Shepherd by Piers Anthony Page B

child must have a father.”
    “Marriage to an elf was not part of the deal!” Brett said.
    “Here is what we propose,” Shep said. “We will marry, and Elen will exchange with a young woman of Earth so she can remain with me on the other planet. That Earth woman will keep company with your son, in Elen's body. She will not be his wife; he is not committed to that, as you say. But she will bear his genetic child. Six months later, I will return and so will Elen, to resume our marriage here. It will be known that this was not your doing, but the result of the mission of the sheep. No blame will attach to you.”
    “But our son!” Cora protested. “With this elf woman! With child by him!” She was having trouble getting past that.
    “With an Earth woman in Elen's body,” Shep said. “They may have whatever relationship they choose.” He smiled briefly. “Brian may have developed a taste for Earth women by the time he returns.”
    “You know it must be,” Elen said. “My family will be no better pleased than you by this union. Elves and humans seldom marry. I hope both families will make the best of it.”
    “I ask your indulgence,” Brett said. “Would you show us your body, Elf?”
    Elen opened her cloak and showed them. Both Brett and Cora looked. “You are beautiful,” Bret said.
    Elen shrugged. “Nature made me that way.” She closed her cloak.
    “More beautiful than our son would ever be able to attract on his own, human or elf. You would play the part of his lover?”
    “I am Shep's lover,” Elen said firmly. “I will not touch your son.”
    “But the exchange Earth girl—she would love our son?”
    “Unlikely,” Shep said. “She wouldn't know him.”
    “But the two bodies would be married, by our custom,” Brett said.
    “Elen and I would be married,” Shep said. “Not Brian and the Earth woman.”
    “But they would live together.”
    “I suppose they would,” Shep agreed.
    “They would act married,” Brett said.
    This was evidently important to the man. “Probably they would, publicly.”
    Now Cora saw where Brett was going. “And if they fell in love, they could marry—Brian and the Earth girl. Completing it. No shame about the baby.”
    “If they fell in love,” Shep agreed cautiously.
    Brett smiled, looking at Elen. “Could any man be close to this body, whatever its occupant, and not fall in love with her?”
    “Not if he's like me,” Shep said.
    Elen's face was composed. That could be mischief. She had no interest in the lout. But she knew she would not be occupying her own body in Shep's absence. She would be with him on Earth. She could endure that. “My body will be at the Earth girl's disposal. So long as she does not harm my baby.”
    Both parents nodded. They seemed to have hammered out a compromise of sorts. But Shep knew there was one huge uncertainty: could they find an Earth woman who would agree to keep company with the lout? To make a marriage of appearances that would satisfy the relatives.
    “You may stay here, using Brian's room,” Cora said. “Until you marry.” Which would give the parents the semblance of some control over the situation.
    “Thank you,” Elen said, seeming genuinely grateful. She knew that the Peterson's interest was in appearance, both social and physical, rather than the technicalities of host versus visitor, but that acceptance counted for a lot.
    “Now we must broach the elf family,” Shep said.
    Brett laughed. “Lotsa luck!” He understood perfectly how the elves would react.
    They walked to the other village, accompanied by Vulture and Python. Elen knocked on her own door. “Mom, I have awkward news.”
    There was a scene, of course. In the end, the elves agreed to the marriage. What else could they do? Not only was their daughter keeping willing company with a vulture and a python along with a man of Earth, she was pregnant and in love.
    Then they went to the Earth embassy to message Shep's parents. He knew they