“You couldn’t tell he was a warrior by the look of him?” Tedra asked carefully.

Shanelle leaned against the balcony and stared out at the soft glow of gaali-stone posts lighting the city streets below. She didn’t want to talk about Falon Van’yer. A warrior. A deceiver, as far as she was concerned. Oh, Stars, she hadn’t thought this day could possibly get worse. That showed what she got for thinking.

But her mother wasn’t going to settle for silence. After that little scene in the dining hall, Tedra knew exactly who Falon was without having to be told.

“He’s built like a warrior, yes. I couldn’t very well miss that, mother. But he has black hair. Even Martha thought he was a visitor when I showed him to her.”

“The Ba-Har-ani are known to have dark hair,” Tedra pointed out.

“But that country is four months distant from ours by normal travel, and they haven’t crossed our borders in more years than I can remember. I’ve never even met a Ba-Har-ani before. And word of the competitions wasn’t likely to have reached them when they have no dealings with us or the Center.”

“Nor did it reach them. These Ba-Har-ani came here with your brother at your father’s request And I might as well give you the bad news now. Your father wants to see our two countries back on friendly and communicating terms. That’s going to give that young man an edge if he decides to ask for you, and I wasn’t blind in there, baby. He lit up like a vein of gaali stone when he realized who you were.”

Shanelle groaned audibly. “He’ll ask. But now I have even more reasons not to want him. I ought to leave the planet right away.”

“Now, don’t be hasty,” Tedra replied. “You might actually have fewer reasons and just not know it, or aren’t you aware that the Ba-Har-ani differ in a lot of ways from our warriors? Your Falon’s lack of control is one. And didn’t you say he’s emotional? But if you tell me there’s nothing there between you two now, that you no longer feel anything for him, then I won’t say another word.”

“Mother, why are you taking his side again?” Shanelle asked in exasperation.

“Because you chose him. Because I don’t want to see you make a mistake just because you’ve temporarily got cold feet. Because you weren’t the only one to arrive late tonight, and I didn’t see you limping in this time.”

Shanelle glanced away, wishing her mother weren’t so intuitive. “No, he didn’t hurt me this time. Between my bed attacking him and him almost attacking Corth when he showed up, there wasn’t much time for anything else.”

“There’s nothing like an adjustibed to give a warrior second thoughts,” Tedra said, straight-faced for about two seconds more before she burst into laughter. “I’m sorry. I just love it when these big guys meet up with technology. But I don’t suppose it was funny at the time.”

Shanelle raised a brow. “Are you kidding? He saved me from my bed, mother.”

“Oh, stop,” Tedra pleaded, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

“Yes, well, it was that damn amusement that caught me off guard and gave him the final advantage-or it would have if Corth hadn’t shown up when he did. But that doesn’t change the fact that Falon wouldn’t leave my room when asked. He wouldn’t listen when I said I didn’t want to share sex. He even promised to break me of my stubbornness when I’m his. His high-handedness is insufferable.”

“Sure it is,” Tedra said with a complete lack of sympathy. “He is a warrior, after all, and that’s one way ours and theirs are obviously the same. And you’re used to that high-handedness, baby, in your own family. You’re just not used to it from a stranger.”

“And I don’t intend to get used to it. If I had known he was a warrior from the start, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. I never would have gone with him.”

“Don’t kid yourself, Shani. When you get your socks knocked off, there isn’t much you can do about it, and I speak from experience. You would have tried him just for the hell of it. You wouldn’t have been able to resist the temptation. So we’d be having this exact same conversation, because that man got hit with the same thing you did, and by all accounts, he means to do something about it.”

“There isn’t much he can do if I’m not here,” Shanelle said stiffly.

Tedra sighed. “Let me tell you about a couple of the bigger problems I’ve faced in my life. One was having your father get me pregnant without my permission. And if that sounds funny to you, try and remember that people didn’t get in that condition where I came from. I was absolutely terrified of the very idea. No way was I going to go through something as barbaric as giving birth. I couldn’t even read the meditech’s report that would confirm or deny it. But Martha didn’t let me play the coward. She read the report and blurted it right out, even telling me the baby was going to be a boy.”

Shanelle frowned. “But, mother-”

“I know, I know, but let me finish. So I decided to be brave and bear this son for Challen. I loved him, after all, and he wanted it done the old-fashioned way. But the closer it got to the time of delivery, the more frightened I was, even though I knew I’d have a meditech to crawl into to make it all painless. What I hadn’t counted on was the simple fact that meditechs weren’t designed to accommodate great big bellies, because it’s virtually impossible to gain excess weight eating Kystrani food, and this was a standard Kystrani meditech. So at the last farden minute, I find out I’m going to have to give birth the truly old-fashioned way, without a single painkilling agent, without even a Sha-Ka’ani healer on hand, because I’d already Transferred to the Rover and it was too late to find one. Talk about going into major shock.”

“How come I never heard about this before?”

“Because your mother doesn’t like to own up to fear, and I haven’t even got into half of it yet. Your father ended up a nervous wreck. He hadn’t been expecting to do the delivery himself, but only he and Corth were on the ship, and of course Martha. But Martha lacks hands, and Challen still wasn’t letting Corth’s hands get anywhere near me. Before your brother arrived, I must have sworn to every deity in two Star Systems that I was going to murder your father for putting me through that. At least that he took in stride. He kept telling me my reaction was perfectly normal, to which I kept telling him to drop dead. And then there was Martha offering instruction by the book, along with her usual drivel, like, ‘If you’d do a little pushing instead of threatening to castrate the big guy, we might get this over with,’ and ‘I think we can safely say there’s nothing wrong with your lungs, kiddo.’ ”

Shanelle couldn’t help smiling, though she said, “That wasn’t very nice of her.”

“Actually, she was trying to get my mind off the pain by getting me mad, but I didn’t appreciate it at the time. But she saved the best for last, when Challen was holding his squalling son in his hands, and I was lying there half dead, or so it felt like. ‘Save the congratulations for later, guys. You’re only half done.’ ‘She means the afterbirth,’ Challen tried to reassure me, but Martha didn’t allow time for being reassured. She replied calm as you please, ‘No, I mean your son’s twin sister, who’ll be popping out to join him shortly.’ ”

“You mean you didn’t know?”

“Hell, no, I didn’t know. She knew all along, and not once did she even hint that I was carrying two instead of one. She owned up afterward that she’d decided I couldn’t handle that kind of information, and maybe she was right. I had a hard enough time adjusting to the fact that I was having one baby. I might not have decided to try it if I had known I’d be having two at once. I really don’t know what I would have done.”