Reutal let out a triumphant whoop following the announcement of Sara and Jerden’s engagement, and then snickered all the way through breakfast, eliciting the occasional glare from Zatlen and an almost continuous blush from Drania. Finally, Sara couldn’t stand it any longer and held out her hand. “Okay, Reutal. Check my essence. You know you want to.”
“Oh, no need for that,” Reutal said with a flap of his fingers. “I can see the bulge in the cat’s loincloth.”
Which, thankfully, Jerden was wearing—ostensibly to keep from nailing her while she made the pancakes. Or so he’d said. Sara had thought that one round of early morning nookie and a hand job in the shower would make that boner go away, but so far, it hadn’t. He’d even asked for her help in getting it tucked into the loincloth—though she suspected that had been simply a ruse to get her to touch him again.
Not that she minded. She was having a tough time keeping her hands off him as it was. No further encouragement was necessary.
Sara had never been intimate with anyone and hadn’t wanted to be—at least, not in a very long time. But that was changing. Already she looked forward to spending another night with him—a night without troubling dreams to disturb her rest, a night with Jerden there to soothe away even her worst nightmare. She’d always enjoyed having a purring cat lying on her bed, but a purring man was infinitely better. His solid warmth was like a shield against anything that might harm her, and though the rainy season was over for another year, she knew that stormy nights would never be as frighteningly lonely again.
She could admit that now, if to no one but herself. She had put on a brave front in coming to Terra Minor alone, but there had been times when the strangeness and isolation made the long, dark nights almost unbearable. She’d improved with time, but the feeling of disquiet never truly went away—almost as though she sensed her past following her, even across the expanse of space between Earth and her new home.
Having Bonnie as a neighbor had helped enormously. A fellow human wasn’t easy to find on this world, but Bonnie’s pioneering spirit was an inspiration. Bonnie had begun raising vegetables and enocks with a man as her partner, but had been deserted, only to hire Lynx and find love and happiness in his arms. The same thing seemed to be happening to Sara. She was having a hard time believing it was real, though.
She gazed at Jerden, his large presence far more comforting now than it had been only a few days before. Being able to not only tolerate his presence with her in the shower, but to enjoy it was proof of how far she’d come. He’d been grateful for the care she had taken of him when he was ill, but she’d really done very little. What Jerden had done for her couldn’t be measured and could certainly never be repaid.
Even now, he took Reutal’s remarks in stride. “Obviously I need a better loincloth—or maybe I should just give up and wear some of those pants I bought the other day. They aren’t as comfortable, though.” With a wink at Sara, he added, “Or anywhere near as practical.”
Sara shot him a quelling glance, which would’ve been far more effective without the accompanying chuckle. “Speaking of which, Jerden and I are going into Nimbaza for dinner this evening, and we might do a little shopping while we’re there. Do any of you need anything?”
Zatlen snorted. “A Norludian muzzle?”
“We can look,” Jerden replied, silencing Reutal’s sputter of outrage with a reassuring grin. “But I doubt we’ll find one.”
Drania dissolved into helpless giggles. “Probably sold out.”
“Don’t worry, Reutal,” Sara said. “No one is going to muzzle you here.” Norludians had often been persecuted on other worlds, and Sara wasn’t about to have Terra Minor become one of them. Besides, she liked Reutal. Aside from being very useful, he made her laugh.
And so did Jerden. Sara could see herself getting used to that.
***
Sara and Jerden were still tidying up the kitchen when Reutal came flying through the back door.
“The stallion’s sick,” he gasped. “Acting really weird. Stumbling around, drooling. He walked right into the fence and didn’t even seem to notice it. Then he went nuts when Zatlen touched his nose.”
“Holy shit.” The dishcloth she held fell from Sara’s nerveless fingers. Following a moment of near panic, her logical mind regained control. “Sounds like something neurological—maybe a type of poisoning.”
“Poisoning?” Jerden echoed. “You mean it was intentional?”
“Probably not.” Sara dried her hands on the seat of her pants. “Horses get into plenty of trouble without help from anyone. Better call Lowinski.”
Sara ran into the living room and flipped on the comlink. With fumbling fingers, she put in a call to the regional veterinarian, who, fortunately, was at the dairy down the road.
“I’m only a few minutes away, Sara,” he said. “Just try to keep him from injuring himself until I get there.”
