Page 10 of Brad

Chapter 4

Being frustrated wasn’t helping either of them. Becka knew that. First of all, she was bored to death, and secondly, she didn’t have anything to do. Yes, her head told her they were the same thing, but they weren’t. Being bored meant that her mind was inactive—to her at least and not having anything to do, even if it wasn’t something that totally occupied her mind, was making her think about things that she didn’t need to be pondering about, such as the very fact that she married a complete stranger without any thought of what they’d do with their life together. Like now, she told herself. No thought.

Should it matter that they were mates? She didn’t think so. While she’d enjoyed her working life, not going out on dates and so forth, she at least had her job. Now, thanks to people finding out that she was married, she didn’t have one. No one wanted to take on a married woman because of how hard the work was for a woman if she were to get pregnant. Why, she asked herself. How did that make one iota of difference than before? Stupid people. She’d lost three jobs just this morning, and it was making her pissy with everyone around her.

When she realized that she was ruining the flowers in the little garden that she’d been sitting in, Becka put her hands on her lap and counted to ten. That didn’t have the desired effect, so she counted two more times to ten before getting up and stomping away. She was leaning against the tree sobbing when a faerie found her.

She’d been told several times that she was to get one. Why? No one had an answer other than she should have one to keep her safe. She’d not found the need to have one flittering about her, so she had done nothing to have one hanging around her. Becka knew that wasn’t fair of her. They needed a job, too. And this was the funniest thing. She’d never seen any of them flittering.

But now that she was bored…pissed off, she was making everything out to be a hardship on her. When she turned on the little person again, she knew she wasn’t being fair. She asked him what he wanted. The little creature flew back from her so quickly that she was sure that it was terrified of her. That hurt her soul that she’d made such a little—it had been like she’d yelled at a baby, and it was puckering its lips, ready to cry.

“My lady?” She asked him what he wanted, then pointed out that her name was Becka. “Yes…Becka. I have come to see if there is anything that I can help you with. I have asked the others to take care of the garden for you.”

“Why?” The little man said that it had been torn up. “Yes. So? I did it. Maybe that’s the way that I want it to be? Messy.” She was being unfair. Unreasonable, too, but she didn’t care right now. Or she did care and wasn’t ready to let it go. Her heart and head were having a bad day, she told herself. “I’m not even sorry about it. Not one bit. So you tell him to leave it alone.”

Why? She couldn’t imagine why she’d say anything like that to anyone. And the garden was a mess. So bad that she was sure that none of the little plants could be saved. That hurt her, too. Knowing that she’d needless killed them because she was…well, she supposed she was a lot lonely. And bored.

Instead of arguing with her, he just disappeared. He might well have flown away; she’d been pointing to the garden and wasn’t looking at it when it was just gone. Just as she was going to throw a full-out temper tantrum, someone appeared in his place. A very beautifully dressed woman who seemed to sparkle. Actually, it did sparkle, but Becka lifted her chin and asked her what she wanted. It occurred to her that she was being rude, but she just didn’t have the heart to be nice. Or how to be nice to someone that could pop in and out of situations like—she asked it what it wanted.

“I’m not sure that we’ve been introduced. If we have, then you’d know better than to take that tone, any tone with me. My name is Allison. I’m the queen of faeries. While I don’t know you all that well, I want you to know that I won’t tolerate you treating my kind the way you have just now. What is your problem? You have to have one because there is no way from what I know of you that you’d treat a small creature the way that you have just now.” Becka tried to control her anger, but all she did was stand there with tears filling her eyes and stare at the woman. “I see. So, something is bothering you, and you just took it out on the little people. You broke his heart just so you know that. And for what reason? I demand answers, not tears.”

“I don’t know.” Dropping to her knees, Becka let all the anger, hurt, and pain that had been building up inside of her form into tears and allowed them to just flow down her cheeks, much like the words did that she had no control over. Saying everything that was wrong with her, the loneliness, anger, boredom, and anything else that seemed to have taken its toll on her out on the woman that was in front of her. When she had cried for about thirty minutes, repeating over and over how everything was against her, she laid down on the soft grass and closed her eyes.

“If you wish to kill me off, go on and do it. I don’t even care anymore.” The shadow of the woman rolled over her, but she didn’t look at her. Becka was too busy feeling sorry for herself right now to care about what had happened to her. “This sitting around waiting for someone to knock me around is making me insane. Either do it or leave me the hell alone. I’m about as useless as it comes around here.”

“Are you finished feeling sorry for yourself?” She didn’t move, said not a word either. “Get up. I hate when someone bows down before me and I hate it even worse when someone is being pitiful. Get up, please, so that we can have a conversation.”

She did get up, but she didn’t bother with wiping the dirt off her clothing. Lifting her chin up again, it was pushed down by the other woman when she started sprinkling something on her. It felt like rain, but in a few seconds, she realized that she was cleaned up and someplace different. Looking around, she asked her what right she had to take her away from her home.

“I have whatever rights I want. Now, hush up and have a cup of tea with me. I’ve been where you are before.” The woman started asking for things like tea and crumpets. If asked, Becka would have thought that was a made-up name. “It’s not made up. They’re as real as scones. Now, have a seat there. Oh. You need to have something else on. Something tea having like. And yes, I just made that up.”

