twenty-nine
Sulim pocketed a love note she had found waiting for her in the loft. Mira had announced that she would not make it that day, but she would be thinking of Sulim—of her sweet smile, her blushing cheeks, and the way some of her hair curled over the top of her ear.
Fine. Be that way. Yet Sulim stirred her tea and popped open one of the books.
Since Marco’s revelation that he knew what she was up to with Mira, she hadn’t seen much of the man. She also hadn’t seen much of her own husband those past two days, since he was either in the field or in his father’s office, looking for other matters to be mad about.
Don’t think about it right now. Sulim had promised herself that this loft was her sanctuary. Why would she think about familial machinations, about her marriage, or about the plottings of an outsider when she had books and tea?
And a beautiful day. It really was lovely and cool that day.
When inevitable chores called her back to the house, she descended the ladder and approached Emi, where she always left her horse. Yet on her ride back, she decided to swing by the second set of stables in the back, the ones behind the family stables where she kept Emi.
It wasn’t unusual for her to check on the back stables, especially since there were fewer people around taking the horses out for exercise.
We should put some of the family mares into the inner pasture, so they can get more sunshine.
Emi was out almost every day, but other horses, like Jacelah and Vern’s, might appreciate getting more than a trot every other day.
She dismounted Emi near the entrance, hitching her to a post by the door.
After patting her mare, she turned around to discover that Sonall’s jacket was hung up by the tack.
Since it was the one he kept in their room for daily use, it meant he must have been around. Had he the same thought as his wife?
Sulim didn’t announce herself. She merely got to work checking the stables for signs of rodents. In the meantime, she would take a mental inventory of the tack—sometimes, the ranch hands raided the second stable and never thought to put things back where they belonged.
While Sulim heard one thump, she didn’t think much of it. When she heard the second—followed by a moan—she followed the source of the sound to the back storage area, which was closed off to the world on three sides but kept things quite exposed on the fourth.
She didn’t know when the last time she saw her husband’s bare ass was, but she had a feeling it wasn’t Kema’s first time, based on how friendly they were with one another.
The repercussions were instantly felt throughout the house, and while many of the men made themselves scarce as quickly as they could, every woman pressed an ear against a wall and shushed the others so they could hear.
That included Mira, who didn’t need to press her ear to anything to understand that Sulim and Sonall had both raised their voices in their bedroom.
Well, it didn’t help that she kept hearing “Kema!” in the back of her head, as expressed by an exasperated Joiya as soon as the truth was out. Somebody’s in trouble… That might have included Sulim as well, because Sonall was yelling back at her for a reason.
“I can’t believe he would cheat on her,” one of the mousey maids muttered to another. “I know she’s part julah, but… I thought he was so in love with Ms. Sulim.”
“All men cheat and lie,” an older one purported while Sulim shrieked something at her husband. “That’s why the first thing we tell you is to never believe what a fucking Gardiah tells you. Or any of those ranchers. They only care about sticking it in you.”
“I wonder what will happen to Ms. Kema.”
More than one woman looked back at Mira, as if she would have any insight.
“No clue.” Mira shrugged. “I’m here for the same reason as you. Juicy gossip.”
Somewhere, Joiya was “dealing” with Kema, which probably meant getting to the bottom of the affair—how long, how bad was it, and why, when we are their guests?
Undoubtedly, Kema would take responsibility and maybe, perhaps, subtly throw Mira and Sulim in Lady Dunsman’s face, but even Mira kept thinking back to how lovesick Kema had looked the other day.
They were already fooling around, weren’t they? Indeed, who had started it?
“…I’m sorry, do you expect me to be an asexual specter here? I thought I was married!”
More than one maid gasped and instantly traded gossip about how the young married couple did not, in fact, act like a young married couple. Everyone knew this, of course, but they didn’t expect Sonall to yell it loudly enough for the whole house to hear.
“I gave you so many outs!” Sulim shouted back, the door not thick enough to muffle her frustration. “I don’t give a shit who you fuck as long as I know about it!”
More tittering. More gossip. But even Mira wasn’t ready for the next bomb dropped.
“What about Mira, huh? Your new best friend? How close are you two, anyway?”
There was a short, pregnant pause as heads slowly turned in Mira’s direction. With several pairs of eyes taking in every inch of her, Sulim screamed, “Close enough that I’ve remembered what it’s like to come!”
