Tristan's Loins (4 page)

Selene thought about what he said, reasoning
he was right. It was not necessary for Stephen de Montfort to be
his father. She took notes during the conversation, agreeing with
him.

"Fine, consider it done. Anything else?"

"Rewrite the girl completely," Tristan had a
naughty grin. "I would have less strife in my life and much more
pleasure. I want a willing, hot-blooded wench, Selene. Your frigid
shrinking virgin does nothing for me!"

"But strife makes for a good fiction," Selene
argued. "Strife equals conflict, which creates interest. I cannot
have her draped in your lap from day one. Readers will not like it
if it is that easy!"

"These readers, tell me about them," Tristan
asked with a brooding look. "What is it they wish to get out of
reading about me? My life has been horrible. Going after my uncle
has not been a pleasant repast. What sort of people enjoy my
struggles?"

Selene sighed, leaning her elbows on the
desk. "It's not the struggles they enjoy reading about. No one
wishes to see their hero hurt or humiliated. They wish to see him
surmount such obstacles and cheer for his success in doing so. You
misunderstand. They derive no pleasure from your pain, just your
success. No one wants everything to go perfectly. Besides, it would
just be boring."

"Ah, I understand now. Rewrite all I have
asked. I can live with the rest. The girl must be redone; she
annoys me."

"She is supposed to annoy you." Selene
sighed, frustrated by his attitude. "If you got along well, the
readers would get bored."

"You said this was a romance," Tristan looked
disgusted. "Where is the romance when a wench is spitting venom at
me until I kiss her? Then the moment is gone, and she hates me
again. I think you know nothing of this subject, Selene."

"Oh, shut up! What you propose would put the
readers to sleep!"

"Rewrite the girl, Selene. Make her more
interesting to me. She is boring, that is the problem," he
complained. "We have nothing to say to one another."

Selene considered his words. "She is boring
to you?"

"Beyond getting up her skirts; yes."

Selene sighed, knowing he was probably right.
He ought to know. "Fine I’ll take all you say into consideration.
This will take time. I cannot write the first seven chapters over
in one night. You have to be patient."

Tristan gestured to his surroundings with a
mocking grin. "Can you not send the maid back until you’re done?
You might wish to leave my man parts alone too, while you’re at it.
I suppose I have you to thank for me walking around rock-hard day
in and day out. What preoccupation do you have with making me
swollen until I ache, woman?"

"No problem, sorry about that," she said,
blushing to be reminded she very much kept her hero with a raging
hard-on. The fact he knew it embarrassed her.

He chuckled and shook his head in amusement.
"Tell me about your world, Selene. I hear noises while you’re gone,
loud and strange noises."

Selene reasoned he probably heard the phone
mostly. What else he heard, she could not know. Explaining the real
world to him would take longer than rewriting her book, but the
teacher in her won in the end. She explained, taking nearly two
hours to bring him to the modern century. He looked intrigued at
the end of her speech.

"I find your world much more to my liking,"
Tristan claimed with an excited expression. "A man need not have a
title, gold, and lands to make his way. I like that. Here, you’re
nothing if you’re not landed, moneyed and have court
connections."

Selene could see he was struggling to
comprehend what she told him. "Let us move on to the book, shall
we? We can have a history lesson another time."

Tristan nodded and looked saddened. "I’ll not
tell Rhiannon none of this is real. She would not be pleased to
know you have orchestrated her life and troubles as you have. She
is very proud. It would be better to write her a new
beginning."

Selene wondered at his expression. He seemed
to care how Rhiannon felt despite his claim she annoyed him.
Interesting. Perhaps he liked her more than he cared to admit.

"I’ll do some writing tonight and tomorrow,
as well as the weekend, but it will take me many hours to do what
you ask," she warned." In the meantime, you’re very much trapped
here until I catch back up."

"That is acceptable for now," he agreed
quietly. "Do you have a husband, Selene? I have not heard a man's
voice out there with you."

