Why I love Katy: LOVE AND ONE MAN'S DETERMINATION

Sarkin Trant, hero of Three Moon Station, has asked me if he might appropriate my space to speak to my readers.

Mornin' to ya, Ladies! Come in an' sit--there's room on th' sofa for several o' ye wee lassies. Ya like it? M'pa made it himsel'--all th' furniture in th' house as a matter o' fact. Just move that book out o' th' chair, Mistress--'twas one I'd been readin' but I'm almost finished now. Aye, 'tis the poems o' Yeats, one o' m'matiher's favorite Terran authors. Since m'wife's out feedin' th' chiksas at th' moment, I thought it a fine time t' speak t' those people who might read th' story o' me an' m'Katy, t' explain a little o' why I did the things I did.

By way o' introducin' m'self--name's Sarkin Trant. I'm a station owner on Tritomas-2. M'maither was Maire Deoridh MacGregor, from New Edinburgh in th' Alba Highland Colony o' Mars. M'pa--him I already mentioned--was Andrus Trant, an Arcanian who had a temper he let run him 'stead o' th' other way around, an' got himsel' exiled for his troubles. He met m'ma when she was a schoolma'am, teaching th' settlers' bairns. Now that m'antededents are established, I asked yon scribe Icy Snow Blackstone--an' isna that a mouthful of a name for such a li'l thing?--to allow me t' tell you why I've risked so much for one little lass. 'Tis embarrassing for me t' talk about it, but I ask m'sel' why should a man be ashamed t' say why he loves his woman? So...

Let me say I dinna go into Zero that day to get m'self a wife. Last thing I had on m'mind was t' find m'self wedded to anyone--much less some stranger off a prison ship--an' anybody knowin' me an' how I'm practic'ly a hermit, would say th' same. I went with th' sole idea o' helpin' Abel Parker. Lord knows th' lad needed it, what wi' losin' every year t' some farmer or station owner who outbid him. When I saw yon Alwin Marsten, that dark-souled b-- Pardon m'foul tongue...le's just say Marsten's nae one o' m'favorite people. Well, I may be considered primitive by Terran standards--what wi' m'animal leather clothes an' Petronel X-P ridin' low on m'hip, but I do know the proper way to treat a female and couldna let Marsten take that dear little lass, Priscilla, away from th' boy, so I kept m'promise an' gave Abel th' extra money an' he outbid Marsten fair an' square. T' m'mind, 'twas all I came t' do, an' I'd done it, so I was on m'way t' leavin' when I saw her--sitting there with that hair o' hers all wild about her head like th' rays o' th' sun was all tangled in it, flaming and gold at th' same time--an' th' sight fair took th' breath out o' me...

Marsten saw m'interest, an' decided t' bid. No way was I going t' let him have that bit o' Sunshine an' 'tis a good thing for me I'd won that bag o' angelica at Larkin's, else we both would've been in bad luck. So I got m'Katy an' more o' Marsten's hate--an' did I care a fig for that? Hell, no! Again, I apologize for m'raw tongue.

I swear on Ma's Bible I dinna have any idea th' lass thought I was hirin' her for m'housekeeper. Thinkin' back on that makes me red-faced for stripping m'self afore her in th' wagon when I got soakin' wet durin' that rainstorm. Still, she didn't tell me different, an' wrapped me in blankets to save me from a chill--now I'm wonderin' if those blankets were simply t' hide the sight o' m'bare body from her innocent eyes!

So we got t' m'station an' I learned th' truth--Katy had no idea th' paper she signed was a Marriage Agreement. Seems she was in th' sanitary room while ever'thin' was bein' explained-- Lucky for me, I suppose. She tol' me why she came t' Tritomas, 'bout her employer bein' killed an' those black-hearted devils chasin' her-- Makes m'blood boil just t' think on it! In turn, I laid m' soul pretty bare--how I hadna been married but sired a son anyway and I loved th' lad an' had tried t' raise 'em proper. They canna say I hid anythin' from her.

She says she's going back when the time's up on our probationary marriage, t' make sure justice is done, but y'know what? She's nae goin' back to that Earth! Not if I can help it! I can protect Katy better than any member o' th' Peace Force because they don't love her--and I do! Look, she's says she likes th' station an' she's accepted m'son an' even some o' m'odd ways, so all I have t' do is ge' her t' admit she loves me. Easy, huh? I've got one year t' convince m'Sunshine that her place is here wi' me--her husband--an' I'll do it...come Hell, high water, or laser-totin' hitmen!


THREE MOON STATION is available from The Wild Rose Press (www.wildrosepress) as an ebook and print edition.