by Autumn Dawn
Quite an eccentric collection, Andrea thought. The sound of voices made her look toward the snakeskin curtains Leo had disappeared behind. She was just in time to see them flung open.
“So this is my patient.”
Andrea stared. She couldn’t help it. The “doctor” was little over average height, with curly hair that parted in the middle of his ear-length pageboy and frizzed at the sides. In spite of this he was gorgeous. Or maybe he was just so good-looking that nothing could detract.
Oblivious to her amazement, he continued to dry his hands on the towel he held. Finished, he tossed it to Leo with a teasing smile. “Make yourself useful, gorgeous.”
Leo rolled her eyes and tossed the towel on the couch. “Get a servant, Scy. I’m not your chore girl.”
“Pity.” Scy considered Andrea while Leo hovered. With a sigh of exasperation, he turned to Leo and frowned. Leo wandered off to examine the snakeskin.
Scy winked at Andrea before settling down to business. “Leo tells me that you lost half your symbiont. That’s very rare.”
“But not unheard of,” Leo interrupted. “Don’t hassle the girl, healer. Just fix her.”
Scy didn’t even raise his voice. Without looking, he said pleasantly, “Leo, kindly muzzle it, would you? Unless you’d rather take her to another healer?” With silence from that corner, he continued, “What happened to your symbiont, Andrea?” He frowned as he said her name, and he slipped an “h” in after the “a”s, but his manner was gentle and concerned.
Aware of Leo’s subtle signal, Andrea improvised. “I got hurt… Leo was pointing to the fire, “burnt, and it...” Leo grabbed her throat, stuck out her tongue, rolled her eyes back in her head and let her head loll. “Died.”
“Hm.” Scy’s eyes shifted to the side. “I’m sure Andrea would like some refreshment, Leo. You know where it is.” Steel laced the command.
Leo hesitated, but exited through the curtain.
As soon as the material swished behind her, Scy fixed Andrea with a compelling blue stare. “I understand that you don’t know me and have no reason to trust me. Leo tells me that you’re also carrying a child and that it’s making you weak. This too, is rare. Is there anything you’d like to tell me?” His voice softened. “Has someone hurt you, Andrea?”
Confused, Andrea shook her head. What did he mean?
The curtains were shouldered aside as Leo returned with a bowl of fruit and a dripping pitcher of water. “Refreshments are here.” She plopped them on the bench.
Scy glared at her. “You couldn’t find a glass?” He removed the wet pitcher from its precariously balanced position, set it on the floor and wiped at the wet leather with his hand.
“She might be very thirsty.” Leo gave him a cheeky grin.
“Leo, love,” Scy wrapped one arm around her shoulders and escorted her to the curtain. In the crook of his other arm he held the bowl. “Do you see this curtain? Beyond it is my kitchen. I promise not to tell anyone you’ve turned domestic if you go in there and set out a meal for us. You won’t even have to cook—I’ve taken care of everything. Just take out the roast and the vegetables, warm them, and set out a few plates. Can you do that?” Again his words were mild, but the stare he locked on Leo as he held her in a half-embrace was unyielding.
“Fine,” came her grudging acceptance.
Before she could pull away, he added, “And Leo? I’ll let you know when we’re ready to come in.” He handed her the bowl.
Leo’s eyes narrowed, but she left.
Andrea couldn’t help her silent chuckles. It seemed this was one man who knew exactly how to handle Leo.
Scy gave her a conspiratorial grin. “How can I help it? The woman tempts me.” Some of his amusement faded as he once again hunkered down by her. “Now, you were going to tell me about this pregnancy.”
She shook her head. “No, I wasn’t.” At his frown she added, “No one hurt me. This wasn’t forced on me, if that’s what you’re worried about. As a doctor…healer, I can see why you’re concerned, but—”
“As a man I’m concerned,” he told her softly. “Women shouldn’t become our prey.”
Touched and a little flustered, she nodded. “Thank you. You’re very sweet, but I wasn’t forced. Nor do I want to talk about it. Right now what I want is a way to get through this thing without losing my baby.” Her throat clogged. “I want it very much. Can you help me?”
