The Fight for Peace (6 page)

The two weeks went by far too quickly, spent holding onto laughter similar to what the four of them had shared before Derrick volunteered to go to Crystal City and Parliament returned to session in Prague. Derrick was by her nearly every minute as they rode horses along the beach or sat talking in the manor. Nights were spent far closer with soft sheets and smoother skin.

None of it made the end of the time easier. Arinna didn’t want to face the decision that needed to be made before they returned. Derrick didn’t mention it. When Jared called, Derrick disappeared or answered questions as a Lieutenant. For his part, Jared didn’t ask, but Arinna knew by the fondness in his smile that he guessed.

Arinna was lost in thought as she packed her duffle for the return to Prague when Derrick spoke from where he leaned against the doorframe. “You don’t need to spend so much time figuring out how to tell me. You don’t have to say anything. I’m happy that we had two more weeks. I just hope we can be ... friends, I suppose. I hope you can talk to me like we do here.”

He kissed the top of her head as she slid into his arms and leaned against him. “But the thing is, I don’t want to stop seeing you, even though I know I should.”

The communicator left by her bag buzzed, breaking the stare between them before either could find words to say goodbye or a resolution that would solve the riddle of their relationship. Arinna wiped away a tear as she answered.

“I’ve got news,” Jared said, voice filled with excitement.

“It sounds like good news. Did the FLF blow themselves up?”

“Thanks, nothing that good. Now I’m disappointed. We’ll talk more when you’re back. What do you know about Argentina?”

Chapter 7

CORIANNE HEYLOR

ENLISTMENT

It was a month of hell. Corianne’s mother refused to allow any talk of the Guard, even from Pyotr. Where her cousin had been was a topic just as verboten as what Corianne had gone through. Which left only the holidays and Tatiana’s upcoming nuptials as approved conversations. Corianne vied between feeling the threads of her tight satin dresses were the only things keeping her together to feeling that they symbolized all she was no longer. Every day was uncomfortable. Counting them away kept her sane.

The very short holiday break for Parliament kept the countryside empty of many, at least those in Corianne’s traditional social circles. Only those who had no intention of returning in January arrived to host last minute holiday gatherings. That at least kept the roster of events small. Still, she was shocked to be invited anywhere at all and wondered if Tatiana and her mother begged for those.

Her cousin’s obvious happiness and the Lady Grey’s promise made the days tolerable. Corianne had gained quite a bit of skill in pretending everything was fine in her weeks living with David after the first rape. So she managed to smile, discuss the spring wedding plans, and help Tatiana work on her gown.

“By spring your hair will have grown out,” Tatiana said as they sewed one quiet afternoon, a task much more preferable to dressing to go out.

“Oh,
I—
” Corianne cut off her answer as her mother glanced at her. “Of course,” she said instead with a smile.

Corianne had no interest in growing out her shorn locks. She’d grown accustomed to the inch long nap, preferring it just as she preferred to be called Cori. Which no one but Pyotr did. But based on her mother’s look, Corianne wouldn’t dare mention her preferences lest Linda remove the scissors from the sewing room.

Finally one morning Corianne woke up and it was mid-January. A month had passed since the hearing. She sighed with relief. The house held pre-dawn silence as Corianne slipped on pants taken from Pyotr’s old clothes that she’d hemmed to fit her. Over that, she slipped a blouse and jacket from her clothing purchased in Prague. Riding boots, a winter jacket, Corianne turned slowly in the center of her room, seeking anything too cherished to leave behind. She saw nothing that suited the future that would begin today.

Corianne saddled the one horse suitable for riding as quickly and quietly as she could. Even if her mother discovered her, Corianne would not delay her trip to Rhiol one more day. But it would be better to remember her mother without hysterics and shouting. Pulling the girth tight, Corianne heard the creak of a floorboard.

“You can’t stop me,” Corianne said after a glance over her shoulder.

“I’m not trying to stop you. I’m joining you – well, the Guard. You’d think after Crystal City and the Wasteland, I wouldn’t want to enlist?” Pyotr asked.

Corianne fumbled with the buckle, nearly dumping the saddle to the floor. Pyotr caught it before it slid from the mare’s back, righting it and holding it in place so Corianne could cinch it properly. She glared at him over the seat, unsure what else to do.

“Hurry up, do you want to wait until everyone is awake?” Pyotr hissed.

