also, he has assured us that he has no emotions for the Princess except the wish to protect her.”

“But what about her reputation?” Lady Mildew protested. “What will people say to the idea of him undressing her at night and dressing her in the morning and bathing her and putting her to bed? It is all most shocking!”

“Indeed, it is not!” The Steward was red in the face. “Because I say it is not and my word is law!” He glared at Lady Mildew, who glared right back at him.

“I can remember, Your Stewardship, when you were just a servant,” she spat. “Before you undertook to rule the entire planet and lord it over all the rest of us! And let me tell you, you’d better have a care for the Princess in the way you didn’t for her mother! If you are to let this…this monstrous thing guard her, then it had better not be for long. If you fail to find her a proper suitor to slake her Heat before she combusts—”

“Enough!” the Steward roared His face was nearly as red as the carpet as he pounded on the arm of his throne with one clenched fist. “I will not hear another word from you, woman!” he bellowed at Lady Mildew. “You are hereby officially and permanently replaced as the Princess’s Constant Companion.” He took a deep breath and straightened his rumpled cravat and wrinkled waistcoat. “Princess Ka’rissa will do very well with her new guard and her reputation will not suffer because I say it shall not. After all, does she not still wear the Chastity Wire?”

“Yes, my Lord Steward, I do,” Ka’rissa said, speaking up for the first time, though she had been watching the shouting match between the two older people in wide-eyed silence. “All the time now, except for during baths, of course,” she went on, blushing.