Chapter 5
SUSANNA
I’d thought the planet was gorgeous from the air. But up close, Aldrai simply blew my mind. The captain’s place was incredible. There was no house! None at all. The gate led us into beautiful live gardens separated by tall hedges.
The captain took us along a path of cobblestones made from rubberlike material. It compressed slightly under my weight, massaging my bare feet.
“Your room is here, Susanna.” The captain opened a lattice gate draped with live flower garlands.
I walked through the gate as he took Mara farther down the path to her “room.”
The space I’d entered looked every bit a magical garden from a fairy tale, surrounded by dark green hedges with lime green vines of colorful flowers. Some “flowers” took off as I approached, turning out to be flying insects with colorful wings and flowing tails. I stilled, and they settled back down, one by one.
“This is just...” I laughed to myself. “So beautiful!”
I spun in a circle, taking in my new living space. There were no rugs or cobblestones here. Instead, luscious green grass tickled between my toes.
A large bed stood on a wide, flat mound in the middle. The trunks of four tall trees served as bedposts. Their thick, green canopies provided cool shade. Long branches swayed softly in a breeze above, and I could only imagine how comfortable the sleep here would be.
I felt like a forest fairy in this fantastical space.
The bathroom was yet another open space, with a pond for a tub filled by a series of waterfalls cascading from an artfully constructed rock wall.
“Wow!” I whistled to myself. “This is just beyond words.”
The water was nice and warm to the touch. I wished I could rip my clothes off and dive in. But I felt I should at least speak to our host first, to thank him and to ask what was expected of me. After all, I was a nanny here, not a guest.
I also needed to return Mara’s shoes to her before she started missing them and got too cranky.
I left my suitcase behind another lattice partition in a space with shelves that looked like a closet. Then I grabbed Mara’s heels and headed out of my “room.”
Cool, silky grass felt much nicer under my feet than any shoes ever would. I stepped onto the path outside the gate and watched the cobblestones compress under my feet.
“I could certainly get used to this,” I muttered under my breath.
I took a few bouncy steps in the direction where the captain had taken Mara.
My attention was on my feet as I walked and...slammed full speed into a wall. In a place with hedges, I hadn’t expected a hard, massive wall to rise suddenly in my path.
The impact was crushing.
“Oomph!” I staggered back.
The wallturned out to be the wide, hard chest of the master of this place.
“Careful.” The captain grabbed me by my arms, stopping me from falling backwards.
“God, my head is ringing.” I flattened my hand over my forehead. “Why are you so hard?” I poked his chest with a finger.
I must’ve hurt my head badly. Why else would I poke a stranger? Especially one as unapproachable as the captain appeared to be.
Especially after I’d accidentally groped him in the aircraft.
The thought immediately turned my face burning hot. The memory of his thick length in my fingers rushed into my mind uninvited.
“That’s a lot of dick for one man.”
Why, oh why was I thinking about his dick?
And now, I couldn’t look him in the eye.
He remained in my path.
“It’s hereditary. The males in my family tend to be larger than average,” he said. It took me a moment to realize he was replying to my question. “Lots of physical labor also doesn’t make me any softer.”
At least he sounded at ease, unaffected by my awkwardness.
I ventured to lift my eyes to his face. Like the rest of him, his facial features appeared hard and angular, as if chiseled from a slab of rock. I wondered if all of him was solid like that. His dick had felt thick but not overly hard when I grabbed it.
“Why am I still thinking about that?”I groaned inwardly.
His dark eyes remained unreadable as he stared at me. But his lips stretched into a smirk. It could hardly be called a smile, just a shift of his mouth slightly to one side. I didn’t find it hideous at all. It made him seem more approachable, almost as if he were inviting conversation.
“Lots of physical labor? Of course,” I said. “You work in the fields, right? On a farm?”
I could totally imagine him hauling rocks around or uprooting trees. All those muscles of his could surely handle that type of work.
He crossed his arms over his chest, making his biceps bulge out in a nearly illicit manner.
