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“Invitations are out.” Renata and Kevin were saying quiet good-byes to my grandparents. “And we sort of have a deposit out.”
“We aren’t charging you to come to our home,” Lucinda said dryly. Yeah, okay, I’d given up, and we’d asked Martini’s parents if we could get married at their estate. It would suck for my family, but we hadn’t found any place else we actually both liked. Reader, in particular, felt us getting married in Florida was insane.
“It’s been taking you two forever to make any kind of decision,” Mom added in an exasperated tone.
“And pretty much everyone invited is here, yes, got it. Wow, the timing is just so impeccable and all. I’ll ponder why you all thought now was such a great time to spring this on us while I go try to save the . . . business. Back in a while.” I hoped.
My dad shook his head. “I was with James.”
“You helped.”
He smiled. “I did. Take care of things, call us if you need us—we’ll have our cell phones on us at all times.”
“Thanks.” I hugged my family good-bye, asked my mother to make some phone calls for me, Martini and Reader hugged my parents and Martini’s and shook hands with my grandparents, and then we left.
Chuckie was at the door, ushering our teams out. He looked at me. “I didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“But you knew it was going to happen.”
“Only tonight when I realized they were all here.”
“Okay, we’re out. What the hell is going on?” Martini was growling. “Not the invasion, what you were talking to our parents about. And what the hell have you told them you’ve been doing?”
Reader laughed. “She told them she and I started our own marketing agency. Small but with a high-paying customer base. Easier explanation than what we really do. And as for what’s going on, jeez, Jeff, think about it.”
Chuckie was counting noses. “We have everyone. Brian, you sure you’re coming along?”
“Yeah. Hey, Kitty, Jeff.”
“Bri, nice to see you. Michael riding herd on you?”
“Like always,” Michael Gower said. “You know, you dragged my parents out here and you still haven’t talked to them.”
He was right. And I needed to. “Back in a flash. Michael, can you introduce me?”
“Sure.” We trotted off. I heard Reader and Chuckie explaining the obvious to Martini. He was starting to bellow as we got back inside the restaurant. “He’s a little slow sometimes,” Michael said with a laugh.
“Caught us both by surprise. I’m just clearer on how my family works.”
“You okay with it?” He took my elbow and led me toward an interracial couple about my parents’ age. The man was typical A-C handsome, and I could see a resemblance to Alfred. The woman was stu
“Yeah, I think so. Not sure about Jeff. Paul wasn’t kidding—human external genetics rule, don’t they?”
“Yes,” Mrs. Gower said with a knowing smile. “They do.” She stood up, as did the rest of the family. “Paul and James have told us so much about you. I’m Ericka, this is my husband, Stanley, and our girls, Abigail and Naomi.”
Shook paws all around, then everyone except Ericka sat back down. “Sorry to be rude, but we’re at the usual end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it time, and I need to ask you two things.”
“Go ahead,” she said with another knowing smile. “I can guess both.”
“Oh, yeah?”
She nodded. “Yes, it’s worth it. Yes, it can be absolute hell, and the extended, nosy, always-there family can be torturous. But once you’re in, you’re in, and they’ll love you like the rest of the clan and die for you if they have to. Paul was a lot of work, but, honestly, Michael was more. He got more of the human side in his personality,” she added with a laugh. Wow, she was good or I was obvious.
Michael shrugged. “Playing the field’s allowed.”
“Not like you play it,” Naomi said with a snort.
“So,” Ericka added, “while you’re likely to get powerful children, I don’t agree with Lucinda’s concerns. I’ve heard enough about you to feel confident you can handle it. And your parents are clearly capable of helping.”
“Not to mention Jeff.”
“Yes. Now, your other question? No, this never happened when Stanley and I got married. Nothing like it.”
“Anyone expect something to happen?”
Stanley shrugged. “Somewhat, but we’d been exiled. Once Ericka and I got married and nothing triggered, we assumed the cut was complete.”
“Why did you? Get exiled, I mean, you personally? You’re from the royal family side of the house. I wouldn’t have thought you’d have been asked to leave.”
He gave me a small smile. “I agreed with Richard, about religion, about how people should live. The rest of those on our home world may want to act civilized now, but our history was brutal, and some of that was still retained. The way we demanded that the other civilizations in our solar system toe the line we’d drawn or be controlled by us, things like that.”
Alexander had said as much when we were in the limo. I thought about ACE and the other PPB net, how they’d been created, what they’d been sent to do. “Yeah. I can see the brutality’s still there.”
Stanley shrugged. “Richard’s not a brutal man. Yates wasn’t either, until he lost two wives.”
“Two?”
“Yes. And while there’s no proof, most of us believe they were both murdered.”
“Why kill his wives?”
“Yates was probably the target, both times.” Stanley sighed. “I know you’re in the middle of another crisis. All I can say is, it’s probably not due to your engagement . . .” His voice trailed off, and he got a fu
Alfred came over; Richard White did as well. “Thought you’d left, Kitty,” Alfred said with a worried smile.
“Did, came back, getting info.”
Stanley grabbed Alfred’s arm. “Think back, way back. What were the rituals for marriage? Not in our grandparents’ day, but early on.”
“They were brutal,” White said quietly. “They were a reason our ancestors broke away from the world religion and world leaders.”
Stanley looked pale. “Alfred, think about it. You, more than the rest of us, would have learned this.”
Alfred’s expression was both confused and horrified. “What you’re talking about was done thousands of years ago. Why in the world would they pull them up now? And for my son and his intended?”
This didn’t sound good. “Um, should I just guess, or are you going to share?”
White closed his eyes. “Everything that’s happened has been a test.”
“Come again?”
He opened his eyes and I saw rage and fear in them. “Tests. All of them. Tests of you, of your ability to lead.” His voice was clipped. Stanley and Alfred were nodding. They looked ill.
I decided arguing was stupid. “Why would they test the incoming spouse?”
“To be sure said spouse would be strong enough to help rule, to provide strong children, that sort of thing.” Stanley sounded sick. “But they were so long ago . . . I’m sorry, we should have realized anyway.”
“No. None of this is the fault of anyone here.”
“The modern tests were more like you all were expecting—protocol and deportment.” Stanley’s voice was shaking.
“You know,” Michael said. “All the things you were going to flunk.”
“Too damn true. But this is less about Jeff’s wedding than about succession, right? I mean why they’re pulling up the old stuff.”
“No idea,” Stanley said.
Ericka was on her phone. “Yes. Get all the children, theirs and ours. Yes.” She looked at Alfred. “I’m moving them to your home, is that okay with you?”
“Yes, please,” Alfred said briskly.
Ericka went back to her call. “Yes, go to Alfred’s. Highest threat levels. Yes. Thanks, Gladys.” She hung up. “Okay, all the children, yours and ours, are sequestered or getting there. Gladys will be with them.”