Page 13 of House Divided
Enoch eyed her for a moment then pressed his thumbs into the muscles and tissue of her feet, working out the stiffness and soreness.
“Oh god,” murmured Madeline, “that’s divine.” She closed her eyes and surrendered to his touch. Enoch said nothing but continued to work his hands over her feet, gently but firmly.
“Maybe I’ll just lie back a little,” she murmured and was asleep within moments.
***
Madeline awoke to the smell of something delicious. She sat up and tried to straighten her hair, looking around to orient herself. Yep, still on an unknown alien planet, in the middle of a red grassland, two suns in an alien sky.
She sighed. Still, Enoch must be cooking something good. Madeline looked over to see the large man hunched over a bubbling pot.
“Rehydrated stew,” he said. “High calorie, very filling. I’m glad you’re up. You need to eat before you sleep for the night.”
“What have you been doing?” she asked, rubbing her hands over her face.
“Setting up our beds, getting us set up for tomorrow as much as I can. Still haven’t been able to find any source of water. Hoping for better luck tomorrow. And, as you can see, making us some stew.”
“It smells really good,” Madeline admitted.
Enoch smiled thinly. “Hunger brings out the appetite in all of us. It’s why you have to be rich in order to be a gourmet. A refined palate requires that you never have to worry about where your next meal is coming from.” He handed Madeline a bowl and a spoon.
She took them and sat down next to Enoch. “That’s an odd thought to have in the middle of nowhere,” she observed, curious.
“I suppose,” he replied, dishing them both out some of the hot, fragrant stew.
“What brought it to your mind?” pressed Madeline.
“Careful, it’s still hot. I was thinking of a point early in the war…before things had gone too far. I was at a peace conference, where both sides were hoping to negotiate their way out of things. It was a state dinner, and they were serving these tiny portions of quail, if I remember correctly. And I was looking down at the miniscule serving on my plate, imagining what it must have cost, and thinking about the starvation I had seen in the Onin system. Because of the Alliance sanctions, you see, the cost of basic foodstuffs had gone through the roof back home. I was looking at the cooked body of this little bird and seeing the faces of starving children. Right at that moment, I wanted to kill every Alliance diplomat in that conference room.”
Madeline set her bowl down carefully, to let it cool. “I’d never learned that much about the Onin Rebellion,” she admitted.
Enoch shrugged. “The winning side rarely has to concern itself with how it won. And there were things that the Alliance did in the war that they did not want examined too closely.”
“Why…” Madeline paused and started again. “Why did they call you the Pilgrim of Hate?”
Enoch chuckled and took a bite of his stew. “My traditional title back home is Lord Peregrinus,” he explained. “Peregrinus is a Latin word. It means ‘pilgrim.’ So when the Alliance was looking for nicknames for me, they called me the Pilgrim of Hate. It was catchy, so it stuck.”
Madeline took a testing sip of her stew. It was delicious. She considered how often she had eaten her meals without a thought as to where they had come from.
“Thank you for the stew,” she said. “It tastes really good. We wouldn’t have it at all if you hadn’t thought to pack provisions.”
“You’re welcome,” Enoch replied, eating away steadily. “So how does someone as young as you become the head of an organization with a such a galactic-sized reputation?”
“Luck, beauty, and brains,” replied Madeline promptly. It was a question she had been asked in interviews many times before. Within the context of media appearances, she was more careful; but here, under an alien sky, she felt more forthcoming.
“Luck, because I was born into a family of tremendous power and influence. Beauty, because the world reacts differently to beautiful people, and it’s possible to use that to your advantage if you learn how. And brains, because I’m very intelligent and very, very good at corporate power games.”
Madeline laughed and swept a hand to take in their current environment. “Not that things are looking particularly good right now, I’ll admit.” She spooned herself some more stew.
“Still,” observed Enoch, “that is a remarkably frank assessment, and I suspect it is an accurate one. Your beauty is obvious, and your intelligence equally clear. I admit I haven’t seen much evidence of the luck, but then again, we are still here and still breathing.” He scooped out the remains of his meal. “We don’t have any water to clean the dishes. Try to empty them out as much as you can.”
“Sure,” said Madeline, her mind racing.How am I supposed to deal with that? The man compliments me as easily and openly as if he was commenting on the weather, and sets me tingling. I’ve never met anyone like him. Sometimes, he’s so grim, and brutal. But there’s so much more to him…
***
Enoch glanced at the flame-haired woman across from him and cursed inwardly.Running your mouth like a fool!He had never shared the story about the peace talks dinner with anyone, but there was something about this woman that made him loosen up and relax in a way that he had not done for a long time.
Since Grace.
