Wild Embrace by Nalini Singh Page A

“Come, Stefan Berg.”
    Watching after them as they walked off into the darkness, Tazia looked desperately to her grandmother. Who shook her head and said, “Sit, talk with your mother. If the man is worthy of you, he will prove his worth.”
    â€œHe’s never prepared for—”
    â€œWho prepares?” her mother interrupted, eyes still teary. “Your father, he almost sweated off half his body weight when he came to ask my father for my hand after seeing me at a festival.”
    Nerves fluttering, Tazia nonetheless allowed her mother to lead her inside the house and to the kitchen. There, Kaya Nerif bustled around, making more tea and setting out snacks. “Mother,” Tazia said, “this is a lot of food.”
    â€œOf course it is.” Her mother tapped her on the cheek, then leaned down to press her lips to Tazia’s forehead. “We’ll have much talking to do if you are to be married before you leave—and others will come.”
    â€œNo.” Panic and fear bloomed in Tazia’s heart. “We have to be careful. Stefan—”
    â€œIs Psy.” Her mother smiled. “I know, baby. Your brother, his wife and child, your friend Mina, who, you will be glad to know, has been cross with us this whole time.” Her voice shook and she came to take Tazia into her arms again. “I am so sorry, my baby, but I had to stand with him in public. You two always made up before—I expected you would again in a heartbeat.”
    Tazia hugged her mother, the two of them rocking one another gently. “It’s all right,” she whispered, knowing her mother had been caught in a hard place. “I expected the same. I just . . . I didn’t know I could simply come home.”
    â€œThat is our fault,” her mother said and her grandmother nodded. “We didn’t love you enough that you ever doubted that.”
    Tazia started crying again. “No, you loved me so much.”
    They cried many more times through the hours, and in between the tears, Tazia learned that while her parents
had
given the money she’d sent to the holy man, they had done so as an offering, asking the holy man to pray for a cherished daughter who was alone so very far from home. More tears fell then, and all their eyes were red rimmed by the time her father and Stefan returned home.
    Tazia was at the table rolling out sweet dough for tiny pastries, while her grandmother drank strong coffee in a small cup, and her mother put together fresh fruits and breads for breakfast. None of the food, Tazia was happy to see, would challenge Stefan.
    Neither man said anything as they took their seats at the table with Teta Aya, the huge wooden sprawl of it big enough that Taziacould continue rolling out the dough as dawn colored the sky outside and the men ate. She was bursting to ask what had happened, but she knew she had to be patient, wait for her father.
    He laughed suddenly, eyes on her. “Still my spark, so impatient!” Kissing his wife’s hand as she came to put tea in front of him and Stefan, he said, “We will hold your wedding in the courtyard at dawn tomorrow, while the village sleeps.
    â€œToday, you will rest, then you and your man will spend time with your family, and the villagers will know only that my Tazi has come home to ask her family’s blessing on her marriage, for she is a cherished daughter who knows that family is everything.”
    â€¢Â Â Â â€¢Â Â Â â€¢
    Tazia had no private time with Stefan in the hours that followed, the two of them surrounded by family at every instant. Despite her mother’s urgings, she didn’t sleep, not even for an hour or two—she didn’t want to waste a moment. Joy filled her veins at being with those she loved, and she kept looking over to check that Stefan was all right, especially when her brother insisted that he hold the baby.
    Taking the fat, happy