Bonds of Blood [Lords of the Expanse] (Siren Publishing Classic) Read online

  She stilled as she realized what she was doing, and as much as she didn’t want to, she said, “I shouldn’t marry you.” She was wedding him to get away from pain and fear. She was running and putting him into harm’s way. “I apologize, my lord. Perhaps I am being too hasty. Yes, maybe we should date so that we can learn if we even are anywhere close to being suited?”

  Frowning at her abrupt turnaround and still trying to puzzle out her original position, he drew her to a stop, his hand light on her elbow, of that he made sure. “My lady, I know not what you refer to when you say we should ‘date,’” he told her quietly, aware of the others being close. “If you are not ready to wed, then perhaps you should let your father know this and have him retract his offer of your hand. It would seem that you are feeling a bit of pressure and mayhap are not quite as pleased by the choice given as you originally indicated.” In other words, she was having second thoughts about marrying him in particular and was now panicking with it so close to being completed.

  As much as she knew she was going to regret her next words, she reached out and touched his cheek. “I think you’re right. I’m sorry, my lord, but this might be the safe thing for you.” Pulling her hand back, she stepped away from him and nodded. “It was a pleasure to meet you, my lord. Thank you for your kindness, but I believe it’s time for me to leave.” Lifting her hand in farewell, she turned to leave, knowing that the fight that was to come down shouldn’t have him in the middle. He didn’t deserve to be served up as a shield between her and her father.

  Fernando stared in shock as he watched the lady heading for the door and the Colonel just standing there letting her move freely away. Dashing to her, he gave a quick bow. “A word, my lady?” he asked, indicating a corner where, hopefully, the Colonel would not hear their words.

  Staring at her for a moment, Fernando twisted his hands together. “My lady, am I mistaken or are you leaving?” he asked, praying to the gods he was wrong.

  “You are not mistaken, Chancellor. “If you will excuse me, please?” She wasn’t sure what had the little man so upset. He shouldn’t be, not when no one other than her father really wanted the marriage.

  “My lady,” Fernando said and then stopped, passing a nervous glance to the man on the far side of the room staring out the windows. He appeared stoic in his stance, but Fernando knew that he was waiting to hear the doors shutting behind her and on his life. Because of the clause Andries’s father had placed on this wedding, if it did not come to pass, the Colonel would be no one as soon as she left. The fact the man had said nothing stunned Fernando, but the chancellor knew that Andries would never force anyone into a position if it could be avoided or if it wasn’t life or death.

  “I should not tell you this but—” He winced, wondering if he’d die quickly or painfully and slowly when the Colonel found out. Lowering his voice even more, he moved a hair closer so she’d be able to hear. “If you return to your father, the agreement will be null and void. I don’t wish to apply further pressure upon you, but I feel you deserve to know everything before you make the final choice.” Swallowing hard, he decided it would be best to just say it quickly without any delay or he’d never get it out.

  “If the wedding does not proceed, my lord will lose his position completely,” Fernando whispered to her. “I know that makes no sense to you,” he said gently. “Because of the circumstances of his birth, we the chancellors were less than kind in our ways of getting his agreement to be the husband for whatever woman was chosen by the Syndicate. What is even worse is that, because of who we spoke to in regards to encouraging him to step forth, there were conditions placed on him.” It was low and underhanded and the more he spoke, the worse Fernando felt.

  “We know that you will see it as coercion, but on our world it is not. It is simply the way things are done,” he told her softly. “But if you nullify the agreement, my lord will lose his rank as an officer and his station. He will become even less than what your people refer to as a beggar. He will lose his name, his royal title, and his military commission. I don’t want you to alter your mind if you truly believe that you cannot be content with him, but I couldn’t let you leave without at least telling you what he will never admit to.” Bowing slightly, he stepped back and, though he wanted to say more, knew he’d said enough to die in the most painful of ways.

  She looked at the man standing at the bank of windows and frowned. “Is this truth?” When the little man nodded, she swallowed and said, “I want to speak with him, completely alone. Alone with no one else in the room, no listening devices, just he and I.”

  “You will have time.” The Chancellor said finally after what looked like an internal debate shining in his eyes. He moved from her side and made a subtle gesture that had the others out the door until it was just Andries and Xandra.

  Chapter Four

  Moving to his side, Xandra spoke softly. “I have asked them to leave us completely alone, Andries. I wish to speak with you openly and candidly. Will you please have a seat with me so I can, so we can talk?”

  Turning, he nodded. He was stunned that she was still there but made sure his face and eyes didn’t give away his surprise. Moving to the long table, he pulled out two chairs and held one for her until she sat. Once she was in her seat he took the other, resting his hands on the arms of the chair. “What is it you wish to talk about my lady?” He asked, his tone clearly indicating that he’d believed they had said all that needed to be said between them.

