Resistance: Hathe Book One (23 page)

He
grinned smugly at the memory and her eyes flew to his in
surprise.

For a
split second Hamon was rewarded with a hint of pain, then to his
disappointment the barriers clashed down again.

“
The
lady and the tramp. What a surprising mixture of bedfellows you
indulge in.”

“
An
excess of civility may pale, even on me,” he explained carelessly,
as if unaware of the hurtful effect of his words. Under his lowered
lids, he watched for her reactions. “What had you planned for
today?”

Following his lead, she talked of the new fashion catalogue
Helen Ravensbot had promised to share with her, a light frippery
that should have bored him silly, but he was studying her too
closely. He saw her shock, saw the stunned hurt she tried to
hide.

“
Are
you sure you want to go? You look somewhat pale.”

“
I
haven’t been quite myself for the last few days,” she replied
uneasily. “Your Terran rations may not agree with me.”

“
I’ll see what I can do to make them more acceptable. But now,
I must be off.” He rose to leave.

Lost
in thought, she missed his backward glance. She hadn’t been
herself, now she mentioned it, and the possible causes interested
him greatly.

They
spent that afternoon together, and he wreathed her in such
tenderness that she almost dismissed his words of the morning—till
late that night, when they came haunting back. Could he truly be
tiring of her? Did it matter?

She
pushed the question angrily aside and began thinking instead of a
design for a gown for the reception. It didn’t suit her purpose to
be abandoned just yet. Her mission was too crucial. If there were
other matters at the heart of her anxiety, she refused to name
them. Not out loud. Not yet. Not till she had to.

In one
aspect at least, he wasn’t tiring. A secret smile tickled her lips
as she reviewed her own, private journey since her
capture.

Enemies they may be, the barriers separating them ever
present, but she had thought that in this one thing there was truth
between them. Granted his lovemaking was more experienced than her
own, but he had taught her so much; and might not the instinctive
well of sensuality she’d discovered within her have taught him
also. Surely such loving as theirs had to be unique, could not be
merely another night or woman to him? And now there was another
worry growing in her.

She
twisted yet again, hunching her shoulders down. So she was only one
among all his women. Yet a principal one at least, she would have
said. No others shared his waking as well as his resting
moments.

Cold
comfort, she scolded. Huffily she punched the headrest and threw
herself down.

“
If
you’ve finished conquering your personal nemesis, do you think that
both of us might get some rest?” came an amused voice from beside
her.

“
God, are you even spying on me at night.”

Hamon
lifted his head suddenly at that and she felt his surprise. “Come
here,” he said gently, turning her so that his eyes looked straight
into the deep shadows hiding her face. “It’s personal, isn’t it? My
urbane mistress doesn’t snap like a freighter’s second mate.
“

She’d
blown it. Escaping her control, her voice rolled inexorably on.
“Jocelyn Hart. Are you really sleeping with her?” The pinprick of
tears roughened her voice.

“
What’s it to you if I am?” he teased gently,
probingly.

“
I’m
pregnant, that’s what it is to me,” she retorted, bursting away
from him as his shocked arms released her.

“
What!”

“
I’m
going to have a baby, mine and yours. A baby whose father is
already looking elsewhere for his pleasure.”

“
I
take it this news is less than welcome? You would have preferred
another father for your child?”

She
turned back then, to stare in consternation. “Oh, Jaca,” she
murmured as the light slowly dawned. “What the hell, you aren’t
interested anyway,” she spat, suddenly feeling savage and with no
pride. “The truth is, I want this baby more than I can say. It’s
mine and will know all the love I can give it—unlike its father.”
She burst into a fit of sobbing, cradled unseeingly in the arms she
wanted more than anything else.

“
What do you mean, exactly?”

“
I
mean that you’re Terran and don’t trust me; that I’m Hathian and
your people destroyed mine. I mean my brother died fighting against
you and now my people are out there somewhere instead of here at
home. I mean, I’m having the enemy’s baby and loving him,” the sobs
tore at her now, “only to find he’s turned to another woman. I’ve
sold my soul, to no end. ”

“
I
see,” was the slow reply.

“
You
see!”

“
Yes, I see. I see at last the real Marthe I knew existed, not
the lovely shell I’ve had these past weeks. I see you human and
hurting and, I’m sorry love, but that makes me so happy. It tells
me you love me as much as I love you. In this one place we will
have truth between us. I have never shared any other woman’s bed
since I found you that day in my rooms, and will never, as long as
we are bound. I am so proud that it is you who will be my First
Union partner and mother of my firstborn.”

The
voice was so infused with love that she couldn’t ignore it.
Silently and slowly, she turned, to be embraced in wordless joy as
his body told hers the truth of his words.

Seemingly hours later, she lifted up her face from the warmth
of his shoulder. “Hamon Radcliff, you fraud. That tough front of
yours is only a cover.”

“
In
some things, yes,” he agreed, turning to nuzzle the dark waves of
her hair, “but don’t tell anyone, especially my superiors. Speaking
of which, I’d better arrange to have our liaison recorded tomorrow.
Which will cause quite some surprise.”

“
The
ogre with two heads has finally caught you?”

“
Something like that. Ferdo will be livid and will probably
start plans for the dissolution feast, rather than the union one.”
The puzzlement on her face was plain. “We celebrate both ends of a
relationship,” he explained then smiled at her
disbelief.

“
Ending a marriage … that’s strange enough, but to celebrate
it. Ugh!”

“
We
no longer have marriage on Earth, so you can ease your conscience.
Now, go to sleep, my little, mother-to-be. You need all the rest
you can get.”

“
I’m
only just over a month gone,” she protested.

“
A
month. You mean...”

