Bride Of The Two Warlords

Chapter 4

"Yes. Men from our part of the world are polyandrous by nature. So my twin and I shall share a bride?" Abbas went on to explain.

Isobel had only been surprised for a second before regaining her indifference. She  had seen polyandry in the interstellar, it was norm because of few women but had not gotten any information about it from this body's memory. She supposed nobody ever mentioned such a scandalous topic to a maiden princess. In reality it made no difference to her. In fact, she was more of an expert on theories of such relationships than monogamous ones. 

Back in the Interstellar period, over ninety percent of relationships were polyandrous. It was made so as women were very rarely born or cloned in the galaxy. Women were very few statistically that even the five hundred female clones were the ones she had managed to hid from the galactic corporation over a period of a hundred years.

 Secondly, the galaxy was constantly at home and males from every household were recruited to fight. The only way men got to see their wives was if they were co-husbands, that way, one male at a time could always be allowed by the government to remain behind to look after his wife while the others went to war. It was a normal way of life as no man was ever sure if they would make it back and it assured them to know that no matter what happened, their wives and children would be provided for.

It came therefore as a thing of amazement that such a good practice was not spread in Cronia.

"Do all your men share wives?" Isobel asked Abbas with open curiosity.

"Yes. It has always been the way of life in the grasslands as war and disasters are better fought when men unite to protect their wife and children. In our world the women are few and family wealth is never dived when brothers take a wife together." Abbas gently explained to Isobel as he lead her to the study. He wanted her to  be on the same page with them as he was very attracted to her.

The door was opened by a male servant who had been there to light the candles for his Lord.

"Sit down your highness, your men will be properly looked after by our warriors." Kurz assured her as he locked the door behind them. 

The study was an opulent room, with many scrolls filing it. Isobel looked around in curiosity. 

"Those scrolls belonged to the Count of Gadleigh, well, the former one. We kept the keep as it was after capturing it. " Kurz drawled once he noticed he curiosity. 

"But tell us Princess, who are you really? For you are definitely not Isobel Belmont." Kurz asked sharply all of a sudden. He was certain that this beauty was not the mousy female he had seen when he had snuck into the Palace in Zomis, the capital of Cronia.

Isobel knew what he was doing. He was trying to throw her off by changing topics so that she would be caught off guard and answer his questions. Of course Isobel was going to tell them the truth, the 'good wife material' books she had read in her library always said to tell the absolute truth to her husband. As these men were her husbands to be, she saw no reason to lie to them.

"I am Isobel Belmont, just not the original one. Isobel Belmont died of poisoning on her way here. I took over her body for some reason beyond my calculation ability. I secured the three ships with my men and neutered the threat. So I am Isobel just not that Isobel." Isobel explained in all innocence. She could not explain about the human clones as she had been programmed never to reveal their origin by the organization. The clones were passed off as intergalactic orphans who lived in orphanages across the planets till the men came of age at the ages of twenty and the women at the ages of sixteen.

The two men were surprised. It was such a bizarre tale that it could only be the truth. Besides which woman would dare to lie about such a witchy act as this one if they did not fear being burned at the stakes. Two things passed through the brothers minds as they stood over Isobel in silence, one, the lady was speaking the truth and two, they definitely liked this new Isobel better. Don't get them wrong, they would have treated the former Isobel with are the respect due to a wife, they just would not have been attracted to her. Attraction was such a frail wispy thing.

"Tell us what happened on the ship. We need to get our stories straight should any suspicion rise in future." Abbas said to Isobel in a that nice even cadence of his baritone. They had such nice voices, even Isobel who had once spent her time going through trillions of gigabyte voices could rank theirs in the top ten for men.

So Isobel told them everything, including the planned conspiracy against them from the king and princes. She told them everything except how her people came and how they were so well trained. 

The Kelmaris twins knew that such well trained men certainly took years of training and combat but her men were as young as eighteen and looked elite. However, they saw that she would not open her mouth to say more and so they let that issue drop. Besides, it was of no ill towards them. They could see the lady considered them as her husbands and certainly bore no bad intentions towards them. 

"You mean there are more men and goods left in the ships?" Kurz asked in amazement.

Isobel looked at her green-eyed intended wondering what was so amazing about what she said, "Yes. I left my dowry there with my soldiers to look after them."

Abbas looked at his naïve bride in wonder. He thanked Belama for bringing her safely to them, for by gods was she naïve. How could she trust them so easily, what if they meant her harm?