  Taking the seat that he had offered her, Xandra wrung her hands for several moments, seemingly lost in thought, before speaking. “You are a good man, Andries,” she said simply before, “I can’t lie to you and tell you that I was overjoyed at the prospect of wedding you. Not because of your race but because my father assured me the two of you were the best of friends.” She slowly touched the backs of her hands and the underside of each palm. “He is a horribly cruel man.” Her eyes turned up to look at him. “When I realized you weren’t like him, I began to think that possibly I could hide from him, hide behind you.” She reached out and touched the hand that was fisted on the table. “But I can’t do that to you. You don’t deserve to be brought into something where my father would do anything to give me pain, but you also don’t deserve to lose all that you have because of me changing my mind.”

  She didn’t know how to explain to him why she wanted to speak with him alone. “No one would believe me if I were to tell them of the atrocities my father has visited upon myself and my peoples, so I have kept silent. I wanted to speak with you alone because I want to give you the chance to decide. You and only you. Do you want to wed me, keep me with you even though there is the more than real possibility that my father will still try to attack you if only out of spite and his own malicious reasons? Do you want to wed me and send me back home”—she swallowed hard at the thought of what would happen with that—“or do you wish to walk away? Your choice, Andries. If you simply wish to wed me so that you don’t lose all you have, I will accept that as your choice.”

  Having overheard enough of Fernando’s confession, Andries hadn’t even flinched, his eyes darting for a moment to the door that Fernando had disappeared through and then back to the woman settled before him. When he spoke he spoke softly to her. “My lady, had I wished to only marry you because I was concerned about losing my status, I would not have allowed you to walk away.” While it would gall him to become less than what he’d fought to be through hard work, he couldn’t trap someone that didn’t want to be there. “It has always been and will remain your choice, my lady. You must decide what is best for you. Forget what Fernando told you. It has no bearing on anything decided here. You must choose for yourself. That is all that I have to say on the subject, my lady.” If she chose to leave, he would be stripped immediately of his rank and position and he would take it with the same bearing he had the beatings as a child, with silence and dignity as he’d been taught.

  “I want this wedding, Andries. I want it b
ecause I would like to be able to have a good life with you.” She sighed and then closed her eyes. “I don’t want to cause you pain though, and believe me when I tell you that my father knows how to inflict pain.” When she opened her eyes, she pulled back. “We will wed. I would like to remain with you. However, if you don’t want that, I understand.”

  Staring into her eyes for a long moment, Andries stood and held out his hand to her, waiting silently until she tentatively slid hers across his skin. Closing his fingers around hers, he tugged her to her feet and then tucked her hand through his arm before leading her to the doors. Opening them, he looked to the chancellors, who were standing in a huddle looking ready to all be ill. “We are ready to see the minister,” he told them and tried not to be amused by their looks of relief or the fact that a couple had to be held up by others. He did notice the scathing look that the lady’s assistant passed his direction but ignored him. He was unimportant. Leading the way, Andries walked her to the next chamber and held the door for her as he eyed the chancellors, letting them know silently that he’d be chatting with them later.

  Diego moved up and close. “I am to witness this wedding for my lord and master.” The smug look he cast was one of unholy glee. “If I am not to witness the marriage, my lord will not acknowledge it and therefore will render it as null and void.”

  Xandra breathed in deeply, her whole body gaining in height as she straightened to her full five foot nine inches. “Diego, my father can be sent a recording of the wedding as well as affidavits from the chancellors, unless he doesn’t view them as being as trustworthy as a personal assistant?” Her tone clearly said what she didn’t, that she was challenging how her father viewed the Syndicate as a whole.

  Diego understood and the look in his eyes told her she would pay for her words. “Very well, my lady, if you have need of me, I will wait in the hall for you and then escort you to your room.” Where he had every intention of showing her just why her father put him in charge of her.

  “There won’t be a need for that,” Andries said softly, his tone having taken on a dangerous edge. He’d been listening and picked up on the undercurrents. “You may observe the wedding and, upon the completion, you will take the recording and affidavits from the chancellors to her father. Your services at that point will no longer be required, your duty having been completed.” He didn’t add that if the man tried to return, he wouldn’t live for very long, but his pointed stare did. “The lady will have an assistant here that knows of our customs and will help guide her to learning and understanding them.” His words made it sound logical and would make anything the man said in reply foolish and petty.

  Diego had to report back to his lord and master, to her father. “She will need someone from her own home world so she isn’t left feeling alone in her new place.”

  “Thank you for the offer, Diego. However, I can’t ask you to give up everything just so that I won’t be alone.” She moved a step closer to Andries. “I’m sure my new husband will ensure that I am not left feeling like an outsider in our new home, won’t you?”

  “Of course I will,” Andries said softly, looking down at her, stunned at the fact she’d moved closer to him instead of further away. “Your safety will be assured by marriage, my lady.” His eyes turned back to Diego, who was bristling over the offense. “Your former”—he took great pleasure in saying that word—“assistant won’t have that same security even if I were to extend the courtesy of family to him.” Andries’s tone said that he would only do such a thing when their world stopped spinning and their sun no longer burned.

  “Where do I watch the farce from?” Diego said before he realized it and added, “Where do I view the nuptials from?”

  “Fernando will situate you,” Andries said with a bite to his voice, his temper starting to come to the surface, a rarity.