Becka found herself in a very springy dress. It was covered in daisies and roses, little pink ones. When she put her hand to her hair, and feeling now for the ponytail that she was forever pulling it up in, she found that it was up in a do and had flowers in it too. She told the woman that it was too much. After agreeing, her hair was let down, and she sat in one of the three chairs around the table. She had no idea why but Becka did feel better dressed up the way that she was.

“My sister is going to join us for tea. If you can keep your temper at bay, she might stay long enough to talk to you. However, you being especially rude today might have everyone backing off.” Becka felt her face heat up and told her that she was sorry. “As I said, I’ve been there before. Bored out of your ever-loving mind and no one to complain about it to. At least no one to listen anyway. Yes, I think everyone has. Tell me what it is that has you at odds with yourself.”

“I can’t work anymore.” Allison told her that wasn’t it. “It is too it. Why is everyone trying to—” Cocking a pretty brow at her, Becka asked her what was wrong then. “If you know so much, then you tell me why I feel like I’m…at odds all the time.”

“You need sex. Actually, I would have suggested that first off, but you seemed to want to pick a fight with me. Anyone, I guess. Poor Andrew is still at the castle sobbing about how he’d disappointed you. They never think that it’s anyone but themselves that is at fault. Just so you know, I don’t fight fairly. I have a powerful amount of magic, and I’m not afraid to use it on you. No, it’s sex. You and Brad need to get yourself’s laid, and that’ll take care of the two of you in being rude to everyone.” She said that Brad wasn’t being rude. “Not to you, no. But his friends are avoiding him because he seems to want to get the snot knocked out of him for no other reason than because he’s bored, too. I would have thought that it would have occurred to you that you needed to be laid, but I’ve done a little walk through your head, and there is no point in your life that you ever used sex to relax. Why is that?” Embarrassed again, she didn’t have an answer. “I know the reason. It’s because you’ve been the best mother in the world to that young man of yours, and nothing else mattered but keeping him safe. I don’t know if you know this or not, but he’s a growing man and can and will be able to care for himself if you were to ask him to. Send him over here if you wish. He, unlike you, gets along with everyone around him.”

“I’m sorry.” Allison sipped her tea and told her that was a start. “Are you going to pick at me too?”

“No. I might well slap you around if you don’t tone it down. You’re lucky that it’s me that got to talk to you and not my sister. Who is meaner than I am when you mess with her faeries.” After the other woman showed up, her name was Sarah, she found out, the two of them spoke about the things that were going on around their realm. Becka found herself watching the faeries and other creatures as they worked around the room. She spoke to them too off and on, giving them suggestions about the work they were doing. For whatever reason, Becka found herself relaxing in a way that she’d never been able to do before.

Waking up, she was surprised to find herself in bed with Brad. He was still lying there with his eyes closed, but she wasn’t sure if he was sleeping. Sliding out of the bed, careful not to move him around too much, she made her way to the window seat and watched the animals in the yard as they played around.

The place was bright with sunlight and colors. Not just colors a person would find in a crayon box but brilliant colors that defied description. To say that things were red and pink would have been an understatement. She found herself smiling as she mentally made up names for the colors that were surrounding her.

Sighting a dragon, Becka thought that it wasn’t real. When he summoned her to come to him, she moved out of the door and to where the big animal was lying in the grass. Like the colors, the size of the creature was more than she could have said. Giving herself only the head of him to compare herself to, she sat down next to him.

The faeries were all over his body and flew away as one when she sat down next to him. For whatever reason, she wasn’t afraid of the large animal. Not even when it yawned when she sat down. His teeth, she noticed, were bigger than she was tall and wider than she was at standing up. Christ. After a few minutes, not only did the faeries return, but they also brought her a large glass of juice that she enjoyed immensely.

“You are new to this area. The mate of young Brad.” She said that she was but didn’t know how young he was. “Nay, he’d not tell you. But I am older than the young man is. By a great deal, as it turns out. Not that it matters. I do believe that you’re the most beautiful woman that I’ve seen around here. Excluding, of course, my own mate.”

“I guess she’s around here someplace too?” He told her that she was, heartbrokenly, no longer alive. Humans had taken her life long ago. “I’m so sorry, sir. The only family that I have left is Toby, my nephew. He’s only just turned sixteen years old.”

“What about Bradley? Is he not your mate and family, too? Even the kiss that you now belong to is your family. Or so I’ve been told. You aren’t alone, ever, my dear. Remember that, if you please.” She didn’t know how to answer that, so she didn’t. “Feeling a bit out of sorts about that, I heard. Or is it something else that has you here?”

“I don’t know why I’m here. I guess I could ask, but I’ve been enjoying seeing things that I’ve never known were real before that I didn’t want to be sent home. Do you suppose that I was sent here because, as you pointed out, I’m being out of sorts?” He laughed, the ground rumbling under his big body. “I would think that if you were to do that all the time, the ground would give up the trees and just have them lying about. How long have you lived here, sir?”