Cecilia's Mate by April Zyon Read Free Book Online Page B

for the start of
the day? I’ve practiced it more than a few times to make sure I got it just
right.”
    “Yes,
this is more than acceptable.” She reached out and squeezed his hand. “Sit. Eat
with me? When you have to go off to do whatever it is you need to do I will
come with you while I can. Then I might have to send
off for supplies from my studio so that I can paint. In fact since I won’t be
living planetside I can have that packed up and shipped up here, right?” The
small studio was where she escaped to paint. She couldn’t live there, of
course, but she did spend many long hours there painting.
    “We
can have Bracken go over to pick everything up. Between him and Sadie I’m sure
we can get you everything you’ll need.” He settled down into the chair and
moved his napkin to his knee. “Don’t wait on me, dig in. We don’t want it
getting cold after I went to all that work on it.”
    That
had her laughing, something she’d done far too little of lately. Without a word
she was digging into the food and let out an appreciative sigh.
    He
nodded finally and dug into his own plate of food. They enjoyed the meal
together in comforting quiet. When he was done Draven wiped his lips and looked
to her. “There’s more if you’d like some.”
    “Oh
no. I’m completely full but thank you.” She rubbed her belly as she leaned back
and sighed. “That was so good. And made even better because of the company. It
was fabulous to be able to eat without having to worry about who was going to
say what next and make who angry.”
    “Definitely
not something you need to worry about with me,” he said. “I’m glad you enjoyed
it, though. Finish up your juice, and then we should get cleaned up for the
day. I have a few things I need to attend to before the crew starts to return
tomorrow.”
    She
took another drink of her juice and rose with her dishes in hand. “Let’s get
stuff cleaned up and then we’ll go and harass what little crew that you have on
board.”
    He
laughed at her words and shook his head. “They have their own tasks to attend
to, little one. I only need to check in with them and make sure they have what
they need for the day. We, on the other hand, have a couple of shipments due in
of food supplies and all the other supplies that keep a ship this size running
when we’re out of port for any length of time. On the up side, the kitchen
staff will be coming back up today to start prep for tomorrow’s first official
meal when Bracken returns.”
    “That
should be a very interesting meal,” she told him as she got herself ready to go
along with him. “All right, Draven, where are we off to now?” she asked with a
grin and waited for him to get them started.
    Grabbing
up a data pad, he pressed his thumb to the screen and waited. “All right, first
up is a stop in engineering to find out if they need any more supplies given
the fix they had to do on the fly for us the last time out. Then we have a
shipment arriving in bay forty-two that I have to sign for. After that we need
to check the dining hall refrigeration to make sure the freezer was properly
cleaned, and then turn it back on before this afternoon’s delivery. Up to the
command deck after that so I can start up the mainframes and let them go
through their system’s checks so that Sadie can do our updates remotely. Some
paperwork after that, and it will be lunch time. After lunch more paperwork and
the afternoon shipment. Then we can do anything you want until dinner.”
    “Sounds
like we have a full morning ahead of us. We should get our butts on the move,
then, shouldn’t we?” She linked her arm with his.
    “Yes,
ma’am, we should.” He led her out of their rooms, through the ship, and down
into the very bowels of the beast. Inside what she guessed was engineering it
was quite noisy. Draven pulled a chair out from a desk and indicated she should
sit. “Stay right here. I won’t be too long but it’s too dangerous down here