Married to Krampus (My Holiday Tails) by Marina Simcoe

Author:Marina Simcoe [Simcoe, Marina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rocky River Publishing
Published: 2020-12-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

I BOUNCED ON THE HEELS of my fur-trimmed boots, standing on the grass-covered roof of the main building of The Military Academy. It was warm here, under the giant dome, but a fluffy winter coat was waiting for me in the Colonel’s aircraft, along with a scruffy fur coat for him and the kids’ winter clothes.

“Where are they?” I muttered impatiently. “How much longer?”

As a part of the large group of parents—mostly dads—the Colonel and I lined up along the entire circumference of the roof area, waiting for the children to be released to us.

“What’s taking them so long?” I asked impatiently, doing my best to ignore the stares of the fathers and the staff alike.

As one of a handful of women under the dome and the only human, I attracted a lot of attention. The ogling would make me uncomfortable had it not been for the anticipation of meeting the two little guys soon. It kept my focus off the crowd and their scrutiny.

“Soon.” The Colonel patted my arm in a calming gesture. “They have a number of protocols to follow before the children can be released.” He shifted his weight to his other hoof. “May I request something from you?”

“Sure. What is it?” I glanced at him.

His expression, even more serious than usual, made me pause.

“I prefer not to introduce you to my children as my wife,” he said. “I don’t want them to know that we’re married.”

I had no plans to tell them that anyway, of course, but something inside me deflated at his request. As if a piece of my excitement had chipped away with this reminder of how things really were between us.

“But wouldn’t the children know that already?” The entire country knew.

“According to the rules of The Ministry of Children’s Education and Wellbeing, all family news is to be delivered to students by close family members, unless instructed otherwise.”

“And you have never told them?” It’d been months since he’d learned about me.

“No. I wanted to meet you in person first.”

I didn’t blame him for wanting to protect his children.

“Do they know that I’m here, at all?”

“No. I was going to tell them later, after—” He stopped himself. “Well, after you would’ve settled.”

But I hadn’t. I hadn’t settled into my role of his wife and his children’s stepmom as the whole world had expected me to do. At this point, I wasn’t even their nanny. As far as the children would ever know, I was a nobody—a random visitor from another planet, who would be gone from their lives by the time of their dad’s next visit here.

All of it felt so excruciatingly sad.

Yes, my husband was...difficult at times. Not counting that initial burst of lust, the only feelings he’d expressed toward me had been those of duty and obligation. This marriage was nothing more than a status symbol to him and empty misguided hopes for me. But I wondered what would’ve happened had we tried hard enough to make it work.

Right now, it felt like we hadn’t tried at all.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.