know.’
Jani’s reply caught Ronica off balance. ‘Then you did not force Althea out of your home for improper behaviour?’
The shock of the question astounded Ronica. Was that the Bingtown rumour? Spread as far as the Rain Wilds? She was grateful for the servant that suddenly presented them with a tray of delicate cakes. Was it only last night she and Keffria had baked these? She took one and then was immediately confronted by another serving person offering a fluted glass of some Rain Wild liqueur. She accepted it with thanks and took a sip from it. ‘This is wonderful,’ she told Jani with genuine pleasure.
‘As are the cakes,’ Jani replied. She looked aside, letting her gaze linger on Reyn and Malta. Whatever she had just said to him had made him laugh. The cant of Jani’s head suggested she smiled also.
Ronica considered letting the topic drop, but then steeled herself. Best to snuff rumours as soon as they were heard. Sa alone knew how long that one had been circulating, but it had probably been about ever since last summer.
‘I did not ask Althea to leave our home. In fact, she left against my will. The division of the inheritance from her father much distressed her. She had expected to inherit the Vivacia. She was hurt when she did not, and she disagreed with how Kyle chose to run the ship. There was a quarrel and she left.’ She found it hard, but she stared squarely at Jani’s veil and added, ‘I do not know where she is now or what she is doing. If she came to the door this very moment, I would welcome her with all my heart.’
Jani seemed to return her look. ‘It was an awkward question, perhaps. It is my way, to speak directly. I do not mean to give offence by it. It has always seemed to me that honest words leave the least room for misunderstanding.’
‘I share that sentiment.’ Ronica’s eyes followed Jani’s gaze as she turned to look at Reyn and Malta. Malta had lowered her face and turned her eyes aside. Her cheeks were pink with a blush, but her eyes were merry. The tilt of Reyn’s head showed that he shared her amusement as he tried to see into her averted face.
‘Within a family, there is no room for secrets,’ Jani added.
It was wonderful, far more wonderful than Malta had ever imagined it would be. So this was what it was like to be treated properly. Her soul had starved for this her entire life, and now it was able to sate itself in sweet sensations. Flowers scented the air all around her, every type of dainty food and fine drink that she could imagine had been offered to her, and Reyn himself could not have been more attentive. She could think of nothing that could have improved the day, unless perhaps some of her friends could be present to be enviously impressed. She indulged herself in imagining that scene. Delo and Kitten and Carissa and Polia would be seated over there, and as each tray of food or drink was offered to Malta, she would take her pick of it, and then send the rest over to her friends. Later, she would apologize warmly to them that she had so little time for them. What a shame that Reyn had insisted on monopolizing her time! But, well, they knew how men were! She would smile at them knowingly. Then she would recount some of the compliments he had showered on her, or repeat some of his witticisms.
‘May I ask what now brings such a smile to your face?’ Reyn requested gently. He stood a respectful yet attentive distance from her chair. He had not accepted her offer of a seat. She lifted her eyes to his veiled face. Her pretty daydream soured. Who knew what sort of a visage smiled beneath that veil? A little quivering turned restlessly in her belly. She did not let her unease show on her face. Instead, she answered in a pleasantly modulated voice, ‘Why, I was but thinking how gay it might be if some of my friends were here to share all this with us.’ She gracefully gestured at the festive room.
‘And I was thinking the opposite,’ he replied. He had a pleasant voice. It was cultured and richly masculine. His face veil stirred lightly with the wind of his breath.
‘The opposite?’ she wondered aloud as she raised an eyebrow to his words.
He did not move from where he stood, but pitched his voice for more intimacy. ‘I was thinking how pleasant it will be when I am deep enough in your trust to see you more privately.’
All she had to go by was his posture and his voice. There was no raised brow or shy smile to accompany the words. She had spoken to men before, even flirted when her mother or grandmother was not present, but no man had ever been so frank with her. It was both heady and daunting. All the time she hesitated, she knew he studied her bared face. Try as she might, she could not keep all expression from it. How could one flirt and smile when one did not know if a man or a grotesque freak answered that smile? The thought put a tiny chill into her words. ‘Surely, we must first decide if this courtship is even to begin. Is not that what this first meeting is about: to see if we are suited to one another?’
He gave a small snort of amusement. ‘Mistress Malta, let us leave that sport to our mothers. That is their game. See how, even now, they circle one another like wrestlers, awaiting an opening, a tiny bit of imbalance in the other? They will strike the bargain that joins us, and I do not doubt that both families will benefit in every way.’
He inclined his hooded head, very slightly, towards Jani Khuprus and Ronica Vestrit. Their facial expressions were carefully pleasant, but there was a poised alertness to them that suggested some verbal contest was in progress.
‘That is my grandmother, not my mother,’ Malta pointed out. ‘And I do not understand why you speak of this meeting as a game. Surely, this is a serious moment. At least, it is for me. Do you find it trivial?’
‘I will never find trivial any moment spent in your presence. Of that, you may be assured.’ He paused, then let his words pour forth. ‘From the moment that you opened the dream box and we ventured together into your imaginings, I have known that nothing could turn me aside from this courtship. Your family sought to dampen my hopes with the notion that you were more child than woman. That I found laughable. That is the game I spoke of, the game that all families play when their offspring wish to wed. Obstacles will be invented, only to dissolve when the balance is weighted with enough gifts and trade advantages…but this talk is too blunt for us. It speaks of the pocket and not of the heart. It speaks not at all of my hunger for you.’ His words tumbled swiftly, unchecked. ‘Malta, I ache for you. I long to possess you, to share every secret of my heart with you. The sooner my mother surrenders to every demand of your family, the better. Tell your grandmother that. Tell her she may ask anything she wishes and I will be sure the Vestrits receive it, so long as I may find you soon in my arms.’
Malta recoiled with a swift intake of breath. Her shock was not feigned, but Reyn mistook the source of it. He stepped back from her and inclined his head gravely. ‘Forgive me, I beg you.’ His voice went husky. ‘I am cursed with a tongue that speaks the words of my heart before my head can intervene. How crude I must seem to you, like an animal panting after you. I vow to you, that is not so. Ever since I saw you that evening outside the Traders’ Concourse, I became aware that I had a soul as well as a mind. Before that, I was little more than an intelligent tool, serving my family as well as I could to advance their fortunes. When my brother or sisters spoke of passion and attractions, I could not grasp what they meant.’ He paused for breath, and gave a sort of laugh. ‘If you know aught of Rain Wild Folk, you will know that we usually find our hearts when we are young and wed soon after. By the customs of my folk, I have always been an odd fish. Some say I was ensorcelled young by my work, and would never know a true love for anyone human.’ A snort of disdain bespoke his disgust.
He shook his head, then went on, ‘Some whispered that I was a eunuch, incapable of a man’s passions. Their words did not bother me. I knew I had a heart, but it slept within me and I saw no need for it to awaken. In the runes I traced and deciphered, in the strange mechanisms I dismantled, I thought I had enough to occupy all my thoughts. I was annoyed when my mother insisted I accompany her to Bingtown for that meeting. Annoyed! All that was swept aside in the first moment I dared speak to you. As jidzin is wakened to light by touch, so your voice woke my heart to longing. Wild, boyish hope drove me to leave the dream-box for you. I was sure you would not open it, sure that one such as yourself would discard my dream before I could even broach it to you. But you did not. You opened my soul and shared with me a vision