Selene must have made a disgusted noise.
Tristan was smiling. "I had one, past tense. He divorced me for a
much younger woman."

Tristan frowned darkly. "Your husband left
you for a younger woman?"

"Yes, quite younger in fact, eight years
younger."

"I’m sorry."

Selene could see his sincerity and it warmed
her. "You could say it was for the best. He and I did not really
suit one another. I’ll get over it."

"You married him willingly?" Tristan asked in
surprise. "Your father did not make you?"

"No, actually my Dad did not like Jim too
much, "Selene replied with a sigh, "he thought he was full of
himself."

"So you married the man against your Father's
wishes?" Tristan asked in a disapproving tone that made her bristle
in annoyance.

"Hey, I told you women in my time, in my
world, have choices. I decided to marry Jim against my Father's
advice, yes. He had little to say of it. That is not how things are
anymore," she explained defensively.

"That explains why the marriage failed,"
Tristan offered arrogantly. "Your Father saw the man as he was; you
did not."

Selene wanted to be angry, but her imaginary
companion had a point. Jim had not been her Father's first choice
for a husband for her. She had not listened to him. It was hard to
admit, even now.

"Jim was not always like he is now," Selene
said in defense of her husband, "he had his moments."

"Now his moments are spent with another, it
would appear."

"Yes, well, she is quite pretty and stupid,
and makes him feel important. I never did," Selene recalled
quietly, a note of sadness in her voice.

"He will want more than that one day,
"Tristan allowed with a knowing look, "that does not last
long."

"Yes, well he plans to marry her now. The ink
isn't even dry on our divorce papers and he is planning his wedding
with her."

"You’re sad of this?" Tristan whistled
softly. "I hear it in your voice. Why would you want a man who is
so unworthy of you, Selene?"

"I don't know," Selene said and laughed in
bitterness. "I can't seem to recognize the man I married these
days, but he is still the same man. I just did not see all of
this."

"A man who abandons his wife for another is
no man at all."

"I think his reasons are obvious."

"That is what mistresses are for," Tristan
argued and shook his head. "He goes further to make this creature
his wife? It is appalling. Are all men in your world like
this?"

Selene struggled to answer, knowing a
resounding number were. The statistics did not lie. The divorce
rate was over fifty percent. Most men's reasons for ending their
marriages were for the desire for another woman.

"Men have more choices now too," Selene chose
to say. "They do not have to stick with a woman when they no longer
want her."

"You’re lucky he is gone, Selene," Tristan
told her. "He sounds like a lout."

She smiled at his words. At least Tristan was
on her side. "Yes, he is quite the lout, you’re right."

Selene got back to work then, pulling up her
book file and going back to the beginning. She painstakingly
removed Tristan's scene where he killed Rhiannon's father, and
removed the scene of the rape in the woods. She was redoing each
chapter after to reflect these changes, even went as far as
revamping Rhiannon's figure for Tristan. He said he liked big
breasts. His future wife had them now.

Selene was aware three hours had passed and
she saved her work and closed the word document. The screen where
Tristan waited lit up. He was still there, looking bored out of his
mind.

She could never get tired of looking at him.
He was just too handsome for words. Seeing him come to life in
front of her gave her further inspiration now to write him better
than she had previously.

"I finished the changes, but I still have to
go back and begin again." She saw him relax visibly at her words.
"We will see if it makes a difference once you’re back on the
road."

"Yes, I look forward to seeing if she has
changed towards me. She is not happy to be married, if you must
know. I do not think the idea of marriage appeals to her. It is not
so much me as it is the state of marriage, she objects too. Lord
Severn had several suitors for her, none which pleased her."

"Rhiannon is quite independent for a woman of
her time," Selene offered in agreement. "Her father abused her
mother for years. She grew up seeing that. She hates the control a
man has over a woman in your time. You might wish to remember that
if you’re to win her over."

Tristan absorbed her words and said nothing.
He rose from his chair and stretched his tall muscled frame,
groaning in protest. "These days stuck in this room have made me
stiff. Gideon will see that when we practice at swords. He will
likely knock me into the dirt when next we practice."

