“What contract?”
“The marriage contract.”
“I’m not marrying any man –ever!”I practically screamed.
The audience got up from their seats and were visibly upset about the situation.
Khan’s hand went up again and it calmed them.
“No man here wants to marry a woman without her consent, so if you’re adamant that you don’t want a protector we’ll have to respect that.”
“I’m here to do my job and you said I needed a bodyguard,” I accused him.
“That’s true. It would be very dangerous for you to be here without protection. Still, it’s your choice and you’re free to leave anytime you want.”
“What about the job?” I asked, my voice shaking.
“I already told you it would be impossible for you to work without having a Champion. No one here would touch a married woman – it’s punishable by death.”
The men on stage nodded in agreement.
“However, a single woman without protection… That’s a completely different story.”
I bit my lip and felt like exploding from the pressure inside me.
“Maybe you’ll make it to the border, but I wouldn’t count on it,” Khan said with a calculating smile on his face.
“Are you saying I have to marry Archer or you’ll send me back without protection?”
“Of course not. I already assigned Boulder to protect you, but he’s one man with a broken arm and now that the whole country knows you’re a single woman…” Khan trailed off and walked close to Boulder, who looked down. A pat on his shoulder and a sad smile from Khan came before he drove in the last nail in my coffin. “To be honest, I hope you won’t ask Boulder to take you to the border because he’ll surely die protecting you, and he’s my friend.”
I was shocked and enraged that I’d been lured into this trap. This was like choosing between jumping into a pool with one large crocodile or a pool with many. Either way I would be chewed up.
“And if I marry, what happens when I’ve finished my job? Can I still go home?”
Khan tilted his head. “Hopefully you’ll want to stay, but I give you my word that if you want to leave after the excavation is finished, you can.”
“What?” Archer exclaimed. “My wife can leave me?”
“I’m counting on you to make her want to stay,” Khan responded.
Archer leaned forward crossing his arms. “And if she’s already pregnant?”
I almost fainted then and there. Clearly this stranger was expecting us to have an old-fashioned marriage and not just a contract of protection.
Reacting on instinct, I ran straight into Boulder’s arms with eyes full of fright. “I won’t do it!” I repeated over and over.
He pushed me behind him and faced all the men, speaking loud and clear. “Christina will marryme!”
“No, she choseme,” Archer shouted.
“And now that she understands what her choice involves she’s changed her mind,” Boulder roared.
“Christina,” Khan called loudly.
I moved to Boulder’s side but stayed very close. “Do you wish to marry Boulder instead of Archer?”
“Yes,” I said quickly, trusting that Boulder would willingly let me go when I was done working and that he wouldn’t expect anything sexual from me. We had spent three nights together without his touching me, after all.