He winked at her. “No one better.”
Scy’s kitchen was every bit as orderly as the outer room, and as interesting. The counters were all topped with polished granite embedded with fossils. The large bay window in front of the table was framed by a flowering vine and equipped with wrought iron shutters. The bowls and platters were made of pieced wood that alternated light and dark in a diamond pattern. Utensils consisted of a silver spork—a cross between a spoon and a fork—and knives.
Andrea sat on one of the leather-covered stools around the table, a breathtaking affair made of fitted octagons of polished purple, ivory and honey-colored wood. “This is so beautiful!” she exclaimed, awed. “Who makes it?”
Scy smiled. “Thank you. I do.”
“You’ve very talented.”
“So say all the girls,” Leo put in.
He raised a brow. “All the girls?”
Leo shrugged, quickly pretending disinterest in the conversation.
“I’ve yet to receive a compliment from you, Leo,” he purred.
“Yeah, well, I don’t need your services.” She stabbed her meat with her spork and sawed with determination.
Scy cast Andrea a conspiratorial smile. “I could argue that no woman ever needed them more—“
Fire flashed in her eyes as Leo rounded on him with her knife still clenched tightly in her hand.
“But I won’t. After all, it’s well known that I’m looking for a wife ready to commit and raise children, not a rogue huntress with a lust for adventure.” His eyelids lowered. “I’m selfish. I want my woman to save her passions for me.”
Andrea looked away from the chagrin on Leo’s face. It was painful to sense her struggle, since she’d felt something similar with Mathin. She didn’t know what held Leo back, but she felt the need to ease the pressure for her. “So what will I have to do to stay well?” She speared a piece of tender white vegetable out of the creamy sauce on her plate and sampled it. Starchy and slightly sweet. Nice.
Scy considered her as he chewed and swallowed. “Well, I have these leeches…”
Leo moved as if she were furtively kicking him.
Making a show of peering under the table, he continued, “I’ll have herbs and a special diet for you to follow. I’ll use my symbiont to help support your own and encourage its regrowth. You should have enough energy to engage in mild exercise, also a must.” He cocked his head thoughtfully. “It would be best if you avoided anything that might cause undo stress, of course. Do you have a place to stay?”
“She’s accepted my hospitality,” Leo informed him before Andrea could say anything. Things had happened so fast she hadn’t thought that far.
“How will that work?” He studied Leo as if puzzled. “You’re rarely home. I doubt your house has finished airing after your last disappearance. She’d be better off here if she has nowhere else.”
“I think I can manage to remain home for a few months.” Leo gritted her teeth. “I’m not as irresponsible as you seem to think I am, healer.”
“I could just rent a room,” Andrea broke into the brewing argument. Mathin had given her a pouch full of prismatic silver coins. The thought of being dependant on strangers chaffed. “You do have a hotel or an inn or something here, right?”
“You’re not staying at an inn.” Scy’s tone brooked no refusal.
“No, she’s staying with me.” Leo touched him on the shoulder when he started to protest, causing him to instantly still. “She’s a woman and will be more comfortable with me. Besides, you have people coming and going at all hours seeking your
help. At least at my house she’ll have some peace.”
He was still for a long moment, seemingly intent on the pattern of the table, but his eyes weren’t quite focused. “Andrea? Your choice. You’ll still have to see me daily.”
Leo dropped her hand. Andrea could almost see the link between the pair snap. She considered. It would be interesting to see what became of these two. But first… “What do you charge?”
Scy frowned. “Charge?”
“What is your going rate for services? I can pay you.”
“Oh.” His brow cleared. “Truthfully, I won’t be doing much until the birth. Can you cook?” He gave her a boyish grin. “I admit to having an incessant sweet tooth.”
Andrea grinned. “Just give me your favorite recipes. I think I can fulfill your every dessert fantasy. Leo can introduce me to any ingredients I might not be familiar with.”
“Leo!” Scy stared at her, incredulous. “You might want to find someone who can actually cook.” A low growl came from Leo’s direction. “Sorry, gorgeous, but the world knows you can’t do much more than char meat.”
