Page 46 of The Dreamer and the Deep Space Warrior (Xaal Alien Romance #1)

Isobel

The room fell silent.

“I’m leaving,” Isobel blurted out. The admission, though a surprise even to herself, seemed so right that she slumped. It felt like shedding a weight she’d been carrying for a lifetime. “I’m going with Ved.”

Ved looked at her but didn’t say anything. She hated that she couldn’t see his expression, but at least she could imagine it clearly now.

“And I’m going to medical school!” Clara declared, holding her chin high with determination.

The chaos of the moment had created space for such bravery, Isobel supposed. She wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Henry looked between Isobel and his daughter, his mouth working silently before he shook his head. “Have you both lost your minds?”

Isobel raised her hand. “I love you, brother, but I will not be told what I can and can’t do with my life. Not anymore.” It was clear that now was a moment far more important than any other in her life. Two paths could be taken. For the first time, she had a choice.

And she was choosing Ved .

“Leaving where?” Henry asked, exasperated. “I’m so confused.” Massaging his temples, he stepped over the unconscious form of Lord Richard and sank onto a bench.

Isobel looked to Ved, and he nodded. “Ved is from … another planet.”

“I knew it,” Clara breathed in awe as she took a step closer to study him. She poked at some device on his arm boldly, unconcerned with propriety.

“What is she doing?” Ved asked in Xaala.

“Bold curiosity is something we share,” Isobel responded.

Clara’s eyes widened as she looked between them. “How did you understand him?”

Isobel smiled slyly and pulled her hair back to show the translator.

Clara squealed. “This is remarkable! Tell me everything .”

Henry groaned. “Please tell me this is all some sort of strange prank.”

“Henry Nott,” Ved said, “and Clara Nott.”

“Yes!” Clara exclaimed, unbothered by the fact that he used none of the formalities to which they were accustomed. “You told him about us?”

Isobel scoffed. “Of course I told him about you. You’re my family. I didn’t, however, tell you about him for obvious reasons.”

Henry finally looked up from his hands and sighed as if he’d been hoping the scene before him would disappear.

“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Ved,” Clara said with a curtsy, then turned to Isobel. “And you did tell me about him. In a way. You said you were in love with someone other than Dick.” She flapped a hand dismissively at said lord’s unmoving form.

“Clara,” Henry warned, but there was no bite to it .

She blushed prettily but jutted her chin forward in defiance. “Pardon me— Lord Dick. Though, he deserves to be called far worse. Besides, you’re the one who punched him, Papa. Twice.”

Henry looked exasperated with all three of them. But a silent tension filled the space as he studied Ved—from his helmet all the way down to his plated boots. “Explain,” Henry said.

So, Isobel did. She explained everything, or almost everything. She left out a few of the racier details. Henry didn’t say anything, but his expressions showed each thought, each emotion: skeptical, angry, concerned. Finally, he settled somewhere between enlightenment and exhaustion.

Clara, on the other hand, gasped and squealed as Isobel told their tale, practically swooning when she spoke about how Ved saved her.

“So that’s where you’ve been disappearing to,” her brother grumbled. “You know, the whole of Cinder knows you were missing. I have no way of explaining this to anyone.”

Isobel shrugged. “Say I ran away to live with a distant relative. It’s not like anyone will be surprised. I’ve always been peculiar and uninterested in all the rules.”

Henry nodded slowly, offsetting his jaw as he did.

Finally, “And we’ll never see you again?

” Now there was pain etched into his features.

Clara’s face fell, her smile replaced with an expression of loss and heartache.

It wasn’t uncommon for family to live far from each other and rarely see one another.

Elizabeth lived on the other side of Dorsent and rarely visited since marrying.

But this was something different. Isobel wouldn’t even be on the same planet.

“This planet is off-limits,” Ved explained, and both Henry and Clara were surprised that he could speak their language. “It is unlikely we could return. I can promise you I will work to change that, but these things are complex.”

“I see,” Henry said, steepling his fingers.

“Could you write letters?” Clara asked, hopeful.

Isobel shook her head. “I don’t think so. Of course, if I can or something changes and we can visit, we will, right?”

When Ved looked down at her, she could picture the face he was making perfectly. She knew adoration sat within his gaze. “If it is possible, it will happen.”

Henry turned his full attention to Ved. Isobel would never have guessed just how intimidating he could be, but in that moment he looked so much like their father her throat went dry.

“That’s my little sister, you know, and despite my failings with Lord Richard, I am responsible for her.

She has almost died because of you. Why should I relinquish her into your care? ”

Isobel groaned. “I understand what I’m getting myself into. Ved will keep me safe. No matter what.”

Her brother wasn’t convinced. “I want to hear it from him. How will you keep her safe? Do you mean to do well by her? Marry her? Provide a proper home for her befitting her station?”

“ Henry !” Isobel exclaimed. They hadn’t even had that conversation yet. Her brother spared her a single glance, but that was it.

“Customs are different on my planet, but I will honor her always. She is my heartscord. As long as there is breath in my body, I will serve and protect her. My home will be her home in all ways. And even if I meet some untimely demise, my bruvya—my brother in arms—will protect her with his life just the same.”

Henry’s brows rose. Such a declaration was bold to say to one’s brother, but now wasn’t the time to tell Ved that.

“I love him,” Isobel said with absolute conviction .

Henry nodded, pressing his lips into a thin line. She would give him due credit—out of all the ways she’d imagined him reacting, his stoicism and reasonableness was most surprising.

“If I told you no, would you listen?” he asked.

She shook her head.

