THE PARADISE SNARE(99)
“This young man you’ve brought home …” her mother said, almost as though she’d been reading her daughter’s mind. “It’s fairly obvious that you’re not just … friends, dear. Exactly how … involved … are you two?”
Bria gazed at her mother unflinchingly. “I love Han, Mother, and he loves me. He wants me to stay with him. Nobody has mentioned marriage, yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the subject came up.”
Her mother took a quick, sharp breath, as though her worst fears had been confirmed. But something in Bria’s choice of words alerted her, and like a hungry vrelt, she pounced. “I see. Well, he seems like a nice young man, though somewhat … rough around the edges, dear.
But you say that he wants you to stay with him. Is that what you want?”
Bria nodded her head, then shook it, then had to fight back tears. She shrugged miserably. “Mother, I’m not sure. I know I love him, really love him, but … it’s been hard for me. Leaving Ylesia, finding out that the religion I believed in and was devoting my whole life to was nothing but a lie. That hurt … a lot. I feel as though part of me is missing, Mother.
And I also feel that I can’t really promise to stay with Han when I’m not ˇ . . whole.”
“Does he know you have these doubts?” her mother asked, smoothing Bria’s hair back tenderly. The young woman didn’t miss the spark of happiness that had flared up in her mother’s eyes when she’d spoken of her uncertainty about staying with Han.
She doesn’t want me to stay with him, she realized with a dull ache of expectation fulfilled. I knew she’d be like this. It’s so unfair!
The only reason I’m uncertain about staying with Han is because of ME, not how I feel about him! But she doesn’t understand—she’s incapable of understanding.
“We’ve talked,” Bria said, unwilling to confide in her mother any more than she’d already done. “And I can’t imagine life without Han, so I’m going to do the best I can to stay with him and be a help to him.”
Her mother looked troubled, but said no more. Bria lay down and tried to sleep. Being in her old bed was a luxury after sleeping on the hard Ylesian bunks, and in the ship. She missed Han’s warmth, though. Her bed seemed cold. Bria tossed and turned, thinking of Han, wondering what she should do.
He deserves someone better, she thought sadly. Someone who can be there for him one hundred percent…
Pounding her pillow in frustration, Bria felt tears well up again. Why can’t anything ever be EASY? I found a man I can love, who loves me—why can’t that be enough?
But it wasn’t. Alone in the darkness of her childhood room, Bria acknowledged that.
She began to cry softly, aching with misery. After a long time, she cried herself to sleep …
The next day Han left the Tharen house shortly after breakfast and headed off to catch the shuttle to the nearest large city. He carried with him the backpack containing the items he and Bria had stolen from Teroenza.
After the disappointing revenues received from the sale of the Talisman, Han knew he had to get top price for their small treasure trove.
He disembarked from the shuttle in the port city of Tyrena and went to a lockbox office, where he retrieved a few hundred credits and a set of “clean” IDs for one “Jenos Idanian.” Then he went off to a branch of the Imperial Bank and opened an account, using the credits and ID.
When that errand was finished, he went in search of an antiquities and art store he recalled from past escapades. It had been several years since he’d visited it, and for all he knew, the little store might have closed.
But no, the place was still there. The sign above the door was picked out in subdued holographic lights, opalescent against the plain gray stone of the storefront. Han, toting the backpack, went inside. As he opened the door, he could hear a soft chime from deep within the store.
Han saw the clerk behind the counter, but he ignored the female Selonian.
Instead, he walked as directly as possible through the labyrinthine paths between the displays of merchandise, until he reached a small door set inconspicuously at the back. It was covered with an ancient tapestry depicting the founding of the Republic, and only certain “customers” ever discovered the door was behind it.
Once there, he looked around to make sure he was alone and unobserved, then he knocked sharply, in a preordained pattern. He waited, and after another minute the sound of an electronic lock being released sounded from the other side of the door. Han raised the tapestry, slipped under it, and walked through, into the back room.