Sara pulled on her boots and ran out to the barn. Jerden and the others were already there and had somehow gotten Danuban into his paddock. “Oh, God. He looks awful!”
Caked with sweat and filthy from head to tail, the stallion looked like a ghost of his former self. His eyes were hazy and unfocused and his normally fluid and effortless movements were now uncoordinated and weak. The tremors in his hindquarters suggested that he wouldn’t be on his feet much longer. Sara felt like throwing up.
The whine of a speeder heralded the vet’s arrival. Flying right into the barn, the speeder came to a halt by Danuban’s stall door and the little Rutaran man hopped out of the cockpit. Loping through the stall and into the paddock using his long arms to propel himself forward, he gave Sara a brief greeting and then whipped a scanner out of the pocket of his coveralls. “Let’s see what we have here.”
“Zatlen and I found him out in the yard,” Reutal said. “He was fine last night, but this morning…”
“He looks like crap,” Zatlen finished for him.
Sara held her breath while the vet ran the scan. Danuban seemed to be worsening right before her eyes. Drania rested her head against Sara’s hip, sobbing. Even the dogs were whining.
“Ah, hah!” Lowinski said triumphantly as he checked the reading on the scanner. “Got just the thing.” Without another word, he scurried back to his speeder and delved into the medication box in the rear compartment.
Moments later, he returned with an injector and a small vial of purple fluid. Loading the vial into the chamber, he then pressed it to the underside of Danuban’s sweaty neck. With a quick hiss, the dose was delivered into the stallion’s thick jugular vein.
“I’ve given him the antidote for juluva weed ingestion,” Lowinski said. “He should improve shortly.”
Sara gaped at him with disbelief. “Juluva weed? How the hell would he have gotten any of that? Even if he found it growing, there’s plenty of good grazing around here. I can’t imagine why he would’ve touched it.”
“Well… he does run loose,” Zatlen said. “No telling where he might have picked it up.”
“Juluva weed?” Jerden looked slightly bewildered. “Never heard of it.”
“It’s a great natural insect repellent,” Sara replied. “But it’s toxic to horses—I made a point of eradicating it from my pastures and hay fields before I imported any horses. I still find a sprig of it now and then, but it’s never caused any problems.”
Lowinski nodded. “Fortunately, it takes quite a lot to poison a horse.”
“It could be growing on my place,” Jerden suggested. “He’s spent a lot of time over there.”
Sara was unconvinced. “Maybe. But you’ve been living here for several days now. Danuban wouldn’t leave you to go back there just to nibble on some juluva.”
Lowinski tried to hide a smile, but Sara saw it anyway. “He and Jerden have some sort of bond,” she explained. “He kept running away from my farm to go back to him.”
Jerden apparently had a different idea about the vet’s surreptitious grin. “Sara and I are engaged to be married.”
The doctor, who had simply nodded at Sara’s explanation, said, “Ah, yes… I see…” in response to Jerden’s comment.
“What’s that got to do with anything?” Sara demanded. “My stallion is dying and you’re—”
“Now, Sara,” Lowinski said firmly. “He is not going to die. Thanks to Zatlen and Reutal, we got to him soon enough. He will recover.”
“I sure hope you’re right. Juluva weed,” she muttered with disgust. “It smells horrible. I never have understood why horses eat it.”
Not for the first time, Sara wished the local vet was a Mordrial, rather than a Rutaran. Scanners could only tell you so much, but some Mordrials could actually communicate with animals telepathically—a decided advantage in a case like this. On the other hand, the Rutaran’s strength and agility were useful when dealing with some of the more difficult patients.
The vet scratched his thatch of fuzzy hair. “Some horses develop a taste for it—it essentially becomes an addiction—and since the effect is cumulative, it doesn’t kill them right away. According to my scan, he’s been eating it for some time.”
Sara frowned. “He’s only been on the planet for a couple of months. I guess when he got loose, he started eating whatever he could find and decided he liked it. I’ve seen it growing in the northern mountains.”
Lowinski shook his head. “Oh, no. He’s been exposed to it for much longer than that. The toxin leaves traces in growing tissues, and it’s present in some of the older parts of his hooves. There’s a section of new growth that contains quite a bit of it, followed by a period of reduced exposure, then an older band where the concentration is even higher.”
Sara was dumbfounded. “How in the world could that happen? He came from Earth. Juluva weed doesn’t even grow there.”
