Competitions (47 page)

“That’s good, because I’m starving,” I said with my own smile as I turned to let him put the cloak around my shoulders. “I was too tired to eat much of the lunch I had sent up, and I remember how good the food is at that dining parlor we’re going to.”

Rion made a sound of amused agreement, and as soon as I settled the cloak around me I was ready to leave. Our little conversation had been for the benefit of anyone who might be listening, telling them why we were suddenly going out. We’d decided to “celebrate” our getting through the first of the competitions, but now we had something much more tangible to celebrate.

Rion opened the door for me, but I got no farther than two steps outside before I stopped short. My father and the man he wanted me to marry, Odrin Hallasser, were on their way in, and surprise stopped them as well.

“Why, isn’t this convenient,” my father said with a smile, recovering his balance first—as usual. “Odrin and I were coming by so that he might take you out to dinner, and here you are, already prepared to leave. I’ll just accompany you two until we reach that stables with carriages for hire just a mile or so down the street, and then I’ll leave my daughter and her betrothed alone.”

“Yes, just the way you left me alone with Gimmis,” I couldn’t help saying despite the pounding of my heart. “Real fathers protect their daughters, I’ve learned, and every one of them would spit on the sort of father
you
are. Now take your disgusting friend and get away from my house.”

“Struggle all you wish, child, but you won’t escape me,” Odrin Hallasser spoke up for the first time while my father showed a flash of furious insult. The man’s voice was deep and smooth, and the dead look in his eyes glittered sickeningly in the lamplight. “I make a practice of getting what I want, no matter how difficult it is to attain. Our nuptials are all arranged, so that once you’re released from this testing nonsense I’ll be able to take my
wife
home.”

“If it’s a wife you want, fellow, you would do well to seek elsewhere,” Rion said suddenly and lazily, somehow knowing I couldn’t quite find the nerve to answer Hallasser. “You lowborn peasants are all alike, believing that a bit of gold makes you someone of importance, but it doesn’t, actually. If you bother this lady again I’ll have to speak to some friends of mine, but right now she and
I
are on our way to dinner. Why don’t you go and do whatever it is you people do for entertainment, and stay out of the way of your betters.”

I’d never heard Rion sounding like so much of a noble before, at least not since his very first days at the residence. His hand in my back guided me between two really furious and frustrated men, and a few steps later we’d reached our hired carriage. Rion handed me in and then followed, and once the carriage began to move I let out a very deep breath.

“Thank you,” I told Rion very sincerely. “That man frightens me down to my marrow, and I couldn’t think of anything to say to him. What
you
said was absolutely perfect, and was probably the only way to reach him.”

“I detest his sort, so the pleasure was mine,” Rion returned, an unusual hardness in his voice. “And it strikes me that their appearance was too much of a coincidence. If you were in the house you could have refused to see them, so they arranged their arrival to meet you as you left. That suggests there’s a servant in your father’s pay, otherwise the timing couldn’t possibly have been so good.”

“Is there a servant in the house who
isn’t
in the pay of someone or other?” I asked, finding the situation ludicrous. “The only one I can think of is Warla, who isn’t really a servant, so maybe I ought to have a talk with her. She’s missing out on a lot of extra silver.”

“I’d be inclined to believe that selling information to outsiders is beyond her,” Rion answered with a wry chuckle for my comments. “Which really
is
too bad, since you’re obviously correct about its being a thriving business.”

“Her main problem would be finding what to sell,” I decided, enjoying the silliness of the topic. “She’s been put in charge of the house while it remains a residence, but she never pries. When I told her you and I would not be home for dinner tonight, she smiled and said she hoped we’d have a good time. A paid spy would have at least asked where we were going.”

“Very true,” Rion agreed. “And speaking about where we’re going, I need to ask if there are any decent shops in the area. With five gold dins in my pouch ready to be spent, I’d like to buy Naran a gift.”

“That’s a lovely idea, and I think I know just the place,” I said, now feeling even better. “Just three doors down from the dining parlor is a shop with some beautiful things, and I’ve always wanted to go in there. Gimmis never allowed it, of course, because their merchandise wasn’t expensive enough. He never bought anything that wasn’t extremely expensive.”

