Burning for Love (Kindred Tales)

“I believe your ancestor, Queen Lola, was what the humans aboard the Mother Ship would call a ‘feminist’,” James remarked. “She seems to have had the same problem you do, Princess. She was being told that she must marry a suitor she didn’t want and she was trying to control her Heat Cycle.”

“Did she succeed?” Rissa asked curious. “I mean, did she ever marry again?”

James shook his head, which caused the image on the wall to waver momentarily.

“No. The diary went on for many years and I saw no mention of Queen Lola ever marrying again after her husband’s death. She was like a Kindred in that respect—we also mate for life. Well, those of us who have emotions and call a female as a bride, do anyway,” he added. “But the point is—she found a way to control her Heat Cycle and to keep from accepting unwanted suitors. Do you see why I showed you these passages, Princess?”

“Of course I see,” Rissa said. “It’s just that…I have been taught that…that touching one’s forbidden area is so very wrong.”

“You were taught that on purpose, I think,” James remarked. “The people in charge here at Court know that as long as you don’t control your Heat Cycle, they control your life. But if you take control of your Cycle…”

“I’ll have more control over my own life,” Rissa finished for him. She nibbled her bottom lip. “You have given me much to think about, James. But I must consider it carefully. It is not easy to overcome the teachings of a lifetime, you know.”

“I know, Princess.” His deep voice was grim. “Just don’t consider for too long. We need a solution soon—your life may depend on it.”

Rissa feared that he was right. And yet, how could she do what he was asking?

She didn’t know but she had no more time to think about it now. It was time to get ready for the State Dinner tonight and there would be dancing afterwards.

And through all of it, she would have to be with the odious Duke Grabbington. Ugh.

22

“Is there something wrong with your Chastity Wire, girl? Why is it not hissing and crackling as it usually does?” Lady Mildew demanded, as she pointed the remote at the silver wire around Rissa’s waist.

Rissa bit her lip. Though James had been able to re-lock the Chastity Wire around her waist for appearances sake, he had been unable to make it work again. In his haste to get it off her earlier, his robot hand had shorted it out completely and now it was little more than a bit of jewelry with no functional value.

But she couldn’t let Lady Mildew know that.

“It is hissing and crackling, Lady Mildew,” she said quickly. She winced and jerked her hips, as she always did when the wire shocked her. “Ow! Maybe you simply cannot hear it because you are going deaf,” she suggested sweetly.

“I’m not going deaf, girl!” Lady Mildew snapped. “I know what I hear and what I don’t hear!”

“Lady Mildew, could you please hurry and take the wire off?” James interrupted. “I fear that the Princess is overheating and you would not wish to be close to her if she suddenly combusted.”

Lady Mildew’s eyes widened and she gave a brief, jerking nod of her head.

“All right then—true enough,” she muttered. She pointed the remote at the Chastity Wire again and it unlocked.

Rissa shed the wire gratefully and quickly climbed into the tub filled with icy water. She might have been pretending about the Chastity Wire still being functional, but she was deadly serious about needing to get cooled down. James hadn’t been lying when he’d said she was overheating.

It was having to sit beside that awful Duke Grabbington at dinner and then dance with him all night, she thought resentfully, as she settled into the icy water and watched the steam rise from her heated skin. Now that she was more aware of the link her emotions had to her Heat Cycle, she knew where to place the blame for her current rise in temperature.

I shouldn’t have let him get to me, she thought, as James scrubbed her all over with the long-handled brush. I should not have allowed him to make me so upset that my Cycle went into ‘overdrive,’ as James puts it.

Yet, the Duke and his nasty comments had been almost impossible to ignore. The whole night through, Rissa had been speaking as little as possible to him. But her near-silent treatment seemed only to encourage the disgusting Duke in his disparaging and offensive remarks.

“How I shall enjoy slaking your Heat, my dear,” he’d said to Rissa as they danced while he—holding her much too tightly—breathed in her face with his disgusting Port and wet cigarillos reek. “I shall strip you naked and do whatever I like to your lovely little body!”