Page 2 of Chosen By Swift

Alys stopped kneading. Big and tall, Adam was the picture of masculine health, but things like coughs could become fatal so quickly. “Is it going to get worse?”

“It might.” Adam made himself a cup of tea. “I went to see the medical station at the outpost. They showed me a scan of my lungs and gave me some medicine to inhale.”

At the mention of the sky warriors who now dominated their planet, Alys went wide eyed. “You went to the outpost?”

“Yes.”

“It’s forbidden!”

Adam made a face. “By whom?”

“The pastor! Father! Everyone!”

“No, not everyone,” Adam corrected. “Lots of people visit the outpost for medical help. I’m trying to convince Mama to go while we’re in town for the wedding.”

Alys cast a nervous glance at the ceiling. “Don’t let Father find out.”

Adam snorted. “I dare that old bastard to come at me for trying to help Mama. He lifts one hand at any of us while I’m here, and I’ll knock him flat on his ass.”

“Adam!” she hissed, scandalized. “You shouldn’t say things like that about Father!”

“I’ll say whatever the hell I want, and if you knew what he had planned for you—”

“Adam,” Mama interjected, startling them both with her unexpected appearance. Her swollen fingers sat on the slight swell of her belly, and she seemed pale and tired in the soft glow of the lamps and fire.

“What? Don’t tell her? Keep lying to her?” Adam shook his head. “She deserves to know.”

“Know what?” Alys asked, her heart hammering against her chest. She glanced between her mother who looked stricken and Adam who seemed angry. “Know what?” she repeated, her voice rising with anxiety.

“Adam, go out and help your brothers in the barn,” Mama ordered in that gentle way.

“Yes, ma’am.” Adam snatched a slice of bread from the cutting board and his boots from the tray. He cast one final glance at Alys before slipping out the side door and disappearing.

Throat tight, Alys went back to preparing the biscuits. She grabbed the rolling pin and scolded, “Mama, you shouldn’t be out of bed. If you start bleeding again—”

“Then I start bleeding,” Mama said matter-of-factly and rested her hand along the slight swell of her belly. “You’ve seen me pregnant eleven times, Alys. You only have six younger siblings.”

“And I only have one mother,” Alys replied worriedly. “I’d like to keep you around until I’m old and have children and maybe even grandchildren of my own.”

“Well,” Mama said as she sat gingerly on a chair near the fire, “if things work out the way your father plans, you may have your first child by this time next year.”

Alys nearly dropped the rolling pin. “What?”

“Father has decided it’s time you were married,” Mama explained carefully, “and I agree with him.”

Alys clutched the rolling pin so hard her fingers ached. “But, I don’t—”

“We’ve found a good match for you,” Mama said, talking over her.

“A match? You mean—an arranged marriage?” Alys felt faint. “But Jack got to choose Polly. Bonnie chose Graham. I thought—”

“You’ll be 24 in a few months, Alys. We’ve been waiting eight years for someone to choose you, to want you. It hasn’t happened, and to be frank, it’s not going to happen.”

The harsh reality of her mother’s words hit her with all the cruelty of a slap. It was true. Every other woman she knew was married by twenty at the latest. All of her friends had children and homes of their own by now. She used to dream of a man falling in love with her, but it became clear soon after her eighteenth birthday that she wasn’t the sort of woman a man chased. She was the sort of woman they settled for when all the other girls were taken.

“Father spoke to Wendel—”

“Wendel!” Alys interrupted in shock. Her stomach dropped as dread washed over her like cold water. “Mama! He's sixty!”

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