“Reese,” Reese growled. “We’ll take her to our home. She’ll be safe there.”
“But who’ll protect her from you? I’m coming, or she isn’t going there.”
“Nobody asked me!” Amaryllis said indignantly.
“Your vote doesn’t count,” Cain said coolly. “You’d demand to stay at the barracks and there are at least twenty unattached males living there. We can’t protect you if we’re going to have to stand guard over your door every night like we did last night.”
No wonder they’d been so Johnny on the spot this morning, she thought, and lapsed into silence. Arguing with them obviously wasn’t going to change anyone’s mind.
Since that seemed to settle the matter, the four of them left the municipal building and turned north along the main thoroughfare. Gallen boasted very few motorized vehicles, their objective being to minimize pollution of the planet’s atmosphere. Most walked wherever they went—no great hardship since the city wasn’t huge—and Amaryllis wasn’t surprised when they set out on foot. It was further than she’d anticipated however, for the plantation Reese and Dante had established was a goodly distance beyond the city, and she developed a hitch in her side long before they reached it.
She caught Dante assessing her when she massaged the ache, though, and tried thereafter to ignore it, but she was glad when they finally reached the tall gates that surrounded the property.
Despite her weariness and her uneasiness about her situation, the house was such a complete surprise that it dragged her from her abstraction. Reese had said it was small. She wondered what he’d used to measure it, because it looked enormous to her. She discovered once they were inside that it was certainly no illusion. Just beyond the double front doors was a spacious foyer. A wide winding stair led up from the foyer to the second floor. On the first floor, several doors led off the foyer on either side, but she caught no more than a glimpse of the rooms as Reese led her up the stairs.
At the top of the stairs, a wide hallway bisected the house. Five doors opened off of it, two on either side, and one at the end of the hallway opposite the stairs. Dante nudged Cain, pointed to the nearest door and headed down the stairs once more. Reese led her to the room at the end of the hall, opened the wide double doors and gestured for her to enter.
Amaryllis stopped on the threshold, staring around the room in wonder as the artificial lights winked on at Reese’s command. The round bed, easily large enough to sleep a half a dozen people comfortably, dominated the center of the room. The comforter and pillows that covered it were thick, fluffy and of a deep, dusky rose color. Above the bed, yards of fabric in a like shade were gathered to form a canopy, draped through loops at what would have been the four corners of the bed if it had been rectangular and allowed to fall unhindered from there to pool on the carpeted dais on which the bed was perched.
Amaryllis took a couple of steps inside and looked around. The carpet beneath her feet was so thick she felt as if she were walking through water. It was patterned in a floral design, the dominating color slightly paler than the color of the bed cover and hangings.
Several comfortably padded chairs and tables were grouped to one side of the bed. On the other was a mirrored dressing table and tall chest with drawers. A wide, arched door stood open between the dressing table and chest. She moved closer and peered inside. Stone covered the floor and the walls of the huge bath. In the center, sunken into the floor, was a tub large enough to be called a pool.
“This must be your room,” she said uncomfortably.
His brows rose, then descended, drawn together in a faint frown. “It is a duplication of one from a magazine. It is supposed to be a room pleasing to a woman. You do not like it?”
“It’s … a little overwhelming,” Amaryllis managed. “You didn’t do this for yourself, then?”
“I did it for you. If you do not like it, you can change it to suit you.”
Amaryllis’ heart fluttered. Finally, she managed a smile. “It’s beautiful. I don’t know if I can get used to so much room. Our entire family quarters on the colony weren’t this big and I’ve not even had that much room since.”
He studied her doubtfully. “You can be happy here?”
Under other circumstances, she could’ve been deliriously happy here. She managed a tremulous smile, nodding. “Thank you, Reese, for your thoughtfulness.”
He looked uncomfortable and merely nodded. “We share kitchen duties. It is Dante’s night to cook. Tomorrow mine. You and Cain may choose the nights you wish to cook and then we will rotate.”
Amaryllis bit her lip. “I can’t cook.”
“We have programming….” He stopped abruptly, flushing faintly when he suddenly recalled that she couldn’t jack in and download. “We will teach you.”
“That’ll be fun for all,” Amaryllis said dryly. “Is the kitchen fire proof?”
He looked at her questioningly.
“Never mind.”
She remained where she was for some time after he’d left, her mind curiously blank. After a time, though, the shock began to wear off and, like a roaring tide, everything began to flood back with a vengeance.
Theoretically, she supposed the council members were correct and their idea was both practical, given the circumstances, and calculated to produce optimal harmony within the colony. A man sharing his woman might not be terribly happy, but five men alone, watching one man with, was a recipe for war.
How were the women supposed todealwith a house full of men though? How could she?
And what was she to do about her personal situation? With three virile males, even if she managed to find a way to terminate her pregnancy, she would be facing the same situation again.
Somehow, under the circumstances, she doubted there had been any interest in procuring birth control.
