Bride of the Castle Read Online Free Page B

thing.”
    â€œYou can still call it off.”
    â€œWhat? After all those engraved invitations? To the royal family, yet. They R.S.V.P.-ed, kid. Too late now.”
    â€œWell, canceling would be better than making a mistake you might regret—”
    â€œWait a minute, I don’t think it will be a mistake. If I thought that, I would have called it off long ago. It’s Gene I’m thinking about.”
    â€œOh, sure, Bionda. Thanks.”
    Bionda curtsied, hiked up her smock, and left.
    â€œSorry I talked out of turn,” Melanie said.
    â€œYou picked up on some cue, for sure.”
    â€œSo you don’t think Gene is the marrying kind?”
    â€œSometimes I wonder if most men really are,” Linda said. “But I know that Gene’s a free spirit, a wild stallion. Do I really want to rein him in?”
    â€œDoes marriage have to be that way?”
    â€œMaybe not. Maybe my fears are groundless. Anyway . . .”
    Linda snapped her fingers again, and the gown was transformed into an outfit consisting of black tights, black leather shorts, ankle-high boots, and a kelly green puffed sleeve blouse.
    She jumped down from the table.
    â€œWhere’s Gene?” Melanie asked.
    â€œThe bachelor party’s this afternoon.”
    â€œOh, the bachelor party, right. Is Lord Incarnadine going?”
    â€œI think. Don’t know for sure. Gene sent out the invites.”
    â€œHope they don’t get into too much mischief. I mean with the dancing girls.”
    â€œI conjured ‘em. You can be sure there won’t be any monkey business.”
    â€œYou conjured dancing girls for your fiancé’s bachelor party? Woman, that’s trust.”
    â€œNot the way I conjure dancing girls.”
    â€œUh-oh.”
    â€œLook-see only.”
    â€œHmmm. Interesting. I won’t ask for details.”
    â€œYou hungry?”
    â€œYeah, let’s go have lunch.”
    The walk from the seamstress’s tower to the Queen’s Dining Hall was long but interesting, going past some attractive “aspects.” These looked like doorways to other lands—and in fact they were. Moreover, each aspect was a different world, a universe altogether separate from, and alien to, the world of the Castle.
    â€œWhat you said about men,” Melanie continued. “It’s true. Basically they’re feral. All of them.”
    â€œOh, not all, come on.”
    â€œI’ll grant that some can be domesticated.”
    â€œWait a minute! What’s this ‘domesticated’stuff? Don’t tell me that’s what marriage is about?”
    â€œJust a manner of speaking.”
    â€œLook, Melanie, let’s not get into another men-bashing marathon. I’m tired of those.”
    â€œIt’s not bashing, it’s just facing reality. DNA rules them. They’re genetically programmed to spread their genes as widely as possible.”
    â€œI’m the only one who’s going to get Gene’s genes,” Linda said decisively.
    Melanie was significantly silent.
    â€œFrom here on in, that is,” Linda added. “I know he hasn’t been exactly a monk in the past.”
    â€œWell, he’s been married in the past. I mean, he was married to Vaya. Or is he still married to her?”
    â€œThe world she came from doesn’t even exist,” Linda said, “except as some weird probability factor. Gene and Vaya were married according to the laws of Vaya’s tribe. He was coerced. He didn’t have a choice. She chose him. That means the union’s invalid in the Castle, and on Earth, for that matter. At least, that’s the way Gene explained it to me.”
    â€œBut what if she shows up to claim him? With Gene’s kid.”
    Linda frowned. “That has me worried. Gene said she probably aborted the pregnancy.”
    â€œBut he doesn’t know.”
    â€œNo. Anyway, why would Vaya come back to the