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Good. Would give him more time to pick her quirky little brain. He saluted her with a single finger. “Coming right up.”
****
Scarlett held on to the ledge of the swing under her, dragging her screaming pulse back to the calm waters of holiness. Least he was fully dressed. But he was somehow bigger than she remembered. Maybe the black flannel shirt. Or the… clinging black t-shirt beneath it. Black army looking pants and boots too. A distant fashion memory said black was supposed to make things look smaller, not bigger. Either way…
She thought about his wife. She must be quite… fit to accommodate his needs. Holy saints, her mind stayed in the gutter lately. Partly because she heard they were getting back to creating soldiers immediately. And they had the ability to create a whole twelve of them in a single week. A dozen warriors needing wives. And she was informed that her spot at the end of the list applied to the first set of sisters, not the two hundred. That meant she was getting married in a week, not a year.
Oh, she’d tried talking Sister Isla out of the whole training idea, so sure she’d have seen her side of things but the exact opposite happened. And Scarlett hadarguedwith her. She’d never done that before. But if he was a married man and she was to be wed in seven days, weren’t both highly inappropriate? Nope, it went rather perfectly with the highly inappropriate events happening in the world. She should train as long as she could and use the opportunity to bring the Lord to this fierce leader, that’s what she said. Well, Scarlett had no issues at all with that and was in fact eager to do this with the families. Not the warriors. But Sister Isla won that round with more inescapable logic. If the leaders of the Hatch were properly spiritualized, they’d havethat to pass to their members, helping the nuns with their job.
She finally gave in when Sister Isla got the all-knowing look on her face and aimed it right at Scarlett. Whatever she saw or thought she saw, Scarlett didnotwant to wait around to find out, so she immediately surrendered and left.
Just whathadshe seen? No doubt wondering why she was making such a fuss and if it was because of the Leader. Yes, it was, and no it was not, was the answer to that. Scarlett still thought she had no business in a physical anything with another married man especially being a woman promised to a soldier in only a week!
And what of his wife? Wouldn’t she be jealous of such a thing?
Scarlett wasn’t sure how those things worked, really. Daddy had passed away and she was sent to surrender herself to the service of the Lord due to the false gender crisis she was accused of having. Just because a girl knows how to act like a boy didn’t mean she wanted to be one. Apparently, a girl couldn’t want to be strong and fearless and able to take care of herself, apparently that was some kind of abomination, only it wasn’t, Scarlett knew better even at the age of fourteen.
It was that bratty Patty’s fault. She’d liked Scarlett, orScar,as Patricia nicknamed her for all the scars she’d gotten from frolicking in the woods doingunlady-like things. Well, stupidPatriciawanted to be hergirlfriend.Scarlett told her off good and that was mistake number one. She hauled off and started telling lies about things they’d done when they most surely had not done a singleoneof them. The saying that folks’ll buy a lie before they even price the truth was a crime Scarlett never dreamed she’d ever experience. But it was determined not six months after the death of her father that she wasguiltyand in need of a life altering, heart crushingsomethingto change her abominable ways.
Well, no doubt about it. Being sent to that convent was surely life changing. The heart crushing part was having those she loved more than anything not believe a word she said, or begged and swore. She’d gone from being a daughter and sister, to a plague. She was dropped off and cut off. They never came to visit her, not even once. Not even the horrible abuse she and the sisters suffered hurt as much.
It was a nightmare only the Lord himself could do a thing about. And praise His holy name, Hehad. There she was in the swamps about to do what she had committed herself to. No longer a prisoner behind those evil cement walls where devils dressed up like angels of mercy and made a horrible mockery of God, she was free to truly serve. Sister Isla saved all the sisters from believing the wicked song and dance by their unholy superiors. She taught them to take the suffering just like their good Lord took it forthe souls of humanity. As soldiers of Christ, their vocation meant keeping that daily death alive by carrying His holy flame to the rest of humanity.
Her mind returned to the matter at hand. The giant leader named Spar.Mr. Spar, that’s what you need to refer to him as,she reminded herself.Mind your holy manners.
And what in the world was dirty water soup? Mercy. She was instructed to eat whatever was put before her and she’d never faltered there.Lord, gird up my stomach and chain down my regurgitation reflexes. Or maybe just hide my tastebuds. You know the best route there. I’ll just leave it to Your holy angels that are faithfully patrolling the comings and goings of all things.
The screen door opened and she shot up off the swing only to realize she didn’t know why she should or what was proper to do. He further multiplied her etiquette failures by coming at her with a smile that literally knocked her off her high holy horse. A whole ten seconds passed before he raised the giant red mug higher in her dumbstruck face. A disgraceful burst of odd noises spilled from her babbling lips as she reached for the mug.
“How about you sit, and I’ll hand it to you. It’s hot.”
Desperate for anything that didn’t require her to use her brain, she did exactly that. He sat next to her and held the mug before her with the handleavailable to take. Her brain again went to work about how she might get it without touching him.Take. The cup!
“Sorry,” she said when her fingers brushed his.
He gave a low chuckle and said, “We’ll be doing a lot more than brushing fingers soon, Sister.”
Her pulse became a bouncing ball in her veins but hiswarningnearly made her drop the mug! “I’m not afraid of touch,” she blurted.
“I didn’t say you were afraid,” he corrected. “But… it would be understandable.”
She fought to redirect her thoughts and stared down at the contents in the mug, her guts screamingno, wait, wait!
“It’s actually very good,” he said. “Try it.”
“W-what’s in it?” she asked, her light conversation tone squeaking out.
“Dark chocolate, mint, and I think pumpkin. And broth.”
“Broth,” she said, the word sounding as dirty as the ingredient. She brought the mug to her nose for a sniff.
“Gator tailbone broth. The good stuff’s always in the a… rear.”
OhGod!She couldn’t believe it. She was stuck between drinking gator butt bones and thinking about how much more they’d be touching soon.
“Your face is priceless. I swear it tastes great.”
She was behaving like a toddler, not a spiritual warrior. She brought the mug to her mouth and held her breath, taking a tiny sip. She exhaled and looked at the floating marshmallows and sipped again, more this time. Was he toying with her? It tasted like the best hot chocolate she’d ever had.
