nineteen
The world was a strange place when a woman was in love.
Arrah had always been a beautiful planet, and this part of it was no less so.
The mountainous landscape, sheathed in old-growth trees, and the wildflower meadows that supported the primary agricultural and touristic industries were the subjects of a thousand famous paintings, movies, and novels,
each preaching on Arrah’s ecological integrity while slightly snubbing its insular culture.
The bubbling brooks and whitewater rivers cut through the landscape like they had been there for millions of years longer than the deer, the birds, and the horses that were as indigenous to this land as sarrah weed had been to Qahrain.
Yet none of them was as beautiful as when Sulim woke up in love.
She had courted love before. She had “loved” Eyne, whose tragic death had probably only circumvented their inevitable breakup.
She loved Sonall, who was her best friend and the closest thing she had to a confidant on his home planet.
But not only were both her ex-girlfriend and current husband a very different kind of love from each other…
well, Sulim had been misguided. She now knew love.
It hit her the hardest when she got up, alone, and approached the large bedroom window overlooking the backyard, where the forest encroached upon the family’s lands.
She let in bright sunshine that streamed in from the east and cascaded upon the floor, reflecting off her bare toenails and illuminating the pale white of her legs.
She blinked away the sleep still in her eyes until her pupils adjusted and she saw a world that probably came the closest to the julah Elysian she had read about.
The world where they go when they die. Heaven.
She carried that with her as the day progressed. Eating her breakfast, starting her chores, and checking in with the staff for anything else that needed to be metered before lunch had Sulim floating through a haze of everything is new and everything is actually beautiful.
Eyne had been exciting. Sonall had been a much-needed change in her life. Mira? Well, the woman was scarce all day, and Sulim gleaned that she had gone into town, but she was…
She’s what I’ve been waiting for.
Not literally, perhaps. After all, Sulim hadn’t been waiting for anyone.
She was married. She had established a new life in a new place.
In many ways, she was still getting used to being part of the Gardiah ecosystem that required breathing different air, living more rurally, and getting her hands dirty with large animals instead of working in a field.
Never mind the hierarchy. Sulim lived here with the presumption that she would be queen of the castle one day.
But what if she could have something else? Something more suited to her personality?
What am I talking about? She stopped midway through sweeping the back porch, a chore that usually went to a certain maid who had to go lie down due to a migraine.
The breeze was the same. The intensity of the sunlight on such a sunny day after the rain hadn’t changed. Yet in the treeline before her emerged a figure that she couldn’t quite place.
Someone extended a hand to her. In another blink of the eye, she was gone.
“Hey.” Sulim nearly leaped out of her skin when her husband emerged from the back door, changed into his casual house clothes and regular outdoor boots. “I’m back already.”
Where had he gone? The fields, idiot. The man had been up before her for a reason. Because he works. Besides, Sulim had slept in that morning. Well, slept in for her…
“You all right?”
He asked that in good faith, but Sulim only continued her fervent sweeping. “Yup. Just adjusting to the sunlight. Really bright today.”
“Is it? I guess so.”
She peered at him over her shoulder. “You’re more used to it than me right now.”
“Anyway, I came out here to ask if you wanted to go for a ride. Like you’ve noticed, there’s a lot of good weather today.”
“A ride?”
“Uh, yeah. On the horses. Maybe into town? I could pick up a couple of things. Maybe take you out for dinner for once.”
“Dinner.”
“Yeah, that meal we eat in the evening.”
He almost made it through that statement without smirking.
“You sure you're okay? I know it’s been forever since the day’s been long enough to do something like that, but it’s not entirely out of the wheelhouse. Besides, you didn’t go out with Emi, right? She’s probably itching to move.”
“Just didn’t think you’d be in the mood after working all morning.”
“I rode out to the fields but didn’t actually do much. Mostly sitting around in a saddle counting herds. Oh, did I tell you? Marco thinks we should invest in drones to do our counting for us and cut down how many men we need every week,
but Father was right when he said it would spook the horses for too long to be of any use. Drones. Can you imagine?”
“Sounds like something Marco would suggest.”
“He was not happy that I agreed with Father.”
“You’re a lot more like Vern than Marco.”
“I feel like that’s a jab against my character.”
Sulim shrugged as she approached the back door with her broom. “I get on with your father well enough. Marco flirts with me too much.”
