Page 18 of Escape Clause

“No.”

“All right.”

“Are you ready for your evening meal now?”

“No. I’ll wait for Hope.”If she comes home. What could have happened to her?She’d left right on time! “We’ll take our evening meal together in the future.” He’d make a concerted effort to get home well before 8:51:48. There would always be work to do. Staying late wouldn’t change that. He started to leave the kitchen then halted.Be precise.“But whenever Hope asks for a meal, give it to her.”

In the living room, the last dregs of the sunset blazed across the sky. His stomach knotted with worry.I have to go look for her.He’d start at the officiant’s office. Then the spaceport. But aside from those two places, he had no idea where else to search.

“Don One!” he called out. “I’m going to find Hope. If she comes home before I get back, tell her to stay—”

The front door slid open. Hope stood there—with a man.

“This is it! Thank you so much, Larth. You are a lifesaver,” she said.

“My pleasure.”

His pleasure?

“Come visit me, and I’ll show you around the market,” the man said.

The fizzak she will!

Krogan didn’t know what happened. One second, he felt sick with worry; the next, he was seething withanger. They were supposed to be getting married, and she’d befriended another man?

His errant bride entered, and the door slid shut behind her.

“Where the fizzak have you been?” he demanded.

Chapter Ten

Hope gaped at Krogan in shock.

“Well? What do you have to say for yourself?” He glowered. “Where have you been?”

“Where have I been?Where I have been?” Her voice shook with anger and hurt at the unexpected, unfair attack. “I’ve been vapping all over this damn planet trying to get to the effing officiant’s office.”

Overwhelmed by the harrowing afternoon, she burst into tears. “I’ve n-n-never used your tech-technology, and your instructions were worthless. I got lost, and I had n-n-no way to get back or contact anybody.”

Stupid, mean jerk.How dare he yell at me? This is all his fault.She turned her back, her body shaking with her sobs.

Warm hands settled on her shoulders. She tried to wrench away, but he turned her around and enfolded her in his arms. “I’m sorry. I am so sorry. I am such an idiot.” He sounded so remorseful, a little of her anger drained away.

But she couldn’t stop crying. It wasn’t just the terrible afternoon—it was…her life. Her stepmother colluding with Gleezer and then kicking her out. Having no options. Going to a strange planet to marry an alien. The fear that maybe Gleezer would never give up. Getting lost was only the straw that broke the camel’s back. She couldn’t take any more.

If she hadn’t run into Larth—the only person willing to help her—she had no idea what she would have done. She would have been wandering the walkways of Caradonia forever like the man lost beneath the streets of Boston in the old Earth song. I would have been the woman who never returned.

“It’s all my fault. All my fault.” He rocked her.

Yes, it is.He bore no responsibility for her troubles before she came to Caradonia, but he should have been more helpful.He shouldn’t have left me to fend for myself. I’m his wife!

Well, not yet.She’d missed the wedding.

With a shuddering sigh, she relaxed against him. Despite everything, it felt good to be held. Other than a quick hug by Prudence, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d been held by another human being. Her lips quirked. She still wasn’t being hugged by a human. Buthis arms felt good all the same, and they tightened around her.

“I got worried when you didn’t show up. What happened?”

“The vaporator didn’t work for m-me.” Her tears had stopped, but now she had the hiccups. “Either my thoughts drifted at the wrong time, or my mental p-pronunciation was off, but I kept ending up at the wrong location. I went to the spaceport then the office of efficiency, some other places.”Maybe the office of efficiency ought to start working on the vaporator.“I realized the officiant’s office would be closed, so I tried to return to the apartment, but I ended up on the surface.”

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