Burning for Love (Kindred Tales)

At that moment, the dance ended and she hoped, briefly, that he might let her dance with someone else. Perhaps even James…

“We must dance the next together as well,” Lord Shammington said, interrupting her thoughts as they waited for the music to begin again. “I want you entirely to myself, so we can get to know each other,” he added, smiling brightly with his gleaming white teeth. “After all, we shall be spending the rest of our lives together, shall we not?”

“I suppose,” Rissa said and made herself smile politely, though she felt sure the smile didn’t reach her eyes. “It is…quite a long time,” she added. “The rest of our lives, I mean.”

“Indeed! Though it is longer for some than others. Which is why it is so very important to get to know each other as soon as possible,” Lord Shammington returned brightly. “So tell me, Princess—what is your favorite color?”

And so it went, endlessly on and on, and all Rissa could think was,

Is this really how I shall spend the rest of my life?

44

“Look at them—dancing together. Both of them with the Sheen to their skin and looking like such a lovely Royal couple.”

James dragged his eyes from the dance floor and looked down at Lady Mildew, who had come to stand beside him at the outer edge of the dance floor. The older female had expressed nothing but hostility to him in the past, so he was surprised that she would be civil to him at all, let alone that she would seek him out to talk.

“They do seem…evenly matched,” he said at last, nodding as Ka’rissa and her new suitor spun in a graceful arc in the center of the ballroom’s marble floor.

“Evenly matched? Why, ‘tis a match made by the Goddess of Mercy herself!” Lady Mildew exclaimed. “And him being so young and handsome—her ideal man. I don’t always approve of all the Steward does, but he chose right this time,” she added, nodding her head in apparent satisfaction.

“They may look like an ideal couple,” James said in a low voice. “But the Princess does not wish to marry him.”

“Because she wants to marry you, do you mean?” Lady Mildew looked up at him sharply.

“I do not know if Princess Ka’rissa wants to Join with me or not,” James said stiffly. “I only know that she has told me she loves me.”

“Well, of course she does!” Lady Mildew exclaimed, frowning. “Only look at you—so big and strong and handsome! And a dashing foreigner to boot—what silly young girl wouldn’t lose her head over the likes of you, Kindred?”

James frowned.

“The Princess is not ‘silly.’ She knows her own mind.”

“She would—if you’d give her a chance to,” Lady Mildew exclaimed. “If you’d get out of the way and give her a chance at happiness—true happiness—with a man of her own class who can help her rule Regalia Five as an insider, rather than an interloper.”

“What are you talking about?” James demanded. “I am no interloper—I was asked to come here.”

“As her guard—not as her suitor,” Lady Mildew said severely. “But let’s suppose that the Princess somehow gets the Steward to change his mind so she can marry ‘the handsome stranger who came to guard her from beyond the stars.’ What do you think would happen then?” Her tone was jeering, as though the idea of James joining with Ka’rissa was completely preposterous.

“I think I would do my best to make the Princess happy for the rest of her life,” James said, frowning.

“Yes. And exactly how happy do you think she’d be with half the planet revolting at the idea of a foreign-born man on the throne? Not even a man—a robot!” Lady Mildew demanded. “There’s already a movement to dethrone the Monarchy, you know. And the idea of being ruled by a conqueror from another race—a whole other species—”

“I did not come here to conquer anyone and I wouldn’t try to rule anything,” James protested. “If we did marry, I would be the Royal Consort—not the King.”

Lady Mildew waved away his protests as though they were inconsequential flies.

“Oh, please! Everyone knows that in our society, the man rules the woman! So whoever marries the Princess, will be the ruler of Regalia Five, whether he bears the title of ‘King’ or not!”

James stared at her.

“Is there truly so little equality between your sexes?”

“It seems to me, you have two choices,” Lady Mildew said, ignoring his pointed question. “One, you can try to marry the Princess. If you succeed, she will be shunned by her social class—an outcast at Court. Not to mention the fact that it will probably cause a bloody civil war that may engulf the entire planet and cause permanent ill-will between our people and the Kindred.”

Her words shook James to the core.

“I…never thought of it that way,” he admitted.