"I love you. It should count for something, shouldn't it?"
"It does. I love you, too." He smiled and waved as the limousine rolled away.
Olivia stood on the curb and stared after the car as it traveled down the road. Her phone signaled someone had sent her a text. So soon?
Where U at? It came from Britt. Still here. Come on by. I saw the limo. Cool.
Olivia took a long breath to clear her head and her conflicting emotions before heading down the street to visit her friend.
Chapter Three
Later in the evening, Olivia curled up on her bed and opened Valori's letter first. Olivia remembered how she couldn't contain her surprise when she learned the Pure Bloods hadn't refused education to their servants. Valori had attended the equivalent of a one room school house located on a plantation during her formative years. The school's main role was to keep the younger children occupied while their parents worked, and it was taught by a teacher who had recently been abducted from Earth. There, Valori received a sound education in reading, writing—certainly not computer keyboarding—BloodDark mythology and mathematics.
Olivia thought it sad how children like Valori received very little science training and nothing to do with higher technology other than what was necessary in order to handle the job the Pure Bloods had designated for them. Those who showed mathematic prowess or engineering tendencies were sometimes taken to BloodDark City and apprenticed to Pure Bloods it was said, although Valori had never known anyone from her school accorded such an honor. She had felt lucky they had allowed her to study sewing and cooking.
Books written in English, the language of the now freed humans, were rare commodities on the tidally locked world. With the opening of relations between Earth and BloodDark, books and other reading materials were often requested and sent along in the diplomatic pouches and with the occasional visitors. Olivia was glad to be able to help her friend learn more about Earth, humanity and the universe in general.
Dear Olivia,
Thank you again for the wonderful printed materials on clothing fashions through the ages on Earth. I have studied the pictures and patterns over and over again. I find it fascinating the current style among the Pure Blood seems copied from the fashion period entitled "The Victorian Era." The Pure Bloods did visit Earth often in that time period and perhaps the Victorians' fashions were their favorite? The more recent fashions do leave a lot to be desired. No beautiful trim or corsets. No bustles or hats and veils. Just because a woman has legs doesn't mean she has to show them off—and so much else of her skin—all the time.
Olivia laughed hard at Valori's objections over women showing off their legs. What would she think of bikinis? Thongs? Maybe she should send Valori a swimsuit or lingerie catalog? That would do it! She couldn't wait to hear the middle-aged woman's objections.
The letter's closing brought a lump to her throat, however.
Stay safe, dear child. I fear a time of struggle and heartache is at hand. Look after your friends. Better still, look after yourself.
"Hey!" Olivia's big tuxedo cat, Bilbo, jumped onto her back in order to gain her attention. She sat up and cradled his softness in her arms to pet. "You're such a naughty kitty, but I don't think you're what Valori means about a time of struggle and heartache. I wish I knew what she does mean by it. She claims to see into the future, but she's always vague about the details."
Olivia let her squirming feline go and picked up the letter from her friend in the Resistance. "At least Annara tells me everything straight out. She doesn't treat me like a child."
After the first page or so of routine news about who was working where now in the newly formed BloodDark government and the odd, unannounced recent visit from the Earth ambassador, Annara got down to the good stuff.
The exodus of humans and Quadsangs to the sunlit side is ongoing. Family farms are popping up all over the place, and human villages long abandoned are now filled with people and trade. In the midst of all this freedom and excitement lies one worry. The Portal is located in BloodDark City, an area almost entirely populated by Pure Bloods, since now their servants are free to live wherever they want. Worse yet, there's not enough human or Quadsang fighters to guard it adequately. The Overseers don't seem to take guard duty of our only link to Earth seriously. Rumors are circulating the Pure Bloods have been making overtures to disaffected Overseers, promising them more power if they'll go along with an overthrow of the mostly human government. I am afraid perhaps our revolution has lost steam like a transport engine stuck on the rails, and things will revert to the dark ways of our recent past where the Pure Bloods had no real rivals...
Olivia slumped and pressed the letter against her heart. "Oh, no. It can't unravel this fast. I've only been home for a year, and half of it was spent in quarantine. Hernando has just established himself as ambassador, and the tabloids can't get enough of his handsome face on their covers. We can't go rushing back to BloodDark this soon, can we?" She opened a cautious eye to peek at the letter again, reading what she didn't want to read.
We need to make it clear to the Pure Bloods Earth wants to deal with humans and part-human races alone. They won't get anywhere with trying to overthrow our current confederacy. Another thing—we've got to stop this idea some have that their
