Page 77 of Star Prince

“Your mother and I miss you,” he said finally.

Her throat constricted. “Me too.”

Then the viewscreen went blank. Her mind raced through all the choices spread before her. They were fewer now, but crucial all. Return home for the test and save everyone from scandal? But, in doing so, she would risk having to take the test itself and have the news of her impure state announced through theVashEmpire. Could she avoid italtogether by accepting Ian’s promise of marriage? Unfortunately, both of those choices required that she return to the life she fled. What she needed was a safe haven away from everyone who had her “best interests” at heart. Earth came to mind, but she would be so easy to find there.

Exhaustion, both mental and physical, overtook her. Unsteadily, she stood. Ian was waiting as the rest of the two crews pretended to go about their duties. No one had missed their first impassioned, whispered argument, and they were no doubt expecting another.

Ian searched her face, and his own fell. “He wants you to go home,” he said.

“Yes.”

“Are you?”

“I think it’s best right now.”

“But it’s not what you want.”

“Life’s that way, it seems,” she said crisply.

“Wait there for me. Wait until I’m finished on Earth. We’ll put our heads together and figure something out. The way we always do.”

“No. I have my duty. And you, sir, have yours.”

Her soul wrenched with the look of disbelief that crossed his face. She took a step backward, as if putting distance between them physically would help her do so emotionally.

“You’re right,” he said after a moment, coldly. “I do.”

Her chest was so tight that it hurt. She hurriedoff before she did something irreparable, like throw herself into his arms.

In the main area of the cockpit she addressed the cold-eyed woman named Lara. “Would you please show me where I might bathe?”

The woman nodded curtly and led her into the corridor. Part of her expected Ian to come after her, to fight for her, to rail at her, refusing to listen to her reasoning why they couldn’t be together. But he didn’t. Nor did she look back.

It was done.

Chapter Nineteen

“You sure don’t looklike a princess.” Seemingly unaware of the skinny kettacat sleeping in her lap, Lara slouched in a chair in her quarters on theQuillieas she waited for Tee’ah to finish dressing.

Tee’ah didn’t bristle at Lara’s brusque, derisive manner. In fact, she preferred it to the careful courtesy and sympathy now displayed by the rest of the crew. She put on a fresh flightsuit and took a quick peek at her reflection in the mirror as she combed her wet hair off her forehead. In the overhead illumination, red-gold roots glinted. The person she once was, she thought, trying to push free. “To be honest, I don’t feel much like a princess anymore.”

“The men trying to save you don’t seem to mind.” Tee’ah made a face. “I’ve never asked anyone to coddle me. But everyone does.” She thought of Ian. “As soon as they find out I’m a princess.”

“So many heroes willing to help. They’ll have you back in your sumptuous palace before you know it. All your beautiful gowns will be waiting, cleaned and pressed.”

Tee’ah shuddered at an image of the bedchamber. “My gilded cage. No, thank you.”

“I will never understand how people who have luxuries don’t appreciate them.”

Tee’ah gave her left sleeve a too-sharp yank. “That’s because people like you only see what I had, not what I didn’t.”

“Poor princess. What didn’t you have?”

“Freedom.” Her voice thickened with bitterness. “All the personal decisions you take for granted were made for me, relentlessly, every day, since the day I was born and likely before that. I was told how to style my hair, how to walk, how to talk. When my parents found out I was learning to fly—my only true act of rebellion in twenty-three standard years—they forbid me to continue. Even the selection of the man I was to marry was out of my hands.” She sighed. “But I suppose you don’t have any idea what it’s like to have no say in any aspect of your life.”

Clearly taken aback, Lara stared at her and said nothing.

“I don’t care how many glittering gowns hang in my closet, I’m not going back to that life. I’m going to Earth, actually.”Her safe haven.“They have a non-extradition policy for all races, human andVash.”

---