Aliena by Piers Anthony

natural person presentation; obviously Aliena was a pretty girl who had found a boyfriend to exercise with.
    Sam did some spot training of Brom, teaching him the easier throws and blows of judo and other martial arts, as well as equipping him with a deadly double-edged knife in a masked shoulder hostler and a small but similarly deadly gun under the other shoulder. Aliena herself was unarmed, left innocent of such things. Until she braced Brom about the matter, and had him show her their operation. Before long she could handle the knife with disturbing finesse, and became an accurate shot. Sam and Martha were both nervous about this, but could not directly oppose her.
    Nor in this: “Please, Brom, marry me now.”
    “Aliena, we haven’t known each other long. It would seem sudden.”
    “Not as sudden as the baby that will grow within me.”
    It was a valid concern. She now knew about contraception, but eschewed it; they were having frequent unprotected sex. Her period had passed and she was coming into her fertile time. Now he realized that she fully intended to conceive and bear his baby as early as possible; it was not just passion that caused her to mate with him daily.
    “Normally there’s a ceremony,” he said. “People bring gifts.”
    “Gifts? As of personal talent?”
    “Not in this case. Friends may share gifts, which are things they give to each other because they like each other. They can be large or small. For example, I might give you a box of candy, if I thought you would like it.”
    “That would not be kind to this body, which I must keep fit.”
    “Or a kerchief to wear on your head, to make you even prettier than you are. The point is in the attitude of the giver. It’s a social convention. We would miss all that in a private wedding.”
    “I will try to understand it,” she promised. “I do not need gifts from others.”
    They got married in a small private ceremony, with Martha and Sam as witnesses. He gave her a modest but nice gold ring, and she gave him a similar ring. “We have exchanged gifts,” she said, delighted. It sufficed, and they were both pleased to wear their rings thereafter.
    Their honeymoon was a global tour, somehow afforded by pooling their resources (theoretically), visiting the Grand Canyon, Machu Picchu in South America, and the Great Wall of China in rapid order. They spent a lot of time in the air, and Aliena adored it, constantly holding his hand and humming her note faintly as she rapidly read ebooks. In hotels she clasped him closely, demanding mating before sleeping. She was obviously a woman in love. Brom wasn’t certain how Sam and Martha kept up, as they were not in evidence, but he knew they were close at hand, on and off the planes. Aliena went nowhere unguarded.
    In China there was a snafu that got them stuck in a fancy hotel for several days, doubtless hardly noticing the delay in their haze of love. But it was not so. “Take her down to the main lobby and lose yourselves in the crowd of tourists,” Sam’s voice came in Brom’s ear. Brom, startled, obeyed; he had not realized that the spy wiring was two way. In the lobby Sam’s invisible hand took firm hold of Brom’s elbow and guided him silently to an empty elevator. They entered, and there was Martha. Then the elevator went down, not up. Where were they headed?
    “What’s going on?” Brom asked somewhat querulously. “This is supposed to be our honeymoon.”
    Aliena smiled. “Beloved, this is better.”
    “You know about it? Why didn’t you tell me?”
    “Surprise,” she said.
    “She was not allowed to tell,” Martha said. “Lest you inadvertently mention it outside.” By outside she meant the regular world.
    “So what is it?”
    “Not yet,” Sam murmured. “Wait till we board the train; that is secure.”
    With that he had to be satisfied.
    They exited the elevator in a basement and walked to a subterranean garage where a limousine with darkened windows waited. They got in,