D. A. Houdek

Deb Houdek Rule

Web designer - Science Fiction author - Civil War historian - Genealogy researcher

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Of All the Western Stars

by Deb Houdek Rule

Chapter 29

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He wanted to leave at once.

"You can’t," Lisette insisted for the third time. She followed Ashur as he hurried around the house dumping his things into a pack, pleading with him to wait until morning. Catching his arm as he stepped out into the night, heading toward the stable, she turned him toward her. "Please, Ashur. Stop and think. ‘Tis too dark. You’re tired and these men are powerful. You need to be at your best. You can’t go after them tonight."

Ashur sighed. "Yes, yes. You’re right. I forget about the realities of this era." He patted Lisette’s hand, sending those familiar shivers of desire again coursing through her with his simple touch. He turned toward her, his eyes glittering in the starlight. Their eyes locked onto each others. Lisette felt her heart quicken. She swallowed hard. Quickly she dropped her hand to her side and looked away. Uneasily she shifted from one foot to another as Ashur continued to look at her.

Looking up to the night sky, searching for a way to ease her sudden tension, she commented, "See you the star of which you spoke tonight."

She felt Ashur’s gaze move slowly from her up toward the heavens. "Yes, it’s there," he said tonelessly. Lisette immediately regretted asking. "It’s there, off the top of the Dipper to the north. It startled me so when I saw it out the port that I fouled manual landing."

Lisette pursed her lips and stared at the bright star low in the northern sky. "But, from those things you told me of tonight, this star is at a great distance from here, so great that its light takes many years to travel here, is that not so?"

He glanced down at her. "That’s right."

She frowned. "Then that star would yet have shone in the sky even had you arrived in your proper time.

Ashur opened his mouth, closed it again, then grinned down at her. "I’m an idiot," he said wryly.

Lisette did not smile. Something else was bothering her, something she’d been puzzled about then forgotten. "There is another thing, a thing I saw in the heavens. I saw the star fall from the sky that you now told me was your… your ‘flying ship’, but there was another star that did not move as it ought."

"How so?"

"I saw it cross the sky, moving from the south to the north, as no other star that I’ve seen."

He pursed his lips, nodding. "A ship in polar orbit, a classic search pattern. It was the Capellans, hunting for me. When was it you saw this?"

Lisette blinked rapidly, quelling the painful tears at the memory. "The night Alyce died."

"Right before your wedding," he said. "That fits. I found my ship that day. I must have triggered something that brought them down to it. Everything leads back to my ship."

Shaking her head, Lisette said, "But they hunt for you elsewhere, at my aunt’s house. How do they do this?"

"They must have tracked me. That means I have to get as far away from you and anyone else they may harm because of me." He turned her toward him, taking her by the shoulders and looking into her eyes again. "You do understand, don’t you?"

Lisette swallowed hard. "Aye," she whispered. She wanted to say more, but bit back the words. ‘Twas best left unsaid.

It was a treasure richer than any owned by the mightiest monarch in Europe, richer even than the fabled wealth of the Suleiman, the Sultan of Turkey, that Ashur placed into Lisette’s uncertain hands. Even as the first words scrolled across the surface of the strange little device, she found herself drawn irresistibly inward, craving more and more of its magic. And magic it was, a miracle presented by her man from the heavens. Ashur took her hand, and she had to suppress a tremor at the touch, and guided it to the device’s surface. He then introduced her to Baby, ("Programming her to recognize your DNA," were the words he told her.) whose sweet voice greeted her like an old friend.

Ashur left Lisette for the night huddled in a chair with Baby in her lap. He’d taught her how to find and select other books, how to search by subjects and have Baby conduct research. Ashur was amazed at how quickly she learned the techniques, once the strangeness of the device wore off.

Baby introduced Lisette to the fulfillment of one of her fondest dreams, but the fulfillment magnified beyond her poor fantasy. Forgotten in its wonder was her humiliation with Ashur, the fear for him off to face the evil Capellan-sorcerers, and even the unquenched yearnings of her body.

Lisette believed Ashur and his fabulous tale now without question. How could she not after the impossible things she’d seen and now this? Reading as fast as she could Lisette tried to drink in a thousand years’ worth of knowledge in one night. Wending her way through the flow of words on the screen, Lisette found that the things she’d been taught as inviolable truth all her life were not truths at all one hundred, five hundred or a thousand years later.

The New World was more vast and magnificent than anyone ever imagined. From tiny, struggling colonies a mighty nation grew. Lisette felt a twinge of annoyance when those colonies abandoned Mother England--her England!--with rude comments about their King. Brave words and strange, that all men might be equal. Lisette struggled with that idea, to be but a mere equal of one’s own servants? She shook her head and read onward, urging the words to move faster and faster as she strove to take it all in.

