Plan B by Steve Miller, Sharon Lee Read Free Book Online Page A

with a gentle forefinger.

    Miri sighed, recalling with a certain queasy vividness the face of the woman in the old painting. The resemblance was spooky enough if she was that one's granddaughter. . .

    "I don't guess coincidence'll cover it, huh?"

    "It seems unlikely in the extreme." He touched the flower again, then drew it from its resting-place.

    "Not," he murmured, "for this sort of dinner."

    "Huh?" Miri followed him into the bedroom. "It's against the law to wear flowers to dinner?"

    "This particular flower," said Val Con, placing it gently in a cut crystal water glass, "is an aphrodisiac."

    She blinked at him; blinked at the canopy. "And they've got 'em growing all over the bed?"

    "What better place?"

    "Right." She closed her eyes, willing tense muscles to relax.

    "Miri?"

    She looked at the pattern of him inside her head—bright and clear and beloved—then opened her eyes and grinned wryly at the proper Liaden gentleman before her.

    "Tell you what, boss: This whole masquerade's gonna come crashing down over something as stupid as that flower. If you hadn't been here to tell me before I went on down, I could've blown everything." Everything , she thought: His melant'i; the melant'i of Line yos'Phelium; her own insignificant amount—all gone. Because of a flower.

    "I ain't up for this," she said suddenly, feeling the panic boiling in her stomach. "Look, boss, I'm a soldier, not an actor—and nobody down there's gonna believe for one minute that I'm Lady yos'Phelium. Let's see if we can't catch the old lady and tell her we made a mistake, OK? All the mercs in the city right now, there's bound to be somebody around who owes me dinner—"

    "Miri—" That quick he was across the room, arms around her tight, cheek against hers. "It is not a masquerade, cha'trez. It is truth. We are lifemates. And a portion of our shared melant'i involves standing as lady and lord to Line yos'Phelium." He laughed softly. "For our sins."

    She choked a half-laugh and pushed her face into his shoulder. "I'm gonna wreck your melant'i."

    "No." He kissed her ear. "My lifemate is a lady of intelligence, wit, and courage. How else could it be, but that her melant'i supports and enhances my own? And together—" He slipped his hand under her chin and tipped her face so she could see the bright green eyes, awash in mischief. " Together , cha'trez, we are—" he bent his head, put his mouth next to her ear and breathed "- hell on wheels ."

    "You—" She laughed and hugged him hard before stepping away and taking his hand. "All right, let's go meet the family."

    She stopped him at the hall door, though, struck by one more detail.

    "We gonna let on I don't know your family from sliced bread? I don't think even tel'Vosti'd like a lifemating where I ain't met your First Speaker, much less you got her permission."

    "A valid point," Val Con murmured and tipped his head, staring hard at nothing, with his brows pulled slightly together.

    "Line yos'Phelium," he said after a bit, "presently includes Kareen, my father's sister; her son Pat Rin, and his heir, Quin. My father is Daav yos'Phelium, who is eklykt'i. His lifemate, my mother, was Aelliana Caylon. She is dead. I was fostered into the household of my father's cha'leket, Er Thom yos'Galan, and his lifemate, Anne Davis. They, also, have died. Shan is Lord yos'Galan, Nova is First Speaker, Anthora is—Anthora." He paused.

    "yos'Galan children are Padi, who is Shan's heir, and Syl Vor, who is Nova's. Korval's seat is Jelaza Kazone; yos'Galan's Line House is Trealla Fantrol. We are located to the north of Solcintra City. The ship of which Shan is captain and master trader is Dutiful Passage ."

    Miri considered him. "That's it?"

    "Yes."

    "Nothing else?" she persisted. "I don't wanna trip up."

    "This should be sufficient to see us through dinner," Val Con said softly. "It is scarcely to be expected that a new bride will have complete intimacy of her lifemate's clan."

    "Great." She