Fighting Gravity by Leah Petersen

Author:Leah Petersen [Petersen, Leah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Dragon Moon Press
Published: 2012-03-25T16:00:00+00:00

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I never thought I’d be happy to see the palace. When I disembarked from the transport Pete stood on the platform with Lord Sifer, waiting for me. He hugged me and I stiffened, surprised that he’d touch me in front of a lord. I raised my eyebrows after he pulled away.

“Lord Sifer’s already scandalized that I came to meet you, instead of requiring you to come to me.”

“I said nothing of the kind, Excellence,” Lord Sifer protested in his mild, calm voice.

Pete grinned at him but said nothing. “I couldn’t wait to see you,” he said to me. “Don’t ever go away for so long again. OK?”

“That sounds good to me.”

He had cleared some time for me, so we spent a few hours alone together walking barefoot on the beach, even though it was really too cold for it. We talked of nothing important, or even very interesting, and I felt the tension I’d brought back with me draining away.

He returned to his office in the afternoon. I was getting settled back in and about to go find my lab when I was summoned to appear before the emperor in his office. Baffled, I followed the servant. I was shown in and when the door closed behind me, I was berated by the emperor over the matter of Mr. Kagawa. He promised dire consequences if I ever acted on my own like that again; if I ever took advantage of my relationship with him to do things that should not be done.

I waited, barely breathing, for him to bring up Carrie as well, but he never said a word. I took a long, deep breath. I’d only done it that morning, he probably didn’t even know yet. Maybe he wouldn’t find out and maybe he would. But while I could accept that I deserved to be scolded for helping someone I’d never liked much anyway, no one was going to tell me it was wrong to do anything I could for my sister. Not even the emperor. Not even Pete.

I endured my chastisement in silence and gave my promise, when it was required of me, to never do such a thing again. That done, he dismissed me; I left with my ears ringing.

I only realized later why he’d waited to bring it up. Our private lives had nothing to do with his position or his responsibilities. I had done nothing that concerned us as a couple and he didn’t bring it up in our private time. I had done something wrong, using my influence with the emperor as the means, so it was the emperor who reprimanded me.

That evening when he returned to our rooms to dress for dinner he acted as if nothing had happened and he never spoke of it again. Carrie never came up at all.

-

Before dinner that night, in the pre-dinner lounge, I was introduced to the Grand Duchess Aliana, Pete’s cousin and the heir to the throne. Aliana was exotic and stunning, with creamy-chocolate skin and butter-colored hair and a prominent nose that somehow made her more beautiful rather than less.

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