Lowinski shrugged with an apelike gesture and a flick of his ears. “I can’t be sure, but based on my findings and what you’ve told me, I believe this was deliberate. He’s been fed significant amounts of the weed, then none—during which time he seems to have recovered almost completely—and now that he’s getting it again, the symptoms have redeveloped.”
“Don’t forget how he went crazy and got loose at the spaceport,” Drania said. “If he’d been fed that stuff during the flight…”
“And if he found none at first, he got better, but now it’s coming back.” Sara nodded at Jerden. “Maybe it is growing on your place, and he found it, and now it’s finally getting to him.”
“We’d better keep him confined while we check out my land,” Jerden said. “The trouble is, it might also be growing in the mountains there. We could never eliminate all of it.”
“Looks like his free-ranging days are over,” Sara said. “If we can’t keep him in his paddock, I may have to put up a force field.” She paused, wincing. “Which will cost a small fortune.”
Jerden grinned for the first time since the stallion’s distress was discovered. “I can probably help you with that.”
“Oh, yeah. Right.” In the midst of all the drama, she hadn’t stopped to consider the size of Jerden’s bank account. “Guess we can afford at least one force field, can’t we?”
“Absolutely. You’ll have to show me what that weed looks like, so I can search for it on my place.”
Her lips formed a moue of distaste. “It’s a small plant with tall spikes of orange flowers and gray leaves. Pretty easy to spot when it’s blooming, but it won’t flower again until the start of the rainy season.”
“Gray leaves? Sort of ragged-looking?”
“Yeah,” Sara replied. “The flowers are actually quite pretty. Too bad it’s so toxic.”
Jerden nodded. “I think I know the plant you mean. There’s a lot of it growing on the far side of the lake. I don’t think there’s any around the house, but Danuban could have found it quite easily.”
“Well, that explains his recent ingestion, but not the original exposure,” Lowinski said. “Any idea who might want to harm this horse?”
“Yes, I do,” Sara said grimly. “But I have absolutely no way of proving it.”
Now that Danuban was addicted to juluva, he would keep poisoning himself if left free to roam—which would no longer be an issue. After that, if he were to ever get sick again, Sara knew exactly who she would blame. A confrontation would serve no purpose, but if she were to toss the particulars of the stallion’s illness into the local rumor mill, it might serve as a warning that she was well aware of what was going on—and why.
***
Later that afternoon, Sara glanced up from her post by Danuban’s paddock just as Jerden flew her speeder into the stable yard.
With Cria at his heels, he strode over to Sara and handed her a wilted clump of juluva weed. “I probably pulled up a hundred of these plants, and there’s a lot more of it growing in the mountains. No wonder he got sick.” He smiled ruefully. “Sorry about that.”
“It isn’t your fault. Besides, how could you have known?” She nodded toward the stallion. “And he does seem to be improving.”
Zatlen stuck his head out of a nearby stall. “Which, having checked on him at least fifty times today, she would know.” With a weary sigh, he shot Jerden a beseeching look. “Would you please do me and the horse a favor and take her out to dinner? She’s driving us nuts.”
“What?” She gaped at Zatlen. “I know we were intending to go into Nimbaza today, but you expect me to leave now?”
Taking her hand, Jerden steered her toward the house. “Lowinski said he’d recover. Staring at the poor horse won’t make him get well any faster.”
“I know that,” she said. “But what if he has a relapse?”
“I’ll let you know if he does,” Zatlen said. “And I can call the vet just as easily as you can. Go. Please.”
“Oh, all right,” Sara finally agreed. “But call me the minute he starts acting weird.”
“Don’t worry, I will,” Zatlen promised.
“Come on, then,” Jerden said. “Let’s go get cleaned up. This is our first date, remember?”
“Yeah, right.” After subjecting the stallion to another moment’s careful scrutiny, she reluctantly allowed Jerden to lead her away from the paddock.
Zatlen heaved a sigh. “Thank God.”
***
How Sara could’ve had lunch in Lucy and Tarq’s restaurant as many times as she had without noticing what a looker Lucy had married was a mystery. Jerden had opened her eyes to a lot of things, male beauty being one of them.
Tarq was a handsome square-jawed, blue-eyed blond with broad, muscular shoulders and thick, heavily muscled thighs. Sara could appreciate that now, even though she still preferred Jerden’s taller frame with his bronzed skin, black mane, and smoldering eyes.