“I like it charred.”
Andrea smiled. “If she wants to learn, I’ll teach her what I know. I was trained as a chef. It’s what I do.”
Scy hesitated over the unfamiliar word ‘chef’. “As you wish. If you’re finished eating, I’ll be happy to examine you now and get your herbs.”
The examination entailed nothing more than a brief merging of symbionts and some questioning. Scy disappeared into a back room and returned with a wooden canister of herbs. “Take these in tea morning and evening.” He handed her a folded list. “These are their names and properties, as well as your special diet.”
Andrea kept her expression neutral as she unfolded the list. The script was completely alien. She’d have to ask Leo what was on it and make a new list. “Thank you.”
“Ready to go?” Almost reluctantly, Leo unfolded herself and placed her hand in Scy’s. “I thank you.”
He didn’t let go right away. “Meals taste better with company. I enjoyed yours.”
Eyes lowered, Leo tugged her hand away. “Um. We have to go.” She tripped on her own feet as she inched away. “Thanks for cooking.”
Once outside, Andrea permitted herself a wide smile.
With a grumpy scowl, Leo swung her leg over her bike. “He’s like that with all the women.”
“Desperate for dinner companions, huh? One of those geeks who can’t get a date?” She mounted up.
Leo tossed her an irritable look over her shoulder.
They rode the bike past six more houses until they reached the outskirts of town. There, a little apart from its neighbors, stood a tree house. Leo parked amongst the tall weeds at its base and dismounted. “There’s no paradise like a well-tended home,” she muttered as she removed both her gear and the small pack Andrea had brought.
Andrea followed her up the wide, flattened mushrooms that spiraled up the broad trunk. “This is amazing! I’ve never been in a tree house before.”
Leo stopped so abruptly that Andrea plowed into her and would have tumbled down the steps had Leo not grabbed her. “Careful who you say such things to. You’ll brand yourself a curiosity if you don’t.” She started back up.
With a loud sigh, Andrea followed. “That’s going to be rough. How do I know what will make me stand out?”
In the act of unlocking the door, Leo shrugged one shoulder. “Don’t speak to anybody.” With a groaned protest, the door swung open and burped up a draft of musty air.
Horrified at the thought of having no one but Leo to talk to for months, Andrea opened her mouth to argue, but shut it again at her first sight of Leo’s house. She blinked. The lemon and white, bronze and crisp blue, ultra feminine interior was nothing like what she’d expected.
Every piece of furniture was edged with ruffles and decorated with bows. Beribboned baskets and urns full of dried flower arrangements filled every corner and surface to bursting. The combination living/dining area had been small enough to start with. With the addition of the “greenery”, it was dangerously claustrophobic.
Noticing Andrea’s wide eyes, Leo explained dryly, “My sister by marriage likes to please her husband. He thinks I should be more “womanly”, so she presents me with gifts to “stir the woman in me”. She dropped her dusty pack in the middle of a pretty woven rug with a loud thud. Dust flew from it, coating the floor.
Andrea winced in sympathy.
“Quite.” Leo entered the kitchen and poked around in the cupboards. “I have pots and kitchen implements I don’t know how to use. I vow if she brings me another dress she, “just couldn’t resist but is too pregnant to wear”, I will bury her in it.” Withdrawing a carved box similar to those Andrea had seen at Scy’s, she lit an oil-filled globe under a tripod and placed a clear kettle on top. “It’s a wonder I have a mind of my own left after their constant hammering. By now they should know that this metal doesn’t forge easily.”
As annoyed as Leo sounded, Andrea though it must be nice to have someone around who cared enough about her to interfere in her life. Now that she’d spent more time with her own grandmother, those feelings had grown.
She must have changed more than she’d realized. Heaven knew she never used to feel that way.
The gliding loveseat looked like as good a place as any to deposit her stuff, so Andrea set it down and took one of the two stools at the tiny kitchen bar. “So tell me about yourself. I gather you prefer solitude in the swamp over life in the, er, big city?”
