Instead, I tried to stay more calm and said, “Alexia, I feel like I want to get to know you. If you’d rather not, um sleep here, you’re free do as you like. So yes, I do want you to stay here, but only because I think that it would be very nice to have you live with us. I mean, um, get to know you better. I want you to feel at home here. I mean while you are here, if you want to stay. If you will eat and sleep here, please feel free to treat this as your home and sleep anywhere you want to. Um, from now on.”
I was flustered. She made my heart race. I was making a fool of myself. I really hoped that she didn’t get offended. Damn, I may have just blown it badly.
She said simply, “I will stay with you.”
I said quickly, “I’m so happy to hear that. We have plenty of rooms. You can have a room and stay wherever you want to and we’ll make you as comfortable as we can. There’s um, something else. Oshen told us that you could work for me for 40 days.”
She corrected me saying, “At least 40.”
I continued, “Yes, but I don’t know if the work will take you all day long, every day. If it would be OK with you, I’d be really pleased if you would spend days when I have no work for you, doing other things that we’ll be doing. If you’d like to.”
She said, “If I have no other work, I will do what you want. I understand that you would not want to send me back to Oshen before the time he has given has ended. There’s no reason to risk hard feelings. I can do other tasks if you like. I can clean.”
I said, “Well, I was wondering about other things. You heard that I’m teaching Aeyli to use weapons? I’ll be teaching Rani and Belle as well. I wonder if you’d like me to teach you.”
Alexia brightened just a tiny bit and smiled somewhat slyly and said, “I would like to learn anything that I can from you. If you will teach me, I will…enjoy it.”
And, there was the first hint of meaning in her telepathy that I had been able to detect. She meant that she was open to having me teach her whatever I would, because she wanted to have the time and intimacy that would be involved in the learning.
I smiled and said, “Then, I’ll teach you. And, if we go for a short journey, outside the village gates, even over night?”
She said, “Then I’ll go with you unless you tell me to stay here.”
I said, “Good. Oh good. Then if we go, we can all go together. And we’ll eat together and train together and sleep um, in the same place whether we’re here or away. And I want you to help us decide what we need in order to make our new home the way that it should be. I value our time together.”
She said, “Mark, you asked for me specifically.”
I said, “Yes. You want to know the reason. I asked for you because these girls say that they love you and they say that of all the people in the village, you are the one person that they think that I should to get to know first. For some reason, they believe that you and I should be friends more than any others. Does that change your decision to stay with us?”
She looked at me for a long time. I remained silent and let her consider what she would say.
Finally she said, “It does. My decision is clear now. I will stay. Mark, you’re a strange man. You try to hide your meaning; and that can’t be done. You know that I hide my meaning, and yet you don’t press me. You invite me to make my choice. You say that the choice is shall I stay here or eat here or travel with you outside the gates or take part in your weapon training. And yet, that isn’t what you ask. It was Rani who said that I was the one to work for you. I heard it from the other room. But you say that you asked for me. I know that you aren’t lying. You asked for me even though you never said a word.”
She stood silent for a while longer and looked into my eyes giving nothing away.
Again, she decided to speak. “Mark, you and I are similar. We make men uncomfortable. In the council, they say that you spoke truth that other men would not say, and now you hold back what other men would say. That makes them uncomfortable. I don’t say what other women would say, but now I won’t hold back. It makes them uncomfortable. I look in your eyes and see what you are saying. I heard you when you first saw me. But you haven’t believed what you hear from me because I haven’t told you.”
She went silent again. I knew that she was processing and that I should keep quiet as well.
After a long pause, she said, “You knew the outcome, but you thought that I wouldn’t know it. I knew the outcome, but thought that you wouldn’t know it. Mark, do you want my answer? Or do you want to pretend? We both know what my answer and yours will be. Shall we say it now? I swear that it won’t change in 40 days. And I know that yours will never change either.”
I said, “Alexia, you are an amazing woman and I will have a great deal to say when the time comes. If you know my question, I’m very happy for it. If I knew your answer, I’d be even happier. However, Aeyli has warned me sternly that things must be done by steps.”
Alexia waited and said, “Aeyli and Rani and Belle are my only friends in the village. They do love me. Aeyli is very wise. Things must be done in steps. But you and I know where our steps will go. Doing things in steps doesn’t mean that I can’t answer your question.”
Aeyli, Rani, and Belle watched all of this and now stood with their mouths open, not knowing exactly what was happening. Alexia was speaking to me and to no one else, and she spoke in a way that even Aeyli couldn’t fully follow. Without the telepathic content, it was like a different language; one that the girls didn’t understand. None of them dared to ask though. It was between me and this strange girl. They were friends with Alexia and must be used to not knowing what she was thinking.
Alexia said, “I will give you my answer. My friends, do you know the question?”
Alexia never took her eyes from mine.
Rani said, “No. What’s happening?”
Alexia said, “You may not know the question that Mark has asked me with every word and every glance and every breath since I walked from the back room and removed my apron, but you will understand by my answer. Mark, here is my answer,” and the tall beauty unbuckled her belt and dropped it on the floor.
