Free The Fight for Peace by Autumn M. Birt

fiancée stay in Rhiol with their kids had been, much less the honor of preparing the wedding feast.
    “You have a visitor,” Christophe told them. “Front room. Already took her tea. Should still be warm and enough for the two of you. I’ll bring lunch in a bit. She can stay for dinner.” His glance was hopeful.
    “I wonder if that is why they are making us wait three days, so my mom can come and try to convince us not to go?” Corianne asked glumly as they walked to the front room. But when they opened the door, it wasn’t Linda who was sitting there. It was Tatiana.
    “What are you doing here? Did you come alone?” Corianne asked, hugging her cousin.
    Tatiana didn’t answer until she’d hugged her brother. “Yes, I came alone. I’m a grown woman about to be married; I can manage a dozen miles without a chaperone,” Tatiana said, her tone as teasing as it was serious. She wiped a tear from her lashes. “You could have told me ... not just left notes,” Tatiana said, looking at the two of them.
    “I didn’t think you’d understand. Aunt Linda said we shouldn’t talk about the Guar d— ”
    “In front of her!” Tatiana said, taking both of their hands and leading them toward seats and the tea tray. “Phillip is retired Guard and I’m almost grateful for his injury or he wouldn’t be retired after all this. I do understand. I don’t want to join, but I do understand.”
    Pyotr coughed at that. “Cori said you’d understand. Guess I was worried,” he admitted.
    Tatiana lightly punched his arm. “I was worried when you went into the Wasteland! I still didn’t tell anyone.”
    “I can’t believe you kept that a secret,” Corianne said. Tatiana paused, her gaze looking through Cori, reminding her of another secret Tatiana had borne.
    Before Cori could respond, Tatiana’s look altered to a smile. “If Phillip hadn’t written nearly every day and distracted me, I may have told you. I almost did so many times!”
    “So I should thank Phillip for giving you something else to think of?” Pyotr asked, though his teasing had a grumpy note.
    “Most definitely. Think of the mess that would have made if I’d told Cori and she’d told Mr. Eldridge.”
    Cori and Pyotr denying that possibility set the three of them speaking at once, which resulted in laughter. There were too many real problems to worry over possible ones that hadn’t happened. Christophe interrupted with lunch and it was then that Corianne found the chance to ask the question needling her.
    “My mother?”
    “Understands. She isn’t fond of the idea and despite her extreme over-protectiveness, is very proud of you. Both of you,” Tatiana added with a glance at her brother. “But she didn’t think she could say goodbye without crying and such. So she let me come to tell you for her.”
    Corianne couldn’t answer between sudden tears and a tight throat. She nodded, wiping her cheeks. “I’m sorry if we miss your wedding,” she managed to choke out after a moment.
    “We’ve got months to see if there is a date you’ll be able to be there, otherwise when you graduate from basic. You do graduate from basic?” she asked. Pyotr glanced at Corianne. Corianne shrugged. “Oh well, Phillip will know. Even if we have to come to you, you will see me get married and be our best man and woman.”
    “I think that was our first order,” Corianne teased Pyotr.
     
     

 
     
    Chapter 8
     
    CAPTAIN JARED VRIES
    FREE ARGENTINA
     
    “You are not going alone,”
    “I’m taking Derrick,” Jared said, leaning against a desk in Command.
    Arinna stared at him. “To Argentina? A new Lieutenant with how many hours in a dactyl?”
    There really wasn’t much of a choice on who he could take. Kieren was prepping for the new recruits. Farrak and Gabriella were needed for the peace conference, as was Arinna. That left Derrick. But Jared suspected that Arinna’s dislike of the idea was for other reasons, especially since she’d been rather