4. N #5
“Yes,” he answered. “We can understand about one word in six, and what we do understand is … said through a horrendous accent. Lowest gutter-trash, the sort that’s usually a put on to mock the lowest orders.”
He wondered if she would put two and two together.
If she did, that would be both a plus, and a negative.
For the same reason. It would mean she was very clever indeed, and while she would thus be more valuable in his service, she would also be a potential hazard.
… catch more vermin with sweet bait. His best option for controlling her might well be keeping her inside his household.
A permanent position so she never needed to worry about her ration again.
Yes. His spur of the moment decision, seemed wiser in hindsight.
Give her more than she ever expected having, and she will fear to fall.
Nora took her time, considering the information. Haldeen had the sense of the woman examining it from every side before answering. “A being from another world. I’m surprised she is comprehensible at all.”
Haldeen took a deep breath. “Remember your school history again. The Gate Failure?”
Nora’s eyes shifted. “Not really”
He smiled indulgently. “There was an expedition, meant to create a colony. The colonists were set to depart, with everything lined up, and Predators attacked. The colonists panicked, there was a stampede, and the Gate collapsed. The colonists did found a world, but not under our … guidance … so,
it’s feral.”
He had Nora’s attention now. He smiled. Now that he had her curiosity roused, she would forfeit whatever leverage she might have maintained just to get a bit more information. Just like his wife. Females. He stopped talking, letting the silence linger.
She took the bait. “She’s a colonist. The world … that’s where she’s from?”
“Yes,” Haldeen replied. “She is from the ‘colony.’ We do not have very much time, and she is tough. A hard case. Some kind of local leader or”—he couldn’t help the smile—“lord-somesuch-or-something.”
He could see the light in Nora’s eyes, watched as her defenses crumbled in the face of the opportunity he offered. To be the first to speak to someone from another world. The hook had been baited. He had no doubt now she would take it.
She did.
“I see,” Nora replied. “I’ll need a few days to get settled. In the meantime I want her to be kept isolated. Call it a quarantine, if you wish. Minimal contact with guards and staff. No stimulation, nothing to read. As much boredom as you can manage.
Once I start I’ll want her to have to focus on me. I’ll be her friend, and work to build up her reliance on me. As she does, I’ll build that into trust. She’ll earn small rewards for performing behaviors that I desire. Treats. Outings.”
“Vey well,” he agreed. Oh, this one is a sharp one.
Too sharp. For a moment he teetered on the brink of dismissing her and starting over.
On the surface, Nora could not be more perfect for his plans.
But he would have to stay one step ahead of her at all times.
Or would he? The better option was probably to recruit her onto his side, make his cause, her cause.
Make her see on her own that betrayal would only mean a heavier fall for her than for him.
Definitely make her a permanent part of the household.
Upper level servant—the equivalent to a governess—with all the privileges that came with that position.
Nora ticked off items on her fingers, in brisk business-like tones.
“We’ll start working on language quickly. The basics … first declension, standard noun verb patterns, using conversation. Will start by asking about her family …. ‘My mother is.’ That sort of thing. We’ll do the language and your questions at the same time,
and fill out what you want to know as we go.”
Nora began to pack her things, rolling the contract into a case and securing it over her shoulder. “I’ll deliver the contract to the registry and have my things sent over.”
She was already more organized than he had expected. “You’ve done something like this before?” he asked.
“More or less, yes” she answered. “As an aside, in case you don’t get what you want, I don’t indulge in torture. I wrote that into your contract.”
“Oh?” he answered.
She smiled sweetly at him. “Ever tried to get blood out of a silk chemise? It’s hell.” She shrugged, and continued in a more serious tone. “Once you hurt them enough to start them talking, they usually just tell you whatever you want to hear in order to get the hurting to stop.”
And with that, she stood up. He rang the bell for a servant, who must have been waiting right outside the door.
“Take this lady to the guest chamber my ladywife has chosen for her, and ask my ladywife to arrange for some appropriate attire.”
Andaleisia would know what to do, and would fulfill that contract to the letter—but no further.
It would be up to him to order the additions that would turn this from a contract job to something Nora would fear to lose.
The servant bowed deeply to him, slightly to Nora, and gestured for her to proceed with him.
The door closed behind them, and he sat down. Too late to change his mind now. The dice were cast. Now he could only wait to see the pips.