Chapter 50

The rest of November was mostly quiet for everyone. Gabriella managed to quickly recover from her kid beating the crap out of her, although she did admit she couldn’t wait to give birth so she wouldn’t have to pee every couple of hours and only get dribbles each time. Over her objections, Marion put her on restricted duty to not be under as heavy of strain. Gabriella might have been able to fight Marion, but Luke, Alice, and Pollyanna weighed in on Marion’s side, and Gabriella knew when she was beaten. She would be on desk duty until after she gave birth. At least she was a capable administrator, so she would still be a valuable team member.

After sleeping with Luke every night for the last few weeks, Alice found she couldn’t sleep alone. On the second night after they returned, she showed up at Marion’s door after everyone had gone to bed. Alice had been so nervous she almost didn’t come but had slept so poorly the night before that she felt like she had no choice. As she always did at this time of night, Marion answered the door nude, figuring if someone woke her up, the least she could do was make them a bit uncomfortable.

“Hi, Alice. What’s up?”

“Is that invitation to move in with you and Luke still open?”

“Of course it is, dearie. Found that you just couldn’t sleep alone after sleeping with Luke?”

“Yeah,” Alice was still nervous, hoping Marion would let her stay.

“Well, come on in. There’s no need to stand out there all night.”

“Marion, I really can’t thank you enough for allowing me to move in with you.”

Marion gave her a very warm smile.

“Alice, honey, I see the looks Luke gives you, and I know what they mean because he gives me those same looks, the look of love and desire that is shared by spouses who are completely in love with each other. By the way, he doesn’t give Gabriella those looks. Plus, since I have Gabriella as a lover, it’s only fair that Luke has himself a lover as well.”

“Thank you for understanding, Marion. I really can’t thank you enough.”

“That’s alright, just don’t break Luke, and please let him save some energy for me.”

“I would never dream of breaking him. As for saving energy, I think the general will just have to get into better shape.” Marion and Alice shared a smile.

“You know, Alice, I just knew from the first day I saw you with Luke that Luke is especially fond of you, and I’m guessing it was because you reminded him of someone.”

Alice was so nervous that she almost peed herself since Marion guessed correctly on the first try.

“I think this is a conversation you should have with Luke.”

“No, I don’t think I will; Luke is entitled to his secrets. If and when he wants to tell me, he will. Just please don’t try to steal him from me.”

This triggered Alice’s usually mellow temper.

“Marion, listen to me,” growled Alice. “I would never dream of stealing Luke from you, and you know that. After all, you are one of my best friends and kind enough to share him with me. Also, I doubt I could because Luke loves you with all his heart.”

The ladies nodded to each other, showing they now understood each other, and with that, Alice moved in with Luke, Marion, Gabriella, and Mackenzie. Luke was having one of his insomnia attacks, so he was down in his workshop. Marion explained to Alice what that meant and said they might as well go to bed. Alice was uncomfortable getting into bed with two other naked women but figured she could trust them since they were her friends. To her surprise, she found that sleeping with other women wasn’t as bad as she thought, although Alice doubted she would ever be comfortable with the idea of making love with another woman. When Luke finally got back from his workshop, he noticed an extra body in his bed and looking closer, he could see long red hair. Luke smiled at this since he loved Alice almost as much as Marion. Luke stopped Marion, Gabriella, and Alice the following day before they left for work.

“Ladies,” started Luke, “can I have some time, please? I have some explaining to do. Alice knows about the first thing, and I know all three of you have clues to the second.”

Luke then pulled his wallet out to get the picture of Becky out. He then gave it to Marion. When she and Gabriella saw it, they gasped. The picture looked just like Alice.

“How did you get a picture of Alice?” asked Marion.

“That’s not Alice. That was my fiancé, and her name was Rebecca. Becky.”

Marion and Gabriella were still confused, so Luke went through the whole story about how he and Becky met and how she died. By the time he was done, all three women had tears in their eyes, none more so than Marion. Now she knew why Luke favored Alice and why it was so easy for him to fall in love with her. Luke then went on to tell the story behind his nightmares and scars:

“I was a Marine Engineer in a piece of hell called Iraq or, as we called it, the sandbox, in 2011. It’s the same area you would call the fertile crescent or Mesopotamia. We were trying to keep the peace and rebuild a nation going through a religious civil war between Sunni and Shia Muslims. My main job was to go out in front of supply convoys in an armored vehicle to look for IEDs. Those are Improvised Explosive Devices and could be anything that went boom. Most of the time, they didn’t look dangerous until they went boom. Other times, I would help build an outpost to protect our troops. Everyone there had at least one gun, and we constantly got shot at. The worst were groups that former Iraqi military officers trained. The enemy’s nickname was Hajjis, and their main goal was to kill us or, at the least, force us out of their country so they could kill each other. Anyway, there was one week when everything was calm in the entire sector, which made us all nervous. It was never good when things were quiet because it meant that an attack was on the way.

