Chapter 40 #2
A tense silence hovered, but her father spoke, softening. “I know that you helped her. For this, I did not block your escape.”
Eve blinked. Had her father let him escape?
Her father continued. “You do not deserve her.”
“I have done nothing wrong by her—”
“You did not bring her home,” her father cut him off, coming up to stand. “You would have taken her to your country with no word, no care for her family or her customs. You used your position to take advantage of a woman who had no one there to protect her.”
“I did not kidnap her,” Michel yelled back. “That was your people. I found her,” he corrected himself, “she found me, after she had already been taken from your fields.”
Borjigin stepped off the dais. Eve could see the flames in his eyes, ready to engulf them all. She feared this version of her father, the one who was torn by many different rights and wrongs, the one most volatile.
“Father!” she called out again.
“Quiet!” he roared back without taking his eyes off Michel.
Eve shook, her hands gripping the banister. Michel could die by his words.
Her father took a breath. Then he began, his words careful and even. “I respect that you have come here to try to speak with me. However, I cannot let you go again, boy. You have solved many problems for me by coming back.” He turned to his eldest son, Dzhambul. “Now,” he instructed.
Her brother pulled his sword and took quick steps toward Michel without hesitation.
Michel took his stance, but he had no weapons.
Eve knew he would fight, but he had no way of winning.
Eve could shout for Dzhambul to stop, for her father to call them off, for Michel to run, but she knew that none of those things would save him.
So, instead, she said the one thing that was sure to get a reaction.
“I’m pregnant!” she shouted down to the floor.
That froze everyone in place.
“You’re what?” Her father yelled, finally looking up at her.
Eve hung over the balcony and locked eyes with Michel for the first time since he had arrived. “You’re pregnant?” Michel called up to her.
“Yes,” she said, nodding furiously, wiping sudden tears from her cheeks.
Michel stared, and despite the chaos between them, he breathed in and smiled and grabbed at his heart…just seconds before her youngest brother caught him with a left hook right across the chin.
“Oh!” Eve shouted and ran down the stairs as the floor erupted into a brawl.
Three of her brothers had jumped onto Michel at the news.
Dzhambul still stood with his sword drawn, but he had let it fall to the side as he leaned against a column and waited for his turn.
Her other two brothers circled the pack, looking for an opening.
Her father stood at his chair, staring at Eve.
She didn’t look at him. She couldn’t deal with the shame of finding herself pregnant or any disapproval right now.
She only cared about Michel. She wanted to honor her tribe.
She cared about doing what was right, but she didn’t have the strength to turn Michel away again.
She took the steps of the staircase as fast as she could.
In the center, Michel ducked and threw a punch at her brother, Yul.
The youngest brother jumped on Michel’s back, and Michel slung him off, while the other took a swing, which Michel evaded, only to be nailed in the stomach by Esen.
Michel stumbled back and sucked in a breath, ready to take on the next attack.
“Stop!” she commanded, running up to them, wedging herself between them and Michel. “Stop!”
The men hesitated and they backed away from each other. They sniffed and wiped sweat and blood from their faces.
Michel stood in the same spot, now beaten, a black eye forming, a gash on his cheek, and a swollen lip. But his expression held joy. His eyes sparkled.
“How long have you known?” he said, reaching for her hands.
“A few weeks,” she said, brimming with happiness, struggling to contain it. “Before we were separated.”
He breathed in, and she saw him trying to control his own emotions. “Is that what you were about to tell me in Carth?”
She nodded and smiled. “Yes.”
Michel grinned, too, and she couldn’t hold back anymore.
He had come for her, to face her father.
Nothing mattered anymore, only to be with him again.
Everything else would have to work out, because she saw her future unfurling before her and it was once again joyous.
She threw her arms around Michel. He held her for a moment, then Michel sank to his knees in front of her and hugged her around her legs.
She huddled over him, her hands reaching down to wrap around him. She closed her eyes to take this moment to forget about everything else. There was just Michel. And his body and his arms around her. It was just the two of them. The three of them.
Until she heard her father.
“Stop this instant!” he yelled.
Michel looked up to her. The happiness unraveled as reality came in once again.
“Face me, boy,” her father demanded, now standing himself.
Eve gripped Michel, not wanting to let him go, but Michel stood and pulled back. He turned to her father.
Eve wasn’t sure what was coming, anxiety wrapping around her.
Her father approached Michel until he was inches away. Michel was taller than her father, but her father was a figure who could intimidate anyone of any size. Still, Michel held his own and clenched his jaw as he waited to be addressed.
He stared at Michel but addressed Eve. “Eve, when you mentioned this match to me, you did not express that you had already chosen this man. I believed you to be in shock, an affection to him because you were traumatized by the situation. I see now that is not the case.”
Eve dropped her head, not used to disappointing her father.
“I don’t know if you are a good man.” He spoke now to Michel. “My daughter seems to believe so. I am inclined to trust her.” He nodded. “And if the ancestors have blessed you with a child, it is not my place to interfere.”
Eve felt strings of hope wrap around her heart.
“If I allow you to marry my daughter, my only daughter,” her father continued, his eyes hot on Michel, “to take her from her home, do you promise to spend your life in her service?”
“Without a doubt,” Michel declared without hesitation. “Nothing will ever change that.”
“Because I will have no problem bringing war to your doorstep if I ever feel that she is not being taken care of.”
“She will be my greatest concern, always. And…” He paused. Michel choked up, his voice cracked, and he had to stop to clear his throat. “And any children we have, too.”
Her father pressed his lips and nodded.
Eve jumped forward then and took Michel’s hand. He turned to her, and she saw in his face what she already knew in her heart: that, yes, he would spend his life worshiping her and protecting her and the family they would build together. She reached forward to hug him again.
Then her father barked once more, causing them both to jump. “No touching,” he boomed. Then his voice softened. “Not until the wedding.”
Eve bit her lip to contain the wonderful emotions set free inside of her. She smiled at Michel and stepped back to let him go.
Only because she would get to have him once more—and now for the rest of their lives.