Chapter Two #2
“Of course you will. That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?
” Mitzi’s voice held a trace of impatience.
“But the Intelligence wants us matched on sexual compatibility anyway. Even if it doesn’t have a body of its own, the Intelligence understands how decent sex can ease the tedium of marriage.
” Her thin lips pressed in a smirk. “Who am I to argue with the wisdom of the Intelligence?” She fixed sharp eyes on Delilah, already basking in the attention of a group of admirers. “I’ll try her.”
Vivian breathed through a tightness in her chest. Across the room, Delilah let out a sparkling peal of laughter, and her new Martian suitors smiled at her enthusiasm. Vivian would not allow her sunny, bright-eyed little sister to choose someone who regarded marriage as tedious.
Before Mitzi could approach Delilah, Ren grabbed her arm and nodded to the arrival of a new group. “Would you look at that,” he remarked to Mitzi in an undertone. “I didn’t expect Dorsey to allow his pets to come out and play.”
“Fucking hypocrite,” Mitzi hissed, the tendons on her long neck protruding. “So much for his sanctimonious bitching in the last Council session. If Yarrow wasn’t protecting him, I’d crush him like a bug.”
Vivian swiveled and adjusted her headset to observe the three newcomers.
Caspian Hayes was rated a 60-percent compatibility match.
He held a seat on the Council, invested in the terraforming industry, and maintained a community hospital with his sister Ivey, the headset helpfully informed her.
His rosy face held an open, affable expression as he took in the room with pleasure.
“Mr. Hayes is a well-respected member of society, but I believe he is too easily influenced and weak-minded,” Wim’s pre-recorded voice chirped in her ear.
Ivey’s pinkish skin and sandy hair resembled her brother, but her cynical detached smile did not.
Even though her sardonic expression appealed to Vivian, the headset warned that Ivey was only a 20-percent compatibility match.
Why did the Intelligence put so much stock in co-parenting with a sex partner?
She wasn’t attracted to Ivey, but she might enjoy raising children with a girlfriend who shared her sense of humor.
“Despite her altruistic pursuits, Miss Hayes is insufficiently respectful to the superior intellect of the Intelligence,” Wim opined. Were any of the potential spouses good enough for Wim’s exacting standards?
Next to Ivey stood the disagreeable man she’d seen at the shuttleport the day before.
The headset flashed a warning. Xavier Dorsey.
Unsuitable Match. Do Not Engage. Putting the headset down on a side table, Vivian looked at the man with both real eyes.
He was startlingly handsome with rich brown eyes and dark skin.
His open jacket revealed a brocade vest of silver and navy that hugged his trim torso.
Vivian hadn’t been sure she could be attracted to the stretched-out Martian physique, but Xavier’s tall, elegant body made her mouth run dry.
Until he ruined it by scowling at all in attendance and heading immediately for the bar.
“Mr. Dorsey may have honorable connections to her ladyship, but he is blasphemous, disagreeable, hubristic, supercilious—” Vivian pulled the earpiece out of her ear and dropped it in an abandoned champagne flute.
Across the room, Xavier accepted a glass of white wine from the Earther bartender. He angled his lean body forward across the bar and said something that made the bartender flash his white teeth in a laugh and lay a hand on Xavier’s forearm.
What caused the Intelligence to label Xavier Dorsey as unsuitable? Was he an unsuitable match for all the women or just for her? And why had he been watching them at the shuttleport?
“I do hope you’ll come to agree with me,” Ren said to her.
Vivian jerked her head away from watching Xavier to realize Mitzi had left their side, and Ren had been speaking to her. “Of course,” she replied automatically.
“Good, good. That is the foremost reason why I adore Martian poetry,” Ren continued, oblivious to her distraction.
“Let me introduce you to the works of Kenji Nakamura, my great-great-grandparent. They reclaimed the ancient method of Haiku, traditionally used to mark the seasonal changes of nature, and applied it to the harsh Martian landscape.” He closed his eyes and pressed a long-fingered hand to his chest. “Stillness and quiet / A ship scatters sand and rocks / Crash! Silence again.”
Vivian waited for the rest. Ren peaked his eyes open. “What do you think?”
“Oh.” Vivian attempted a smile. “Very nice. Thank you.”
“That’s Kenji’s gift. So simple, so profound. Please allow me to bestow another upon you.”
When Vivian was able to escape Ren reciting Martian poetry at her, she found herself in an equally tedious exchange with a man describing the distilling process for making Martian vodka. In detail.
Then, a Martian man and woman approached her, holding hands.
Vivian hadn’t returned her headset to her eye and didn’t catch their names.
“As you can see,” the man said with a half-smile.
“I am already wed. Reverend Adair has assured us that the Intelligence welcomes triad marriages for Red Mothers.”
“I’ve heard that Earthers have particular views about monogamy.
” The woman leaned forward with bright eyes.
“But I can promise you, I don’t mind sharing.
Triads are common here. Martian women have often had to share their husbands with Earther women if they want children.
I want to raise the children who will break the Martian dependency on Earther mothers once and for all. ”
Concealing her surprise, Vivian murmured, “I am open to all arrangements.”
Had she known this possibility? So eager for the opportunity to leave the camp, she hadn’t asked enough follow-up questions of the recruiter.
Why hadn’t she taken the time to read more about Martian culture on the ship, instead of losing herself in Earther romance novels?
Now that she was here, everything was happening bewilderingly fast. Vivian took a deep breath and tried to steady herself.
None of it matters, she told herself. As long as we’re safe.
She found herself alone at last and looked around for Delilah.
Her sister was engaged in a lively conversation with Caspian, one hand holding her hat in place as her beaming face angled up to look at him.
Unwillingly, Vivian’s eyes strayed again to Xavier, who had settled against a wall near the food.
Unable to resist her curiosity, Vivian walked toward the man. His lip curled, surveying the mingling crowd. As she made her way through the party, Caspian gave Delilah a bow and moved to stand at Xavier’s side. Vivian paused to linger at the food table, close enough to listen to their conversation.
“Come on, X,” Caspian said. “Your aunt will be arriving any moment. You know she’ll want to see you mingling, not standing about by yourself moping.”
Xavier snorted. “Aunt Constance is perfectly well aware that I detest this business. The only woman here whose company I enjoy is your sister, and she’s off-limits in my aunt’s little experiment, thank goodness.”
“Keep up, X. Ivey has put her hat in the ring as a potential spouse.”
“Is that right? She didn’t tell me.”