Bitter Oath (New Atlantis)(22)

This was not a time portal, as the Jumpers traversed. This was the much simpler teleportation from one point in space to another. It was the principal method of travel over large distances in the new world. For shorter distances, such as around cities like New Atlantis, teleporting was largely the domain of medicos, for emergencies. No one else in the city needed to travel quickly, so they used the moving pathways instead.

‘She’s through here,’ he said to the Medico, and led the man down the hall to Liv’s room. While he watched the man take out his assessment equipment, he connected to his Tablet again, and asked for information on Karl Brandenburg. Immediately the man’s current address and access code appeared. He was working at the Knowledge Centre, collating the data he had collected on his last Jump.

While Liv let the strange man poke and prod her, the sheet pulled up to her neck, Rene watched closely. The Medico’s Tablet burred quietly, as it recorded her stats. After a few minutes, the healer looked up and smiled at them all.

‘Nothing to worry about. No concussion. Just a pulled muscle in her calf and contusions. I will leave the salve for the contusions, and I’ll apply a pressure bandage for the calf. Both injuries should be fine in a day or two.’

‘Thanks, we appreciate it.’ Rene spoke from the heart. This diagnosis gave him peace of mind. This time she had escaped unscathed.

This time.

While Jane played nurse and applied the salve, Rene went back into the living room. He called up Karl and made the arrangements. Then he returned to the bedroom to check on his soon-to-be wife.

‘Jane, you are the first to know. Liv and I will be married tomorrow, in a Christian ceremony performed here on the patio at 8 am. The sun will be rising, and it will still be cool.’

‘Married! Oh, Frenchie you sure don’t do things by half measures do you? Oh my, I didn’t even know you could get married here. I am going to want one. I always wanted a white wedding. Can I be bridesmaid?’ She looked at Liv for the answer to this last question.

‘Of course, who else would I have? Is it truly happening?’ Liv asked him, with an excited smile.

‘It is truly happening. We will keep it small. Just a few of my colleagues, Cara and Jac, Chen…’

‘Maggie and Travis from next door. I was planning on taking Liv over there later to meet them, anyway.’ Jane was almost bouncing with excitement.

‘If we must… The patio is not large, you know.’

‘If everyone stands up, it will be fine. If we had to seat everyone, it might get a bit tight. Oh, this is juuuust the best thing to happen in ages!’

‘Liv does not need to be overwhelmed with strangers. She is still finding her feet here, remember.’

‘I am fine, Rene. Don’t fuss.’

He was shocked to hear her address him as Jane would. If he wasn’t careful, Liv would become a women’s libber and then where would he be? The idea amused him. Women’s equality had never been an issue for him. He had never understood people who didn’t see women as equal, or even superior, to males. His Obejwe family had taught him that.

He sat down on the bed, and drew Liv into his arms gently. With utmost tenderness he kissed her lips. ‘I wonder if marrying me will mean your name will be York like mine. How does that sound… Mrs Rene York?’

‘She could be Mrs Livianna North Yorkshire York,’ Jane suggested. Then she raised eyebrows in horror. ‘Maybe not.’

Rene kissed his betrothed again, and laughed.





CHAPTER TWELVE





Liv was given a crash course in Twenty Fourth Century living for the rest of the day. She watched as Rene used the little writing tablet to contact people, and to order in food. She watched as Jane selected suitable music and ‘visuals’ on the entertainment system.

She limped down to the bottom of the hill with Rene, much against his advice, to collect the boxes of little packets of food that arrived on one of the moving pathways. In one of the boxes she discovered, not food, but a bridal veil, a floor length gown, and two bouquets of flowers. The larger of the two was a mix of white roses, yellow centred fuchsias, and angel’s breath. The bridesmaid’s bouquet was smaller, but more colourful, and made up of a selection of flowers Liv had never seen before.

