Heart of Danger (4 page)

I
was surprised and not at all pleased when Ivor turned up to walk with us to Thomas’s house. I ignored him and walked with Mother, but somehow before we’d gone more than a block found Ivor was beside me, with the rest of them slightly in front of us.

Thomas yabbered non-stop. Hera, quiet in Danyat’s arms, didn’t seem to be taking any notice of Thomas that I could see. After a few minutes, however, she said, ‘I can walk now, Danyat. I’m a big girl.’ She ran to Thomas, and he slowed his steps so that she could keep up.

Okay, so he might have a good gene or two in his make-up, but he still had a way to go before he could put my suspicions to rest.

He led us out of the section of the city where our house was, across a wide swathe of grass and roadway, into the next group of houses and gardens.

For something to say, I asked, ‘What do you call these things? Settlements? House groups?’

‘They’re enclaves, silly.’ Thomas swivelled around to show me the sneer on his face.

Ivor rapped a finger on his head. ‘Silvern would growl, Thomas.

It worked like magic. His face fell. ‘I’m sorry. I forgot. Things were different on Taris.’ He sent me a look that had a challenge in it. ‘My father told me all about it.’

‘Good,’ I said. ‘So I won’t have to keep explaining stuff to you.’

‘See what I mean about the power of Silvern?’ Ivor put an arm around my waist.

I shied away. ‘Why did you do that? Why did you put your arm around me? Don’t! I don’t want you to.’

He held up both hands in front of him. ‘Sorry! I was just being friendly.’

I frowned, walking on without looking at him because I could almost feel the smile he was ready to pound me with. At last, I said, ‘Please don’t. You don’t understand. Things were different on Taris. I haven’t got used to Outside yet.’

‘Sorry.’ He sounded so contrite that I did look at him. His expression was both sorry and wickedly gleeful. I laughed. I couldn’t help it: he was utterly different from anyone I’d ever met. And Silvern was right – he was hot. I tried not to feel just a bit flattered that he seemed to like me. I was relieved, though, that he said goodbye when we reached Thomas’s house.

Thomas was doing his usual bouncing. ‘We’re here!’ he shouted as he opened the gate. ‘Come in and meet my mum. She’s called Gilda.’

She had been watching for us, and she ran towards us, her hands out. ‘Thank you for coming! From my heart, I thank you.’

Mother took her hands, then embraced her. ‘You’re welcome, Gilda. It’s good to meet you.’

I found that was true. Meeting her put to rest any idea that she was warped, mad like Hilto, and wanting to dominate others, to rule them and bend them to her will.

Danyat took Gilda’s hands next. ‘I have good memories of Gavin Hilton from the early days of Taris. Before the crisis which changed us all.’

Gilda wiped tears from her eyes. ‘Thank you. When you are more settled, could you come and tell them to Thomas and me?’

‘It’s a promise,’ Danyat said.

I wouldn’t listen to such stories. I wasn’t ready to spend time with tales of Hilto, and I doubted I ever would be. He had wanted me dead.

We spent over an hour with Gilda and Thomas, and when we left, Mother’s eyes were shining. Gilda too worked in the spinning and weaving factory, and they had found much else in common. ‘She’ll be a good friend,’ Mother said. ‘I really am beginning to feel at home here.’

It was good that one of us was. I suspected that Danyat would never feel at home anywhere now that Grif was gone, and I was wishing myself back in Otaki, or Wellington. Dad might feel differently, though – there were plenty of gardens, so he’d fit right in.

Ivor was nowhere in sight when we set off home, but Danyat said he was sure he could navigate us back. Hera was tired and didn’t complain when he picked her up.

‘Did you like Thomas and Gilda?’ I asked her.

‘Gilda’s nice,’ she said through a huge yawn. ‘Thomas is a silly boy.’

Ha! I was right! He was dangerous – she’d said the people who wanted to take her away were silly.

But then she said, ‘He’s nice, but he’s silly.’

So what did that mean?

‘Did he make you cross, Hera?’ Danyat asked.

‘He tells me things. But I’m not silly. I know those things.’ She shut her eyes and cuddled in against him.