Selene thought of the aerobics DVD she had
and shook her head, biting her lip to keep from chuckling at the
sight of Tristan working out with Denise Austin. No, her hero could
stand a few more days of rest while she rewrote her book.

"I’m ahead of schedule," she informed him.
"I’ll try to have it all done by the end of the week. I can write
you in whatever you need for now."

"Wine, lots more wine," he acknowledged with
a grin. "The maid returning at bedtime would appease me. A deck of
cards, and a chess set. That is all."

Selene smiled and returned to chapter eight.
"I'll do you one better, I'll turn you on to some modern cuisine
for a change."

She typed quickly, grinning to think of his
reaction. She saved the document and sat back, smiling to see his
wondrous expression. A stack of three pepperoni pizzas and
breadsticks from Pizza Hut sat on the table, along with a twelve
pack of Michelob Light. His games and other requests sat upon his
bed.

Tristan approached the pizza boxes
hesitantly. He poked at the cardboard box. "What is this,
Selene?"

"Open it, you will love it. It is pizza. You
eat it," she told him. "The other box contains cold ale, called
beer. You will like that too."

Tristan opened the pizza box and sniffed at
the strange smell, unfamiliar with it. Selene saw him take a slice,
gratified by his pleased expression as he ate, making satisfied
noises, and much smacking of his lips. He had trouble opening the
beer bottle. She had to talk him through that. He appeared pleased
with his modern luxuries. He polished off one whole pizza, looking
like he had died and gone to heaven.

"That was wondrous, Selene. I like this
pizza. I like this ale too." He tipped the bottle to his lips.
"Gideon would enjoy a bottle of this. He does like his ale."

"You’re welcome. It is the least I can do.
Your companion will arrive at bedtime. Anything else before I
go?"

Tristan opened another beer and sat back, a
frown on his face. "Where do you go when you leave, Selene?"

"Tristan, I have to eat too." She smiled at
his forlorn expression. "I’m a teacher by profession. I have many
papers of my students to grade before tomorrow."

"You teach? What do you teach?" He raised an
eyebrow. "You work for a livelihood?"

Selene rolled her eyes. "Yes, women work in
my time. My job is to teach proper English to children."

Tristan nodded. "Alright. I thank you for the
pizza and this thing you call beer. It is quite good."

Selene shut down her computer, feeling a pang
she could not sit at Tristan's table and indulge in beer and pizza,
rather than a Lean Cuisine by herself. Maggie and Darcy would meet
her for dinner but she had much to do before work in the morning.
The mountain of book reports was waiting to be graded.

Two hours and two exhausted red pens later,
Selene put aside her school work and flipped on the TV in her room.
Nothing seemed to pull at her attention. She reclined against the
pillows and checked her phone. She saw Darcy and Maggie both called
to check in, wondering why she was not at work.

Darcy taught third grade math and Maggie
taught fifth grade science. They had been her best friends since
she started at Grand Blanc Elementary. Both were thrilled she
decided to take the plunge in writing. Selene just needed something
to focus on right now.

The hallways were milling with children as
Selene fought her way to her classroom. She had fifteen minutes
before the bell. She sat and organized her desk. The substitute
left her several notes. Good news; the class did not tar and
feather her. Bad news; Jacob was acting up again.

Jacob Daniels was an ADHD nightmare for any
teacher. He was as rambunctious as they came; a real problem most
said. He just happened to be Selene's favorite. The boy was a
genuinely good writer; one of her best. He liked horror novels and
wrote anything graphic enough to produce a reaction.

Selene knew unless she gave some sort of
comment on his paper he would be disappointed. She chuckled over
his book report on slaughterhouses and his graphic depictions of
animals processed for human consumption. He especially enjoyed
reading them to the class.

"Hey you, welcome back." Darcy popped into
her room, yogurt and apple in hand. Darcy was forever dieting and
her chubby shape reflected her failure.