Terran Times 02 - Deal with a Dhemon (30 page)

Valnal sat up and beckoned to his daughter.

“Come on minx, it is time for dinner. You are my partner.”

Kassil moved like lightning and had offered his hand to Sam before she could blink. “You will be my dinner partner, won’t you Miss Samantha?”

She looked around at the sea of amused faces and sighed deeply, taking his hand and using it to rise from the couch. “Of course General. It would be an honor to be escorted by a hero of the Dheman people.”

His skin darkened with a blush, but he took her arm and waited for Valnal to lead the way in to dinner. Lord Brodin gallantly took Safra’s arm and off they went.

Dinner was excruciatingly polite. It mainly revolved around the crops and expected harvest.

A challenge for a game of Mintag was thrown out, and Sam flushed in memory of the last time she had played the game.

Brodin and Kassil were keen to take on each other in the game of strategy, and Valnal wanted to play the winner. Sam almost threw her hat into the ring, until she remembered that females did not play in public.

They lingered over dessert, then went into the 70

Deal with a Dhemon

parlor once again and began the marathon of Mintag. Shalin was sent off to bed, and the conversation became a little more adult.

“So, what exactly were you wearing in that tank?” Brodin made the statement while Kassil was moving a piece on the board. Kassil’s head came up and he scowled ferociously at his cousin.

She kept her voice light. “About what you would expect. A lot of tubes and wires. Oh, and my hunter tattoo.”

Safra seemed interested, “You were a hunter?”

“Yep. A long time ago it seems.”

“Where is the tattoo?” Brodin waggled his eyebrows in a lascivious manner.

“Upon her thigh. Picked out in metallic inks.

Very striking against the smooth gold of her skin.”

Kassil’s voice was amused as he met the eyes of his cousin over the table.

“You have seen it?” Brodin did not seem to like that idea at all.

“Of course, when she was in the tank.” He raised an eyebrow and smirked.

Sam was confused. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but she knew she didn’t like it.

“I am very tired. I’m sorry, but I beg to be excused from this gathering.”

Valnal took pity on her, “Yes of course, you must be exhausted. Go to bed. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

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She rose to her feet. “Thank you. It was a pleasure meeting you Lord Brodin, and to see you again General Kassil. Good night.”

She returned to her room. Latching the door behind her. She leaned on it and sighed. Men. She just could not understand what those two were up to. She undressed and went to bed. Having learned her lesson, she put on a nightgown before she lay down.

* * * *

“The most intriguing woman I have seen in years, and you have driven her off.” Brodin was hostile as he attacked Kassil’s figures on the board.

“She is not yours to pursue.” His voice was implacable.

Safra looked from one to the other, “Kassil, I thought that your mother had provided you with a list of candidates for marriage.”

Kassil frowned and looked up from the game,

“She did. I did not find them suitable.”

Valnal looked incredibly amused, “Out of all of the choices she provided you with the second that you landed, you have already decided to find them unsuitable?”

“Yes.”

“What could possibly be wrong with all of them?” Safra was appalled. She had been in 72