Brief hopes of having to flee from Thomas and New Plymouth died. Silly seemed to apply to anything that annoyed my sister. The question then was: just what sort of silly were the people who wanted to take her away?

Back at home, Mother seemed energised by the prospect of having a friend. ‘I liked Gilda. I’m surprised, but I do.’ Then she got the dreamy look on her face that I remembered so well from our Taris life. ‘And Ivor seems like a nice boy.’

‘He’s hardly a boy, Sheen. He’s a young man.’ Danyat looked at me, warnings and concern hovering in the air around him. I busied myself in helping Mother prepare a vegetable curry for our evening meal.

Hera dragged a chair over beside me. ‘We have to make enough for Oban.’

Mother put a chopping board, knife and beans in front of her. ‘Cut those up, honey girl. Like this. Good. So you think Oban will be coming to see us?’

Hera nodded. ‘He’s happy we’re here.’

That was probably right. He’d come to New Plymouth to help with machinery maintenance at the hospital during the pandemic and had decided to stay on.

Sure enough, Oban came straight after he finished work for the day. It was so good to see him, but Hera barely gave us time to greet him before she grabbed his hand to lead him away on a tour of the garden, Danyat’s caravan and the house. ‘This is
my
bedroom,’ I heard her say. ‘I don’t want Juno in
my
room.’

‘But if Juno is in your room, then there’s a spare room for visitors. It’s nice to have friends to stay.’

‘You can stay, Oban. You’re nice.’

Oban was laughing as he came out to the living room. ‘Sheen, would it ease your mind if I did stay? Until Zanin arrives?’

Tears came into Mother’s eyes and she hugged him. ‘Thank you, Oban. That will be a true gift.’

‘Shall I come and help you bring your gear over?’ I asked.

He shook his head. ‘I haven’t got much. It won’t take long. Be back soon.’

Mother was still smiling as she closed the door behind him. ‘What a lovely boy he is. What a pity Vima wouldn’t marry him.’

I wondered if he still grieved that she didn’t love him the way he had always loved her.

But Danyat was philosophical. ‘It’s good that they’ve gone their different ways. They can both forge new lives now.’

And now, of course, Oban was free to stay with us. It took some of the heaviness out of the worry about my sister’s safety.

 

We did all we could think of to keep Hera safe. Danyat walked to school with us, even though Ivor always came too, and we continued the pattern of Danyat and Hera walking in front, with me and Ivor behind.

For the rest of the week, he made no attempt to touch me, or make me the focus of that special smile, and as a result I enjoyed his company. He made me laugh and we fell into a habit of swapping stories of our lives. I relaxed. I had found a friend. But I sensed that Ivor was impatient with the way I always kept my eyes on Hera.

‘You think we’re over-reacting, don’t you?’

He did a rueful look really well. ‘Guilty as charged, your honour.’ He thought for a moment. ‘Guess I find it hard to credit that what she said about going away meant something bad.’

‘Believe me,’ I said, ‘we wouldn’t have rushed up here if we thought it was nothing.’

‘In that case,’ he said, giving my arm a lightning nudge, ‘personally I can’t find it in my heart to be sorry.’ He zapped the multi-watt smile at me, then added, ‘And of course I hope you’re wrong.’

We weren’t wrong. We needed to watch, to guard and keep my sister safe. I had to admit that Willem had been wise to tell us to come to Fairlands, where at least we could relax while Hera was at school surrounded by the bodyguard of little kids. The freedom from worry meant I could concentrate on my lessons.

Ginevra was right about her class being welcoming. They were open and friendly, with none of Ivor’s disturbing changeableness. ‘How are you finding the lessons?’ she asked at lunch on my first Friday. ‘Are they similar to what you’ve been used to?’

I pulled a face. ‘Nothing like. And we’ve never done English. Didn’t learn to read and write either. My grandmother secretly taught me, but the others only started learning once we were on the boat leaving Taris.’ I explained the pictograph system and how we’d used the voice function on the computers.

‘Wow, that’s unreal,’ she said. ‘This must be so different.’

‘Well, we wouldn’t go back to the old way even if you offered us —’ I tried to think of something spectacular, ‘a jet plane all of our own.’