  “We will pass along the recording and the affidavits to you afterward. I believe that we will simply be the chancellors, Andries, and myself.” She looked up at her soon-to-be husband and hoped that he would back her up. He had no reason to, of course, but she had hope at least.

  “He will watch. We don’t need any questions arising that this was not done properly,” Andries said a moment before Fernando stepped forward and waved the assistant to a seat along the wall of the small chamber. The other chancellors took their seats as he guided her forward to the minister that stood by a bank of windows.

  “Minister,” Andries said with a short bow of greeting for the man who turned. “The Lady Xandra Ripley,” he introduced her to the man who stepped forward with a bow.

  “My lady, a pleasure,” the man’s musical voice said softly. “My lord, if you would both step to the table and sign the papers.” He indicated the table.

  Leading her to the marriage papers, Andries stared down at them for a moment. “These”—he pointed to three—“state that you are coming into this marriage of your own free will and that you acknowledge that you are now part of our society. These”—he indicated the next three—“are the marital contracts that, upon the completion of the wedding, you will sign stating that we are legally wed. These”—he indicated the last—“are my will that will, should I perish, place everything I have under your control.”

  “Let’s hope that nothing ever happens to you then, Andries,” she whispered as she began to sign her name, trusting him completely, trusting that he was telling her truth about the forms she was now signing. After she was finished affixing her signature to each of the forms, she looked at him and swallowed. “Are you very certain that you want to do this, Andries?”

  Taking the stylo from her fingers, Andries quickly put his signature to each of the papers before setting it aside and, once more, taking her hand. In his mind, he was already wed to her, but she didn’t know that. In his world, as soon as a father gave his daughter permission to wed a male, it was done. The ceremony they were doing was for her human sensibilities and for her father so that he would see it as legal. If he didn’t…well, that would be the last time the man ever said anything.

  Stopping before the minister, he turned to face her, lifting her other hand. Putting his left in her left, he laid her right over them and then put his on top. Looking into her eyes, he lifted a brow. “Last chance,” he warned in a low tone for her ears only even as the minister moved to stand before them.

  “I’m more than happy with the choice made for me, Andries. I think that my father has done something for me that is actually really good.” She leaned in close and grinned. “We won’t tell him though, will we?” If only he knew just how true that statement was.

  Turning to the minister, she bowed her head respectfully, even as she kept a hold of Andries’s hands. “Thank you for taking the time from your schedule to see to the joyous occasion that is my wedding to my Lord Colonel Mauricio on this day.” She turned once more and looked up at Andries. “I hope that I will make you happy, Andries. You are saving me from a fate you couldn’t begin to imagine.” She hadn’t meant to say the words aloud, but she had. “I hope that I’m worth the trouble, that the alliance with the Syndicate is what your people really need.”

  He lifted a brow at her words and remained silent. Some things were better not discussed in public. Later they would discuss everything and get a few things cleared up as well.

  “We are gathered this day to join together two worlds, two societies, and two people,” the minister said, his hand on the holy book of their people. Under his hand, Andries could just see the sheet of paper that held the notes on the ceremony he was doing for Xandra and her people. “While our cultures are different in a great many ways, there are so many things that are the same, the joyous union of two people the greatest of them all.”

  Looking to Xandra, the Minister peeked at his sheet. “Do you, Lady Xandra Ripley, stand here before those that are gathered of your own free will with only purity of heart in undertaking this joining to the Lord Colonel Andries Mauricio? Do you swear with all that you are that you will
step forward into this new life with an open mind and generosity of soul? Will you take the lord colonel as your own for all that he his, good and bad, for all time from this moment forward?”

  Xandra looked at the minister and then her soon-to-be husband. “I, Xandra Ripley, come to my husband Colonel Andries Mauricio of pure body, mind, soul, and spirit. All that I am, all that I ever will be is willingly placed in the more-than-capable hands of the one-day father of my children. For him I will give up all that I was because he is the only one who can make me as I will be. I accept Andries into my heart, soul, and mind.” She was giving herself over to him completely. It wasn’t necessary. However, she knew that it was the right thing. With him her real future began.

  Andries stared down at her as the minister shifted toward him and repeated the questions, this time directed to him. Nodding slowly, he watched her. “I, Andries Mauricio, come to my wife, the Lady Xandra Ripley, of pure body, mind, soul, and spirit. All that I am, all that I ever will be is willingly placed in the gentle cradle of the arms of the one-day mother of my children.” He was quoting as closely as possible to what she’d said. They hadn’t exactly told him what he’d need to say beforehand, so he was, as the humans would say, winging it. “For her I extend my protection, my will, and my caring to her, for she will be the only one to see me as I am. I accept Xandra into my heart, soul, and mind.” If he had a heart and soul, that would be true.

  “Then, before those graciously viewing this union and under the eyes of the gods, I am pleased to speak these words. May you long live in the gods’ view as husband and wife for the rest of time in this or the next of worlds,” the minister said. “My lord,” he added before he stepped back. This part of any ceremony made the minister queasy, but he’d always had a weak stomach, an oddity in a world of Vampires.