Blowing out a puff of air, he slapped his palms on his thighs. “You’ve always carved your own path. So stubborn,” he muttered.

“You are, too. It’s something we both got from our parents,” she said, but she was grinning like a fool.

Henry chuckled quietly. “I’ll handle Richard. I doubt he’ll want to go around telling the ton what happened here. I think we can come to some sort of arrangement on that front, especially if this business about being in financial trouble is true.”

“Oh, Henry, thank you!” Isobel said, and as her brother stood, she rushed across the room to hug him tight.

He stiffened before wrapping his arms around her. When was the last time they embraced? Papa’s funeral perhaps, but she thought it long before then, some time in their youth.

“I’m so sorry I pushed you to marry Richard,” he said as he pulled back to look at her. “I hope you can forgive me. All I could think about while you were gone was our fight.”

Tears brimmed and spilled over. “There is nothing to forgive. You were only playing your role. But perhaps it’s time we challenge the parts others want us to play, hm?” She looked to Clara, who was pointing at contraptions on Ved’s person and asking questions faster than he could answer them.

“I think you’re right,” Henry said softly.

Ved picked up the unconscious Lord Richard, who looked like a ragdoll in his huge arms, and moved him into one of the spare cellars that happened to lock from the outside. Cook was blessedly absent, and Henry had ensured the path was clear of anyone else.

After confirming that Henry and Ved would be okay together, Isobel went with Clara to change and pack. The process was surprisingly quick.

“Dick didn’t stand a chance. He was weak competition, comparatively,” Clara said after she’d folded the last of the gowns. “I mean, Ved is a warrior . From the cosmos . Very hard to best that. I see why you fell in love with him.”

“It happened rather by accident,” Isobel said honestly.

“Isn’t that how it always happens? At least, in all the good stories. Speaking of, wait right here.” Her niece disappeared before she could respond, and Isobel took the moment to look around the room she had occupied her entire life.

She would never see it again. Never see any of it.

She’d never again have Clara barging into her room or receive a lecture from Henry.

It was heartbreaking, but at the same time, she knew, without a doubt, that she belonged elsewhere.

She knew it the same way she knew Clara would make a great physician and Henry would be so proud of her.

The way she knew that real love existed, and how, for her, it waited in the form of a warrior from another planet.

Tears came unbidden to her eyes, but by then Clara had returned. With a stack of books piled high in her arms .

“What—” Isobel started, but Clara cut her off.

“I went to Mrs. Keats when we thought you were, well … while you were off galivanting through the stars. I told her who I was and that I wanted to read the books you read. I ended up buying them all, but I think you should take them with you,” Clara said, letting the stack tumble onto her bed.

“Oh, Clara,” she murmured, and before she could move, the girl wrapped her arms around her in a death squeeze.

“I will miss you so much.” Clara inhaled deeply as if to stop herself from crying. “You probably don’t realize it, but you have helped shape me into who I am, and I’m so grateful. You have always been so fiercely yourself, and I hope to be half the woman that you are.”

Isobel’s chest constricted as emotion clogged her throat. “Don’t tell your father that,” she said through a sound that was half sob and half laugh. “I will miss you so much, too, Clara. You’re my best friend and confidante. And you’re my favorite niece—don’t tell Elizabeth.”

“Your secret is safe with me,” she vowed.

“Well, then.” With great reluctance, Isobel released Clara. “I’ll have to see if Ved has room for all these. He likes these novels, too,” she explained, which led Clara off on a whole other line of inquiry.

After that, time was nothing but a whirlwind.

Isobel wrote a note for Cook and one for Mrs. Keats.

While Clara was busy asking Ved a thousand questions—and Henry worked hard to keep his face neutral—Isobel went to collect several lavender plants to take with her.

She only hoped she could get them to survive on Runus.

Standing before the rows of flowers, she said goodbye to the lavender field, too. It had been a sanctuary all her life, and if not for the purple sprigs, she wouldn’t have seen Ved’s ship crash that night. It felt like both mere days ago and an eternity since that fateful evening.

Next, she collected flowers and lavender to lay on her parents’ graves. “I finally found where I belong,” she murmured to the headstones. “And you were right, Papa. Strong and beautiful things do take time to grow into themselves.”

Would they be proud of the woman she’d become? Would they support her choices? Something told her it would have taken a little longer to convince them that she would be safe with Ved, but she liked to think he’d have earned their approval.

By the time she made it back to the manor, Ved had already taken her three trunks of belongings to the ship—which included some of her attire, but mostly books and a tea set she’d talked Henry into letting her have.

Before she knew it, they were all gathered on the front steps to say their final goodbyes. Isobel and Clara embraced so tightly she feared they would injure each other.

“I wish I could come with you. I’m so jealous that you get to travel across the cosmos,” her niece said as more tears rolled down her cheeks.

Henry made a sound of disapproval.

“We could all go,” Clara suggested. “A family venture, if you will.”

“I’m not ready for such daring adventures yet,” Henry said evenly before offering Ved his hand. Ved studied it before clasping her brother’s forearm.

Henry recovered quickly. “Look after her, Ved,” he said, looking directly into his visor.

“I swear it,” her mate vowed.

When she hugged Henry one last time, he whispered, “I just want you to be happy and taken care of. That’s all I’ve ever really wanted.”

And she knew it was the truth.

When nothing but tears remained, they shared one last round of heartfelt goodbyes. With a potted lavender plant in one hand and Ved’s forearm in another, she descended the steps. When she was at the edge of the gardens, Isobel turned to wave and commit their faces to memory.

Yet something told her it wouldn’t be the last time she saw them.