Chapter 10

 

Chapter Ten

I don’t remember hearing Thomas come in either I was that asleep or he was that quiet, I’m not sure, but he came in some time after I’d come home and gone to bed. I wasn’t feeling well; I usually didn’t after I’d been drinking, even a little bit.

Thomas apparently ordered in because I do remember the knock at the door, and him answering it. But I didn’t really wake up it was more so something I heard in my sleep, I stirred and rolled over but don’t remember waking up, not until Thomas came over to the bed, lightly kissing me and told me that dinner was here if I wanted it.

I slowly woke up, got out of bed heading into the bathroom and took a shower, I felt icky from sleeping, and wanted to wake up fully before eating. I didn’t bother to close the door behind me, nakedness among the Mer is just something that is, we tend to be very open about our bodies, for us they aren’t something you hide, but rather something that you admire, as we seldom wear any sort of clothing when we’re in our true form. However, in human form you can distinctly tell the royal house from the commoners of the court, mainly due to their attire.

I came out of the bathroom wrapped in my robe anyway, and hair up in a turban. This was usually the way I looked after I took a shower. I walked over and kissed Thomas, lightly on the cheek, as he was setting the coffee table with plates and silverware for us to actually sit down and eat dinner together. He paused looked up at me a moment, then went back to what he was doing, I went to the kitchen grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge, came back in and sat down opposite of him. “So, what do we have,” I asked as I started opening up the take out boxes.

“Chinese.” He replied, “I remember that you used to like it a lot.”

I smiled and started with the rice, filling my plate full of exotic goodies. Thomas filled his plate as well, and we had our first official dinner at home. It was kind of fun actually, to think of he and I sharing a place, it’s what we’d always talked about when we were young, but things just hadn’t worked out that way, until now. However, it wasn’t a permanent thing unless I learned to use magic and fight with weapons. I could never go up against my sister as it stands now; it would be a death sentence for me.

“So, explain something to me, Thomas, why is it so important for our families to marry?” I really didn’t understand what was so important about it all.

He looked up at me in surprise, “You don’t know?” Thomas asked, “You know I’m not officially part of your grandmother’s grotto right?”

“Well yes, I knew that you’d moved from some where around Michigan.” I said, but that’s really about all I knew.

He nodded, “And, you know that you and I were supposed to be together?”

“Yes, you told me that last night when you showed up, though I really don’t understand why.” I shrugged, “I mean not that I don’t want to be with you. I’ve wanted that all my life it feels like, but why are our families set on it, that’s what I don’t understand.”

Thomas shook his head in disbelief that my family had told me nothing of what was supposed to be my future, and our family’s past. “How long have you got to listen while I explain the whole thing?” He tried to mask it with a chuckle.

“What do you mean the whole thing?” My curiosity was peaked now.

“Well, what do you know about your own family?” He asked me plainly. “I mean do you know where you came from, your ancestry?”

“Some of it, I know we came from the western coast of Ireland, that we migrated here, first to this area actually, and then farther west to the Mississippi River, then went north to the head waters, at Lake Itasca.” I said, trying to sound like I wasn’t totally in the dark. “I also know that some how I’m related to a long line of Irish royalty, but I’m not sure how that works completely.”

Thomas nodded, “Yes, you are related to Sir Thomas Boleyn, through Anne his daughter.” I took a moment to think about that, I still wasn’t completely sure what it meant to Thomas, or to our being wed, but I knew who she was because I‘d taken European History a couple of semesters ago as an elective.

“I remember my grandfather saying something about that when I was young, but I thought he was just telling me stories to keep me entertained.” I shrugged.

We’d finished dinner, and I was picking up, while Thomas enlightened me on why it was so important that we be married. I cleaned off the plates in the trash, and put them in the sink then returned to the living room.

“So, you understand where your royal heritage comes from?” He asked me looking for reassurance that I did indeed understand that much of it. I nodded, and he continued on to his side of the family tree.

“My family came from the western coast of Scotland,” He told me. Which I knew he was of Scottish decent, his father had a distinctive accent, especially when he was angry, which I’d only seen the one time when Thomas and I decided to skip school together to go play pool all day at the local pub, but it was something you don’t forget. “From the islands just west of Glasgow actually,” He continued. I listened intently; I’d never known much about Thomas or his family, only that he wasn’t originally part of our grotto, but that he and his family had been accepted as part of the court. “I’m related to Stuart line of the Scottish royals, back through Mary Queen of Scots.” he told me, “And through that line back to the English royals through Margret Tudor.”

“Wow, so between us we’ve pretty much got the British Isles tied up in our families,” I was more than surprised, I really had known very little about my own family until he’d told me tonight, other than where we’d come from originally.