“A common error of those with more gold than taste,” Rion said with a grimace, and then he smiled. “That shop sounds as though it will do perfectly, so let’s indeed get you your first look at it.”

By then the carriage was pulling up to the dining parlor, which was just as close to the house as I’d said. Lorand had decided against taking a carriage here himself, preferring to walk as though he intended to go only a very short distance. It would ease the suspicions of anyone watching, he’d said, and at the same time would give him the chance to get some exercise.

Rion helped me out of the carriage and paid the driver, and while he did so I glanced casually around. I expected to see nothing out of the way, but those following Rion weren’t as subtle as I’d thought they’d be. A brown carriage pulled up and stopped a short way up the street, but no one got out. It was possible that the driver was simply waiting for someone to come out of one of the smaller houses nearby, but for some reason I doubted that.

So as soon as Rion finished paying off our carriage driver and returned to me, I put a hand on his arm.

“Oh, look, Rion, the shop I’ve always wanted to visit is still open,” I burbled with enthusiasm as I pointed. “Would you mind terribly if we stopped for a few minutes before going in to eat?”

“Not at all, dear lady,” he answered with a grin for my very obvious playacting. “Your slightest whim is my command. We shall browse for as long as you like.”

He offered his arm then and I took it, and we went together to “browse.” I happened to have brought one silver and one gold din of my own along, never before having had the experience of being financially independent even for a single evening. I’d been curious about how it would feel, and now I knew: it was the headiest, most wildly and exhilarating experience I’d ever had.

A bell on the shop door tinkled as we walked in, and an older woman came through closed curtains all the way at the back. She parted her lips, probably to tell us she was about to close, but then she looked at us again and simply smiled.

“Please take your time looking about, gentles,” she said in a tone that told us she would never have done the same for anyone but us. “If you see something that pleases you, I’ll be standing right here.”

Right where she could see into the many mirrors arranged discreetly around the shop, she meant. Those mirrors would let her know if we stole something, without her having to be right on top of us. I’d learned all about that years ago, as a girl, but Rion seemed to know nothing about it.

“Decent of her not to hover,” he murmured, obviously intent on looking at her merchandise. “I detest clerks who hover…”

His voice trailed off as he drifted toward a case of jewelry on the right, but I went the other way. Attractive bolts of cloth were closest to the door with a riot of ribbons beyond them, but my eye had been caught by the blown glass ornaments just past the ribbons. I’d always loved things made of blown glass, but none of it had ever been expensive enough for Gimmis to buy. Now that I had money of my own, I could consider buying anything I pleased.

Half of the glass items were beautiful little animals, the facets in the glass making them gleam in the lamplight with all the colors of the rainbow. The rest of the glass had been made into variously-shaped perfume bottles, most of them delicately and carefully tinted or decorated in different colors. I immediately fell in love with everything on display, which was very depressing. How was I supposed to choose one—or at most two—of them to buy?

“I see you’ve found something to attract your eye,” Rion said suddenly from my left, sounding amused. “We can return here in a moment, if you like, but now I would appreciate your opinion on something.”

“Of course,” I answered with a sigh, momentarily giving up on deciding among the little glass figures. Possibly once I helped Rion, I’d come back to discover that I’d made up my mind. I walked with him to the other side of the shop, where he stopped in front of the jewelry case to point.

“Which of those three brooches do you think Naran would like best?” he asked in a murmur. “I’ll pretend I’m buying it for you, and then I’ll take it with me.”

“They’re all beautiful,” I granted him, and I wasn’t lying. “That silver one with the diamonds is probably the most expensive, then the gold and ruby one, and then the silver and pearl. The workmanship on each is above average, but certainly isn’t the product of a master jeweler. They’ll probably be priced at more than they’re worth, but if you really like one of them there’s no reason not to buy it.”

“Forgive my stare,” Rion said automatically, and he
was
staring directly at me. “I find myself very surprised, and indeed a bit amazed. I’ve never heard a summation like that from anyone who wasn’t a jewelry expert.”

