Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 88235 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88235 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
“Of course it is, silly!” Torella giggled and gave her a conspiratorial wink. “How else could you prove what a good teacher you are? Oh, and we’ll need a witness as well. Lornah, you come too,” she said to the other woman who was still scowling angrily. “Come to my estate tonight and you can bear witness to Professor Vicky’s teaching methods.”
Professor Lornah looked like she might protest at first, but then a slow, crafty smile that Chain didn’t like at all spread over her face and she nodded.
“Very well—I’ll come,” she said. “But I warn you,” she said to Victoria, “I won’t be an easy judge. I’ll tell you plainly that I think your student is too old for you—too old to be any good at whatever it is you’ve been teaching him. And I’ll be very surprised indeed if you can change my mind.”
This sounded ominous to Chain but he only smiled easily at the three women and bowed to them.
“Thank you for the opportunity. I’m certain I can show off my Lady’s teachings to your satisfaction so that Professor Victoria may earn the right to buy the other half of the T’lix-Kruthe,” he murmured.
And if not, I can always steal it, he added to himself. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time he’d taken something that didn’t belong to him and Commander Sylvan needed this artifact.
Chain was damn well going to get it, one way or another.
Chapter Twenty-two
“What in the world do you think we’re expected to do once we get to Professor Torella’s country estate?” Vicky asked as Chain punched in the coordinates the other woman had given them for directions to her home.
“I have no idea,” he said, frowning. “But whatever it is, I doubt I can do it well enough to please that Professor Lornah. I believe she’s taken a positive dislike to you, beautiful Victoria.” He grinned at her. “Probably because your lecture went over so much better than hers did. Or maybe because you refused to let that arachnid run up your body and feed you a cake. Or possibly both.”
Vicky shuddered at the memory of the hairy black and purple spider bobbing threateningly at the edge of the table with the cake clutched in its hairy front legs, just waiting for a chance to scurry up her body and jam the sweet treat between her lips.
“That was absolutely the worst lecture I’ve ever attended,” she said flatly. “And considering how long I’ve been teaching, and how many conferences and faculty meetings I’ve been to, that’s really saying something.”
“Well, your lecture was brilliant,” Chain assured her, grinning. “And delicious, too. I imagine you have to travel all over the Earth to find such an assemblage of delicacies.”
“Actually you can get most of the ones I talked about at any halfway decent Tex-Mex restaurant,” Vicky told him. “I’ll take you to my favorite place, Pappasito’s, when we get back home.”
Then she realized she was talking like they were going to be together after this mission was over—as though their relationship was anything but temporary.
“Or—at least I’ll give you directions on how to get there,” she amended quickly. “If you really want to go.”
Chain frowned. “I do want to go, but I want to go with you, Victoria. Unless they’re some reason you don’t wish to go with me?”
“No, of course not,” Vicky said quickly. “I just thought…” She cleared her throat. “So you really liked the food?” she asked, hoping to change the subject.
“Immensely.” Chain nodded, seeming willing to drop it, much to her relief. “Oh, look—I think we’re coming to Professor Torella’s estate now.”
Vicky looked out the viewscreen to where he was pointing and caught her breath.
It looked a bit like one of those modern French villas she liked to browse through on the Internet when she was playing “what if.” As in, “what if I was independently wealthy and could move to the French Riviera and live in a villa and hire a gorgeous pool boy to keep me company for the rest of my life?”
Well, she certainly had the gorgeous boy—or man—Vicky thought, casting a sidelong glance at Chain. And now it looked like the villa part was coming true too—at least for tonight.
Professor Torella’s mansion was made of some pure white stone and had banks of shining windows on every wall that reflected the muted light of the setting sun. It was surrounded by manicured gardens filled with exotic-looking blooms as big as Vicky’s head in shades of turquoise, lavender, scarlet, and emerald. The grass around the gardens was a silvery gray-green, just as it had been on the university campus they had first visited on Priima Belle.
“Oh, it’s gorgeous!” Vicky breathed. “This looks like something out of a dream.”
“If you dream of everyone being able to look in on you at all hours of the day or night,” Chain pointed out, gesturing towards the vast banks of windows as they landed. But he was smiling as he said it. “It is lovely though,” he added. “I have a feeling your new friend Professor Torella isn’t hurting for cash.”