“Yes.” He said in agreement, “That’s part of the reason it’s important for our families to be wed.” I nodded again. He continued to explain to me that there had been no bloodline females since his great grandmother. That both his grandfather who married into the Danish Mer line, and his father, who’d married into the Greek Mer line, had only sons, and that his great-grandmother besides being quite old, was in failing health, and honestly no longer able to rule her grotto. However, there was no one to take her place, the hope was that Thomas would marry into the Irish line, which had two females, and produce a female heir for his line, as well as the Irish line, that some day the courts could possibly be united under his daughter.

I listened, almost in shock, part of me suddenly resented him, and him being part of my life, while part of me wanted to be his mate, and have his daughter. I was so very confused at the moment, I wasn’t sure what to say or do. I wasn’t breeding stock, and even with my heritage some how it angered me that his family almost looked at me that way. But, did he? Or did he truly feel for me what he said he did? I wasn’t sure at this point.

“So how old is your great-grandmother?” I asked him innocently,

“I’m not sure, I know that she and James VI had a long standing affair, and that my grandfather was a result of that affair,” He shrugged. I’d known my own grandmother was quite old, but not nearly as old as his great grandmother. He went on to explain to me that his grandfather though illegitimate was a Stuart from the line of royalty, As such that we each were less than three generations removed from the royal lines, which meant that by all legalities we are royals, I of Ireland, and he of Scotland, though neither country still has a monarchy in place. I just sat listening, nodding and taking it all in, maybe some of the stories my grandfather told me weren’t made up just to keep me entertained, maybe I should have listened closer. I just didn’t understand why my mother hadn’t told me about this.

“So now you know, why after you left home so suddenly, they bound me to Emerald, and said that I would marry her,” his features hardened a bit. “I appealed to your grandmother, that I would rather marry you, if you still loved me as much as I love you, and would have me as your mate.” He continued, “But, it’s not that easy, now that I’ve been bound to Emma, you have to declare your feelings for me, and face her in one on one combat to win back my hand.” He stopped looking at me, I’d taken my hair down and was absently playing with a lock of it as he spoke, and he reached over and ran his hand through my long damp hair, looking into my eyes. “If I had known, I wouldn’t have asked Amy, I had no idea that she would make you face Emma.”

“What I still don’t understand is, if the hope is to eventually unite the grottos under one rule, of your daughter, why not Emma in the first place?” I asked, “I am the second daughter, which puts me out of the running for succession.”

“It was originally supposed to be Emma,” he said, “But, then I met you, and everything changed, I fell in love with you, and I thought you with me.”

“I am in love with you, I have been since we were kids, and nothing changes that. I was just curious that’s all.” I couldn’t understand why I was never told, did my family feel I was that much of an embarrassment after I didn’t get my tail, or come into my magic when I was supposed to? Why didn’t they tell me this to keep me from leaving, had they wanted a reason to break it off between Thomas and me, so that he could marry Emma? All I did know is had some very choice words for my parents when I got home. And more than a few choice words for my sister, but did she really know what was going on or was she as in the dark as I was?

It was getting late, and I have classes tomorrow, and hadn’t cracked a book yet, I looked at Thomas, smiling “Sweetheart, I really need to do some studying,” I said, I picked up the remote and tossed it at him, “You know what this is right?” I asked teasingly, “Feel free to watch anything you’d like, I’ve really got to hit the books.” I got up went to my desk where I had dropped my backpack earlier, and unzipped it, pulling out books.

After a couple of hours of studying, managing to get the one paper done that I need for class tomorrow, I looked up at Thomas. Who at this point was utterly bored with the television set, he was flipping through channels trying to find something to watch that suited him. He finally had settled on a rerun of some old movie about a young couple shipwrecked, they were children and stranded on this island, and no body knew they were alive. I chuckled, why did we always seem to gravitate towards those type of movies, I was a sucker for shipwreck movies myself, maybe it was something in our genetic code, who knows. I got up stretched and walked over leaning over the back of the couch, I kissed the back of his neck, and then worked my way up to his ear, teasingly, even though I had no intentions of making good on the teasing, at least not immediately. “So, what are you watching?” I asked him

“I’m not sure,” he said, and went on to explain the movie to me up to the point he’d seen so far.

“Ah,” I giggled and grabbed my keys off the desk “I just thought of something!” He turned to look at me, as I grabbed two towels out of the closet, and came around the sofa, “I didn’t get in all of my practice time today, and I have the key to the pool, which is closed now, so we’d have it all to ourselves, for whatever purpose we’d like to use it for.” I said with a smirk. His boyish grin played across those sensual lips, I almost melted on the spot, “I just thought, maybe we could go swimming?”