They struck on a night with about a half-moon, and they threw everything, including the kitchen sink, at us: heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars, well-trained infantry, and improvised armored vehicles. We couldn’t use our night vision goggles very well with the half-moon, and to make matters worse, the nearest two airbases were shut down for sandstorms. There was only my squad of engineers and two rifle squads defending that outpost, and the only reason I was there in the first place was one of our vehicles had been hit a couple of hours before dark, and we didn’t want to try and get back to our base at night. The plan was to spend the night in the outpost and continue when the next convoy came through the following day. They started with a heavy mortar barrage and had their mortars in the nearby town, knowing our artillery wouldn’t shoot back. “Winning hearts and minds,” the brass called it,” Luke scoffed. “Under the barrage, their infantry and machine gunners moved in. Thankfully, the Marines are some of the best marksmen in the US military, and we fought back hard. After almost an hour of constant fighting, their mortars took effect, and we were down to about quarter strength. My best friend, Patrick, and I were the only two engineers alive. We had our mine-clearing truck parked to block the entrance, and I was operating the gun on top. We modified the truck to carry twin .50 caliber machine guns because they were about the deadliest guns we could get our hands on. The brass didn’t like when we modified our equipment, but they weren’t getting shot at every day. When you hit someone with that thing, they never got up again.

All this time, the hajjis were getting closer and closer. Our artillery feared shooting because they didn’t want their rounds to land on us. Finally, my luck ran out, and a near miss blew me out of the truck. Now, I was outside the walls without my rifle. The nearby hajjis rushed me, trying to take me alive, and I fought for my life. I shot through the ammo in my sidearm, but they were still coming. Now, it was hand to hand. I have no clue how many of those bastards I killed or how long I was out there, but finally, we got artillery support. One of the infantry squad leaders finally convinced the artillery to put their rounds on top of us. I’m not sure how I made it back inside, but I did and found my rifle. Once inside, I continued to shoot any hajji I could see. It got to the point where they were getting into the outpost, and I had to use their guns because I was out of ammo. Finally, after almost five hours, we got rescued by an army relief column. Out of 30 marines alive when the sun went down, only five came out, and we were all wounded badly. Near the end, I watched Patrick get blown up by a mortar round. One second, he was there, and the next, he was gone. That battle was where I got most of my scars. After being rescued, we were airlifted to a military hospital in Germany before being sent home. Once I got home, I was given a promotion and medically discharged. I tried my hardest to stay in, even going so far as to try and bribe one of the doctors into giving me a clean bill of health, but I could no longer pass the fitness test. The Marines were my family; they meant everything to me, and I couldn’t stay in.”

By the time Luke was done speaking, all three women were speechless. They knew that Luke had nightmares, but he had always refused to talk about them. Now, he had finally opened up, and they realized that the reality behind his demons was far worse than they could have ever imagined. Moving as one, the ladies put a crying Luke in the center of a group hug. They stayed like this until he cried himself out. After almost 20 minutes, Luke finally finished, and all three gave him the best kisses they could manage.

“What made you finally open up, Luke?” asked Marion.

“I don’t know, sweetheart. I don’t know if I was finally ready or if it had something to do with Alice. I don’t know.”

“Well, whatever it was, darling, I’m glad you finally opened up to us.”

Luke gave his wife a warm smile.

“So am I, honey, so am I.”

December started with a bang and kept going from there. Marion had two announcements, one public and one personal. The personal announcement was she was pregnant again, which was thrilling news for Luke. The public one was she was interested in being the ruler of England, and since no other noble on the island was strong enough or foolish enough to stand in her way, none of them argued.

The church, however, was a different story. They refused to seat someone who had willingly taken church property, had a homosexual lover, and was a woman. The bishops in England had been looking for an excuse to go after Marion, and here they believed they had it. As usual, Marion didn’t give a damn what the church thought. She gave them two options: confirm her as rightful Queen of England on Christmas day 1066, or she would take England by force and kick the church out.

Speaking of taking by force, Marion’s army was making rapid gains in Scotland. When Luke returned from the South, he sent an entire brigade north with orders to crush all resistance with extreme prejudice, which they did. With the reinforcements, Marion’s army swept through Scotland like the wind. It helped that they were trained in winter combat and got their supplies from York instead of foraging. The massive mismatch in combat power also helped. Marion’s troops were all trained professionals with breach-loading firearms; the Scots usually fought in undisciplined masses and fought with swords or spears.

Just as in England, when a noble resisted, they were removed and their possessions seized. Their former land was then sold off to the commoners or loyal nobles. Everyone knew tackling the highlanders would take much longer, but they had made a good start. Marion also opened a land corridor to her lands in the far north, enabling Luke to start laying train tracks to link these lands with the area around York. To conquer the highlands, Luke devised a system of firebases placed on hilltops to control the critical points in the countryside. He was working on radios to increase communication but hadn’t gotten there yet.