Anka settled his hand over hers. “I don’t think you needed to do that, nodia,” he said, laughing. “I think they would’ve figured it out.”

    “They would’ve said I had something stuffed in my shirt!” she said testily. “They know you didn’t kidnap me. They’re just trying to wiggle out of the treaty they made!”

    Anka glanced at the Congressman questioningly. “Are there any more questions you’d like ask my woman?”

    The congressman looked like someone had shit in his mouth. “I think we’re satisfied,” he said tightly, “… on that score. Since Lt. Hunter claims that she left of her own free will, however, there is the little matter of her being AWOL.”

    “Not unless someone forged my signature on a new enlistment, Congressman Webb,” Sybil said tightly. “My tour was up before I left the moon for Venus and I refused to sign up for another tour.”

    “I’ll look in to that,” he said through gritted teeth. “You’re dismissed… for now.”

    Sybil turned to look up at Anka. On impulse, she rose to her tiptoes and kissed him full on the mouth. She hadn’t actually intended to give him more than a peck, but Anka had other ideas. “I’ll remember to take my hat with me when I go to work in the garden. I wouldn’t want them to accuse you of staking me out in the sun.”

    Anka shook his head at her, but he smiled.

    She turned and waved at the congressman. “Hello everyone back home! Don’t worry about me. I love it here. Venus is growing more beautiful every day!”

    Anka glanced back at Inge. “You can cut the feed to the other satellites now.”

    The congressman looked blank for several moments and then turned so red Sybil more than half expected him to explode. She turned to the Premier and the other two councilmen. “I apologize if I embarrassed you. I just had to be sure they couldn’t twist this into something it isn’t.”

    The Premier and both councilmen assured her that they hadn’t minded looking at all, that it was a lovely display of womanhood.

Chapter Seventeen

    Grandmother Lonlea, the elder who seemed determined to adopt her whether she wanted it or not, and Cerek were waiting for her in the corridor near the quarters she’d been sharing with Anka. Grandmother began to fuss immediately that it was late and it would be hot by the time they got to the garden.

    “It’s always hot, Grandmother,” Sybil said, smiling. “I had something to take care of.”

    “Dis more important,” Grandmother informed her in broken English. “Today you start learning Sumpturian ways! You work. I teach.”

    “Oh joy!” Sybil said wryly.

    Grandmother swatted her. “Respect elder!”

    Sybil bit her lip and glanced at Cerek.

    “Foul temper,” he mouthed at her.

    “I read lips!” Grandmother said, swatting him.

    Sybil couldn’t honestly decide what she thought of the old woman. She also couldn’t figure out why the woman was determined to attach herself, but she learned very quickly to be grateful for it. Not only was she careful to make certain Sybil didn’t make any serious blunders in her ignorance of the customs of the Sumpturians, but she was quick and fierce in defending Sybil if she thought anybody slighted her.

    She wasn’t terribly happy when she discovered she was expected to move in with Grandmother, but she didn’t argue. Poor Anka could hardly walk through his quarters after he’d retrieved her belongings from the Embassy and she knew it had to be miserable for him. Besides, it wasn’t as if she’d actually had the chance to get used to sharing his quarters and she had her own space when she moved in with Grandmother.

    In any case, Anka came over almost every night to spend the night with her.

    It was more comfortable for both of them, she told herself, and it wasn’t as if they spent their days together anyway. Anka was busy on the construction site and she was busy tending the garden-not that there was much to tend. Only about half of the seeds sprouted and of that half, the majority withered shortly after poking little green sprouts from the dirt.

    Deciding they were just getting too much sun, she and Cerek built a little tent with a tarp so that they could shade the plants through the hottest part of the day. The few plants that remained perked up, but the stalks grew long and spindly, making it clear they either weren’t getting enough water, or nutrients, or both. Either that or there was something in the soil that prevented them from thriving. Only a couple actually produced blooms and most of those simply fell off.

    She felt like crying when Anka finally came to check her ‘experimental’ garden. He crouched and studied the plants, frowning.

    “They didn’t do well, I’m afraid.”

    He lifted his brows at her. “They grew.”

    “I guess you could say that,” she said glumly.

    Straightening, he patted her cheek and grinned at her. “You grew plants on Venus that were cultivated for Earth, nodia. You’re an amazing woman! Don’t give up on me now. We’ll have to learn how to grow here. It isn’t Earth and it isn’t Sumptra.”

    Heartened by his praise and his confidence in her, Sybil went back to study the seeds and chose different plants to try. She managed to coax a double handful of undersized vegetables from her third experiment. Fortunately, the greenhouse garden fared much better. While it couldn’t be said that it was a huge success, it did produce enough to supply the colonists with a few fresh vegetables at each meal.

    The Sumpturians had a festival to celebrate their first harvest. Sybil enjoyed it-all of it except the part where Myune wallowed all over Anka trying to entice him to her bed. If she hadn’t looked and felt like a beached whale by that time, Sybil would’ve had to be restrained from pulling her hair out.

    As it was, all she could do was glare daggers at the bitch and sulk. She was slightly appeased when Anka returned to the table and sat down with her-but still miserable. Grandmother had told her in no uncertain terms ‘no more fucking till after’-just that bluntly. Worse, she’d also informed Anka. He was allowed to come and stay a while, but not sleep with her and Grandmother made it clear that she was guarding the henhouse. If they got too quiet, she poked her head in the door.

    It was enough to drive Anka into Myune’s arms, she was sure.

    She didn’t know why Anka tolerated the tyrant!

    So she’d grown rather fond of the old woman! She still didn’t appreciate being told when she could have sex, damn it! And she certainly didn’t appreciate being told she couldn’t!

    Unfortunately, the damned doctor agreed with her.

    When she finally broke down and cried about it, Grandmother scolded her. “Fool! He no go anywhere.”

    “But that bitch, Myune, is just waiting to pounce on him! I see the way she looks at him!”

    Grandmother sniffed. “That one fool, too! Wasting time. Anka your man. He wait.”

    Sybil sniffed. “You really think so?”

    “I think you fool! No tease him! He horny enough!”

    Sybil glared at her. “Well, I’m horny, too, damn it!”

    “You want him poking baby in head?”

    Sybil uttered a snorting laugh. “No.”

    “Baby no like neither! He come out to see what happen!”

    Sybil sobered. If Grandmother was worried about sex putting her into premature labor, she was right to scold. It wasn’t as if she had much longer to wait anyway.

    Grandmother patted her. “No worry ‘bout Anka. No worry. He love you, girl. Tell you all time.”

    Sybil felt her heart swell at the first part of Grandmother’s speech, but then fresh doubt crept in. “He’s never said he loved me.”