Lucy, on the other hand, was a slightly plump, dark-haired woman with a sweet smile, big brown eyes, and a scattering of freckles on her nose. Sara suspected that the two of them standing side by side was probably similar to the way she must look next to Jerden.
Gorgeous hunks and plain women.
“Great food, isn’t it?” Jerden asked.
Sara nodded as she took another bite of her chicken. “Almost as good as your hunela.”
“Don’t let Tarq hear you say that,” he warned. “He was always the better cook. He’s got this knack of being able to identify the ingredients in any dish just by tasting it and can duplicate almost any recipe.”
“Handy talent for a restaurateur to have—or would you call him a chef?”
Lucy paused as she passed by their table. “Actually, he prefers to be called a cook. Says it sounds less pretentious.”
“And Tarq was never that.” Noting Sara’s frown, Jerden went on to explain. “He’s always been the quiet, shy one. Never thought he was good for anything but sex.” He winked at Lucy. “She proved him wrong.”
Lucy grinned. “Yes, but he’s good at that too.”
“I’m sure he is,” Sara said. “And he is a darn good cook. This fried chicken is delicious.”
“That reminds me,” Jerden began. “I’d like for the two of you to cater our wedding reception—or cookout or whatever we’re calling it—that is, if you wouldn’t mind having to work at a wedding where you’re both invited guests.”
Lucy gasped. “You’re getting married? Are you kidding me? Of course we’ll do it! As soon as Tarq hears the news, he’ll start working on the menu. Consider it our wedding present to you.”
“Well, that was easy,” Sara remarked. But not too surprising—aside from being a partner in the Zetithian Palace, Tarq had been one of Jerden’s closest friends for nearly his entire life.
“Not at all.” Lucy nodded at Jerden. “These guys made so much money on Rhylos, they probably never need to work again for the rest of their lives. Cooking is what Tarq does for fun.”
Sara could certainly relate to that. Even with all the money in the world at her disposal, she’d probably still be raising and training horses. “There’s a lot to be said for enjoying your work.”
Jerden cleared his throat audibly. “Amen to that.”
Sara had just aimed a questioning glance at him when it hit her what he used to do for a living. “You’re retired, remember?”
He shook his head. “Not really. It’s more of a hobby now—only I’m limiting myself to just the one woman.”
Lucy let out a peal of laughter and headed back to the kitchen. Chuckling, Sara shot a reproving glance at Jerden as she reached for her wineglass. In that brief moment, her eyes slid past him just as a man and a woman hurried by the window that looked out onto the street. She couldn’t see the woman’s face, but that one fleeting glimpse was enough for her to recognize the man. “Holy shit.”
“What?”
She nodded toward the window. “Nate. I sure hope he’s not coming in here for dinner.” She shook her head as Jerden started to turn around. “Don’t bother; he’s already gone. Looked like he had a woman with him too.”
“Salan?”
“No. I only saw them for a second—they might not have even been together.” She paused, searching her memory for more details. “I don’t know for sure…”
“Well, if he has found himself a girlfriend, so much the better.”
Sara chuckled. “If that’s the case, there’s no need for me to marry you, is there?”
“Oh, yes, there is,” Jerden said. “You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”
She took a sip of her wine. “Glad to hear it. You’d have a tough time getting rid of me now.” She gave him a wink. “I think I’m hooked.”
He winked back at her. “So am I.”
***
The next day, Jerden rode over to help Lynx build a new fence, leaving Sara anxious for his return. She was listening for approaching hoofbeats as she finished rubbing down her last mount of the day when she heard the whine of a speeder coming down the road. A few moments later, it came to a halt out in the yard. Fearing the worst, she stabled the horse and went out to meet her visitor.
Jerden hadn’t been serious when he’d promised never to leave her side—and she hadn’t expected it, either—but one glimpse of Nate’s angry scowl as he strode toward the barn made her wish otherwise. Suppressing a groan, she gave herself a mental boot up the ass and pasted on a smile she didn’t feel in the slightest. “Hey, Nate. What’s up?”
“I heard you and Jerden were engaged.” His emphasis on the name made it sound like a curse.
“Didn’t take long for that news to get around,” Sara said with a dry chuckle. “Who’d you hear it from? Salan?”