“I work in a desert on the frontier. Or at least I used to until last year. That’s actually something I need to speak with you about. Would you care to join me in the kitchen?” He gestured in the direction behind me.
“I was going to return these to Mara.” I lifted the pumps in my hand. I realized this was basically admitting I had no suitable shoes of my own and had to borrow from my sister. It was embarrassing. But it was also true.
“They’re hers?” He squinted at the shoes, looking at them as if they were a pair of dead frogs. “Leave them here. Mara wanted to rest after the flight, anyway. No need to disturb her.”
“Alright.” I dropped the shoes by the gate to my room.
The captain headed down the path. “Are you hungry? I’ll make you something to eat.”
That was new. No one had ever fed me unless I paid them.
I followed him into yet another open space. This one had a long, heavy table in the middle with a round counter to the side. There was something that looked like a grill and another intricate water feature, which served as a kitchen sink, I imagined. Some of the things on the shelves above it, I didn't even try to name or place.
“Sit down.” He pointed at one of the massive log chairs by the table. “Do you eat meat?”
I nodded.
“How about grains? Bread?” he asked.
I nodded again.
He opened a large wooden door built into a tall, grassy hill next to the counter and appeared to lead underground. From one of the many narrow shelves on the inside of the door, the captain took out a terracotta jar and a basket wrapped in cloth.
From the basket, he produced a loaf of light-brown bread and cut off a slice, then put a few strips of meat from the jar on it.
“Eat.” He slid the open-face sandwich to me. “Humans need to eat more often than Aldraians do.”
“How do you know?” I took a bite. “Oooh, this is good.” The bread had a grainy texture, and the meat tasted like cured cold cuts, juicy with marinade.
He smirked again. I guessed smirks were all he had in terms of smiles. Not that I minded. They were still better than frowns.
“Pickled cuqrel and vehnun bread,” he said. “It’s good that you like it because it’s one of the staple foods on Aldrai. Easy to find anywhere and nutritious for both humans and Aldraians.”
“How do you know what’s good for humans?” I took another, much bigger bite of the sandwich. Space travel had left me starving, and the hunger grew stronger as I ate.
The captain poured two glasses of water, one for me and one for himself. He then took a seat across the table from me. “I did some research on your kind before deciding to apply for a human wife. Also, my current nanny is human.”
“She is?” That was unexpected. “You already have a nanny?” Wasn’t that supposed to be my job here?
“He,”he corrected. “My nanny is a man.”
“A man?” I took a drink of my water to wash down the sandwich. “A bit unusual, but not impossible, of course.”
“Stefan came here under the marriage program like your sister,” he explained. “He’s the husband of one of our Town Councilors.”
“So, are you going to have two nannies, then?” I’d be more than happy to let Stefan take over completely. As far as kids minding went, I felt way out of my element.
“No. Stefan’s quitting. His wife is pregnant. They’re expecting her to go into labor by the end of next month. As of next week, Stefan wants to look after her full time. I was going to search for his replacement, but then your request to join your sister came in, just in time.”
“Just in time...” I echoed.
My thoughts flashed back to that horrible night when Tom’s severed head was delivered to my door. After ending the call with Mara, I’d called the police while she got a hold of Jason. I’d only caught a flash of Tom’s russet hair, mussed and smeared with blood, when the police officer had opened the box. But it was enough for the image to haunt me ever since.
“Thank you so much for allowing me to come,” I said sincerely. “You’ll never know how much it means to me. To both Mara and me.”
He tilted his head.
“You’re welcome. I wouldn't want to deny my wife the company of her sister. Moving planets comes with many challenges and adjustments. It helps to have the support of a loved one. I know multiple pregnancies are rare on Earth, and twins tend to grow especially close.”
“Right.” I decided not to point out that every norm came with exceptions, and twins didn’t always get along. At least Mara and I didn't.
The captain’s thoughtfulness wasn’t lost on me. He appeared to be taking this marriage seriously, even if it wasn’t real. Despite his gruff attitude and stubbornness, he’d taken the time to learn about humans and wanted to make his wife comfortable in her new surroundings.