“
Yes, I fell pregnant our first time together. I had other
things on my mind at the time,” she added in a piece of blatant
diplomacy, “and forgot to turn on my contraceptive program. It
wasn’t until the next day that I thought to check my cycle and it
was too late then. But what’s done is done, as they say,” and she
snuggled farther down the welcoming line of his body.

Soon,
a smile sweetly curving her lips, sleep claimed her. He could hear
her soft breathing, even and untroubled, as he lay very still
beside her, gazing into the blackness. A rarely known peace was on
him as thoughts chased through him. For once, they had absolutely
nothing to do with duty.

CHAPTER TWELVE

“
Married,” gasped the outraged face, the little eyes dwindled
to crackling specks among the ballooning facial creases. “Married …
to a Terran!”

“
I
do believe that was what I said,” replied Sylvan an Castre. “My
daughter has asked that I place her request for marriage before the
appropriate body. I’m not sure if you quite fit that role,
Trundain, but,” regarding the puffed up mass before him, “failing
an alternative, I am left with the computer comptroller:
you.”

“
Don’t give me that fluff, Sylvan. This is much more than an
ordinary marriage request and you know it. I’m calling a full
Council meeting immediately. If your girl endangers the entire
affair...”

A
slight twinge of a cheek muscle was Sylvan’s only response to the
insult. Everything else he kept under tight control. “I rather
think it unlikely,” answered the statesman within the father. “If
you will summon the Council, we can proceed to the chambers.”
Sylvan waited as Trundain spoke into a nearby communicator then
passed with him in strained silence down the corridors and through
the security blocks to the Council chambers deep under the surface
of the moon Mathe, the heart of the government in exile of Hathe.
In short time, they were joined by the eighteen other councilors,
all confusedly questioning one another in barely muted tones. They
saw the two of them already there and immediately demanded to know
what was so urgent.

“
Excuse the hasty summons,” began Sylvan. “Trundain here has
some concerns over my daughter’s pending nuptials and has seen fit
to foist them on you.”

“
Your daughter’s wedding?” was the surprised comment from the
closest councilor. “Congratulations … but what has it to do with
us?”

“
Isn’t she on active duty?” came another puzzled
voice.

“
It
would not be the first wedding via relay,” Sylvan reminded
them.

“
Yes, but you and Trundain can manage that between you. Why
drag us down here?”

“
Just who might the lucky man be?” threw in one, particularly
astute member. Sylvan glanced at the speaker, a dignified lady of
middle years, her clear brow above the intelligent brown eyes
containing a hint of a frown. The lady, an old acquaintance, caught
his quickly suppressed frustration and smiled slightly.

“
So
that is the crux,” he heard Gilda murmur softly, for his ears
alone.

“
The
gentleman in question is Major Hamon Radcliff of the Terran
forces.”

Abruptly, there was silence and, in the air, an undeniable
wash of fear.

“
Radcliff,” breathed a voice uneasily. “I’ve heard of him. A
particularly dangerous customer, they say.” It was the head of the
Terran information bureau speaking, his words deepening the dread
he could see settling on the Council members. “Is he not her
captor? Nor, I understand, has he been particularly considerate in
his treatment of her? Why the change of heart?”

“
The
couple is to have a child. My daughter naturally wishes it to grow
up with every security possible.” The flat chill in his voice
should have silenced any challengers, but not this time.

It was
the astute Gilda again. “The people would honor the mother of such
a child and ensure both are cared for always. There is no need for
this kind of sacrifice.”

Sylvan
didn’t miss the touch of irony in his old friend’s voice. Gilda had
always been too perceptive by half. “Both parents are desirous that
the child should be born into a family unit. Its own family
unit.”

“
You
mean that the man’s feelings have softened towards his captive?”
said Gilda, yet again cutting to the core of the
business.

“
So
I understand.”

“
And
your daughter’s feelings?” the harsh voice of Aaron deln James
asked, another rather too awake to the undercurrents.

“
She
is desirous of the connection.”

Trundain an Delsin glowered beside Sylvan, obviously deciding
he had gone unnoticed quite long enough. “Desirous! The girl’s
madly in love with a Terran, from what I can tell, and God alone
knows what she’s whispered to him at night.”

Not
even that could break Sylvan’s rigidly held self-control, though it
came close. “She is open to full surveillance at all times and
still retains a top level security clearance. Her immediate
superior is fully confident that Marthe is alive to the cost of any
indiscretion.”

“
Are
you telling us that a highly trained intelligence officer can be so
easily gulled by a beautiful woman? Radcliff is known to have
caused us a great deal of trouble in the past.”

“
No,
he is not telling you that,” said a cultured voice behind an
Castre. Sylvan whirled in surprise.

“
Gof! Gof deln Crantz. How good to see you.”

“
Yes, I can see that,” said the little man, his beautiful
voice clashing as always with his squat body and coarsely jovial
face. “Ladies and gentlemen, you’re worried about the security risk
presented by Agent asn Castre’s latest actions. Perfectly
understandably, I assure you, and I share your worry, given that
Major Radcliff is still suspicious of her background. But you must
see that we can’t pull her out now. It would only serve to confirm
the man’s suspicions and set off a planet-wide search for her—which
we can ill afford at this crucial stage of our plans,” he reminded
them all. “However, I will confirm that Agent asn Castre has formed
an emotional attachment to this man and does have some sympathy for
the Terran plight.”

A
triumphant exclamation was silenced by an icy glare from the little
man. “If I may be allowed to continue,” he said, the look he cast
about the table silencing any comment, even from this august body.
“On the positive side, there are a number of advantages to be
gained from the association. She is collecting valuable information
on the social and military organization of the Terran headquarters,
of a kind we had never hoped to be able to acquire. Further, by
reinforcing the myth of the Haut Liege, Marthe has done much to
lull suspicions among the ordinary Terrans.