Jane was in a frenzy of activity, which Liv was happy to stay out of. The whole wedding seemed somewhat unreal – like a girlish dream come true. It would have been more real if her family had been present. But of course, that was impossible. The whole point of this was that her family would never know she had married. She would go to her grave as a spinster in their eyes.

The thought of returning to her world without Rene filled her with dread. How would she ever go on without him? Already he was becoming more essential to her than life itself. Everything about him filled her with wonder and awe. This ancient man, in a breath-takingly handsome body, who treated her as a beloved equal, and was dedicated to healing the ‘planet’, was hers. And if they didn’t have forever, as Jane and Julio had forever, they still had the moment, and they could pack a lifetime of memories into a few short months.

No one said how long she would be staying. But it could not be more than a few years at the absolute limit. She could not go home looking much older than she left. Such an anomaly would be picked up by her very observant sisters. Especially Portia, who would have seen her only fifteen minutes earlier. How would she ever get her hair back as it had been?

She ran her fingers through her clean, shining hair. It felt incredible, and smelled divine. Rene seemed to think so too, because he would stop whatever he was doing during the day, run his fingers through it, then lean down and breathe in the scent of it. How long would this devoted attention last? If they were anything like Jane and Julio, three years would not even tarnish the shine on their relationship.

In the afternoon, Jane had taken her next door to meet Maggie and her ‘Bonded’, Travis. Maggie was an artist, and she had dreamed of the much younger Travis all her life. It wasn’t until the technicians had uncovered a replica of New Atlantis three hundred years in the past, and Maggie had been sent back to investigate, that she discovered that, while she had been dreaming of Travis, he had been dreaming of her. People said they had a ‘shared soul’, whatever that was.

Her first sight of Travis was a shock. She had never seen a black man, except as a slave to some of the ton in London. And he was as black as polished ebony, and probably the most exquisitely handsome man she had ever seen. Every plane of his face and bald head was perfection. And his beautifully shaped lips were almost feminine. But his muscular body left no doubt that he was all male. It was quite a shock when he spoke. His deep, baritone voice was accented with a Scottish brogue.

Maggie had shown her into her studio where there was a mural in progress. It was like nothing she had ever seen before. If she had any doubt that she was in some future world, then just staring at the three dimensional images that danced on the canvas as almost living beings, removed that doubt. And when Travis showed her his first experiments in ‘orchestrated colour’, a mix of colour and dance he created in the space around him, she was awestruck.

As Jane prattled on happily as they return to their villa, Liv kept seeing the man’s near naked body undulating in graceful, but truly erotic ways, as the coloured air wrapped itself around him. It woke her newly uncovered sexuality, and made her want Rene in her arms, moving against her, as that man had moved through the air, and caressed the waves of colour. Although Travis was probably more handsome than her Rene, he was far less sexually attractive to her. Only Rene made her yearn for his touch.

By the time the sun set behind the island’s mountain peak, the frenzied activity had abated. Everything was ready for the morning ceremony and wedding breakfast to follow. After that, Jane would be going home with Julio, and Liv and Rene would have the villa to themselves. They would have their honeymoon there, and the following week, Rene would resume his work, with Liv assisting as she could.

‘Nervous?’ Jane asked as she sat down at her side on the overstuffed sofa in the ‘living room’. Classical music was playing on the entertainment system, a phenomenon that she was still slightly in awe of. The lights were dimmed, and two candles sat glowing on the ‘coffee table’ in front of them. Rene was elsewhere in the house, ‘checking data’ on his ‘Tablet’.

‘Yes, very. But excited, too. Jane… could I ask you a personal question?’

‘Sure. What is it?’

‘It is about your ummm intimate relationship with Julio. Did it… um…. hurt when he entered, when he consummated the union the first time?’ Her face was on fire, she could feel it. But no amount of embarrassment was going to stop her asking this vital question. Her sisters had told her it hurt. Some of them said it always hurt a little. Augusta said it only hurt the first time, and after that it was nice – somewhat pleasurable. She wasn’t sure which would prove to be the truth for her. Her ignorance of such significant matters was deeply disturbing.