Chapter 8
SEREYA
Sereya moved the cup to her other hand, though it did not need moving.
She could still feel his fingers.
We are in Courtship.
He had said it while holding her hand, and she was standing here trying to remember how to greet another person.
She resented Roemary's timing.
She wanted more of this. More of him.
More of understanding what passed between them now.
Roemary came down the shallow steps in a pale dress that caught the light as she walked. Sereya had helped fasten the clasp at the back of her neck, standing close enough to see the small red mark where Roemary had scratched herself in her impatience.
Now she was all warmth.
“I was beginning to think you'd escaped us altogether, Gol-Vett.”
Dhomhes greeted her. Pleasantly. The same voice he had used in the breakfast gallery, polished enough to give nothing away.
Sereya knew the difference now.
She wished she didn't. It made her want the other voice back.
“We've hardly seen you,” Roemary went on. “You must let us persuade you to stay for a meal. Sereya can find out what's being served.”
Sereya's feet almost obeyed before the sentence ended.
“I have a family visit to arrange,” he said. “I'm afraid I can't promise dinner.”
“Then something before you go. Surely you have time for a drink.”
“Perhaps another day.”
Roemary took another step, placing herself beside him. Sereya knew where she was supposed to stand now. A little behind. Close enough to be useful, too far away to be part of the conversation.
She stayed by the bench.
She wanted to step in front of Roemary. Close the distance between her and Dhomhes. Not let Roemary's interruption separate them.
She stayed still.
Roemary's gaze cut to Sereya, like she expected her to move.
Sereya stayed where she was.
Dhomhes turned toward her.
“Do you have a comm I can reach?”
Roemary's head moved a fraction.
Sereya nearly said no.
The visitor comm was in her pocket. She had been checking survivor notices on it since it arrived that morning.
“They lent me one.” She took it out.
He held his wrist near the small device and waited for her to accept the contact. His name appeared beneath the request.
Dhomhes.
There was a title too, but she scarcely saw it.
“If you're busy when I ask, say so,” he said.
“She's rarely busy,” Roemary said lightly. “I seem to do all the rushing about for both of us.”
Sereya's thumb hovered above the screen.
Dhomhes looked at her. “Would you like me to call?”
Roemary stood close enough that Sereya could smell her perfume. Dhomhes kept his eyes on Sereya.
She touched the screen.
“There.”
His name settled into her contacts.
“Thank you for the company, Sereya.”
“You're welcome.”
“And the warning about the tea.”
She smiled before she remembered not to.
Roemary watched the smile. Then she put a hand on Dhomhes's arm.
“We'll let you get back to your important work.”
He inclined his head and left by the upper path.
Sereya stood very still until he was gone.
Roemary looked at the cup.
“Was that really worth missing luncheon?”
“I didn't know you were waiting.”
“Of course you didn't.”
The pale skirt whispered against the steps as Roemary turned. Sereya carried the cup to the tray by the entrance. She set it down carefully, although part of her wanted to put it in her pocket beside the comm.
Which was absurd.
It was a cup. She could leave it here. The declaration had happened whether she kept proof of it or not.
He had offered her his life. She had accepted.
And somehow she had still forgotten to tell him that she liked his smile.
“Sereya.”
She followed.
Revealing nothing as she followed Roemary.
Roemary waited until the suite door closed.
“What did he want?”
Sereya put her comm beside the folded clothes on the couch.
“We talked.”
“I saw that. About what?”
“His family. The courtyard.”
Roemary pulled at the clasp behind her neck. It caught in her hair. Sereya stayed where she was; after a moment Roemary wrenched it loose herself.
“I explained how delicate this is. He has responsibilities. People watching him. He can't spend every hour being openly attentive to me.”
Sereya said nothing.
“Talking to my companion is a way of learning about me without making an announcement. You understand that, don't you?”
The possibility had been the first thing Sereya put to him. She had practically handed him the excuse.
He had admitted his poor beginning.
