Chapter Eight #2
I must have blacked out for a second or two. I awoke to find those men standing over me, staring down at my body, which was bare from the waist down. Startled, I tried to pull my robe back down but Davos caught my hand.
“They’re doctors, and they’re examining you. No, stop trying to close your legs. They’re trying to take care of you. I won’t let anything bad happen. Just hold my hand.”
“The baby,” I said, and my voice sounded scratchy and way too small for them to hear me. I said it again, louder. “The baby.”
Davos put his face down next to mine and kissed my cheek.
“They’re checking now. Give them a moment, baby.
” He was trying to soothe me and tell me to be patient, but I could tell he was anxious too.
One of the doctors put his hand up inside me and that hurt.
I groaned, and Davos bent down to whisper something to him, but I didn’t understand what he said.
The doctor replied calmly enough, but he removed his big hand.
The men began speaking to Davos in rapid Tygerian, and I just watched Davos’s face. It was very expressive, and I thought I’d be able to tell if I’d lost the baby. He listened and nodded and then spoke softly to me.
“The bleeding has stopped. There wasn’t much, but they’re still not sure what’s going on.
They think you’re in no danger of losing the baby, though.
These men are not doctors just for a baby…
I don’t know your word for that. They think you should go to bed and stay there until we get back to Tygeria. ”
I groaned and he looked down at me sternly. “You have to do as they say, nobyo. This is non-negotiable.”
Since he’d returned, he had called me nice names only a handful of times, and it warmed me every time he did it, so maybe I was a little more amenable than usual as he used them now.
“All right,” I replied. “I’ll stay in bed more. Are we heading back to Tygeria?”
“Not yet. The doctors here onboard are excellent, and I have full faith in them. They don’t think it’s necessary, as the blood has stopped and nothing more could be done on Tygeria at this point than what we can do for you here.
If anything changes, they’re in touch with your doctors at home and they feel they can take care of it.
I don’t want you to worry about it, and in the meantime, the doctors insist on you having complete bed rest.”
Knowing that if I spent all my time stretched out on that wooden rack he called a bed, I’d be crippled in a week, I just nodded, pretending to give in. It was so much easier that way. I slept most of the rest of the day away.
That evening, he sent me more of the merula.
For strength, the servant said, as he dropped it off.
It made me furious. Davos knew how much I despised the stuff, and as hungry as I was, there was no way I was eating that mess.
I declined it first and then the servant insisted, shoving it closer to me.
I don’t know who he thought he was, but I was the Royal Consort, by God, and I wasn’t prepared to be treated with such disrespect. To tell the truth, I was just mad because Davos hadn’t come himself.
I smiled sweetly at him and then told the servant to watch while I gave the merula the treatment it deserved.
I threw it against the wall, and we both watched as the broken bowl slid slowly down the length of it, the brown gravy already beginning to congeal amid the green vegetables and nameless, greasy meat on the floor.
I think I shocked the poor man, and he left the room quickly as if barely escaping with his life. Served him right.
I figured he’d rat me out to Davos, instead of bringing me another tray of different breakfast foods, and I decided I didn’t want to wait around for it.
I got up, pulled on my warmest, fur-lined robe, wrapped the blanket around me too and decided to take a walk to the observation platform.
I had no idea where it was, but I knew that these huge, luxury ships all had them.
We’d even had one on the warship I traveled on back when I was an Alliance soldier, although not that many of us had the time to visit it much. Sometimes, late at night, when I’d finished my duties, I’d visit the small one we had on an upper deck. That seemed like a really long time ago.
There had never been much to see. Deep space was an intensely black void, punctuated by countless, fixed pinpoints of starlight, and the glowing band of the Milky Way.
Without an atmosphere, the stars didn’t twinkle, because since there was no atmospheric turbulence to disturb their light, mostly an observer was struck only by the extreme darkness.
As a result, few people came back again and again to “observe” like I did.
I found it peaceful, though, and a good place to think without interruption.
Besides that, we were still going through various wormholes.