She laughed. ‘What about the other subjects?’

‘So far so good, but we know there are gaps we’re going to have to catch up on.’

She asked me more questions about Taris and I would have liked to ask her if it was usual here for new students to do the afternoon work with a class two above their own, but that would have meant talking about Ivor, and I was reluctant to speak of him directly. Each day so far he’d pulled me away from my own class to join his.

On Monday, I half expected Jethro to tell me to work with my own class, but he included me in the instructions for painting the classroom next to Ivor’s.

Ivor nudged me – if you can call leaning against somebody for ten whole seconds a nudge. ‘He knows you’re a painter of stupendous talent.’ He took the paint bucket from me. It wasn’t too heavy, but the skinny handle dug into my hand.

‘Thanks.’

‘You’re entirely welcome.’

Kerpow! The multi-watt smile all for me. I increased the distance between us.

As usual, after only half an hour’s work, Peter started chanting, ‘Boring, boring, boring.’

Ivor grabbed a stepladder, wriggled it to get it sitting square and bowed to me. ‘If the fair Juno of Taris will consent to sit on this pedestal, we will beg her to entertain us with Tales of Taris.’ He seized my paintbrush and led me to the ladder.

‘I have a choice here?’ I asked.

‘Story, story, story,’ Peter chanted, and half the others joined in and put down their tools.

I climbed the ladder while the others settled on the grass to listen. Ivor lay stretched out, giving me an excellent view of his manly chest clad in a tight white
tee-shirt
. It showed off his tan to advantage too. ‘Don’t look so worried, Juno,’ he said. ‘We’ll paint between stories.’

‘Only if they’re good,’ Roberta said.

‘They’ll be good,’ Ivor told her. ‘Now shut up, you lot, and let the girl begin.’

I figured the story of the marriage arrangements on Taris would be a good place to start. ‘On Taris,’ I began, ‘you had to marry a person from your own learning stratum. That gave you a choice between seven people.’

‘You’re kidding!’ Roberta jumped up to peer at me. ‘You’re not, are you?’

I shook my head.

‘Holy crap,’ said Xavier.

I saw at least three of the girls glancing wistfully at Ivor. He noticed too, and a brief, smug smile tugged at his mouth. I pushed it out of my mind. It wasn’t surprising if some of the girls liked him the way Ginevra did.

‘But what happened if you didn’t want to marry any of them?’ Kataraina asked. ‘Or if you fell madly in love with somebody in another stratum?’

‘Ah,’ I said, choosing not to tell them how Vima and Jov had fallen in love, ‘we were too compliant. We had to follow the rules if we wanted to survive.’

Kataraina sat up to examine the boys one by one, then she shook her head, ‘Sorry, guys. I’m going to pass on all of you.’

Peter fell flat on the ground, clutching his heart and moaning. ‘My hopes are ashes! My plans in ruins! Ah, cruel lady, how you do plunge the knife into the very pulse of my life!’

I wobbled on the ladder I was laughing so hard.

‘Yeah, yeah.’ Kataraina shushed him. ‘What about wedding dresses, Juno? Gorgeous gowns?’

I shook my head. ‘Same old boring tunics, but you did get to wear a fancy cloak for the ceremony. Plus you got a lei of flowers.’

I answered their questions, all the time marvelling at how easy it was to talk to them about Taris.

Roberta sat up, ready to fire off another question, but Ivor shook his finger at her. ‘That story is worth at least fifteen minutes of hard work.’ He jumped up, held out his hand to help me down and used the opportunity to smile intimately at me.

I climbed off the ladder without his help, although I did smile back at him. Work had never been so much fun, and thanks to him, it all got completed. He even walked me home at the end of the day again, but didn’t try to put a friendly arm around me.

I spent much of the weekend trying to understand him, trying to work out what I thought of him. And got nowhere.

At least I knew where I was when I linked up with my stratum on the Sunday night conference call. Luckily, Danyat hadn’t decided to go to bed early so that I could take the mini-comp into his caravan away from my family and Oban. I decided not to mention Ivor. There was such a lot else to catch up on about our new homes and schools. Marba seemed to have become his class leader after only two days.