FREE STORIES 2012(89)

At least Forest Moss was gentle with her. Troy had been all impatience and hardness, leaving bruises as he took his pleasure. Everyone from her older sister wives to her mother all told her to be silent and endure it. A man's right to his wife. The men in the alleys and the cars had been no different.

Forest Moss seemed content to just lay in the warm sunlight, wrapped around her, so close they seemed to share the same breathe. She had never experienced so much intimacy. Troy had six wives before her. He came to her Friday nights, took his pleasure and hogged most of the bed, stealing the blankets. It was so much rutting in the dark.

Forest Moss seemed to want to see every little part of her. He held her hands, one at a time, up to the light.

"So small," He murmured. "Like Wolf's child bride."

She blushed. "I'm much taller than her."

He considered her, smiling gently. "Yes, you are right. You are older?"

Her blush deepened. "I need to eat."

Another key thing that the baby books said would prevent morning sickness was to eat many small protein-rich meals.

With Forest Moss hovering nearly close enough to touch, she scrambled up her last eggs. He frowned at the nearly empty fridge and then opened the cabinets that she had nothing to put into. When she tried to share the food with him, he refused it.

"I've been living fat on the Wind Clan coin." He pushed the plate toward her. "A weeks worth of missed meals would not hurt me."

Troy was always served first and given the best cuts of meat. It made her eyes burn with long-held, previously unshed tears.

"The coins you gave me." she approached the subject tentatively. Money was normally the domain of men. "Is it all you have?"

Worry filled his one good eye. "For now. I have land that the Wind Clan paid as retribution for my fighting. I will receive funds from our clan when we establish our household here."

Our clan. Our household.

"Where is this land?"

"I – I'm not sure. I did not have the means to clear it and build anything, so I did not bother to view it."

She had read in the paper something about the division of land. She pulled out all the newspapers since the Stone Clan's arrival a few weeks back. She found the story that ran last week. The accompanying map showed how the land was divided up. The size of the parcel took her breath away. It could have swallowed up the Zion ranch in Kansas a hundred times over. It was, however, all virgin forest. It afforded no shelter from winter and certainly nothing to eat except squirrels and deer.

They would need to stay here at her place until spring. At that point, if the war was over, they could hire someone to cut and lumber. There were most likely abandoned houses near that area they could squat in until they had money enough to build something like a small farm.

She realized then that for the first time in weeks, she felt like she was going to live to see spring.

He pulled her close and after a moment she relaxed against him and let herself feel the comfort of no longer being alone.

"I have prayed so long for you," he whispered.

She laughed into his shoulder. "Someone like me. Any girl would have done."

"You alone had the courage to face my demons and quiet them."

She wished she could believe him. She knew that any number of women in Pittsburgh would have eventually set their sights on him. She was fortunate that she was the first to hear of his plan to take a human partner.

When she sighed, her breath caused fine white dust to drift from his hair.

"You need to wash your hair," she said.

"A bath! Yes! Certainly!" But when she showed him the shower, he frowned at it for several minutes. "This is not a bath."

"You just stand here, water comes out from this part, you adjust the heat of the water with these knobs…" She fell silent as he continued to look confused and unsure. Did the elves not have running water?

As she fussed with the shower, she glanced at the mirror and froze in surprise. Almost hidden under her bangs was a small black diamond. It looked like the blue triangle Tinker had in the one slickie photo of her entering the Rolls Royce. Olivia rubbed at black spot and then used soap and water. It didn't come off; it seemed tattooed into place.

"Did you do this to me?" she asked Forest Moss.

He cringed back at her tone. "It is the custom. The dau tells others that you've accepted my offer and that you're my domi."

"So, it won't come off?"

Alarm filled his face and he looked ready to cry. "No."

"I don't want it off." She stopped trying to wash it away as it was obviously distressing him. In some ways he was like a child. It was good that she loved children. Maybe she was exactly the type of human woman he did need. She cautiously asked, "When did you do it?"