“Not really,” I retorted. “I can’t criticize how you’re raising your children because you’re not exactly the one raising them, are you? From birth, they’ve been spending their days with someone else. What does ‘having a father’ even mean to them?”
“That’s enough!” He slammed his hand on the table, making me and the dishes jump. “You’ve been in Voran for less than a day, and you’re telling me how to run my household?”
Too late, I realized I’d gone too far.
“I’m sorry. It came out wrong,” I mumbled, scrunching my skirt in my hands. “I definitely wasn’t trying to sound disrespectful.”
“Well, you’ve failed at that.”
The scorn in his voice made me wish I could just fall through the floor and hide in whatever room was on the level below.
I refused to meet his frightening eyes.
“Maybe, I should just call it a night. I’m still rather tired, with the long flight and stuff...” I let my voice trail off.
My appetite was completely gone. All I wanted was to get out of this room and away from the Colonel.
“Omni will show you the way to the bedroom,” he muttered, shoving his chair away from the table.
Chapter 4
THE DINNER HAD GONE badly. Horribly. Much, much worse than I could have expected. With a gruff, grumpy man like the Colonel, one could’ve suspected things might not go smoothly. The dinner disaster, however, was all my fault. Wasn’t it?
The wise thing to do when coming to a stranger’s house—especially, the one located on a different planet—would be to stay quiet, listen, and observe first, learn the new culture as I had fully intended to do.
Nope, I had to open my big mouth and spew my freaking opinions left, right, and center...without being asked for any of them. The wellbeing of children had always been a sore topic for me, and I just couldn’t stay quiet.
Now, the already awkward situation had become that much more difficult.
Distraught, I wasn’t paying much attention where I was going, following the Omni drone up the wide, winding staircase.
When the set of opaque white double doors opened into a huge round room topped with a glass hemisphere, I stopped in my tracks, frozen in awe once again.
“Is this...”
“Your bedroom.” Another screen on a stick rolled my way.
Streaked with the fading colors of the dying sunset, the sky above us was already studded with stars on the darkening edge. A large round bed stood in the middle of the room. Supported by two ornate poles that rose from the floor, a lattice canopy hovered over it draped in live flower garlands. The same light fragrance drifted through the air, filling the room, which appeared to be created by fairies.
“This is just... Omni, this place is simply magical,” I admitted.
“Oh, thank you, Madam Kyradus.”
The sound of the Colonel’s name made me wince.
“Could you call me Daisy, please?”
“Absolutely. I can call you any name you wish. Please, let Colonel Kyradus know that you would like me reprogrammed.”
“So, you can’t call me Daisy just like that? Without his permission?”
“No. I have been specifically programmed to address you as Madam Kyradus.”
The Colonel must like hearing his name a lot.
“Alright then. Madam it is, but just for tonight.” I made a mental note to talk about this with both the Colonel and the Liaison Committee. It made no sense for me to be called and treated as his wife if we weren’t even in a relationship.
I didn’t want to give up after just one dinner, as disastrous as it’d been. A first impression was important, but it wasn’t everything. Maybe tomorrow we could find a way to work on this together?
Except that the Colonel hadn’t shown any intentions to work on anything with me. I hadn’t caught a hint of any romantic feelings from him, not a trace of a desire to build some understanding between us. Of course, my judgy rhetoric didn’t help the matter, either.
The way things were going, I didn’t think any kind of a relationship would ever be possible between us, not even that of an employee and an employer. And with the children not being here, I had no idea what my true purpose in this house could be.
The thoughts pounding in my skull made my head spin. Worry proved exhausting. I stifled a yawn. It wasn’t that late in the night yet, but I felt tired.
“You said you’ve unpacked my things?” I asked Omni.
“Yes. This way please.”
The robot rolled behind a planter with a tall lattice covered in vines. It served as a screen, hiding an arched entryway into a large room, which I recognized as a humongous closet.
“Your bathroom is this way.” An arrow pointing to the right appeared on Omni’s screen. “I’ve added your clothes to the rest.”
“The rest?” I stared at the rows upon rows of hangers lining the walls from the floor to the rounded skylight in the ceiling.
A white, round couch stood in the middle of the colorful rug on the floor. Shelves of shoes, all shaped for human feet, surrounded it.
“Whose clothes are these?” I asked, admiring the bright fabrics that shimmered under the strings of lights intertwined with flower garlands under the ceiling.
“Yours,” Omni replied. “The Colonel ordered them as soon as your sizes had been confirmed.”
“So, he didn’t bother to write a single word to me, but he made sure to obtain my dress size?”
“And shoe size, too,” Omni added, matter-of-factly. “As the head of the Voranian Army, the Colonel attends a number of high-profile public events and social functions. As his wife, you will be accompanying him. It is important you’re dressed appropriately.”
“Right. The Colonel is pretty high up in the ranks, isn’t he?”
I slid my hand along the soft, glistening material of the clothes on the hangers. Maybe that was the purpose of my being here? The Colonel needed a female escort to formal galas and such. If so, he’d made a huge mistake by choosing me. Mingling with high society was not one of my strengths. He would have known that had he read that letter I wrote.
“Colonel Kyradus currently holds the highest rank in the Voranian Army. He was promoted just over a year ago, after successfully leading the operation that ended the fescods’ invasion in Voran.”
“Fescods?”
“The semi-intelligent species from the planet Tragul. They had almost entirely occupied their planet, then invaded Neron by landing in Voran eleven years and three months ago. The Colonel’s actions on Tragul weakened the fescod forces enough to withdraw from Neron entirely.”
An image of the space blob, identical to those attacking the Colonel in the video he’d sent to me, appeared on Omni’s screen.
“Fescods,” Omni said in a somber voice. “They caused a long and devastating war in Voran. The Colonel’s heroic actions last year ultimately led to our victory.”
“Wow,” I gasped softly, rather impressed. “The Colonel is not just the Army Commander but also a war hero. So many details were not included in the information package I received from the Committee.”
“The Committee shared only the basic facts. However, when your request for more information was received, the Colonel ordered me to send the recording of his moment of glory. Not sure if the video reached you, as we were told you had already left for Neron by then.”