He ignored her question, his lips forming a thin line as a muscle twitched in his cheek. She could almost hear his teeth grinding. “So it’s true then. I don’t get it, Sara. I thought you were smarter than that. I can’t believe you’d take that alien freak over me—especially since I have it on good authority he won’t be fathering any children.”
So, the gloves are off now… Sara shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant when her courage was already beginning to crumble. Come on, Sara. Be strong… and if he comes any closer, slug him. “I’m not marrying him to have his children. I’m marrying him because I want to marry him.” A few days before, she couldn’t have said that, but now the words rolled off her tongue with surprising ease.
He snorted in disgust. “Yeah, right.”
“Why is that so hard to believe? He’s a kind, wonderful man.” She attempted another smile, but as always whenever Nate was around, she found it difficult. “You should be congratulating me—not calling my fiancé a freak. Which he is not, by the way. Nor is he a barbarian or a wildcat or anything of that nature. Best I can tell, he’s more civilized than you are.”
“He isn’t human, Sara. I can love you better than him.”
By that she assumed he meant that his dick was in proper working order. If he only knew… “You’re entitled to your opinion, but so am I. The fact that he isn’t human doesn’t matter to me. We get along great. He’s an absolute whiz with horses—and any other animal you’d care to name. And—oh, what the hell, I might as well say it—he’s stinkin’ rich. Why wouldn’t I want to marry him?”
Nate’s skin took on a darker flush. “Is that how you justify it? Because he’s rich and good with animals? I can’t believe you’d marry a man for stupid shit like that.”
“You’re missing the point, Nate. That stuff is just icing on the cake. I love him.” Now I just have to tell him that. “Besides, you don’t know me well enough to even begin to guess my motives for marrying anyone. If you’d stop and think for a second, you’d realize you don’t know me at all.”
“That’s not my fault,” he countered. “I’ve been trying to get to know you better ever since you moved into the district. Just when I thought we might be getting somewhere, that damned Zetithian got in the way.”
Sara forced out a chuckle, hoping to mask her growing irritation. “Actually, I think it was more Danuban’s fault than Jerden’s. If he hadn’t run off, Jerden and I might never have met.”
Nate’s eyes widened like he’d been sucker punched, leading Sara to suspect this idea hadn’t occurred to him. Despite seeming momentarily stunned, he recovered quickly. “I still think you’re making a mistake—”
Sara cut him off with a wave of her hand. “No, I’m not. I’m sure there are all kinds of good, sensible reasons to choose you, but there are more for marrying him.” For one thing, he doesn’t scare the bejesus out of me.
“Be that as it may, I still think you’ll regret it. He’s not the right man for you.”
And you are? Sara laughed grimly. “Possibly. But if he isn’t the right man, he’s the next best thing.”
“So, I finish second, then.” His words didn’t quite match his demeanor, which was not that of a man conceding defeat. Clearly the mere announcement of her engagement to Jerden hadn’t been enough to deter him—though just why it wasn’t was difficult to understand. It wasn’t as though he’d sworn his undying love for her, either.
No matter how true it might be, Sara knew that a flat-out You’re not even in the running would be needlessly cruel. Nevertheless, something had to be said. Heart pounding, she took a deep breath and pictured Jerden standing beside her—feet planted, arms crossed, and fangs bared as he snarled at his rival. The mere thought sent a flood of courage coursing through her bloodstream. Lifting her chin, she looked him right in the eyes. “Yes, I guess you do.”
“Yeah, well, I’ll believe it when I see it,” he said.
“We’ll be sure to invite you to the wedding.”
He seemed about to say more, but his grimace of disgust heralded Reutal’s approach even before she heard the determined slap of the Norludian’s footsteps behind her. Picturing his fierce glare and pugnacious posture had Sara bowing her head as she bit back a smile, not daring to risk another glance at Nate. Her subsequent peal of laughter was bound to piss him off even more.
“See you later, Sara.” Turning on his heel, Nate stomped over to his speeder and climbed in it, firing up the engine.
“Please tell me we’ve seen the last of that son of a bitch,” Reutal muttered as he appeared at her side.
Sara stared off into the distance, watching as the dust settled in the speeder’s wake. “You know,” she said slowly. “I believe we may have.”
“Good.” Reutal didn’t even bother trying to sound diplomatic. “I never could stand that asshole.”