Corianne wanted to retort and argue, but both would cost time and potentially be overheard.  She unclipped the horse and led it out the barn door, glancing quickly to the house to ensure no candles were lit before leading the mare down the lane. Pyotr followed her.

“You can walk,” Corianne said as she stopped the horse to mount at the bend where the old maple tree hid the house from view.

Pyotr snorted. “It’s a long way to Rhiol. The old nag can carry both of us. She won’t have any riders for the walk back.”

“Fine,” she snapped, still not trusting he wasn’t going to talk her out of it. But leaving, instead of arguing in the farm yard, sounded like a better plan. She could always push him off. Cori made him sit behind her. Annoyingly, he stayed silent and agreeable. As the sun rose and no sign of pursuit appeared, she just wanted to know one thing.

“If you were planning on enlisting after coming back from Crystal City, why did you wait until I did? You could have stayed in Prague.”

Pyotr was silent a minute. The horse swayed under them on her slow walk to Rhiol. “I went to Crystal City looking for family and from the time I left Europe all I could think of was Tatiana. I wanted to come home and spend time with her first, and make sure she would be all right and that the farm was fine. And I wanted to meet Phillip,” he added with a shrug she could feel as he shifted.

“That does make sense,” Corianne admitted. “What do you think of Phillip?”

“He’s nice and does love Tatiana, I can tell that. I guess it should be enough, but ... it doesn’t mean I didn’t want more for her. I don’t know if he and I will ever see eye to eye.”

Corianne laughed softly. “Just like she doesn’t want to see you enlist in the Guard?”

Pyotr huffed a laugh as well. “Yeah, something like that. Guess we have to sneak away to be allowed to live our lives.”

That made Corianne sigh. Silence ticked by for a few minutes. “I think Tatiana will understand that. Even when she didn’t approve of my choices, she never tried to change them. My mother though ... I wish she understood. I know this is going to hurt her. But I can’t spend the rest of my life living like I did the last month.”

“Did you leave anything to explain?”

“A note,” Corianne admitted. “You?”

“A note as well. As much as I’m not crazy about Phillip, I wish I could see her get married. I almost told her, hoping they’d have a quick ceremony or something. But she is so excited about the wedding that I just couldn’t.”

“Maybe there’ll be a weekend,” Corianne suggested as she turned the mare down the winding drive to Rhiol.

“That we could go from wherever we’ll have training back up here to see her married? I might have walked through the Wasteland with Derrick and we might write, but we’re both going to be new recruits. I don’t think we’ll rate a flight so we can see Tatiana wed.”

“You write to the Earl of Kesmere?” Corianne asked, shifting in the saddle to glance at Pyotr. He blushed.

“I don’t call him that. Just Derrick ... which now when you say that it sounds worse. Yes, I’ve written twice and he answered. He knows I’m planning on enlisting. He asked how you were. I think he feels ... bad.”

“Because it was his father who I was sleeping with and sold me to an FLF soldier?” Corianne asked, ignoring Pyotr’s wince. Everyone would have to accept that at some point. “It isn’t his fault. Actually, I was thinking it is so odd you writing to him. I wanted to marry him once. Which makes it weirder that I had an affair with his father. I wish I had a better explanation for what I did in Prague. Then I’d at least be able to know I’d never make such lousy choices again.”

Pyotr squeezed her arm, but didn’t respond. Ahead the grey stone buildings of Rhiol came into view. Corianne thought about what she’d just said and where she was heading. Even that didn’t change her mind. She stopped the horse before the front doors, letting Pyotr slide from the mare’s back first.

“You ready?” Corianne asked as she straightened her jacket.

“I am,” he said, gaze level and firm.

Corianne hadn’t known Pyotr well before she’d left for Prague and he for Crystal City, so any changes weren’t really apparent to her except one. He was far more unshakable. Before she could have angered him. Or Linda’s demand they not speak of the Guard would have driven him crazy, especially considering how many people wanted to hear what he’d done. Instead, he’d shrugged and kept doing farm chores, talking to Phillip about how the goats and pigs had done while he was away. She’d thought he was asking because he intended to stay and pick up where he’d left off. Now Corianne realized he’d been making sure Phillip knew what he was doing.

Together they walked up the stairs. Corianne hit the knocker twice. They waited in silence while she ignored sudden fears that Rhiol was empty.

“You’re here,” the man who opened the door said. Corianne and Pyotr glanced at each other. He chuckled. “The Lady Grey told me of her promise. I just wasn’t sure if you’d come early or late. But I was betting you’d come. I’m Christophe, retired Guard,” he added, gaze running over both of them. It ended on Pyotr. “I’m not surprised to see you. You sure about this? You might have to fight the people you met in Crystal City, your family,” Christophe asked.

