The Gender Game by Bella Forrest (historical books to read txt) 📗

"I will have to take you up on that offer," he replied darkly.

Stuffing the facial hair into my right pocket along with my notepad, pager and pen, I moved past Viggo and hurried up the staircase. My pager buzzed again. Lee was getting nervous.

"That's my husband," I explained to Viggo as we surfaced on the road. I pulled out the pager and glimpsed the latest message.

"?????"

I showed it to Viggo, who grunted.

"What were you doing in the gym?" he asked me.

"Well, I wondered what was in that pretty glass building. I watched some fighters training, roamed around…Fighting isn't a sport, you see, in Matrus. I've worked in a bakery all my life, but I always wished I could've become a warden."

Viggo's expression soured. I could practically read his thoughts. You're not missing much, I imagined him thinking. He made no attempt to hide how much he hated his job.

We reached the other side of the road. I led Viggo round a corner until we arrived at the end of the second road along, where I caught sight of Lee waiting. He was standing next to his motorcycle, glancing up and down the street and clutching his pager in his hand.

"There he is," I murmured, pointing to him. "He lost track of me after I went into the building," I explained. "I should have told him I was going inside."

Lee soon noticed us, and instantly froze. I imagined him cursing in his head as he hurried forward, closing the gap between us.

"Violet?" he asked, his voice strained with confusion. "What's going on?" His eyes flitted to Viggo.

"Lee, I'm sorry," I said, moving to him and clutching his arm. "You told me not to wander into any buildings, but I did. The gym on the river bank."

There were undercurrents of confusion in his eyes, but he was quick to play along. Admirably quick.

Viggo didn't need to say anything. He just stood there, glancing from me to Lee in cold disdain.

"Dammit, Vi." Lee exhaled sharply. "I take risks and go to all this trouble to give you a sense of freedom, and this is how you repay me? Doing the first thing I forbade you to do?" Lee's grip around me tightened. "This'll be the last time I trust you." He turned to Viggo. "I understand of course if you need to report us, Viggo. Mark it as an infraction on my name. Even though I was following her, we were stretching the rules, no doubt about it. But I do promise you this will not happen again… We've just been having a difficult time with her adjustment. I hoped keeping her on a longer leash would help us make things work."

I prayed that would get to Viggo. If it didn't, I didn't know what would. He had experienced firsthand the difficulties of a Patrus-Matrus marriage, with his own wife struggling with the constraints Patrus' laws put upon its female residents. I hoped there was a place of compassion within his heart that he would draw on to not judge us so harshly.

Viggo's gaze remained sharp as it continued to roam my face. But then his jaw clenched, resoluteness setting in. "I'll let you off this time, since you were nearby. But if I do witness it again, I'm sure you understand I can't be so lenient…" He cleared his throat and averted his eyes, settling them on some distant point at the end of the road. "As you know, here in Patrus, rules are rules."

17

After Viggo strode away, both Lee and I let out a long, slow sigh.

"God," he muttered, turning his back on the warden and rubbing his face in his hands. "That was not something I ever want to repeat." He glanced at me. "What on earth happened?"

My relief gave way to mild irritation. "What happened to you? What took you so long?"

"I had to go pick something up." He gave me a meaningful look. I guessed that meant more explosives or some kind of other equipment necessary for our mission. "But things got delayed. How did you wind up with Viggo?"

"I was hanging around the gym," I began. I decided to omit the little sparring match I'd had. I didn't see the point in mentioning it. It would only make him more nervous. "I tried to keep myself away from the reception area, to avoid awkward questions. I ended up roaming around the training halls. When I finally got your text and was making my way back up to the street, I bumped into Viggo. Like, literally bumped into him. My mustache got knocked off and he noticed. I figured it was best to just come clean after that—as clean as I could."

Lee nodded as he raised the seat of the motorcycle and pulled out our helmets. "You did the right thing. It's likely he's seen this trick played before. I'm certain we're not the first couple to think of it."

I found the idea quite revolutionary as we mounted the motorcycle and Lee kicked us off down the street. That this could be an old trick played by women who found themselves in Patrus but wanted more freedom hadn't occurred to me. Where had Lee actually gotten such a realistic costume? Had he really made it all himself, or had he purchased it? I guessed there must be some kind of underground market for them and I wondered how many women I'd mistaken for men since arriving here in Patrus. Especially at night, when streets were packed and it was far easier to go unnoticed.

Maybe some Patrian females aren’t all that different from Matrian ones after all.

Maybe others, too, have experienced the rush I did back in that gym.

As we traveled back through the city toward the mountains, I found myself eyeing everyone on the sidewalks, examining the faces of the men and trying to spot any slight hint of femininity. But then Lee started traveling