“She’s currently lining up everything with a pussy and a Family name within this ’Verse. You know that, right?” Brandt clapped him on the shoulder on his way to Sera. “Are you ready?”
Sera nodded.
“Let’s go then.” Ash joined them. “There’s a full house over there. I said I had to discuss financial issues, which assures every seat will be filled.”
“The troops are in place. They’ll wait for my signal and enter with the security codes you supplied us with.” Brandt buttoned the last gold button on his uniform and straightened his spine.
They walked to the conveyance, and Sera got in the back. At that point, she was a member of the team, and hers was the lowest rank. She’d let them do most of the talking. She trusted them both to know just exactly how to handle the situation.
Once when she’d first moved in with Ash, she’d driven out to look at the Walker Family compound. Her younger self had been so impressed at the sight of the pale spires of the main house rising above the stone walls surrounding the large plot of land. She’d envisioned being at home there with her children, all with Ash’s pale blue eyes.
Some lessons were learned best the hard way. The Sera she was now knew she’d never be welcomed behind those walls as anything other than a service worker. It had to be okay, because there was no other choice. She had what was important: Ash at her side, forever. She’d take that and be grateful.
The sentries saw Ash behind the wheel and opened the towering metal gates. An entire world exposed itself to her eyes once they came around a long curve in the track to the house. Although house was probably not a word she’d have ever used to describe the towering, gigantic structure they drove toward.
She leaned forward, mouth agape. “You grew up here? In that thing?”
Ash nodded. “In one wing, yes.”
“Wow.” She sat back without further comment. What else could she say? He’d grown up in a residence her own childhood home could fit in a thousand times over.
“Good for playing hide-and-seek with my siblings. It’s awfully hard to get found in a place this size.” Ash met her gaze in the mirror, and she smiled, thinking of Ash as a child.
“Paul would have just left me and run off to meet his friends.”
Brandt snorted. “I knew I liked your brother.”
Ash parked, and they all sat silent for a few moments.
“Showtime. Hold steady, Sera. Do you understand? I can see hesitation in your face. Don’t. Not for a moment. Your place is at my side,” Ash said just before getting out.
“You’re my wife. You’re his, too, even if the official license says mistress. You’re also a highly ranked officer in the military corps, and you deserve respect. You may not get it in there, but you deserve it. Keep that in mind.” Brandt spoke in low tones before they began to ascend the dozens of stone steps to the grand front doors.
Hard not to be impressed with such incredible grandeur.
“Mr. Ash, it’s a pleasure to see you again,” one of the guards at the door said, bowing low.
“You as well, Dortimer.”
The guard swept the door open and announced them in a clear baritone. A voice Sera barely registered once they stood in the front entry.
The floor was decorated with a series of inlaid precious metals and rare hardwoods. Expensive and classic paintings lined the walls. The ceilings were open and rose up airily, making the place seem even larger. Every piece of furniture she could see was either ridiculously overdone or a collectible. Both, in many cases. The decorator clearly had no sense of restraint.
The three of them stood shoulder to shoulder according to rank as Angelo Walker approached with his wife at his left.
Ash stepped forward and let his father embrace his forearms. He dropped a kiss on his mother’s cheek and moved back to them again.
“Why have you brought that disgraceful woman in my home? Wearing the uniform of our Federation, no less. You insult me and our Family.” Ash’s mother’s voice was babyish, breathless, and Sera had to fight a sneer.
“May I present Subcommander Sera Ayers-Pela?” Ash spoke without acknowledging his mother’s theatrics.
“What?” She looked confused.
“Shall we go into the Family meeting? We can explain it all there.” Ash indicated they should precede them, but his father stood unmoving.
“You’re going to tell us why you’ve brought a concubine into our home, and you’ll tell us now.”
Sera saw the resemblance between father and son. The set of the jaw, the ferocity in the eyes. Angelo Walker wasn’t simply a figure-head; that much was clear.
“Sera is not a concubine. She is a member of a military covert operations team. A team Brandt and I have led for six years now. She posed as a concubine, as I posed as a boy with more credits than responsibility. I have more to say, but I need to say it in the presence of the others. I also need your silence on what I’ve just told you until I reveal it myself. This is a matter of urgency and great import to the Federation. I need your trust on this.”
