Heart Journey (26 page)

“Ah, I will have my father, T’Cherry, contact you,” Raz said.

“Done,”
Nuada’s Sword
said.

Raz said, “And you might want to check the specs at the Guildhall to make sure there aren’t any discrepancies there. And, ah, I’d like to take a tour with my father . . .”

“Visitors are always welcome. I authorize Captain Elder to show you all my restricted places.”

“Thank you,” Raz said and bowed to the camera. Once again he’d noticed it sooner than Del. She was more interested in the feel of Raz against her than history, no matter how exciting Discovery Day had been.

“In return for your Cherry stories,” Ship added.

Raz laughed. “We’ll do that. I’ll tell him to think about the stories.”

“You might ask your sister, too,” Del said.

“She’s younger than I am.”

“You, an actor, should know that different people remember different things, can learn differently”—she gestured around them—“express themselves differently.”

This time Captain Elder gave a little cough and looked at her.

“Yes?”

“You make those landscape globes, right?” he said.

“Yes.” And once again she became aware of the lack of Flair around her. She’d been able to ignore it.

“Could I buy one for my wife’s Nameday? She can keep it at her offices in JudgementGrove.”

“I’ll be glad to give you one”—she made a half bow—“for all your help here.”

He snorted. “My duty, to interface between Ship and the rest of Celta.”

“Ah, Ship and Captain Elder?” Raz said. “It occurs to me that you might want to know there is a revival of the play
Heart and Sword
in Gael City. Do you have contacts there?”

“I want a viz of it!” the Ship said.

“The Ship is very noble in that play,” Captain Elder said.

“As are Captain Bountry and Fern Bountry.”

The present Captain shrugged. “The Ship’s technological connections with Flair don’t work as far as Gael City.”

“My friend is playing Fern Bountry—” Raz said.

“We could travel down and viz it for you,” Del said. She’d been wanting to get away with Raz, and more than once. “The Cherrys’ express airship takes only a few hours.”

But Raz stepped away from her, his face impassive. Dammit! She’d moved too fast—had been moving slower than she’d liked and now had pressed too far too fast. It had been easier when her mind and emotions had been more focused on Helendula.

She took her own pace or two away from Raz. No use letting him think that she would pursue him if he ran. Not only did she have her pride, but she was trying to be subtle.

So she shrugged through her hurt, put a calm expression on her face. They’d been together a lot over the last couple of days and she wanted more, especially time alone with him. Yearned for that. Too bad.

She smiled at Captain Elder, dipped her head. “I’ll work on that landscape globe for you.”

When she turned to Raz—who had his hands in his pockets—she said, “I know you have a matinee performance. You need to get home and change, or to the theater.” He liked to meditate before a performance on that couch of his. She’d already ordered a world tapestry delivered to the theater that morning, so it would be there when he walked into his dressing room. That would remind him of her. She didn’t know if that was good or bad right now, whether it would push him away or not. “Shunuk and I will run home,” she said.

“It’s raining,” Captain Elder said. “But there’s a public teleportation pad in a gazebo in Landing Park.”

Del shrugged again, shifted. “A little rain won’t hurt us. We’re used to it on the trail.” May as well not watch her tongue around Raz since he’d withdrawn for her. She’d remind herself who she was and what her future plans—to map the world—were. But she stepped up to her HeartMate and kissed him on the mouth, only feathering her tongue along his lips.

She stepped back.
Shunuk,
she called mentally, then recalled where she was. No Flair worked here; she shifted mindsets. “Ship, can you ask my Fam, Shunuk, to meet me at the south entrance?”

“I could,” Ship said, “but he is here.”

There was a bark and the door slid open. Shunuk trotted in, his muzzle stretched in a grin. She knew that smile. He’d been fed well. Again. “Let’s go home,” she said and winced inwardly. The estate wasn’t her home. She’d always considered the trail her home, had been fine with that.

“I’ll see you soon.” She smiled at Raz, let it become a real, sexy smile, as if she still didn’t have a pang in her heart. Just a hot-affair- type of smile between lovers.

Then she turned to Captain Elder again, nodded. “I’ll see you soon, too.”

“We’ll do dinner sometime this week?”

“Sure. Have your wife send a message to my cache. Later, Ship.”

“Thank you for coming,” Ship said. “I will notify you if I find any more discrepancies.”

“I’m sure you will.” She strode from the room without another look at Raz.

Shunuk followed, but his eyes narrowed. Del figured he was trying to tell her something mentally but couldn’t. Finally he huffed and kept up with her pace down the long straight metal corridor. He stopped at a branching corridor that would lead to the eastern entrance and wagged his tail.

“South entrance, running home.”

The fox sat and yipped. Decidedly.

“You’re getting too citified,” she said. “Maybe even plump.”

That didn’t move him. He just pointed his nose in the direction of the eastern entrance and Landing Park and the teleportation pad that would be there.

“It’s not more than five or six kilometers to home,” she said, and again the word
home
nearly stopped her, seemed to echo in the metal hall.

Shunuk barked, deeper, then headed down the hallway, turning his head back to see if she followed.

With a puff of breath, Del went after him, though she needed good exercise, some thinking time, and not at “home,” a place that didn’t appeal to her.

When the round iris-opening door expanded, she saw the rain beating down. Her half-formed plan of a ride vanished. No use taking a stridebeast out in this, let alone a horse, making them as miserable as—no, she wasn’t miserable. She just needed to think on things.

Shunuk shot away, angling through the rain to a small gazebo that held a teleportation pad. No one was there. No one was in the entire park, not even in the other structures. City people. A little rain put them off all sorts of pleasures.