Wormholes were spheres, not two-dimensional holes, and traveling through them was a little like skimming along the surface of a tunnel, with images of distant galaxies and nebulae painted on the walls and we were zooming past them at incredible speed.
The light was as if viewed through that curved lens I’d noticed before and the overall effect was quite beautiful.
It was strangely peaceful sitting there on the slightly darkened observation deck, and if I closed my eyelids almost to, and I just enjoyed the colors and didn’t think about what we were really doing, I almost enjoyed it.
It seemed like that wasn’t going to be the case today, however. I’d barely got settled when the door slid open and not one, but two big guards in Axis uniforms came crowding through the door. The one in the lead bowed to me, saying, “Your Highness, we’ve come to escort you back to your room.”
“On whose orders?”
“His Majesty’s.”
“Go tell His Majesty that I’m not bothering him or anybody else, so there’s absolutely no need for him to bother me. I feel perfectly fine.”
The poor guard looked confused, probably not expecting my reply, but the one behind him said something harsh sounding to the one in the lead, and that was followed by a rapid conversation that was totally not conducive to peacefulness. Finally, the one in the lead, repeated himself.
“Your Highness, we’ve come to escort you back to your room.”
“No, thank you. Please go away.”
“Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear,” he said in heavily accented Earthan. “The king has ordered you back to your room.”
“And I’ve refused to go. That’s the end of it. Leave me alone now, please.”
The one standing behind the first one took a step toward me, and I jumped to my feet, raising my fists.
“Unless you’re prepared to take me by force, I’m not going anywhere. At least not easily. Now go. Shoo! Leave me alone!”
They left, shooting me dark looks over their broad shoulders. And because I knew they’d be coming right back with new orders or else Davos himself would storm down here and probably make a terrible scene, I stood up and moved on down the corridor.
It felt good to stretch my legs, and I was wandering aimlessly, killing time, when I heard rapid footsteps behind me. They belonged to Davos, of course, and I turned to face him as he charged up to me and swept me up into his arms without a word.
His furious expression and flashing eyes spoke volumes, though, as he turned and carried me back the way he’d come.
I knew better than to fight him. The outcome would not be anything good.
As I had assumed he would, he took me straight back to my room and the door slid open as he held out his badge to it.
“Are you going to tie me to the bed?” I asked as sweetly as I could manage.
A growl escaped his throat, and he glared at me. “I’ll do whatever it takes to protect my child. Yes, I’m using restraints. And I’m locking this door.”
“If you do either one of those things, I promise you I’ll never willingly speak to you again. Don’t try me, Davos, because I’m serious. I’ll leave you as soon as this baby’s born and take him with me. You’ll never see either of us again. And I mean it.”
“I mean it. I mean it,” he mocked me in a stupid little voice that sounded nothing at all like me. I gave him the dirtiest look I could.
“That’s bold talk for someone with absolutely no power except for what I give you,” he said. “You won’t do a damn thing and we both know it. Stop making threats you can’t back up.”
“Ignore me then. See what happens.”
I knew he was angry, and I knew he wanted to restrain me, but something was holding him back. He was trembling with anger as he leaned down and got right in my face.
“Listen to me, Blake, because I’m serious.
I don’t care if you never speak to me again.
In fact, I’d welcome the rest. Your sarcastic mouth has gotten worse, and I didn’t think that was possible.
All you’re doing is threatening me with a good time.
I believe you told me that once, when you first came to live with me.
So, get this straight. You’ll never leave me again unless I put you aside.
Do I make myself clear? I’ve been far too lenient with you. But that stops now.”
Davos pulled out his communicator and spoke into it in rapid Tygerian.
Then he stood and glared at me, waiting for whatever he’d sent for.
A knock soon came and a guard appeared, holding one of the restraints used for crazy people in hospitals.
Not that I had any real knowledge of that, but I thought that was what it looked like.
It had big leather cuffs so it wouldn’t chafe my wrists.
Davos watched as the guard put them on me and attached them to the bed. I didn’t struggle and I never said another word. I wouldn’t even look at him. He thought me not talking to him again was a “good time,” huh? He was about to find out.