And she didn't say anything, maintaining her posture, because she knew. Because it always went that way with Sereya.
Then he had told her what his body knew, and waited for her answer.
She hadn't thought he'd been speaking to her at first. Part of her expected that Roemary was behind her somewhere.
But she wasn't.
He had been speaking to her.
To Sereya.
Not anyone else.
“He asked me to be his mate,” Sereya finally said. “I accepted. We're in Courtship.”
Roemary's fingers stopped at the clasp.
For a moment Sereya saw her without the patient expression. Her mouth had gone flat, her eyes fixed on Sereya's face. Then she smiled.
“And he left you here with me?”
“He has work. He asked for my contact.”
“Yes. In front of me. Where he could be certain I wouldn't find it threatening.”
She set the clasp on the table with a sharp little click.
“They brought us here for an experiment, Sereya. To see what their bodies do. Don't confuse a result with knowing what he'll want once the excitement passes.”
Sereya held her gaze.
She had heard him say her name.
He had known exactly whom he was asking.
Her stomach turned, feeling the cinch that Roemary was putting on it. The doubt that she fed her.
“Did you tell him anything about me?” Roemary asked as she adjusted her dress.
“No.”
Roemary studied her. Sereya folded the loose edge of her bandage into place.
“I only ask because you can be impulsive when someone is kind to you,” Roemary said at last.
Sereya's hands stopped.
“A little interest. A sympathetic question. You forget yourself.”
Roemary came closer.
“I'd hate for you to do that again.”
Sereya raised her eyes.
“He asked about the tea.”
“Today.”
Roemary picked a thread from Sereya's shoulder. An affectionate little gesture, if anyone had been there to see it.
“Tomorrow it might be your family. Where you come from. Why you never mention anyone waiting to hear you've arrived safely.”
Sereya could feel her heartbeat in her bandaged hand.
“I know what to say.”
“Of course you do. You've had plenty of practice.”
Roemary smoothed the fabric she had just touched.
“But he's clever. Everyone says so. And all those connections. If he became curious, really curious, there would be so many people he could ask.”
She did not need to say the name Sereya had given her aboard the ship. Sereya heard it anyway.
“I'm trying to spare you that.”
The worst part was that Dhomhes probably could find things out. He was a Gol-Vett. People answered him. The history Sereya lived by had been made to survive ordinary questions, but she had never been able to stop wondering where it might fail.
She had liked sitting beside him enough to forget that.
Roemary saw her expression and softened her voice.
“There. You understand. Let me handle him.”
Sereya took her comm from the couch.
“I need to have my hand checked.”
“Now?”
“It's the time they gave me.”
Roemary's mouth tightened. Then she glanced at the dressing and stepped aside.
“Don't wander off afterward. I may need you.”
Sereya closed her fingers around the comm until its edge hurt.
“I'll be back.”
The medic said her hand was healing well.
Sereya watched the old dressing come away. Under it, the cut looked smaller than it felt. The medic cleaned around the edges and asked whether she'd been keeping it dry.
She had. She answered that question easily. When the medic asked whether she was sleeping, she took too long.
“Some,” she said.
“If that doesn't improve, come back. You don't need another injury to come through this door.”
“Thank you.”
Outside, she sat on a bench to fasten her cuff over the fresh dressing.
The comm lay in her lap.
For a moment she wanted to switch the comm off and leave it in her room. No questions while she was trying to remember how to breathe.
But he would call. He had asked to, and she had said yes. He deserved an answer from her, even if she could only tell him she was frightened.
Roemary had made the promise sound foolish in less time than it had taken to make it. Sereya remembered how he had waited for her hand. She opened the comm before she could let Roemary's voice replace his.
She opened his contact.
There was an empty field waiting for a message.
She wrote that she would be busy for the next few days. Read it. Deleted it.
Then she wrote something smaller, which somehow took more courage.
I liked talking to you too.
She sent it before she could turn it into an apology.
The answer came while she was still staring at the screen.