Jaws dropped. All Mira could do was sniff up her pride and put her hands on her hips. “Well,” she said, voice cracking, “you heard it here first, ladies. I’ve got skills.”
That went over about as well as a faulty space cruiser launching into the sky. Kinda like the one that killed Sulim’s parents, huh? What a twist of fate that led them all here.
Mira knew that was when she should get out of there. Maybe go down to Jacelah’s salon, where Joiya paced the room, and Kema sat with her head bowed. There were no drinks or snacks, because this was not a proper teatime.
“Everyone’s going to know about this in about another hour,” Mira announced.
“If they don’t already. Human gossip travels as quickly as julah.”
She meant the Gardiahs currently celebrating a wedding on Qahrain.
Would the gossipmongers at least give them time to settle in before announcing that Sonall was having a torrid affair with Kema… and was caught by Sulim?
God, I wish I were there…
“None of that right now, please,” Joiya bade, fatigue dragging down her voice. “I’m trying to ascertain how fucked we all are.”
“Whoa.” Joiya rarely cursed like that. At least, not in proper company.
I guess none of us are proper now. Mira was having an affair with a human; Kema was having an affair with another human.
Joiya had all but abandoned the pilgrimage to get her hands on some critical research.
She had imposed them all upon this clan, and then what?
We started fucking everybody. At least Mira could admit it.
“We must contain this somehow.” Joiya ceased her pacing.
“It cannot get back to Lord and Lady Gardiah. It cannot get back to your father.”
She said that in Mira’s direction. “Going forward, tensions in this house are predicated upon how Sulim and Sonall handle each other’s transgressions. Unfortunately, it’s my experience that men do not take these things as well as they dish them out,
and he holds much more power in this family than she does.”
“Good news, Ma. They mostly had a friends-only marriage. I’m pretty sure this is mostly about embarrassment, and not any lovers’ quarrel.”
“I stand by what I said. If we do not quell unrest here and convince the employees to keep their mouths shut, then we’re cruiser-crushed kidwip. Surely, you know what that means.”
Mira pursed her lips and sank further into the couch, arms crossed. “I’m ready to be done with this farce of a pilgrimage. Just dump me off in Garlahza or Terra III. I don’t care.”
“Alone?”
“Why would I have to be alone? Sulim knows I want to bring her with me.”
“You really do not understand what that means for her, my heart. As for you.” Joiya rounded on Kema, who sat up with a start and uttered the most pathetic meep. “What were you thinking? Can you really not control yourself?”
Kema glanced at Mira. “Ma,” Mira said on behalf of her cousin, “lay off her. Lean into me if you’ve gotta go after someone. I started this whole mess.”
“You certainly did, my heart.”
“But you’ve said that Sulim is my soulmate.”
The blush on Joiya’s cheeks wasn’t from embarrassment.
Certainly not. Joiya was never embarrassed in front of her daughter.
Is she capable of it at all? Joiya did what she wanted.
If she had fallen for someone like Sonall, or heaven forbid, Vern, she would not have let a wedding ring stop her.
And not just because she was julah, who took affairs much more in stride due to the long nature of their lives.
The ones who are for life monogamous are truly rare.
Male, female, it didn’t discriminate on Yahzen—nor was it expected to, especially after the kids were born.
But the rules were different with married humans. Even Mira knew this much.
“This is a mess,” Joiya muttered. “A mess.”
“I thought you implied that Sonall was my soulmate…” Kema eventually said. “That’s why I pursued it. It’s my fault, I promise. He didn’t—”
“Your soulmate? I never said such a thing.”
Kema’s eyes widened as the color slightly drained from her face. “But…”
“You two have very similar auras. You would get along quite well with this family, based on that art form. But soulmates? No. You are not his soulmate. I have not seen yours yet, Kema. I would have been quite blatant about that information.”
“I… I see… but you said you saw his soulmate here, and if it’s not Sulim…”
Mira shook her head. “What’s done is done. For both of us.” She included Kema in that. “We will figure it out.” Yes, she included Kema in that, too!
“I wish you luck. If you need me to mediate anything, I can try, but…”
“But neither Sonall nor Sulim is as spiritually vested as Jacelah.”
“Yes. I may be overstepping.”
“You work on the staff, Ma. Convince them to keep this quiet so it doesn’t hit the town or the Lord and Lady. Do whatever you need to.”
“What does that mean?”
Mira furrowed her brows. “I know you can still do some sorcery even with your tattoo. Cook their brains, if you must.”
“Mira!”