The Complete Liveship Traders Trilogy: Ship of Magic, The Mad Ship, Ship of Destiny

She spoke slowly. ‘I never thought of it quite that way. I always thought that it was just something he dared to do, reckoning he wouldn’t get caught.’ She forced herself to ask him, ‘You really think it was revenge?’

‘Sounds like it to me,’ Brashen said quietly. ‘I think that’s the worst thing I’ve ever heard,’ he added softly. ‘Devon. If I ever meet him, I’ll kill him for you.’ The sincerity in his voice startled her.

‘The worst was afterwards,’ she admitted to him. ‘We got to Bingtown a couple of weeks later. And I was sure I must be pregnant. Just positive of it. Well, I dared not go to my father, and mother wasn’t much better. So I went to my married sister Keffria, sure that she could advise me. I swore her to silence and then I told her.’ Althea shook her head. She moved the cindin in her lip again. It had left a sore. The flavour was almost gone now.

‘Keffria?’ Brashen pushed her. He sounded as if he genuinely wanted to know the rest of the story.

‘Was horrified. She started crying, and told me I was ruined for ever. A slut and a whore and a shame to my family name. She stopped speaking to me. Four or five days later, my blood-days came, right on time. I found her alone and told her, and told her if she ever told Papa or Mama, I’d say she was lying. Because I was so scared. From all she had said, I was sure that they’d throw me out and never love me again if they knew.’

‘Hadn’t she promised not to tell?’

‘I didn’t trust her to keep her word. I was already pretty sure she’d told Kyle, from the way he started treating me. But she didn’t yell at me or anything. She hardly spoke at all when she gave me the navel ring. Just told me that if I wore it, I wouldn’t get pregnant or diseased, and that it was the least that I owed my family.’ Althea scratched the back of her neck, then winced. ‘It was never the same after that between us. We learned to be civil to one another, mostly to stop our parents from asking questions. But I think that was the worst summer of my life. Betrayal on top of betrayal.’

‘And after that, I suppose, you sort of did what you pleased with men?’

She should have known he’d want to know. Men always seemed to want to know. She shrugged, resigned to the whole truth. ‘Here and there. Not often. Well, only twice. I had a feeling that it hadn’t been… done right. The way the men on the Vivacia talked, I suspected it should at least have been fun. It had just been… pressure, and a bit of pain, and wetness. That was all. So I finally got up my nerve and tried a couple more times, with different men. And it was… all right.’

Brashen lifted his head to look into her eyes. ‘You call this “all right”?’

Another truth she didn’t want to part with. She felt as if she was giving away a weapon. ‘This was not “all right”. This has been what it was always supposed to be. It was never like this before for me.’ Then, because she could not bear the softness that had come into his eyes, she had to add: ‘Maybe it was the cindin.’ She fished the tiny fragment that was left out of her lip. ‘It made little sores inside my mouth,’ she complained and looked away from the small hurt on his face.

‘Like as not, it was the cindin,’ he admitted. ‘I’ve heard it affects women that way, sometimes. Most women don’t use it much you know, because it can, um, make you bleed. Even when it’s not your time.’ He looked suddenly embarrassed.

‘Now he tells me,’ she muttered aloud. His grip on her had loosened. The cindin was wearing off and she was suddenly sleepy. And her head had begun a nasty throbbing. She should get up. Cold room. Wet clothes. In a minute. In a minute, she’d have to get up and go back to being alone. ‘I have to go. If we get caught like this…’

‘I know,’ he said, but he didn’t move. Except to slide his hand in a long caress down her body. A shiver seemed to follow his touch.

‘Brashen. You know this can’t happen again.’

‘I know, I know.’ He breathed the words against her skin as he kissed the back of her neck slowly. ‘This can’t happen again. No more. No more after this last time.’

21 VISITORS (#ulink_d448d0f9-3082-51ed-a7de-6afcef0d6a48)

RONICA LOOKED UP from her account ledgers with a sigh. ‘Yes? What is it?’

Rache looked uneasy. ‘Delo Trell is in the sitting room.’

Ronica raised her eyebrows. ‘Why?’ Delo usually ran in and out as she wished. She and Malta had been best friends for at least two years now, and the formalities between the girls had eroded long ago.

Rache looked at the floor. ‘Her older brother is with her. Cerwin Trell.’ Rache hesitated.

Ronica frowned to herself. ‘Well, I can see him now, I suppose. Not here, put him in the morning room. Did he say what he wanted?’

Rache bit her lip for a moment. ‘I’m sorry, ma’am. He said he was here to call upon Malta. With his sister.’

‘What?’ Ronica shot to her feet as if jabbed.

‘I do not know your ways all that well, in this regard. But to me, it did not seem… correct. So I asked them to wait in the sitting room.’ Rache looked very uncomfortable. ‘I hope I have not caused an awkwardness.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ Ronica said crisply. ‘Malta invited this “awkwardness”. But young Trell should have better manners as well. They are in the sitting room, you said?’

‘Yes. Should I… bring refreshments?’ The two women looked at one another. In the face of this social dilemma, the lines between mistress and servant were near invisible.

‘I… yes. Thank you, Rache. You are correct. This is best handled with formality rather than scolding him like a rude boy. Even if that is how he has behaved.’ Ronica bit her lower lip for a moment. ‘Advise Keffria of this as well, and ask her to join us. Bring refreshments and serve them. Then, wait a bit before you tell Malta she has guests waiting. She has created this, she should witness how it is dealt with.’