Alexia stood facing me, completely naked now…and I had her answer. She accepted my invitation to be my mate, though I had thought that hadn’t even really said it. I thought that I hid it behind my words.
The two of us stood several feet apart staring at each other, neither moving. I finally glanced over her shoulder where the other girls stood, but they were no help in telling me what to do. At a loss for anything else to do, I dropped my belt as well.
Alexia finally smiled very broadly and in the happiest tone that I had heard from her yet said, “And now we have our answer. Yes, I will be yours, My Prince. Yes, I will be with Aeyli, Rani, and Belle in your house. Yes, my name will be Alexia-ah-Mark. Yes, you will have my body and my breast. Yes, I know that you must not touch me until steps are taken. Yes, I felt my milk even as I stood before you at Oshen’s shop and he said that you could ‘take me’. Yes, I have heard your invitation and I have heard your vows. Yes, you may call me ‘Princess’. Now we have my answer, and now what do we do?”
I breathed a sigh of relief that the tension was broken said, “Let’s start by sitting down.”
Everyone laughed in their own relief and we moved to sit in the living room to discuss our situation. Alexia left her belt on the floor where it lay.
Belle noticed and dropped hers as well and said, “We’re all one. Why should we wear belts? Alexia is a mate, not a guest.”
The other girls agreed and soon all five of us were naked.
Rani said, “I’m so happy, but this is awful. Alexia is betrothed and ready for the furs. Do we really have to wait? Why can’t we just not tell anyone, but be together now anyway?”
Aeyli said, “I know. It’s very tempting. I half want to run out and have Alexia follow and have it all done outside the village gates. We could leave for the ruins and come back several days from now. But we’d be
tter not. And if Mark so much as takes her in his arms, we will suffer for it. The village is very happy now, but if Mark has four mates, more than the head of the council, and it’s not done properly, sentiment could turn against us. Let me think.”
Alexi said, “I am like the shrine maidens. Never to be mated. And now to be mated to the only man that I could ever have chosen. I don’t care about this, about when and where. I’m mated and that’s that. But out of curiosity, will you be able to tell the council that I will be happy? Will we really be between the furs twice each month? Each one of us?”
Belle said, “Alexia, you haven’t asked why we need a woodworker. Ask that first.”
Alexia shrugged and said, “OK, if you say so. Why do you need a woodworker? What do you need? Though I don’t see how that’s relevant to this.”
Belle said, “Oh, I’m glad that you asked. You see, we have a problem. Our beds aren’t big enough. If we consider how many times the three of us have been between the furs already, we need beds for Mark and at six mates! We called you here because we need beds to hold at least seven. But that’s only if we lie to the council. If we tell the truth, we need more.”
Alexia said, “Belle, I know that you believe that, but you must be mistaken.” She said it in that factual monotone that characterized all of her communication.
Aeyli said, “She’s not mistaken. We have agreed to six for now. We love you and wanted you to be number four. We are convinced that there must be two more besides. But Belle is right. I will find a way not to tell the council just how many it should be according to council law.”
Alexia said, “Six? Oh. I’ll trust you. Have you chosen who they will be? I think of Myndee or Manya or Sashar. Ah, forgive me. I over step my bounds. It’s not my place to suggest.”
I said, “Alexia, it is your place! This is your place now. Yes, Aeyli says that we have to wait to move forward, but you have called me prince and I call you my princess. It is certainly your right and obligation to suggest such things. We are our own council and you are a member, the same as we are.”
After a pause, I said, “Alexia, I have so many things that I want to say to you! But if I’m not allowed to touch you, I shouldn’t touch you with my words either.”
Alexia said, “Yes, that’s wise. But be foolish. If you were going to say things, what would you say to me?” and she gave her biggest smile so far.
I said, “If I were free to say them it would be that I love you. I fell in love before I ever saw you. These girls saw it and know that it’s true. Before we came to the woodworker’s shop, I knew that I loved you because of how they described you to me. But I had no idea how truly I would love you until I saw you there and heard your voice. My breath was taken away! Your beauty is beyond words. If you doubt it, I’ll stand up and let my body betray me and show you how attractive I find you. I can never compare you to these girls, because every one of you is as beautiful to me as every other, but compared to other women, you outshine them all. I love how tall you stand; even taller than me! But it just makes you so much more beautiful. The way that you think and the way that you talk fascinates me. I want to know you! Quick, let me put my token around your ankle and let me take you to my bed, because I don’t want to wait! That’s what I would say if I could. If I were foolish and not willing to wait to do what’s best for us.”
Chapter 20 Short Engagements
Alexia said, “Hm, yes, I can imagine how that might be nice to hear, if you could say things like that. Would you like to hear what I might say? I might say, My Prince, my breasts are heavy, please relieve me. You can say pretty things to me later and I will cherish them all, but right now use your lips to take my milk! And when you have drunk and my trembling has subsided, throw me down in the furs and teach me what the old women only hinted at. Show me what I thought that I would never feel or see. I would say something like that. Oh, that thing about me having my own room, that’s nonsense, right? That would be cruel and I won’t be treated that way.”
