Page 37 of His Bride

“So you left me in the company of strange women and blamed me when they tricked me and drugged me.”

“You have not been blamed. I did not punish you. All anybody has said is that you need to be more careful with people who are… people who are not myself or Lydia.”

“I don’t want her as a bodyguard.”

“I am not giving you a choice in that matter. I have led soldiers for decades, and I know she will do anything to keep you safe. You don’t have to like her; you just have to listen to her.”

“Well, good, because I don’t like her.”

There is something very petulant and entirely spankable about my bride right now, the way she tosses her hair and looks at me with what she might consider strength but comes across as insolence.

“Am I to be dismissed, sir?” Lydia asks the question as she comes into the room behind Mila. She is significantly taller than my bride, which means I can see her expression very clearly over Mila’s. The juxtaposition between them is quite amusing.

“No. I think it would be a good idea if my bride took some exercise today,” I say. “Why don’t you take her to the botanical gardens?”

“I don’t want to walk in the botanical gardens with her!”

Now she sounds like a spoiled little brat. “You could also stay home, in our bedroom, if you wish. You do not need to be guarded there. You can stay in that room until I am done with work, in ten or so hours.”

It takes her a moment to realize what I am actually saying.

“Are you sending me to my room?”

“I am on the precipice of grounding you.”

She gasps, horrified. There is some part of me that finds her endearing. I have had one man killed, and a woman stripped of her land and title and sent to the colonies in the last two days on her account, and yet she seems surprised that I would confine her to quarters.

I don’t think she understands who her husband is quite yet.

I also don’t think she was deliberately spoiled. I think she is the product of a very quiet, very safe, very charmed life. I have every intention of sheltering her too, but she will need some exposure to the world in order to live a full life. I cannot have the mother of my children being completely innocent to the ways of the world.

“Very well,” she says. “I will go out with Lydia.”

“Good decision.”

CHAPTER 7

Mila

There are no plants in New Boston, except for one place where there is a great glass dome that covers the equivalent of several city blocks. Inside the dome there are more plants of various kinds than I have ever seen in my life.

It occurs to me that I have no idea what is commonly eaten here, as there seems to be no vegetable supply. But this garden answers that question. Part of it is a farm, dedicated to hydroponic bays many stories high.

Then there are exotic areas, with trees and bushes of kinds I have never seen before. This would be a nice place to go for a romantic stroll with Arthur. It’s not the nicest place to traipse about with a heavily armed soldier behind me.

I want to spend all my time with Arthur, but of course I cannot. It is too much to expect. But that does not mean I want to spend so much time in Lydia’s company either. I will have to make some suitable friends. Thinking about friends makes me think about the woman I met on the plane, Elizabeth. She seemednice. And she’s from Angeland as well, so she has the same background as me. We can commiserate together.

“Do you know a man named Edward Idaho?” I ask the question.

Lydia glances at me. “Where did you learn that name?”

“I met his bride on the plane over here. Elizabeth. She’s close to my age, and I was thinking we could perhaps be friends.”

“I will ask the Archon-General,” she says.

“Or I will,” I say. “I’m capable of speaking on my own account.”

“Of course you are.”

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