Against the Empire: The Dominion and Michian (41 page)

With a promise to come back the next day, they stopped their work and walked back to Bethany’s crew. The progress was noticeable. “We can finish getting the main to Green Street tomorrow, but I’ve been asked to work on another project, so I’ll have to take my leave tomorrow afternoon,” she told the foreman. “This was the worst part, and we’ll have it done, making the neighborhood a healthier place. Later, putting the rest of the line in from here won’t take more than another three days.”

“When will you return? Should I hold this crew for a little bit to work with you?” the foreman asked.

Bethany looked at Alec, who shook his head. “No, I’m not sure when I’ll be back. You can put them to work elsewhere.” She said her goodbyes and the three walked off together.

“Let’s eat someplace outside the hotel tonight,” Bethany suggested. “I’ve eaten in here for days, and I want a change.” The other two agreed, they asked the hotel clerk for a suggestion, and they wound up near the cathedral, eating at a restaurant that served varieties of meat and vegetables in thick soup, served in bowls of baked, soft bread. “This is good. It would be wonderful in winter,” Bethany said.

“Why?” Rief asked.

“You know, because it’s so much colder in the winter, and this is so warm and filling,” Bethany replied.

“How much colder does it get?” Rief asked

“When I was in Michian, it was very warm,” Alec stepped into the conversation. “Does the temperature ever change a great deal?”

“Not a lot,” Rief explained. “We get some rain in the wet season.”

“Oh, up where my family comes from, we have snow in the winter, and the ponds get ice on them,” Bethany exclaimed. “It gets tiring after too much, but it is nice to have the seasons change.”

“How far north did your family live, Bethany?” Alec asked. “Did you ever hear of Lord Bayeux?”

“There was a Lord Bayeux who was a cousin to my grandfather. We’re distantly related, although my family came from the younger sons at some point,” she answered. “We went up there to the estate during the summers when I was a child. I remember my father had to come back to the city while we stayed up there.”

“The nun I spoke to the other night told me that Lord Bayeux is the person who brought me to the orphanage when I was a baby. My mother died up there in a horse-riding accident,” Alec said.

“Will you go there someday?” Bethany asked.

“I almost went there this week. If Rief hadn’t introduced us, I had thought of going there to try to find the person we must take back to the cave,” Alec explained.

“Are you really sure it’s me you’re supposed to take?” Bethany asked. “Why didn’t John Mark just tell you it was me?”

“Maybe he thought I’d refuse to approach you on my own, since I know your attitude towards me,” Alec answered quickly. “I don’t know why any of this happens the way it does. But I know that you are the one we need.”

“For whatever it is,” Bethany added tartly.

“Yes,” Alec answered. “Now, shall we head back to the hotel?”

“Yes, let’s. I have to write a number of notes,” Bethany answered.

They left the restaurant, Rief in the middle and no conversation flowing between the other two.

A round of curt goodnights occurred as they went to their respective rooms. Alec paced restlessly in the small space he shared with Rief. “Tarnum, sit down please,” Rief finally asked. “You’re making me nervous.”

“I think I’ll go walk around the city, Rief,” Alec promptly announced. “I’ll be back in a little while.”

He left the room, went downstairs and was out the door, strolling at a rapid pace to no particular place.

Minutes later, Rief was tapping at Bethany’s door. “Alec went for a walk, which is good. He was driving me crazy. May I come in and join you so I don’t have to sit alone?” she asked.

“Yes, please do,” Bethany said graciously. “I just need to finish up this note and I’ll be done.” She sat at a desk and wrote for two minutes, then sealed the letter in an envelope. “There, mission accomplished! All the letters will leave tomorrow, and by the time they get to Oyster Bay, I’ll be gone and everyone there will be scratching their heads trying to figure out why I left and where I went.” She did not mention the letter she had written for Allisma, which did tell where she was going, who she was with, and why.

“This will be a passing strange time,” Rief said, lying back on Bethany’s bed.

“In every way it can be described,” Bethany agreed. “But how in particular do you mean?”

“I figured out back in Michian that the healer didn’t see me as a mate. But that doesn’t mean I’m satisfied with being just a friend. Now here you are, and though you’ll deny it, there’s definitely something going on between you and him,” Rief told her. “And I like you both enough, I wish you joy, but it’s going to be strange.

“You know, Alec, as you call him, told me this morning that when this is all over, we’d be able to live a regular life,” she went on. “Tell me, what is a regular life for me?”

“You are a healer ingenaire! A healer! For you, a regular life will be anything you want it to be! No one even heard of such a thing until Alec came along a couple of years ago. Do you want to be a courtier in a Duke’s court, or a traveling surgeon, or would you like to settle into the Healer’s House on Ingenairii Hill and let all the high and mighty come to you every day?” Bethany said with a smile. “There’s no limit to your life ahead. It’s just whatever you want it to be.

“You heard the two of us squabble this evening,” Bethany added, thinking of her own prospects for a regular life. “It felt awkward.”