The teapot began to squeal. Leo removed it, got Andrea’s herbs from the loveseat where she’d set them, and prepared two kinds of tea. “The swamp doesn’t try to change me. I hear no demands from the snakes for me to, “mature, settle myself and produce children”. She flicked an angry look at Andrea. “As if the man for me were just under my nose, patiently waiting for me to come to him.” She slammed the kettle down. “They are so deluded.”
Lower lip caught between her teeth, Andrea pondered that. Once she felt exactly the same way, but now… Well, it had been said that happy couples made the worst matchmakers. “What about Scy?”
“Scy?” Leo spoke as if drawing a total blank.
Annoyed on his behalf, for she liked the healer, Andrea retorted, “Yes, him. He’s cute.”
Leo’s lip curled. “He’s a healer. If he weren’t also a fine hunter and very skilled at woodwork…” She shook her head. “I will not marry a nearly useless healer.”
Baffled at her attitude, Andrea frowned. “Doctors are very respected where I come from, and well paid.”
A queer look crossed Leo’s face, then it cleared. “I forget you have no symbionts. Such men as Scy are all but unneeded here. Why he wastes himself on useless knowledge…” She gave her head a sudden, sharp shake. “Now I sound like my brother.” She handed Andrea her tea. “Ignore me. If Scy is bold enough to flaunt his profession under the noses of our elders it’s no concern of mine. It’s truth I’ve done it enough myself.”
Andrea lifted her teacup to her mouth. It wasn’t bad. Eucalyptus and a touch of...cinnamon? “So what’s the big rush for you to settle down? Is you family trying to say youightre getting too old?” She could relate.
Leo snorted. “I’m barely twenty-six. Just because my brother wed the first girl he could find of breeding age, it’s no reason for me to panic and snatch up a mate.”
“I forget. Mathin said your people live as long as 300, right? I guess you wouldn’t be worried about that. Where I come from lots of people marry and have children by eighteen or twenty.” When Leo stared at her, she added, somewhat defensively, “Our average lifespan is 75. Gotta mature and pass on the genes quick if we want to see grandkids.”
Disconcerted, Leo sipped her drink. “I wouldn’t like your world.”
“It’s not so bad, but…” She looked around, thought wistfully of Mathin. What was he doing now? “This one has its charms.”
“Tell me that after
you’ve met my family.”
After that dire warning, Andrea was expecting to meet a clan of dragons. As it turned out, Jackson was far more personable than she’d expected.
Medium tall, with a hint of gray in his dark cropped hair, he accepted Leo’s introduction and promptly invited Andrea to join his family in their tree house for the evening meal. Leo’s face he searched closely. “What part of the swamp did you say you found her in? I can send men to search for this missing husband of hers. Surely he’s worried.”
“I’ve already looked.” Leo shrugged. “The men will do no better than I. No doubt he’s sought shelter until the rains blow over.”
Jackson frowned. “And left his pregnant wife alone in the swamps? Think, Leo.”
“Thank you for your offer,” Andrea interjected before an argument could start. “It’s very kind.”
“We do all we can to help our own.” Jackson’s wife, Shelarah, gently detached a young lad from her pink striped skirts and handed him to his father. She patted Andrea on the shoulder. “You’re holding up so well, dear. I would be frantic with worry.”
It must have been the hormones of pregnancy, for Andrea felt her eyes tear up. She didn’t usually get emotional in front of strangers. “Not really. I miss him.”
“But where is Luna?” Leo helped Jackson’s young daughter set the table. “Tell me you didn’t set her off again and she’s decided to skip the meal.”
He glowered at her as he strapped his son into a booster seat. “Our sister needs no help from me to fly into a rage these days.”
“She’s at that age.” Shelarah set the baked fish platter on the table. “I remember how difficult it was for me.”
“She walks around with a black cloud on her face.”
“Well, she does have to live with you.” Leo took a helping of salad. “The girl is what—seventeen? She knows she’s welcome to stay with me when I’m here, and she’s old enough to keep my house when I’m not.” She met Jackson’s glower calmly. “You know you can’t keep her wrapped up forever.”
