I said, “Alexia, you are an amazing woman and I will have a great deal to say when the time comes. If you know my question, I’m very happy for it. If I knew your answer, I’d be even happier. However, Aeyli has warned me sternly that things must be done by steps.”
Alexia waited and said, “Aeyli and Rani and Belle are my only friends in the village. They do love me. Aeyli is very wise. Things must be done in steps. But you and I know where our steps will go. Doing things in steps doesn’t mean that I can’t answer your question.”
Aeyli, Rani, and Belle watched all of this and now stood with their mouths open, not knowing exactly what was happening. Alexia was speaking to me and to no one else, and she spoke in a way that even Aeyli couldn’t fully follow. Without the telepathic content, it was like a different language; one that the girls didn’t understand. None of them dared to ask though. It was between me and this strange girl. They were friends with Alexia and must be used to not knowing what she was thinking.
Alexia said, “I will give you my answer. My friends, do you know the question?”
Alexia never took her eyes from mine.
Rani said, “No. What’s happening?”
Alexia said, “You may not know the question that Mark has asked me with every word and every glance and every breath since I walked from the back room and removed my apron, but you will understand by my answer. Mark, here is my answer,” and the tall beauty unbuckled her belt and dropped it on the floor.
Alexia stood facing me, completely naked now… and I had her answer. She accepted my invitation to be my mate, though I had thought that hadn’t even really said it. I thought that I hid it behind my words.
The two of us stood several feet apart staring at each other, neither moving. I finally glanced over her shoulder where the other girls stood, but they were no help in telling me what to do. At a loss for anything else to do, I dropped my belt as well.
Alexia finally smiled very broadly and in the happiest tone that I had heard from her yet said, “And now we have our answer. Yes, I will be yours, My Prince. Yes, I will be with Aeyli, Rani, and Belle in your house. Yes, my name will be Alexia-ah-Mark. Yes, you will have my body and my breast. Yes, I know that you must not touch me until steps are taken. Yes, I felt my milk even as I stood before you at Oshen’s shop and he said that you could ‘take me’. Yes, I have heard your invitation and I have heard your vows. Yes, you may call me ‘Princess’. Now we have my answer, and now what do we do?”
I breathed a sigh of relief that the tension was broken said, “Let’s start by sitting down.”
Everyone laughed in their own relief and we moved to sit in the living room to discuss our situation. Alexia left her belt on the floor where it lay.
Belle noticed and dropped hers as well and said, “We’re all one. Why should we wear belts? Alexia is a mate, not a guest.”
The other girls agreed and soon all five of us were naked.
Rani said, “I’m so happy, but this is awful. Alexia is betrothed and ready for the furs. Do we really have to wait? Why can’t we just not tell anyone, but be together now anyway?”
Aeyli said, “I know. It’s very tempting. I half want to run out and have Alexia follow and have it all done outside the village gates. We could leave for the ruins and come back several days from now. But we’d better not. And if Mark so much as takes her in his arms, we will suffer for it. The village is very happy now, but if Mark has four mates, more than the head of the council, and it’s not done properly, sentiment could turn against us. Let me think.”
Alexi said, “I am like the shrine maidens. Never to be mated. And now to be mated to the only man that I could ever have chosen. I don’t care about this, about when and where. I’m mated and that’s that. But out of curiosity, will you be able to tell the council that I will be happy? Will we really be between the furs twice each month? Each one of us?”
Belle said, “Alexia, you haven’t asked why we need a woodworker. Ask that first.”
Alexia shrugged and said, “OK, if you say so. Why do you need a woodworker? What do you need? Though I don’t see how that’s relevant to this.”
Belle said, “Oh, I’m glad that you asked. You see, we have a problem. Our beds aren’t big enough. If we consider how many times the three of us have been between the furs already, we need beds for Mark and at six mates! We called you here because we need beds to hold at least seven. But that’s only if we lie to the council. If we tell the truth, we need more.”
Alexia said, “Belle, I know that you believe that, but you must be mistaken.” She said it in that factual monotone that characterized all of her communication.
Aeyli said, “She’s not mistaken. We have agreed to six for now. We love you and wanted you to be number four. We are convinced that there must be two more besides. But Belle is right. I will find a way not to tell the council just how many it should be according to council law.”
Alexia said, “Six? Oh. I’ll trust you. Have you chosen who they will be? I think of Myndee or Manya or Sashar. Ah, forgive me. I over step my bounds. It’s not my place to suggest.”
I said, “Alexia, it is your place! This is your place now. Yes, Aeyli says that we have to wait to move forward, but you have called me prince and I call you my princess. It is certainly your right and obligation to suggest such things. We are our own council and you are a member, the same as we are.”
After a pause, I said, “Alexia, I have so many things that I want to say to you! But if I’m not allowed to touch you, I shouldn’t touch you with my words either.”
Alexia said, “Yes, that’s wise. But be foolish. If you were going to say things, what would you say to me?” and she gave her biggest smile so far.
I said, “If I were free to say them it would be that I love you. I fell in love before I ever saw you. These girls saw it and know that it’s true. Before we came to the woodworker’s shop, I knew that I loved you because of how they described you to me. But I had no idea how truly I would love you until I saw you there and heard your voice. My breath was taken away! Your beauty is beyond words. If you doubt it, I’ll stand up and let my body betray me and show you how attractive I find you. I can never compare you to these girls, because every one of you is as beautiful to me as every other, but compared to other women, you outshine them all. I love how tall you stand; even taller than me! But it just makes you so much more beautiful. The way that you think and the way that you talk fascinates me. I want to know you! Quick, let me put my token around your ankle and let me take you to my bed, because I don’t want to wait! That’s what I would say if I could. If I were foolish and not willing to wait to do what’s best for us.”
Chapter 20
Short Engagements
Alexia said, “Hm, yes, I can imagine how that might be nice to hear, if you could say things like that. Would you like to hear what I might say? I might say, My Prince, my breasts are heavy, please relieve me. You can say pretty things to me later and I will cherish them all, but right now use your lips to take my milk! And when you have drunk and my trembling has subsided, throw me down in the furs and teach me what the old women only hinted at. Show me what I thought that I would never feel or see. I would say something like that. Oh, that thing about me having my own room, that’s nonsense, right? That would be cruel and I won’t be treated that way.”