I'm glad. How is your hand?
Better. They changed the dressing.
Where are you?
Her stomach tightened.
A second message arrived.
I'm near the medical rooms. I have a few minutes before my transport, if you'd like company.
Sereya let out a breath.
She told him where she was.
When he appeared at the end of the gallery, he had changed into a dark jacket and was looking at the signs above the doors. He passed the turning once, stopped, and came back.
Sereya laughed before he reached her.
“You live here.”
“I stay here. An important distinction.”
“You were going the wrong way.”
“For a very short distance.”
He stopped beside the bench. She moved the comm from the empty space, and he sat.
“Good news?” he asked, looking at her wrist.
“Yes. I don't need to go back unless it gets worse.”
“And the jaw?”
She touched the fading graze. “Apparently my face will survive.”
He smiled. “I'm relieved.”
She looked at him a moment longer than she ought to have.
This was the other voice. She had not imagined it.
“What is it?” he asked.
Sereya folded her hands, careful of the dressing.
“I like yours too.”
His brow lifted.
“Your smile,” she said, before courage deserted her. “I should have said so in the courtyard.”
For once he did not have an answer ready. The look on his face made the whole frightening business of sending the message worthwhile.
“You can do that more often,” he said.
“Tell you you're handsome?”
“That wasn't quite what you said, but I won't argue with a generous interpretation.”
She laughed, and he smiled properly this time.
Two attendants passed with a trolley. Sereya waited for their footsteps to fade before looking down at her hands.
“I don't always know what to say when people ask about home.”
The words came out more abruptly than she intended. She pressed her fingers together.
Dhomhes waited.
“You didn't do anything wrong,” she added. “Earlier. I asked you.”
“I remember.”
“I mean that being in Courtship doesn't make those answers easy. If I don't answer something, it might not be because I don't want to talk to you.”
She kept her eyes on the dressing. It was easier than watching him decide whether that made her too much trouble.
“All right,” he said.
She looked up.
“That's all?”
“Would you like a speech? I could probably find one.”
“No.”
“Then that's all.”
Sereya leaned back against the wall. She had not known how much she wanted that answer until he gave it.
For a few breaths, they watched the light on the opposite floor.
“There's one thing you could tell me,” he said.
Her shoulders began to tighten.
“Whether you actually like tea, or simply felt obliged to keep drinking it.”
She turned toward him.
“I like tea.”
“Good. That narrows my next invitation considerably.”
“I might like other things too.”
“I hoped you would.”
She looked at his mouth. Realized where she was looking and lifted her eyes quickly enough that he certainly noticed.
His own smile changed, just a little.
The space between them felt smaller.
“You said you had a transport,” she managed.
“I do.” He checked his comm with obvious reluctance. “And now I have a driver wondering whether I've forgotten.”
He stood. Sereya rose with him, smoothing her tunic.
She did not want another abrupt ending with Roemary's voice arriving to fill it.
“Would you tell me what the stars look like?”
He paused.
“When you get there,” she said. “If you have a moment.”
“I could call you.”
“Yes.”
He looked pleased. That was still surprising enough to make her feel a little unsteady.
“I'll send a message first. You can tell me if it's a bad time.”
“All right.”
She put her uninjured hand briefly on his forearm.
She had meant only to say goodbye. His gaze fell to her fingers, and she remembered his warmth beside the pool.
“This one's deliberate,” she said quietly.
He covered her hand with his.
“I was hoping it might be.”
She stayed for one more breath, then let go.
“Go. Before your driver comes looking for you.”
“That would be embarrassing.”
“Especially if he knew the way.”
Dhomhes laughed all the way to the turning.
Sereya watched him take the right path this time.
Her comm chimed as he disappeared.
Roemary wanted to know where she was.
Sereya answered that the medic had finished and she was returning. Nothing untrue. Nothing offered that Roemary could take apart.
Then she put the comm away and walked back through the gallery, slowly enough to keep the sound of his laugh for herself a little longer.