Royal Recruit - Susan Grant Page 0,54
your royal family do the work of servants?”
A funny look crossed his face then. She couldn’t make sense of it. During sex, the Terran had seemed an open book to her, and it was delightfully refreshing, but it was obvious he had his secrets. Since he seemed more apt to reveal himself when they were intimate, why then, she’d simply have to continue to make love with him to find out what his secrets were. What could he possibly be trying to hide?
“You have to learn, Keira,” he said, shattering her delicious little fantasy of him taking her right here at the dining-room table. “And to cook, as well.”
“Cook?” She recoiled. Now he’d gone too far. “Why do I need to learn these things if I have no desire to do so, and if they are things I’ll never need to know?”
“Nothing is set in stone, Keira. Nothing. One day we’re sitting here being served. The next we may be going hungry and searching for food.”
She reared back, her heart pounding. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve upset you, and I’m sorry. Chances are nothing that bad will ever happen, but you have to know how to survive in the event it does. You have to know how to survive on your own. Being dependent on others for everything isn’t just naïve, it’s dangerous.”
She grabbed the bowl and spoon from Jared’s hands and slopped lakebeast onto her plate. Her hand shook. The sauce splashed onto her dress. “Nothing will happen.” Nothing. If she willed it to be so, then it would be.
“Keira, you’re very much protected here, but don’t let your guard down. There are things I’ve seen that worry me. Danger signs the Coalition seems to want to ignore. Whether intentionally or not, I don’t know, but first thing tomorrow, I will find out.”
The food she’d just swallowed went down like a rock. She thought of everything she didn’t know, that she never knew. She thought of Rissallen, Fair Cirrus and the others coming to inform her of increased Drakken aggression and the recent deaths of two ministers of intelligence—one of them right here in the palace. And she thought of what Jared had insinuated earlier about the eunuchs’ complicity. Her anger boiled up. “We will change the subject of this conversation or I will leave this dinner,” she snapped, her stomach burning.
“You’re right. Tonight’s not the night for this kind of subject.” He took her face in his warm hands. His frank gaze and tender touch steadied her and muted her fear. “If it helps you to understand where I am coming from, I see one of my duties as your husband as protecting you. You’re a strong woman, Keira. Smart, capable—okay, maybe not too smart about locking me in handcuffs,” he put in with a cocky smile, “but we’ll overlook that for now. One way I can start protecting you is by making sure you would know how to take care of yourself if you ever lost your caregivers. Does that make sense?”
She nodded, trying to control her anger. She didn’t want to ruin this special night.
He drew her close and kissed her. She closed her eyes, letting his unexpected gentleness soothe her.
Sullenly at first, she began to serve herself more food. Jared chose other bowls and did likewise. They filled their plates. It wasn’t so bad a task, but certainly it felt strange not to have the servers do it.
“This is great,” Jared said as he tried the various dishes. “What’s your favorite?”
Did he really care, or was it only polite conversation? Her life had been filled with polite conversation. It seemed he did care about her answer, judging by his intent expression.
He wants to know you.
A small rush of exhilaration buoyed her. “My favorite is actually a sweet. Snowbell ice. It is made from snowbells that appear as winter ends. They are lavender buds shaped like little bells. When they peek out of the ice and snow, I know that the warm weeks are coming. It is winter for most of the year on Sakka. We are far from our star. If not for a very unusual orbit, we would not receive any warm weeks at all.”
“I read about that before I came here. I was happy to see there was so much snow.”
“Why would that make you happy? You have to stay inside all the time. I have not been outside for so long I have lost track of when I last breathed in unfiltered fresh