“He does what now?”
Sulim left it at that as they both went inside. Although she had not outright accepted her husband’s invitation, it was implied as they went upstairs to their room and he hopped in the bath while she changed into something nicer for going into town.
She stood in the closet, staring down at her garments that were both acceptable for a night out and for riding a horse there and back. She hated how intently she wondered whether Mira would like a flowy butter yellow tunic top paired with riding breeches.
“Can we go to the place with live music?” she asked, poking her head into the bathroom, the blouse hanging from her hand. “I haven’t heard any in forever.”
“Was gonna suggest that very one,” her husband said from the tub.
She figured. Sonall loved live music. Well, he loved music.
In another life, the man was a musician, but the thought of the future Lord Gardiah as a bard was hilarious.
I don’t think Vern has ever heard live music outside of weddings.
That only made Sulim like him more. She may not agree with it, but she couldn’t fault him for sticking to what he liked—and didn’t like.
Sulim searched through her drawers for a bra that wouldn’t stick out as much beneath her yellow top.
As she unsnapped her straps and tossed her lingerie onto the bed, she suddenly remembered what it had been like when Mira did the same thing to her the day before.
In my special place. In a barn loft in the middle of the woods on a beautiful rainy day.
She instinctively covered her breasts with her arms at the thought of Mira touching them again. Behind her, water splashed in the bath.
I did that. She swallowed the lump in her throat. I slept with her. Honestly, Sulim had done more than that. They hadn’t slept together at all.
She was ready by the time Sonall emerged from the bath, half-dried and naked. She kept her focus on the window, staring at the woods while her husband searched for appropriate clothing to wear.
“Since you’re wearing yellow,” he announced, cutting through her voiceless thoughts, “I’ll wear white. Seems like the kind of thing to wear this time of year.”
“You’ve got that blue shirt,” she said. “The one with the collar.”
“The dark blue one?”
She was thinking cobalt, but knew better than to assume he knew what the hell she was talking about besides primary and secondary colors. “Yeah. It looks good on you.”
Although she didn’t see it, she knew he was grinning.
Sulim played a dangerous game. Here she was, fresh from her affair with one of her guests and dreaming of another life, and she flirted with her husband. He’ll think I’m flirting with him. In a way, she was. If only to assuage whatever guilt bubbled up her throat.
I should tell him…
That thought paralyzed her as she stared out the window again.
Telling Sonall about her affair would ruin his good mood.
Honestly, there was no situation where Sulim didn’t come out as a villain that day.
Maybe if I had caught him in his own affair…
He would never. Sulim had long suspected that her young husband was the type to suggest that both of them have fun with a woman before he went after one on his own. In your dreams, pal.
So, she didn’t think of this as a date with her husband. She approached it as a hangout with her best friend. One she was slowly pushing more and more into that friend category, despite them being married for two years.
Emi was fresh in the stable as they left.
Sonall had asked her to go ahead and pick a horse for him since his usual mare was foraging after the morning’s work.
While he lingered inside to inform his family where they were going, Sulim readied Emi and eyeballed Jacelah’s mare, Westie, in the opposite stall.
Jacelah rode her so little these days that the mare had to be rotated through the errands roster to keep her fit.
“Going out?”
Sulim caught sight of Lady Joiya before she heard her. There, in the shadowy entrance of the family stable, was the petite version of Mira, a walking cloak clinging to her shoulders.
“Yeah. My husband and I are heading into town for the evening. We won’t be at dinner.”
“Oh, it will be such a small table, then. I daresay my daughter isn’t coming, either.”
Sulim turned her head before Joiya saw the red on her cheeks. “Really?”
“I believe she went into town this morning. Probably to harass our mutual friend staying there. He really should be working, though…”
“I’m sorry that the table will be a bit empty tonight, Lady Joiya.” Sulim brought her saddle over from the tack and tossed it onto Emi’s back.
“Oh, don’t worry about us parents. It’s nice seeing the youth enjoy themselves.”
Sulim didn’t know what to make of that. Just like she didn’t know what to make of Joiya gazing at her through such bright yet studious brown eyes.
Sonall excused himself past Joiya as he entered the stable.
He agreed to take Westie, and Joiya continued to watch as husband and wife went about preparing for a ride.