“They’ve already shot at me. I want a gun so I can shoot back.”

Christophe snorted. “And you ... you do know killing people won’t make what happened to you better?”

“I know,” Corianne answered. “I’m not here for revenge. I’m here because I don’t want to be some wife married to a man who mostly feels sorry for me. I want a future that I choose and when this war is over, I might just get into politics. But yes, if another man ever touches me again I want to be able to defend myself – sword, gun, or knife.”

Christophe stared at her with a blank look before a smile pulled at his lips. “I think you’re going to do well with us. Come in, both of you,” he said, stepping back from the door. “I’ll have your horse taken home and let Command know you are here.”

Christophe showed them the kitchen and left them to fend for themselves for breakfast. When word came that their pick-up would be in three days, he showed them rooms.

“Should we help
do
something?” Pyotr asked when they met Tomas in the kitchen at lunchtime.

“Ya can if ya want,” Tomas said. “But tis your last three days of freedom. Ya might just want to enjoy it.”

The practical advice left Pyotr and Corianne laughing. They were so eager to join and leave that hearing they should appreciate idle time was odd, but also made it feel real. They took a walk in the woods and got permission to exercise two of the quieter horses.

It was the most time she’d spent with Pyotr, and certainly the longest where they actually conversed. As they rode side by side in the winter late morning sun the second day, Corianne got Pyotr to share what it had been like walking through the Wasteland, being taken prisoner, and arriving as a guest in Crystal City.

“Does it scare you, to have seen what war did to the Wasteland and to have FLF soldiers shooting at you, to now join the Guard?” Corianne asked. “You probably know more than most new recruits about what fighting will really be like.”

“I think it makes me realize how important it is. I expect most of the other recruits will be joining for some idea of glory or honor. That and wanting to pay the FLF back for what they did to Russia is what made me wish to join before I left. Now I don’t want to see what they did in the Wasteland happen here. Or to see Europe go to the kids I met in Crystal City. They don’t deserve it.”

Corianne thought of that as they rode back and unsaddled the horses, grooming each properly before leading them to empty stalls. When they walked into the kitchen, Christophe glanced up from a roast he was prepping. Having her and Pyotr in Rhiol brought out his host side. Time spent in his company usually involved hearing how wonderful having Captain Vries and his fiancée stay in Rhiol with their kids had been, much less the honor of preparing the wedding feast.

“You have a visitor,” Christophe told them. “Front room. Already took her tea. Should still be warm and enough for the two of you. I’ll bring lunch in a bit. She can stay for dinner.” His glance was hopeful.

“I wonder if that is why they are making us wait three days, so my mom can come and try to convince us not to go?” Corianne asked glumly as they walked to the front room. But when they opened the door, it wasn’t Linda who was sitting there. It was Tatiana.

“What are you doing here? Did you come alone?” Corianne asked, hugging her cousin.

Tatiana didn’t answer until she’d hugged her brother. “Yes, I came alone. I’m a grown woman about to be married; I can manage a dozen miles without a chaperone,” Tatiana said, her tone as teasing as it was serious. She wiped a tear from her lashes. “You could have told me ... not just left notes,” Tatiana said, looking at the two of them.

“I didn’t think you’d understand. Aunt Linda said we shouldn’t talk about the Guar
d—
”

“In front of her!” Tatiana said, taking both of their hands and leading them toward seats and the tea tray. “Phillip is retired Guard and I’m almost grateful for his injury or he wouldn’t be retired after all this. I do understand. I don’t want to join, but I do understand.”

Pyotr coughed at that. “Cori said you’d understand. Guess I was worried,” he admitted.

Tatiana lightly punched his arm. “I was worried when you went into the Wasteland! I still didn’t tell anyone.”

“I can’t believe you kept that a secret,” Corianne said. Tatiana paused, her gaze looking through Cori, reminding her of another secret Tatiana had borne.

Before Cori could respond, Tatiana’s look altered to a smile. “If Phillip hadn’t written nearly every day and distracted me, I may have told you. I almost did so many times!”

“So I should thank Phillip for giving you something else to think of?” Pyotr asked, though his teasing had a grumpy note.

“Most definitely. Think of the mess that would have made if I’d told Cori and she’d told Mr. Eldridge.”