never know until you try it, Ven. You can grow to love someone.”
I frowned, shaking my head.
“Don’t be stupid, Ven.” I felt my temper flare at his innocent use of the word stupid. I couldn’t stand being called dumb. “Let TerraMates take care of your bride. If you don’t like her, divorce her after a year.”
He leaned back and smiled. I stared at him blankly.
“Arranged marriages are a time-honored tradition on many planets, you know,” he said, folding his arms over his chest as if that clinched his argument.
“You’re nuts,” I repeated. “Are we going to order something? We’re supposed to be eating lunch. By the time I get my food, it’s going to be time for dinner.”
He laughed. “You can make fun of it all you want, Ven, but I’m sending you the link to the documentary. You can watch it while you sit at home by yourself tonight.”
“Bastard,” I said, trying to look at the menu.
“You're right. I am a bastard.” He tapped the computer unit on his forearm.
A moment later, my arm lit up with his message and I looked into his eyes. “I’m never going to marry a stranger from some mail-order bride agency, Pandenn.”
He grinned at me. “Never say never.”
* * *
I walked into my den and looked around at my belongings. I liked things to be neat. It dated back to my time in the military — a desire for tidiness, which bordered on obsession. Usually, the staff kept everything in perfect order. But once in a while, I would find that someone had left a task undone or been a little sloppy. I didn’t blame them. It wasn’t their house. But I noticed everything.
Today, for instance, I saw when I walked through the door that the housekeeper had dusted and bumped my favorite painting. It wasn’t straight anymore. I couldn’t stand having a crooked picture frame. I walked over and adjusted the image. There. Perfectly straight...no. I shifted it back the other way. After a minute of adjusting, I was satisfied.
Since I didn’t have anything else to do that evening, I watched the documentary. I wasn’t interested, of course, but I was alone and bored. All the staff was gone home or to their apartments.
I watched as a happy couple on a sailing ship told their story. I rolled my eyes. Why were they on a sailing ship? We had fucking space travel. They hadn’t meant to stay married and had only gone to TerraMates for personal reasons. She had needed the money to pay for her brother’s gambling debts, and he had needed a wife to stay out of jail. In the end, they stayed married because they had fallen in love.
There was story after story about happy couples. For a minute, I was convinced that some people could find love that way. But I wasn’t the kind of guy who would sign up and have someone else pick my wife for me. Besides, when I looked them up, the man had to pay an exorbitantly high fee. They went through your life with a fine-toothed comb. I could afford the credits, and I certainly didn’t have anything to hide…but I liked my privacy. I didn’t want anyone poking around in my business.
I turned off the documentary and stood up. It was time for bed. I looked around at the empty room in the lonely, echoing house.
Hollow. That was exactly the word to describe it.
Maybe Pan was right. Maybe I did need a woman for more than eleven days. I had to admit it would be nice. But I couldn’t think of a single woman who I would ever consider marrying.
Even if I did need a wife, I wasn’t going to let anyone else pick the woman for me. I was in charge.
Chapter Three
V EN
I wasn’t in charge of anything.
The sobering thought occurred to me as I sat in my lawyer’s office, listening to him telling me I had to get married. I realized I needed to use TerraMates after all. After my postulating and swearing up and down that I would never have a mail-order bride, I was going to have them ship one out to me.
Fuck. Pan was going to make fun of me forever.
I didn’t want to have to
Escapades Four Regency Novellas
Michael Kurland, S. W. Barton