“If you think
I’m
good, you should try my sisters,” I said a bit sourly. “Mother wanted us all well-prepared to gauge the value of any gifts given us, and to be able to know what to choose if the choice happened to become ours. I learned it all because I wasn’t allowed not to, but what I learned most thoroughly was an indifference to all of it. I’d prefer gifts with less cost and more thought behind them.”

“Less cost and more thought,” Rion mused, glancing at the brooches before looking over to where the glasswork was. “Something tells me Naran may feel the same, so why don’t we go back to what
you
were looking at.”

I agreed rather happily, and led him back to what
I
intended to buy. Unfortunately I discovered that I still hadn’t made up my mind, which was more a disappointment than a surprise.

“Madam, a moment of your time, please,” Rion called, and the woman who was in charge of the shop came over looking less pleased than she had. She’d obviously wanted Rion to buy one of the brooches, but her expression said that any sale was better than none at all.

“Tell me something about these figures,” Rion continued once she stood on the opposite side of the counter from us. “Do you have others that aren’t out here on display?”

“Only near duplicates of the ones you see,” the woman replied. “Even though they’re all made by the same glassblower, no two are exactly alike. That gives each piece a unique quality that many people envy when they see it.”

“Unique is a quality that has always attracted me,” Rion answered her sales ploy with a charming smile. “In fact, I really appreciate the concept of unique in quantity. Which of these pieces do you have the fewest number of left?”

“Why … I believe it’s that one,” the woman responded, pointing to a darling little seated cat. “That and this particular perfume bottle over here. If I recall correctly, I have only one more of each of them.”

“Perfect,” Rion said, still showing his charming smile. “Then I’ll take this entire display, and the last two of the ones you pointed to. Please wrap the additional ones separately, as their rarity makes them especially valuable.”

“Why, yes, of course, I’ll certainly do that, sir,” the woman exclaimed, clearly as startled as I was. “I’ll wrap the more valuable ones first, and then return to do these. The price of the whole purchase is seven silver dins.”

Rion handed over a gold din, and the woman went happily away to get the other figures and Rion’s change. I sighed as I watched her go, feeling the old feeling that the world had passed me by.

“Is something wrong?” Rion asked as soon as she’d disappeared through the curtains. “Your sigh sounded rather forlorn.”

“I hadn’t realized that
I
could have bought all the figures,” I admitted ruefully. “If I hadn’t spent so much time trying to decide on one or two, all of them could belong to me. Now I can’t even get the one or two, or the woman will start to wonder. You
are
supposed to be buying them for me, after all, and anyone questioning the woman later will become suspicious if I buy more of the same.”

“Your analyses continue to be extremely accurate, except for one minor point,” Rion said, reaching over to touch my hand. “I also expect someone to come here with questions, and that’s why I gave the woman a reason for my buying duplicate figures. The two duplicates are what I’ll be taking to Naran. The rest of the figures are yours.”

“Mine?” I whispered, not quite believing my ears. “You bought them for
me
? Why?”

“Perhaps because I saw how you were unable to decide among them,” he replied with a gentle smile. “Or perhaps it’s because I’ve never before bought a gift for a friend. It’s odd how delightful the feeling is, to give a gift to someone you care about. I often gave gifts to Mother because I was taught that they were expected, but giving them never felt like this.”

“Rion, thank you,” I said, unable to rid myself of the whisper—or the tears which had begun in my eyes. “No one has ever given me anything like this—”

I found I couldn’t go on, not all choked up as I was. The little glass figures were the most wonderful things in the world right now, and it didn’t even matter that I hadn’t bought them for myself. Being able to buy them meant I no longer cared who actually did the buying. We stood there for a few moments with Rion grinning and me sniffling, and then the woman came back with a small box and Rion’s change.

Rion put away his change and then took the box, holding it while the woman packed the rest of the figures into a larger box. She had paper trays with forms pressed into their surfaces to set the figures into, and then the trays went into the box one at a time with thick cotton wool between each layer. When she finally closed the box I was fairly certain the figures were protected from being broken, but there was a moment of awkwardness when Rion tried to take the larger box, too. He needed both hands to manage it properly, and one of his hands was already occupied.