Ellie couldn’t miss his meaning now. She looked at the Imperial shop and said as casually as she could, “You may buy me whatever you want.”
Valentin squeezed her hand and then went directly into the shop. A curious crowd waited around her, just outside the rim of Valentin’s guards. Everyone knew what this gesture meant, that she and Valentin would marry if he returned with a piece of clothing for her.
A few minutes later, Valentin emerged from the shop, followed by the shop attendants who also were excited to witness this moment. He held out a large black box to her, the contents were unknown, and asked, “You are sure? We have a crowd now and this will be all over the Imperial gossip columns if you accept what is in this box.”
Ellie smiled as she began opening his gift, hoping it was not an ugly dress, as she had spied a few really ugly ones in there while she waited, “As long as I don’t have to strip down naked and put a dress on in front of all of these people, I’ll be happy for whatever you have bought me.”
Valentin gave Elloisa a slightly confused look, “Do they still do that in the Empire?”
Ellie stopped and gave him an equally surprised look, “What? Oh, stop. I almost believed you. Don’t tease me, please, this is serious.” Her stomach was fluttering as she tore away at the shop’s tissue paper.
Valentin watched Elloisa take out the dark purple Imperial dress which was the most modern of the current styles on the Capital Planet. It was very modest by Reima Two or human standards but considered avant-garde in most of the Empire because the neckline was not a mandarin collar.
Ellie investigated the eloquent Alliance dress, centimeter by centimeter, as any maximum class woman would have done and then after a minute of silence between them and everyone around them visibly holding their breath, she announced, “This is a lovely dress Valentin but I will need some stockings as well.”
Everyone around them smiled and then congratulated them on their decision to marry. Only a married man could buy an Imperial women of maximum class clothing and only clothing for his wife or family members. As Ellie was still an Imperial citizen this was a clear signal that she had accepted Valentin for marriage.
As the crowd dissipated, he asked, “Would you like those stockings right now my Imperial soon-to-be wife?”
“I like the ones you bought for me before actually,” she confessed quietly, as no one was supposed to know about that. “I just couldn’t think of anything wittier to say.”
“I have a confession to make as well,” he whispered back to her conspiratorially.
She looked at him expecting the worst.
Then he whispered in her ear, “My mother bought all of the other clothing for you so that Admiral Jei and the Empire could find no faults in your husband stealing. I only bought you the jewelry and this dress now.”
Ellie smiled and held the dress closer to her chest. She didn’t know why, but it made her feel good that Valentin would go so far in honoring the Empire’s traditions. He said it was because he didn’t want anyone to find fault with their husband stealing, but she suspected that it was also because he respected other culture’s customs and that was important to her because she always wanted to be human as well as Imperial and now a Reima Two citizen as well. She didn’t want to have to choose only one and try to mold herself into an impossibility, because you can never erase your experiences. Although she felt all of this, she couldn’t articulate any of it to Valentin so she simply replied, “I’m lucky that your mother has excellent taste then.”
Once on the Song and heading back to Alba, Ellie began to worry again about what she would say to her mother. She was alone in her quarters as Valentin was on the bridge. In the end she couldn’t wait for Valentin to meet her for lunch. She needed to speak to him to ease her mind. She used the internal comm.
“If you can get away do you mind coming here?”
“Is something the matter?” he asked.
“No. Yes. I mean. I’d like to speak to you about something and it really can’t wait,” she said and thought, I sound exactly like a maximum class woman now taking him away from his work.
Valentin had been in a meeting with Lon, but they were finishing up, so he nodded to him and then went to Ellie. As it stood now, his plan was to return her to Alliance Planet Two, hopefully avoid a duel with Admiral Jei and then marry her in two weeks’ time on Reima Two. As he walked to her quarters, he had an idea what this might be about. She had been alone for a few hours with only her thoughts which probably made for bad company.
Valentin rang the chime at her door, and she opened it. He took in her change of clothing, “The purple dress looks good. I’m only saying that because of what it signifies, mind you. Otherwise I like to see you in things that show off your stunning figure and are from this century.”
Ellie smiled, “Thank you for the compliment and for coming. I figured it would look good if I wore this on my arrival, you know for my mom, Jei and the gossip columns.”
Valentin came inside behind Ellie and gently took her into his embrace. He turned her around and asked, “What’s the matter?”
“I’m nervous about seeing my mother.”
He stroked her hair knowing what she needed to hear again, “You are not responsible for your mother’s death.”
Ellie couldn’t help it she began to cry a little more.
Valentin did not stop holding Ellie and repeating the same thing gently again and again as she stroked her hair. He knew what guilt felt like, and he wanted to be her right now salvation as much as she was his.
Jane and Jei waited in the receiving room in the Main House of House Rega. As soon as there was some commotion at the entrance, Jei said, “They are here. Don’t worry, I promise I won’t kill him straight away.”
Jane didn’t want to tell Jei not to kill him as she felt she might want him dead and didn’t want the binding tattoo between them interrupting the natural order of things in this situation.
They heard footsteps running down the stone hallway and then the large reception doors burst open and Ellie ran though.
Jane ran towards her, “Ellie!”
Ellie saw her mother looking as perfect and as beautiful as the day she died. She ran into her mother’s arms. Her mother who was a little shorter than she was now. She embraced her and all the familiar scents surrounded her. “I’m so sorry,” Ellie began to sob in her ear. “If I had known, I would’ve never left Earth. I was an idiot. So many people died because of me.”
“Hush, hush, now,” Jane stroked Ellie’s back. “You didn’t kill anyone. I was unhappy and I should have never taken the forget-me-not-drug. But listen, Ellie, there’s nothing to forgive you for.”
“But had it not,” Ellie started, but Jane interrupted her.
“It’s all in the past, what’s important now is the future,” Jane said sympathetically, still holding her. After a few minutes she gracefully let go of Ellie and took a step back, “Look at you. There’s no doubt that you are an adult now, ready to find your own way in the galaxy.”
Valentin stepped forward.
“Val, the Outcast,” Admiral Jei said icily. “This is my wife, Jane the goddess of humanity. Would you like to explain yourself or skip straight to a duel? Your choice.”