“Oh, shut up.”
And then Shanelle’s fembair wandered into the hall that evening and had warriors leaping to their feet and drawing swords. Shanelle had to quickly assure everyone that he was a pet and not to be confused with wild fembairi. Drevan was fascinated and, with a child’s lack of caution, was the first to approach the animal to pet him. The boy didn’t know it, but he gained the respect of quite a few warriors by doing so.
Shanelle joined them to say, “He likes to be scratched behind the ears.”
Drevan looked at her, then quickly away. “I-I thought you would not speak to me again.”
“Why on Sha-Ka’an would you think that?” Shanelle asked in surprise.
Drevan looked positively miserable. “I sent for your lifemate when you went to fight my mother. I have seen her fight. I had not seen you fight. I feared she would do you serious harm.”
“It’s all right, Drevan, I understand.”
“It is not all right. Everyone could hear your screams after.”
Shanelle’s face burst into heat. “Well, I’m not surprised,” she tried to joke. “You should have heard it from my vantage point. I’m not sure, but I think I broke my ears.” He gave her a stricken look. She sighed. “Really, Drevan, it’s okay. I shouldn’t have let your mother goad me into losing my temper, and Falon was just making sure I’d think twice about it the next time. I might not have appreciated it at the time, but I knew it was only done for my own good. And I’m not mad at him any longer, so why should I be mad at you?”
“Truly?”
“Absolutely.” She grinned.
He smiled back at her before he said, “Then I would tell you, my mother, she has been looking at me very strangely since the fight, as if she does not know me.”
“She doesn’t know you, Drevan, but maybe something I said to her actually sunk in.” And then she asked carefully, “Would you like her to get to know you? She owes me a challenge loss, and I’ve got nothing better to do with it.”
He shook his head. “I would not force an interest on her that is not there.”
“Could be it’s there now. But you’re right. Forcing the matter wouldn’t count for much.” She grimaced, adding, “Of course, that puts me back, to wondering what I can demand of her for her loss. Knowing me, I’ll probably just settle for an apology and leave it go at that.”
“You are much more merciful than I would have been,” Aurelet said behind them.
Shanelle turned with a raised brow. “Oh, I don’t know. Some people find apologies almost impossible to get out.”
“That is true, yet have I come to say I am sorry. Your mother has assured me that you could have done me serious damage with or without a sword. She also said she would ‘wipe the floor’ with me if I ever ‘bad-mouthed’ either of you again. I was not sure what that meant, yet was it unnecessary. I am able to learn from my mistakes.”
“Are you?”
Aurelet was staring at Drevan when she replied.
“Yes. I would like a word with my son, if you do not mind.”
“Sure.”
As Shanelle walked away, she noted Drevan’s surprise at hearing himself called “son” by that woman. She couldn’t begin to guess what might come of Aurelet’s newfound awareness of Drevan as an individual, rather than as an extension of the man who had long ago hurt her. Nothing, probably, but you just never knew. Children were much more forgiving than adults.
Chapter 44
It was late when Shanelle finished with her bath and entered the bedroom to find Falon there waiting for her. He was already in bed, a muted glow from the gaali-stone shelves on each wall showing him watching her. She was wearing a two-piece sleep suit of softest Morrilia silk. He lifted a brow at this, for it was the first time she had come to bed other than naked.
“Do you mean to sleep in that, Shanelle?”
“That was my intention, yes.”
“I think not,” he replied, adding with a wolfish grin, “yet you are welcome to try.”
The familiar taunt made her snap, “I just might do that, warrior.”
He sighed. “So you are still angry with me? I will not touch you, if that is your wish.”
“That isn’t my wish,” she said in exasperation.
“And I wasn’t angry when I came in here, but you sure make it easy to get that way.”
She moved to her side of the bed and shrugged out of the sleep suit, then quickly tried to get beneath the covers. She wasn’t quick enough, not when his blue eyes were so intent on her. She heard him draw in a sharp breath, and then she was being rolled onto her stomach.
“Now do I see that you merely meant to spare me from knowing the results of my handiwork.”
His tone was filled with self-loathing, forcing Shanelle to assure him, “It’s not as bad as it-” She stopped as she was lifted into his arms and Falon started from the room. “Where are you taking me?”
When he didn’t answer, she trusted him enough not to ask again. And then she found out as he entered a room and she glanced back to see the meditech stored there. She was amazed to find herself laid in it.
“I don’t understand, Falon.”
He bent down to kiss her gently before he closed the lid, again without answering. A minute later gently the meditech opened by itself, the last effects of her punishment now gone. Falon lifted her out and started back toward their rooms. Shanelle wrapped her arms around his neck, well pleased with her warrior at the moment.
“I guess you changed your mind, huh?” she said, grinning up at him.
“A warrior could wish the skin of his lifemate was not so delicate.”
He gave a long-suffering sigh, as if she had managed on purpose to have skin that bruised easily, just to thwart him. Shaneile chuckled and squeezed his neck a little tighter.
“It really wasn’t so bad,” she told him. “By this evening I’d even stopped flinching when I sat down.”
“You think to assure me you can withstand future punishments? This is already known to me, kerima, in closely observing you this rising. Merely will you go straight from the crying to the meditech next time, before your bruises appear.”
“Why, you farden jerk.” She hit his shoulder even as she laughed. “You’re all heart.”
“You would prefer it did I speak to your brother?”
“No! No, don’t do that. Actually, you’ll probably find that you never have to punish me again, so why don’t we bury that subject in the ground, okay?”
He smiled almost wickedly as he laid her back in their bed, then leaned over her. “I have another thing that needs burying first, woman.”
“Don’t bother explaining, warrior.” There was no “almost” about the wickedness of her smile. “Just show me.”
“Why did he call your mother warrior woman?” Shaneile twirled a lock of Falon’s hair about her finger as she lay curled into his side. He didn’t seem any more tired than she was, but it had been quite a day, filled with so many extremes in emotion, so that was understandable.
“Because she’s an expert in weaponless fighting, the serious, deadly kind,” she answered him.
“She’s taken on warriors before and bested them. Why do you think you ended up with a dunking so easily?”
Falon stiffened. “How did you know of that?”
“Brock told Martha and Martha told me. Get used to it, Falon. It’s almost impossible to hide anything when there are Mock IIs around.”
“They will not be around for longer than your parents’ visit.”
Her eyes widened. “Are you kidding? How do you think my mother knew to come when she did? Martha has been monitoring me ever since I got here.”
Falon closed his eyes in defeat. “Tell me how I may put an end to this monitoring.”
“I’m not completely happy yet here, Falon. Until I am, I doubt Martha will stop keeping tabs on me. Hell, she may not even stop then.”
He was no longer interested in the monitoring. “You are still resentful of your punishment?”