Belle said, “Then you better make us a bigger bed before you plan to go to sleep!”
Alexia actually laughed and said, “I’ll work day and night until the task is done. But hurrying the way that I will, it may not be my best work.”
Rani said, “Joking aside, can we put two beds together for now and put furs over the middle to make it seem like one?”
The girls agreed that it would be fine to start that way.
I said, “But if Alexia and I can’t even hold each other, how can we all sleep in one bed?”
Aeyli said, “You will sleep in the middle, and one of us will sleep on each side; one of us between you and Alexia. Um, but, if while we’re all asleep, some accidental touching happens between the two of you, we won’t make a fuss over it. It was an innocent accident and nothing more. Rani, Belle, and I wouldn’t even be aware of it. If Alexia accidentally explores Mark’s penis while we sleep in order to get used to what’s soon to come…soon to come pressing at her fence, I mean…then it is just an accident and nothing else and we won’t even be aware of it; as long as it doesn’t go so far that I’m not able to deny it if asked in the council.”
Alexia said, “Yes, I can see that. And, if Mark accidentally touched me, perhaps thinking it to be one of you, as long as my fence is intact and my milk has not been taken as far as I know, though again, if it happens while I sleep, by accident, no one’s to blame and we won’t make a fuss.”
Belle said, “And if mark accidentally spreads Alexia’s legs and trips and his mouth lands on her tender pussy and…”
Aeyli shouted, “No, that does go too far! That will have to wait.”
Alexia said, “What? His mouth between my legs? What does that do?”
Aeyli said, “We’ll show you later. For now, just know that he will not be doing that yet by accident or otherwise.”
Belle said, “But seriously, we do need to ask. Since Alexia will be sleeping with us and living with us, what about when we make love? Can she stay, or does she wait outside? I still need to see how tables and chairs may be used.”
Aeyli said, “That’s up to Alexia. Will you want to be an observer, or will you want to wait until you can fully participate?”
Alexia said, “Mark has asked me if I will let him teach me and I have said yes. I say, the sooner I start my lessons, the better.”
There was a lull in the conversation and Alexia finally said, “Show me what you want me to make. I still need to work. You want a bed for seven, maybe two of them. Show me where.”
We started upstairs in the room we were sharing. Alexia looked around at the room and then asked to see the rest of the house. We showed her all of the rooms and then the rooftop. Alexia took it all in and never said a word. After seeing the roof and hearing plans for a patio with a bed, she went to the low wall and looked out over the city.
She said, “We’ll bring a bed from below. It won’t fit through the hatch. It will be raised over the side from the garden. I will shorten the legs.”
The strange monotone communication was back for the moment.
She continued, “The room you sleep in is too small. We will move to the center room on the second floor at the back overlooking the garden. We will need a builder.”
I said, “Narhu has said that he will do any renovations that we want. He has started drawing plans already.”
Alexia said, “I’ll speak with him. The wall between the center room and the one on left of it will be removed. The wall to the right will have an archway put in. It will be a sitting room for conversation and relaxing. The three rooms will be combined into one. A bed for seven won’t fit through a door. I’ll take two beds and modify them so that they fasten to each other securely. Two mattresses will be used, and a third, thinner one will be added to the top. And a fourth on top of that. It will make it feel like one bed with no joints. The bed will be at the height of our waists. I will make the legs longer. Platforms for steps will be added at each side.”
Alexia
didn’t ask questions. She told us her vision and expected that it was the correct way and that it would be done exactly the way that she saw it in her mind.
She said, “A bed for three will be across the hall, and another in the room beside it. The final room on the second floor will wait. If thirteen will live here, we will see how things seem after more come. For now I’ll plan for seven only.”
She looked over the city and thought further.
She said, “The table is for twelve already. Perhaps the number for the house is twelve total. Mark plus eleven. We’ll see. I only see Mark plus eight, not eleven. We’ll know who they are. I’ll build better storage. A storage room for food and a storage room for weapons and trophies and extra sleeping furs and such. There will be hidden places for valuables that a thief will never find. There is the matter of my gift for my prince, but nothing will be said about that. When can I meet with Narhu?”
I was surprised by how clear her plans were and said, “He expects us this afternoon.”
She said, “Fine. I know him, but come with me and introduce me as your foreman and tell him that I will show him what’s required. I’ll be gracious with him and honor you in how I deal with him. He will be a respected friend.”
I was a bit taken aback by Alexia’s directness and self-confidence, but it was actually very attractive. I looked to Aeyli and she nodded that it seemed good to her to let Alexia handle it as she thought best. And then Alexia surprised me again.
She turned her head from where she had been staring over the wall and looked at me as I stood beside her and she smiled. Then with full emotional content, she said, “How does that sound to you, My Prince? Do you have other ideas? What’s in your heart? Tell me and I will make it so. I wish that I could kiss you.”
The last bit was added as a matter of fact, just like the rest, as if it was part of the same thought.
I smiled and said, “Alexia, My Princess to be, you have described a perfect plan. I will ask our friend Narhu to give you a free hand to say what will be done. It feels very good to me.”
The Start of Time Page 17