Baby led her along, at some point showing her not only printed words, but living pictures, images that moved and spoke. At first they were shadowy and crude, done in black and white like a pencil drawing but clearly of living things, not drawn by an artist’s hand. Then they took on color and sound but were still flat like a painting, but then they took on depth, dimensions as round and real as life itself, like the images in the crystal.

Thundering pillars of fire carried sleek projectiles into the sky and then beyond to the very boundaries of Heaven. Unnoticed tears streamed down Lisette’s cheeks as she saw the sapphire globe of Earth, etched in swirls of white, hanging round and fat in the darkness and heard the Holy Scriptures spoken into the vast eternity by those who would not be born for another four hundred years. How glorious it was, how splendid.

The wonders continued and the bright speck of light in the night that Lisette knew as Jupiter resolved into a huge, living world of orange, striped mists. She saw the rings of Saturn and pale red sky of Mars. Then mankind took another great leap and conquered the stars. And onward and outward they went. Lisette’s heart ached with a yearning to go with them.

"Are you still at it?" Ashur’s sleepy voice intruded on her after a time that seemed to her very short. Tearing her eyes from the screen, she glanced up to see him standing in the doorway yawning and stretching. She blinked and glanced around, becoming aware for the first time in hours of her surroundings. The candles were burned down to stubs, the wax spilled out upon the tables hardened and cold. Gray light of morning peaked around the draperies.

"You’ve been up all night," Ashur continued as he crossed the room and pulled back the draperies. Lisette winced as the light burst into the room. He turned back toward her and stopped. Morning already? Then this was their last moments together. When next they parted it would be for a time and distance beyond imagining.

Clutching Baby close to her chest, Lisette stood and walked across the room toward Ashur, her bare feet silent on the smooth wood and rich carpeting. She stopped by Ashur, standing so near him that she could feel the heat of his body, smell the sensuous scent of him. Turning her face upwards, she met his rich, dark eyes, saw the questions in them.

"I’m sorry," she whispered.

He shook his head, confused. "For what?"

She looked away. "For last night. For… what I did."

His fingers, firm yet gentle, raised her chin to meet his eyes once more. "You do have a bit of your Aunt Agnes in you," he said in a way that made them both chuckle. He let go of her. "Consider it forgotten," he added, but Lisette knew she’d never forget his touch, the feel of his body upon hers, nor would she forget the craving for him, for the culmination of their desire that had been interrupted.

She recognized the finality in his tone. He had to go now. His world and hers were not the same. Though they stood a hairsbreadth apart, his rightful world was a thousand years and, she thought the new term she’d learned last night, a thousand light years away. More than anything in her life she longed to go with him, to remain at his side, to share his bed and his life, to share his time and his world… but it was impossible. Even if he wanted to be saddled with the burden of a woman from her times, she couldn’t abandon her obligations here, not and keep her honor, and her immortal soul.

Lisette nodded slowly, remembering her hopeful, flighty wish upon a falling star, a wish to find true love. The cruel hand of fate had granted her wish and given her Ashur, a love she could never have. She wanted to cry out at the unfairness of it.

"I understand," she whispered instead.

Charging Bobbin sternly to see the Madame Stafford, Lisette, safely to her home, Ashur mounted the prancing white stallion. He had with him all those things that he’d brought from his ship and his time. Except for two things… Lisette still wore secreted around her neck the holo crystal on its lace cord. He’d show her how to secure it so no one else might accidentally find its magical images. The other thing caused him a greater trepidation, but he couldn’t bear to take it from Lisette, seeing how much joy it gave her. Clutched in her hands, her grip so tight her knuckles were white, was the folded, featureless shape of Baby. However hollow and dull her life here would be with her drone of a husband, she’d have all Baby’s fantastic resources to fill her empty days… and nights.

Ashur swallowed hard. He wanted to sweep her up on the horse with him and ride into forever with her. It was not to be. This time was their final good-bye, final in a way as irrevocable as death. Instead, conscious of the many eyes upon them, he bowed to her, jerked the reigns and galloped away.

Would her heart burst out from her throat and choke her, Lisette wondered frantically, as the dust from the hooves of the white stallion settled slowly back to the earth. Before these gathered servants she must keep her face bland and proper, could not run after Ashur and beg him to stay, or to take her with him. Perhaps that was why he chose to bid their final faretheewells here in the open, rushing her from the secluded apartments where they’d so very nearly become one.

An impatient rustle brought her from her reverie. "Well, then," she said briskly, turning around, "I trust you shall relay word of the Lord Ashur’s sudden departure to my aunt should she wish to employ another to tend her property for her." Bobbin nodded rapidly. "Then, shall we be off to my home?"

They started off toward her home, one of the men, Andrew, carrying her basket for her though she insisted on carrying Baby’s small shape. No hand but hers could open it and reveal the device’s marvels, but she wanted to keep it close to her heart, imagining she could still feel the heat of Ashur’s hand upon it and thus upon her.