Angelo sighed and nodded, his eyes flicking over Sera dismissively. “Let’s go then.”
Sera followed them all down the hallway, a space wider than most of the avenues in Mirum. She knew the effect was supposed to be impressive, but admittedly she thought it wasteful. Boastful even.
“I’m sorry about that,” Ash said through the link she’d nearly forgotten about.
“Nothing to be sorry for. We knew it would be difficult.” At that point, Sera felt worse for him than herself.
“Hold on. The hard part is to come.”
“I’ve already lived through the hardest part, Ash. I’m fine now with you and Brandt at my side.”
Through another set of enormous archways, and they finally reached an auditorium of sorts where dozens of people already sat, waiting for them.
Kira spied her and gasped. Several others did as well, and the chatter rose to deafening levels.
“Can I shoot her?”
Brandt’s serious soldier look softened when his lips visibly trembled to hold back a smile. “Try to hold off on that.”
“Bet she can’t wait to hear I’m family now. Oh, can I be the one to tell her? Please?”
“Stop that. You’re going to make me laugh,” Brandt warned through the link.
They approached a front table on a raised dais. At least twenty people sat around it and watched their approach. Ash sat and looked at the gathered group.
Sera wasn’t an idiot living under a rock. She knew who Ash’s uncle was. Costas Walker sat glaring at her before he moved his gaze to Ash. Perry sat next to him, smirking.
“Ash, before we get started, I thought you should say hello to Pelli and Morga, they’ve come by just to see you.” Agni Walker didn’t waste time parading marriageable women in front of Ash, that was for sure.
“Mother, this is hardly the time or the place to do this. This is official Family business, and to add to that, I’m not looking for a wife.”
“Of course you are! You can’t remain unattached forever. You need to give the Family more children. It’s your duty. You may think it fine to waste your time and frolic with unranked women,” she actually jerked her chin at Sera, “but I’m here to remind you of your duty, and it’s not to shame us.”
“You would do well, Agni, to respect my wife when you speak.” Brandt hadn’t moved or raised his voice, but the threat was there, nonetheless.
Kira actually wailed and began to yell at him, “How dare you do this? How dare you marry a whore? Brandt, this will shame us all.”
Brandt narrowed his eyes. “If you know what’s best for yourself, Kira, you will sit down and cease this incoherent babble immediately. Sera is my wife. She holds my rank, which by the way, tops yours.”
Really now? Excellent. Sera barely held back a snicker.
“There are many things to discuss. First of all, Sera is not only Brandt’s wife, but I’ve made her my mistress as well. I would marry her if I could, but we know you’ll never give me permission. Only one of us can marry her, anyway. There will be no other women for me. It has always been Sera, even when I was forced to give her up to marry Kira.” Ash paused to let that one sink in, and after a moment of silence, the uproar began anew as they realized who she was.
“We need to deal with this insanity of you dallying with a woman who is not of your rank. After the fuss she made before, now she’s willing to be your mistress. Have you asked yourself why, Ash? What is in it for her?” Angelo demanded.
Sera stiffened. She wanted to defend herself, but more than that, she wanted Ash to defend her.
“Ten years ago I did my duty to this Family. I lost a woman I adored. I hurt her deeply, and she left with her head held high. She comes back into my life by my interference. She did not ask to be my mistress. All my life I’ve been led to believe certain things. Chiefly that no one who isn’t ranked is worthy of me. That everyone without rank seeks to gain something from us, else why would they bother with us? Such a mistaken way to believe. I realize that now in ways I did not before.” Ash took her hand and kissed it.
“I hate the way you think of Sera. You don’t know her or, frankly, anyone like her. She’s a genuine person. Hardworking. Achieved her rank in the military corps through hard work and dedication. That she played a concubine was the height of ridiculous, because she’s no more a concubine than I am a lazy child of privilege. No more than Brandt is a disappointment to his war hero father. As it happens, the three of us are part of a covert military team, and our presence in Nondal was necessary to follow up on the recent attacks on Federation outposts and relay stations at the hands of Imperialists. Imperialists who were given information by Federation citizens. Family members.”