“You care enough about each other to squabble over things. You haven’t seen each other in how long? There’s going to be some adjustment, especially if you were so mean and cruel to our poor boy the last time you saw him,” Rief answered.

“I was not mean and cruel!” Bethany exclaimed. “He and I see some things differently.” She paused. “I know you told me you’ve thrown yourself at him. I won’t stand in the way if you mean to keep trying.”

“And I told you he wasn’t interested, because someone else had broken his heart, namely you. And if you’re this close and available, he isn’t going to be interested in me,” Rief replied, speaking slowly. “He isn’t the type of boy who takes advantage of girls. He has a very strict set of morals.

“What are you going to do about your old boyfriend, Tritos? How are you going to break up with him?” she asked.

Bethany glanced quickly at the pile of letters she had written to mail. “I am not breaking up with him. I’ve written him a letter, telling him I have to leave for an unknown time. I told him he’s been a good friend, but that I know there are things we aren’t completely compatible in.

“It’s so hard to say things like that in a letter. So I didn’t break up with him, but maybe it’s coming, Rief. I can’t say. Well, I can say – now that I’ve seen Alec, I do think Tritos and I will break up. He was so comforting and kind and friendly, and here’s the important part after Alec, he was attentive and available. I’ve never had a rebound before.”

“Do you think Tarnum had a rebound?” Rief asked.

“You mean Imelda?” Bethany asked.

“I don’t know the girl, but apparently you do,” Rief told her.

“I wouldn’t call Imelda a rebound if she was within a hundred miles of me. She is one girl who is all about fight! But she’s a good person, and she’s good-looking too, in her own way,” Bethany reflected. “Maybe she was something like a rebound. She was a good choice for Alec if she was. Maybe she thought she was a rebound too,” Bethany mused. “Maybe that’s why she told him ‘no.’

“How about you? Did you ever have a rebound after breaking up with a boyfriend?” she asked Rief.

“I was a slave. I never had a boyfriend. I could have; lots of slaves did, but it’s awkward for slaves compared to free people. Slaves get traded sometimes, or commanded to be somewhere and they can’t be with their mate, or of course some slaves are used by their masters, and there are jealousy and fidelity questions and pains,” she said.

They chatted on into the night for hours, and when Rief returned to her room, Alec was already in bed, drowsy and on the verge of sleep. Rief changed and crawled into bed beside him.

“
Is everything okay?” he roused himself to ask.

“
Yes. Would you hold me, healer?” she whispered, moving over to lie close beside him. Alec made a soft sound in his throat and rolled over, placed his arms over the lonely girl, and fell asleep.

Chapter 39 – Return to the Cave

The next morning they awoke together, their heads on the same pillow. Alec sat up, slightly embarrassed. “Where were you? I came back and you weren’t here and you weren’t in the common room?” he asked.

“I was in Bethany’s room with her. We were talking,” she told him, also sitting up.

“We don’t know where we’re going next. I thought that today in the market we might buy some travel bread and other supplies to take back with us to the cave,” he suggested. “I’m nervous,” he admitted. “I don’t understand why Bethany is necessary for this.”

They got up and got dressed. “Maybe she’s not necessary for the trip,” Rief said.

“What do you mean? Do you think we could go back to the cave without her?” he asked.

“No. Maybe she is necessary for you, not the trip,” Rief said.

“That’s an unusual thing to think,” Alec said nervously.

Rief bit her tongue, and led Alec out the door. They found Bethany already at breakfast, and joined her. “I’m not sure what to do with my luggage. I assume you don’t want me to bring it all with me,” she said.

Alec thought. “We could store it. We could store it at Natha’s dock here, or at the orphanage,” he suggested. “I could carry it to the orphanage this morning for you.”

“Would you please? Where will we meet to leave?”she asked.

“Rief and I will practice healing in our shop until you’re done with your job, and then we can all walk back here together,” Alec said.

“Rief, you’re always so quiet when he makes suggestions,” Bethany commented. “You’ve got to speak up! You need to contradict him sometimes just to prove you can.”

“I was raised as a slave,” Rief replied calmly. “It doesn’t pay to speak up when you’re a slave. Unless your master is a mute,” she added. “That was fun, to be in charge of talking for a few days.”

“You didn’t hesitate to speak up then, I noticed,” Alec chimed in.

Rief kicked him under the table.

“I need to go get my crew started,” Bethany said, standing. “My bags are in my room. Just put the small blue bag with yours, and take the rest to the orphanage,” she instructed as she left the room.

Alec and Rief ate their breakfast, then went up to Bethany’s room, from which Alec hauled two bags to the orphanage. After a visit to several vendors at the market, and a trip to the tailor to pick up their own clothes, they went to their healing shop, and treated the health needs of a constant stream of patients until Bethany’s arrival.

“I’ve finished,” she said standing in the room of patients. The two healers finished serving those in the room with them, then walked with Bethany back to the hotel. Alec suggested they go up to their room to pick up their bags and depart from there.

“Where’s you other bed?” Bethany asked with raised eyebrows. “The two of you slept together in this one bed? And you haven’t proposed to this girl yet, Alec?”