Read Online Captain Gareth's Mates by Cassandra Pierce - Free Book Online Page B

arm around her shoulders and lifted her against his chest. When she looked up at him, he wiped her tears with an index finger.
    “Do you hate me?” he asked.
    “Of course not. You are my husband. I knew all along that you also had a life before you came to this world. And I must confess I had a clue. During the feast...you and Brennar walked into the forest together. I followed for a bit but turned back. I saw nothing resembling proof, but I wondered.”
    “Would you like me to leave this place? I understand you can never trust me again. You can hide the truth from your father, if you wish. I’ll tell him urgent business called me back to the ship. No one will blame you.”
    Izbal closed her eyes, and Gareth held her as she wept silently. When she raised her head again, she met his worried gaze with a look of resolution.
    “No,” she decided. “I want you to stay. Brennar, too. Clearly love exists between you. Who am I to interfere? Still, I wonder...could there ever be such love between us?”
    “I think there already is. An unconventional kind, maybe, but real all the same. I can feel it just as you can.”
    She tugged away from him and crossed the room. “No doubt you want to go and be with him.”
    “Right now I want to be with you.”
    “Are you telling the truth?”
    “I promise.”
    Izbal crossed her arms. Gareth saw a flash of her father in her sudden determination, not to mention her imperious tone of voice. His innocent bride had become a different woman in the space of a few hours. “Bring him here. I wish to question him myself.”
    “All right. If you insist.”
    Brennar entered fully dressed again, no doubt expecting to be sent on his way. He shifted uncomfortably from one slippered foot to the other. “I should go,” he said. “I have done enough harm here.”
    Izbal held up a hand to stop him. “If your company pleases my husband, it pleases me as well.”
    Brennar stared in obvious confusion. “Are you sure?”
    “Yes.” She indicated the stone table in the corner, which she had cleared and set for three. “I was just about to prepare the morning meal. You will join us.”
    Without another word on the matter, she set out preparing slices of bread and edible leaves. They took their places on the curved bench beside the table, Gareth and Brennar next to one another and Izbal across from both of them. She watched without expression as they ate. To his relief, Gareth found that she had set out a jug of wine to go with the food. After everything that had happened in such a short span of time, he certainly needed a drink.
    Izbal initiated the conversation, but the topic veered far from the neutral banter Gareth had hoped for.
    “I should like for you to explain yourself, Ambassador,” she demanded, every inch the daughter of a king. “I wish to understand your way of mating.”
    Brennar swallowed and looked at Gareth, who shrugged. “I confess I have always been more attracted to other males,” the ambassador explained, “though I have on occasion coupled with females.”
    “I see. Is this sort of union common on your world?”
    “Shibans have no concept of marriage as a legally binding arrangement. Though most choose a partner, our society exerts no pressure to do so, and the partner can be of either gender, so I am not considered an anomaly.”
    “Most intriguing,” she said. “Your people are quite unique.”
    Gareth took a hasty gulp of wine. “Who knows? Maybe their way is more sensible than ours.”
    “Perhaps. So far, I have seen nothing to indicate that the ambassador is anything less than honorable.”
    “True enough,” Gareth agreed. “After all, I was the one who snuck out on you.”
    “That in itself is not especially troubling to me. My mother long ago became accustomed to watching my father slip away to one of his other wives or concubines. Absolute fidelity does not guarantee happiness, especially in a royal household. Power breeds a taste for variety, at least