I sincerely hoped his efforts wouldn’t be wasted on Mara.
“Stefan has been amazing with the children,” he continued. “We’ll miss him, but I’m glad to have a female nanny now. It’ll be better for the girls.”
“The girls?” Shoot, I knew nothing about the kids I was supposed to take care of. “What are the kids’ names?”
“The girls are Ene and Illal. I also have two boys, Ivex and Xilvo.”
I repeated their names in my head several times, committing them to memory. Unwittingly or not, the captain was sheltering me from the murderous mafia. The least I could do was to remember the names of his kids.
“How old are they?” I asked.
“Eleven.”
“All of them?”
“Yes. They came from the same pregnancy and were born on the same day.”
The muscles in his jaw flexed with a hard glint in his dark eyes. This wasn’t the expression a loving father would have when speaking of his children’s birthday. I wondered what caused that flash of anger, but it wasn’t my place to ask.
“Anyway.” He shrugged his massive shoulders, as if shaking off something unpleasant. “The children will be here any minute. Stefan will show you what to do for the next few days. I'll also stay in Diria until the end of the month.”
“And then? Are you planning to leave the town?”
He shifted in his seat, moving aside his half-empty glass of water.
“I’m trained as a crozan operator. That’s what I do. Or did. Until about a year ago, when my mother got sick and couldn’t help me with the children anymore.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I hope she’s feeling better.”
“She died,” he replied flatly. The look in his eye hardened.
“Oh... I-I’m sorry,” I repeated.
He nodded.
“After that, I took a job in the office of the company I work for.” He winced, not looking happy about that decision. “It allows me to stay in Diria and be with the children at night after Stefan leaves for the day. With Mara and you here, I can return to my job on the frontier. The desert is a long flight from here. I won’t be able to come home every night. The typical working schedule on the frontier is three weeks on the job, one week off. If you agree to match your work schedule with mine, it would be ideal.”
I didn’t know exactly what a crozan operator did or what “frontier” meant on Aldrai, but my job requirements appeared clear enough—look after the kids while their dad was away.
“Sure, of course.” I just really hoped I’d be good at this job. Looking after four children for weeks at a time was a huge responsibility. Knowing my sister, I couldn’t count on her help with that. I’d be on my own.
“Thank you.” He nodded, tipping his horns. There were quite a few of them on his head—a row of short, slightly curved horns ran down the middle of his head, front to back, like a mohawk. In addition, two longer ones curved on either side above his ears.
Short horns and bumps also covered his shoulders. Hard bumps grew over his elbows. When he turned his back to me to take the dishes to the counter by the water feature, I noticed a raised bump over each of his vertebrae pushing against the light material of his shirt.
With his body mass and all those horns and hard places, this man could work as a wrecking ball if he so chose. It was a miracle I’d survived bumping into him earlier without breaking any of my bones in the process.
“Yours is an unusual situation, Susanna,” the captain said, returning to his seat. “Until now, humans have come to Aldrai only as spouses. As my wife, your sister has unlimited access to everything I own. As my employee, you will have a bank account in your name, where I will deposit your pay weekly.”
This was a nice surprise. I hadn’t counted on being paid while hiding from the mafia.
“Thank you.” I nodded, then added with a smile, “Word of advice, don’t mention ‘unlimited access’ to Mara.”
“She likes to shop?” He gave me the knowing smile of a man well-familiar with how bad this habit could be in some women.
“We both do.” We were sisters, after all. In so many ways, I was just like Mara. Except that unlike her, I’d gone through the boot camp of aggressive saving and budgeting while trying to survive on my own. “Just give her an allowance, for now. To see how it goes.”
He looked contemplative for a moment.
A soft whirring sound filtered from the distance. The captain’s face lit up. He tilted his head back. I did the same, scanning the sky above us.
A brightly colored bird in the sky descended lower and lower, growing in size.
“And here they are,” he announced excitedly.