Rache took a breath, a soldier preparing for battle. ‘Very well.’

After she had left the room, Ronica lifted her hands to her face and rubbed her eyes. She glanced back at the accounting ledgers she had set aside, and shook her head. Her eyes and head ached from poring over them anyway, and she had yet to find any way to make the debts on the pages any smaller or the credits any larger. This, at least would be a distraction. An unpleasant distraction from an impossible problem. Ah, well. She patted at her hair, then straightened her spine and headed towards the sitting room. If she hesitated, she’d lose her nerve. Cerwin Trell might be young, but he was also the heir to a powerful Trader family. She needed to put him in his place, but without direct insult. It would be a fine line to tread.

At the sitting room door she paused to take a breath and set her hand to the latch.

‘Mother.’

Ronica turned to see Keffria bearing down on her like a runaway horse. Small glints of anger shone in her usually docile eyes. Her lips were set in a firm line. Ronica could not recall having seen her daughter like this. She lifted a cautioning hand to her. ‘The Trell family is not to be offended,’ she reminded her very quietly. She saw Keffria hear her words, evaluate them, and set them aside.

‘Neither are the Vestrits,’ she hissed in a low voice. The inflection was so like her father that it paralysed Ronica. Keffria pushed open the door and preceded her into the room.

Cerwin looked up with a guilty start from where he perched on the edge of a divan. Even Delo looked startled. She cocked her head to peer past Keffria and Ronica.

Ronica spoke before Keffria could. ‘Malta will join us in a moment, Delo. I am sure your friend will be very happy to see you. And what a pleasure to have you call on us, Cerwin. It has been, oh, let’s see. Why, do you know, I can’t recall the last time you came to visit us.’

Cerwin surged to his feet and bowed. He straightened and smiled, but not easily. ‘I believe my parents brought me to Keffria’s wedding. Of course, that was some years back.’

‘About fifteen,’ Keffria observed. ‘You were an inquisitive little boy, as I recall. Didn’t I catch you trying to grab the goldfish in the garden fountains?’

The boy was still standing. Ronica tried to recall his age. Eighteen? Nineteen? ‘I suppose you did. Yes, I do recall something of that. Of course, as you say, I was just a little boy, then.’

‘That you were,’ Keffria replied before Ronica could speak. ‘And I would never blame a little child for seeing something bright and pretty and desiring to possess it.’ She smiled at Cerwin as she added, ‘And here is Rache with some refreshments for us. Do sit down and be comfortable.’

Rache had brought coffee and small cakes and cream and spices on a tray. She set it up on a small table, and left the room. Keffria served them. For a time the only talk was whether or not cream and spices were preferred in the coffee. When all were served, Keffria seated herself and smiled round at their guests. Delo was sitting nervously on the edge of her seat, and she kept glancing towards the door. Ronica guessed she was hoping Malta would appear and take her out of the grown-up setting. At least, so she hoped.

Keffria immediately returned to her attack. ‘So. What does bring you calling here today, Cerwin?’

He met her eyes boldly, but his voice was soft as he said, ‘Malta invited me… us. I had taken Delo into the market for an afternoon of shopping. We chanced to meet Malta and we all took some refreshment together. And Malta extended to us an invitation to call on her at home.’

‘She did.’ Keffria’s tone did not question his story. Ronica hoped her dismay did not show as plainly as her daughter’s. ‘Well. The silly child never told us to expect you. But that is how girls are, I suppose, and Malta worse so than most. Her head is full of foolish fancies, I am afraid, and they crowd out all common sense and courtesy.’

Ronica heard Keffria’s words with half an ear. She was already wondering how often Malta had slipped away to market on her own, and if the meeting had truly been as chance as Trell made it sound. She looked at Delo speculatively; could the two girls have planned the ‘accidental’ encounter?

As if on cue, Malta entered the room. She glanced around in consternation at them all taking refreshments together so socially. A sly wariness came over her face, very ugly to Ronica’s eye. When had the girl become capable of such cunning? It was plain she had hoped to greet Delo and Cerwin on her own. At least she did not appear to have expected them today. Although her hair was freshly brushed and there was a touch of paint on her lips, her dress at least was appropriate to a girl of her age. She wore a simple woollen shift, embroidered at the throat and hem. Yet there was something in the way she wore it, sashed tight to show her waist and pull the fabric firm against her rounding bosom that suggested there was a woman in the child’s clothes. And Cerwin Trell had risen to his feet as if it were a young woman entering rather than a little girl.

This was worse than Ronica had feared.

‘Malta,’ her mother greeted her. She smiled at her daughter. ‘Delo has come over to visit with you. But won’t you have some cakes and coffee with us first?’

Delo’s and Malta’s eyes met. Delo swallowed and licked her lips. ‘And afterwards, perhaps you can show us the trumpet vine that you said was on bud.’ She cleared her throat and spoke louder than was needed as she added to Keffria, ‘Malta was telling us about your hothouse room when last we met. My brother is very interested in flowers.’

Keffria smiled, a stretching of her lips. ‘Is he? Then he shall have a tour. Malta spends so little time in the flower rooms, I am surprised that she even recalled we had a trumpet vine. I shall show it to Cerwin myself. After all,’ and she turned the smile on Cerwin, ‘I can scarcely trust him alone with my goldfish, after what he tried the last time!’