Lost in the swirl of her thoughts, Lisette scarcely noticed when they approached the stone cottage until the door swung open and Geraint stepped out. She’d been imagining Ashur holding her in — what had they called that floating weightlessness of space? — freefall. Naked together among the stars they’d been flying, freer than flying birds, locked in each other’s embrace.

"Where have you been?" Geraint demanded in a quiet, harsh voice.

"Milord!" Lisette’s eyes widened and she started guiltily. Her ready blush crept up her cheeks at the sight of her husband. Quick words of apology and explanation withered on her lips unspoken, however, and she let sullen anger take hold instead. "Welcome to my home, sir," she said sarcastically between clenched teeth. "And how long will you be visiting with us this time?"

Geraint had the good graces to flush and lower his eyes. Lisette studied him more closely. He was thinner and his eyes were too bright. His normal guarded expression hid, as usual, any other revelations from her probing gaze.

Lisette turned to the curiously waiting servants, thinking how she and her husband had just provided them fine fodder for their gossip tonight. Taking her basket, Lisette thanked them all and bade them thank her aunt for the courtesy of her home. The men bowed and Jane curtsied politely and reluctantly they turned away from the young couple.

"Wait!" Geraint called. "You two…" he pointed to Jane and a stout lad, Andrew, "could you stay on here for a few days? We’ve no servants and the house and stock need tending."

"No servants?" Lisette asked. "Where are Bess and Rufus?"

"Gone. Thanks to you," Geraint answered stonily.

Lisette snorted softly. "We’re well done with them and I’ll not mourn their absence."

"We’ll speak of it later."

After a whispered consultation with Bobbin, Jane and Andrew agreed and separated from the others.

"Show us what you’d have of us, milord," Jane said and Geraint led them toward the back of the house. Before he disappeared around the corner of the cottage, he cast a glance at Lisette whose meaning she couldn’t discern, but that made her uncomfortable nevertheless.

Entering the cottage slowly, Lisette paused in the door of the dining room, noting the mess only half cleaned up.

By the time Jane called them to supper, the dining room was cleaner than Lisette had ever seen it. She thanked Jane most sincerely before sitting to eat. At her request the maid had prepared a meal of periwinkle cooked with houseleeks and meat. It was a thing Lady Cicely had told her of, a thing meant to create love between a man and woman. Best it was, Lisette thought, to make this marriage work.

Throughout the meal, Lisette watched Geraint intently for sign of reaction. He ate silently, barely eating, not looking at her. Nothing was said save that once he complained of a headache, calling for more wine to dull the pain.

Feeling utterly defeated and weary, Lisette excused herself from the table and climbed the stairs to her bedchamber. Though it was early, and she’d eaten little, she could not bear the thought of continuing to sit in Geraint’s unloving company. Closing the heavy oak door behind her she sank down on the bed and held Baby tightly to her chest.

The sun slanted in through the window, sinking low in the western sky. She stared at it until the golden brightness made her eyes water and burn.

"Oh Ashur, Ashur," she moaned, wondering where he was now. Had he already flown away, gone beyond the sky, flown above the sun and all the distant stars? She laid back on the bed, closed her eyes to the sunlight, and let her waking dreams flow over her.

Sometime later, she knew not how long, but the room was dark with only the grayness of late twilight, Lisette woke with a start. The handle of the oak door turned with a slow scraping. She sat abruptly upright as the door creaked open and the Geraint, carrying a candle, entered her room for the first time in their marriage.

She stared at him, at his face. In the flickering light his expression was strange, turned inward, yet with the same oddly pained expression she’d seen in his eyes several times before. She’d seen that look in his eyes on their wedding day, she recalled, as he mumbled vows no one could hear.

He neared her bed, setting the candle down on the stand by it. He sat down heavily on the edge of the bed… her bed… and stared out the window, his head hanging, hands clenched in his lap. Carefully, Lisette laid Baby’s featureless, folded shape aside and turned toward Geraint.

"Milord?" she asked in a tremulous whisper. He was behaving so strangely. Did he think to chastise or beat her for chasing those wicked servants away? Or had the periwinkle and leeks worked? She truly couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

He began speaking. His voice was so low, a monotone barely whispered, that she had to strain to hear him.

"I’ve treated you poorly, Lisette," he said. "I didn’t mean to. I… I… just couldn’t find any other way. I tried to choose the right path, one of honor and righteousness, and away from the sin that always stood so close." Lisette shook her head, not understanding what he was telling her. "I could not take you as a true wife," he went on, "without committing a more abject sin. And yet I was bound to obey my father in his plans and intents for me. I didn’t know what to do, so I tried to find a way that would be best for all. But it was wrong for you, wrong of me to keep you as wife, yet not make you a true wife, and for that I am most grievously sorry." He turned and stared at her, the look in his eyes burning deeply into her. Lisette shrank back.

"Now I can amend that. Through God’s will, cruel will though that be, I am now free to make you my wife in all ways… to consummate our vows."

In the dimness of the bedchamber, Lisette found herself pulled into the arms of her husband.