Chapter 10 #2
“There you are.” Roemary's gaze passed over the two cups, their hands, the small space between them. “I've been looking everywhere.”
“I'm here,” Sereya said.
“Yes. I can see that.” She turned to Dhomhes. “Gol-Vett. I was hoping for a moment with you.”
“Is something wrong?”
“Must something be wrong?” Her laugh was light. “You've made yourself very difficult to find.”
“I've had a great deal to do.”
“Then perhaps we could arrange something. A meal, when you aren't being pulled in six directions.”
Sereya reached for her tea. The cup was still warm. She held it carefully in both hands.
Dhomhes didn't look away from Roemary. “I'm not available for a private meal.”
“Not today, obviously.”
“I understood.”
Roemary's smile remained in place. Only the skin beside her mouth tightened.
For one appalling moment, Sereya wanted to apologize. To make it easier for Roemary, offer an explanation he had not offered himself, give her something to carry away that wasn't a refusal.
She drank her tea.
“Well.” Roemary turned toward her. “I need you to find the official who was explaining the housing arrangements. I promised I'd introduce her to someone.”
“She's beside the entrance,” Sereya said. “In green.”
“I know what she's wearing.”
“Then you should be able to find her.”
The words were perfectly ordinary. Her heartbeat behaved as though she had shouted them.
Dhomhes reached for his cup without intervening.
Roemary glanced toward the entrance. When she turned back, she had become gracious again.
“Of course. Enjoy your tea.”
She walked away.
Sereya watched her go until she reached the official. A hand on an elbow, a sympathetic tilt of the head. Anyone watching would have thought the afternoon was going very well.
“Do I owe you an apology?” Dhomhes asked.
She looked back at him. “For what?”
“Making things difficult.”
“You didn't.”
He raised a brow.
“She was going to be difficult anyway,” Sereya admitted.
“Ah.”
“And I wanted to stay here.”
His eyes warmed. “I'm glad you did.”
A comm sounded beneath his sleeve.
He looked at it, and the change in him was immediate. His shoulders settled, his head lifted, and the male who had been teasing her about tea was suddenly listening to something she couldn't hear.
“Excuse me.”
“Of course.”
He stepped aside. Across the gallery, a guard touched his own comm. Another moved to the doors. Conversation continued around Sereya, but the server nearest the entrance stopped with a tray balanced at her waist.
Sereya put her cup down.
By the time Dhomhes returned, she was already looking for Roemary.
“What's happened?”
“The four of them were attacked at Terra North. I don't have a confirmed report on them yet.”
The floor seemed to tilt. She held the sill behind her.
“Has something happened here too?”
“No attack has been reported here. The residence guards are securing the building.” He glanced toward the doors. “They'll help everyone back to their rooms.”
People had begun to notice. Someone asked a question too loudly. Another voice rose to answer it, equally loud and less certain.
Dhomhes turned to the nearest guard. “Give them the instructions clearly. No speculation.”
The guard nodded and moved toward the center of the room.
Sereya's gaze went to Dhomhes's hand. A few minutes ago she had been holding it.
“Your friends,” she said.
“I need to find out.”
He wasn't pretending to know. She could see how much he wanted to.
“Go,” she told him.
A muscle moved in his jaw. “Stay with the residence escort. If anything changes, they'll tell you.”
“I will.”
He looked as though he wanted to do something else. Touch her again, perhaps. She wanted it too, desperately, but the woman with the untouched plate had started to cry and a guard was waiting at his shoulder.
“Tell me when you can,” she said.
“I will.”
Then he was gone.
Sereya went to the woman by the chairs and asked if she would like help finding her room.
It gave her hands something useful to do.
The official notice reached their suite later: the attack was over, the injured were receiving care, and the residence restrictions would remain in effect while security assessed the situation.
Sereya read it standing beside the sitting-room table. The words were careful. She was grateful for the care and hated how little they told her.
Roemary came out of her bedroom.
“Any news?”
Sereya handed her the display.
Roemary read it and gave it back. “Well. That puts an end to the reception.”
“Yes.”
“What did he tell you?”
Sereya looked up.
“Dhomhes,” Roemary said. “Before he left. He spoke to you.”
“That there had been an attack. That the guards would take us back to our rooms.”
“Nothing else?”
“No.”
Roemary watched her. Sereya kept her fingers still against the edge of the display.
“You should tell me if he does.”
“Everyone will receive the notices.”
“That isn't what I mean.”
“I know.”
Roemary's eyes narrowed. Then, unexpectedly, she smiled.
“Perhaps you should keep being pleasant to him. We could all use someone who knows what's happening.”
She returned to her bedroom before Sereya could answer.
Sereya stood alone beside the table. The order was almost permission, and somehow worse than the prohibition had been.
Her comm warmed in her palm.
A message from Dhomhes.
I am safe. Sorry I hadn't been able to contact sooner.
Please tell me when you return to your room.
She closed her bedroom door before she answered.
I'm here. Thank you for telling me.
After a moment, she added another line.
I'm glad we had our tea.
His reply came quickly.
So am I.
She sat on the bed in her blue dress and let herself be glad about that much.