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“Glad to hear it. Ardol really cares about you.”
Her guard dropped as if someone had pulled a lever. “He does?”
“I hope I’m not telling you anything you don’t know,” the old Leonid said drily.
“No, no. I just enjoy hearing it.” Calm. Cool. Collected. The future wife of a District Lord. Jade primly adjusted the skirt of the baggy dress she was wearing. It had been made for a Lynxian Queen and altered, but it never hung right on her thin frame. “He’s buying me new clothes. Sorry, that sounded shallow, I’m sure.”
“Layla and Wendy freak out when their partners spoil them with the basics, too.”
“I can afford the basics,” Jade snapped. “It’s the fact that he wants to do it even though I... Even though maybe I’m not the easiest woman to be married to. And he seems really happy. Truly happy. Is he?” Jade couldn’t keep the note of hopeful pleading out of her voice as the four-seater shuttle flew and bounced along a dozen feet above the ground, buffeted by air currents.
“He’s happy in a whole new way. Happy down in his soul—the way only your other half can make you,” Marcus answered, eyes ahead. “Not to pry, but he came to see me late last night—or ungodly early this morning, however you want to look at it. He was pretty shook up about how to care for a human Queen. I don’t like to pry, but if you have any questions, we have about ten minutes until we hit the town.”
“I have some human friends in town with Felid husbands. I’ll ask them.”
Eyes still on the horizon, Marcus replied, “That’s good. But you don’t have to be embarrassed if you ever need help. I have about as many human patients as I do Felid patients these days.”
“I do have one question. Why was Ardol worried?”
Marcus didn’t speak at first.
Jade could wait in silence. Some clients never said a word during a session. Besides, the bright sun was overhead, and the purple-blue sky was clear. Cool breezes that warned that winter would arrive in a few cycles were pleasant. She no longer huddled and scanned the sky for the telltale signs of an approaching methane blizzard. “Beautiful day.”
“It is. Look, I shouldn’t tell you this because Ardol is my patient, too. But, I also know what it’s like to be nervous about talking to important people about important things. I gather Ardol thinks bearing cubs will be too upsetting or too difficult for you—for whatever reason. Not so much having them, but in how you might react to the booster shots giving you heat-like conditions. Needing his husbandly attention.” Marcus coughed into his paw. “If there’s anything I could do to help you, any questions about the boosters you might have, I’m here to answer them. Nurse Cherie and I have an information session this afternoon for a big group—mostly single fellas from Shade Point, she said. I guess they want to know if they could have a family with a human Queen since it seems like the human community just keeps growing in our galaxy.”
“It’s a beautiful place,” Jade admitted, surprised to hear the wistful note in her voice.
“Sure is. A little town like this probably doesn’t have too many visitors. I’m sure you and Ardol could take some leave here each year. Miss Griselda would have rooms, I imagine.”
Jade made an agreeable noise but said nothing. Next year, she would be living in a veritable palace. “Even royalty takes a vacation, right?”
“Hm?”
“I said... I said Ardol really needs to take a vacation, right?”
“I would say that he needs a nice, long rest,” Marcus gave her a mischievous look, “but if he vacations with you, I doubt that he’ll get one.”
“MISS JADE! MISS JADE! Grandma, it’s Miss Jade!” Claude barreled into her so hard that Jade fell on her backside in the dusty grass that surrounded the front porch of the lodging house.
“Bastet’s eardrums, boy, they probably heard you on Lynx-Eighteen!” Griselda admonished, but she came hurrying out, arms flung wide to embrace Jade like a long-lost daughter. “Welcome home, sweetheart!”
Home?
The word slammed into Jade almost as hard as the fawning Lynxian youth who was joining in the embrace.
This isn’t home. It was lonely and the work was hard and the people were fake.
“Are you staying the night? Grandma told me not to clean your room up yet in case you ended up having second thoughts about—”
“Claude!”
Jade laughed and hugged them both.
The people were there. I was fake. Afraid to be real. Scared to feel love or pain or any of that important stuff that makes you human. These Felids are more “human” than most of the people on Sapien-Three.
“Ardol is wonderful.”
Griselda stepped back and looked at her in surprise before putting her hands on her hips. “Well. So he is.”