Del’s imagination flashed a scene of her and Raz rolling around in bed while listening to the patter of raindrops. She put it aside and inhaled deeply. Less conglomeration of Flair here . . . but still very lush and green. A pretty park she could appreciate, even during the gray day and as the steady rain became sheets.

The fox stood on the top step of the shelter and shook himself, flicked his tail at her.
FamWoman?
he said mentally.

Her Fam was wise enough to say nothing more about the glider or Raz.

“I think I’d like some hot clucker and noodle soup when we get home,” Del said.

She walked to the gazebo, stepped on the teleportation pad, picked Shunuk up, and visualized the empty house that was not a home.

A bad time to realize she already loved Raz.

 

 

R
az watched as Del walked from the room, a little shock shimmering
in his nerves.

She’d mentioned going away and he’d balked. His feet had removed him from her even as his hands ached to keep touching her.

He was torn. He wanted her, but everything was moving fast and more intensely than he’d anticipated.

“When would you and your father want to tour the Ship?” asked Ruis loudly.

Raz turned smoothly to face the man. “How about Midweek, MidEveningBell. That’s when we work on the models.”

“Ship, did you make the appointment?” Captain Elder asked.

“Yes. We will see you then,” Ship said.

Raz and the Captain bowed farewell at the same time. Raz noticed the man’s manner was cooler toward him now that Del wasn’t present.

“Merry meet,” Raz said.

The Captain’s eyes warmed a little. “And merry part,” he gave the traditional response.

“And merry meet again,” Raz said. He kept his spine and shoulders straight. He was the lower one in status here, but he wouldn’t fawn, even though the Ship and the Captain impressed him. The Captain nodded and turned in the opposite direction, toward what Raz deduced was his own rooms, and Raz could only wonder what they looked like. A curiosity that might not be satisfied without Del’s—or his father’s—presence.

Raz walked through the Ship to the bay door through which he and Del and her Fam had entered. He missed Del’s hand in his. To Raz’s surprise, his glider had been brought into the Ship.

Absently, he told Cherry to return home, then shifted in his seat. He was uncomfortable with himself and his reaction to Del.

She’d put on a little mask. Had dropped one over her features after he’d instinctively stepped away.

He didn’t like that.

He’d hurt her, and he liked that even less.

But
he
had been completely honest and open . . . even as he was hurting her. A grumble escaped him and he tunneled his fingers through his hair. They’d been open and honest, then he’d hurt her and she’d had to cover her feelings.

Yes, their affair was getting intense. Far more intense than anticipated.

Then she’d mentioned the trail, and his stomach had clenched. She hadn’t spoken of leaving Druida City for a while, and though he didn’t want her to go, it was also a reason why he could be so honest with her. Because the time of the affair was limited.

He was torn about that, too.

She’d said she couldn’t live in Druida City and he knew that to be true. The restrictions on her, the expectations for the single head of a noble household, would stifle her, erode what he loved—liked—best about her.

His career was in the city. That was the only way he could become what he wanted—a famous actor whom people would pay to see, whom they’d talk about. Who would continue to work at what he did best, at what fulfilled him most.

As being on the trail fulfilled Del.

He snarled at the thought. Too damn conflicted.

 

 

S
ince it didn’t seem like she’d be exercising outside, Del took herself
down to the HouseHeart to soak in the hot spring and brood.

Walking or running or riding kept the broods away and she rarely gave in to them, but now she would actually have to think and plan. Maybe even strategize.

The HouseHeart soothed her, as it was meant to. There was little of her parents here, more of Aunt Inula and even Doolee. Del sighed as she sat on the underwater bench, let the spring bubble around her.

A year ago Del would have assessed the situation and left Raz alone to build his career, gone off to continue her own. Wouldn’t have stayed in the city for an eightday.

She was the last Elecampane. That had knocked one of the stable supports out from under her. She had always known that the other side of the Family was solid and procreating and would continue the name and traditions.

Doolee had presented another problem, making Del change her life to accommodate someone else. Now Doolee was a beloved part of Del’s life that she couldn’t walk away from.

She was a different person than a few short weeks ago. Looking back, she didn’t think it was wise to crawl back into that brittle cocoon of self-sufficiency. Much as she hated to admit it, she
had
been on her way to becoming a frontier woman uncaring of much other than her own passions.

She had wanted Raz as a partner but hadn’t been interested in compromising. If he’d been another cartographer, or a tracker like Straif, or someone who had a solitary path of an outdoor career—even a landscaper or gardener, they might have made do. But Raz was Raz, charming, gregarious, outgoing, opposite her.

Honest, caring, determinedly striving in his career, like her.

If she hadn’t stayed and gotten to know him, she might have been satisfied with occasional HeartMate sex dreams. Since she had, she wanted the man. The question was what she’d have to do to keep him and whether she could compromise enough to do that.

He’d have to compromise, too. She
couldn’t
stay in Druida. The city would drive her mad in a couple of months. That was the main crux of their problem, would be the breaking point. But Raz’s compromising wasn’t something she could control, so she dismissed it. Worry about that later.

T’Anise had continued to call and pressure her to meet with the Bloom Noble group, especially since she hadn’t attended Full Twinmoons last week. He’d chided her and mentioned her parents again. There seemed to be a social event every other day, usually at his antique shop, which she figured was old and musty. She shuddered; she wouldn’t be caught in that web.

Thinking of her parents and their determination to raise the status of the Elecampane Family had her remembering their advice as they plotted the next step up in the social ladder. “Give him what he wants and he will give me what I want,” was a favorite saying of theirs.

She only hoped she could give Raz enough.