Miles Errant - Lois McMaster Bujold [384]
Her nose wrinkled. "That backward pit? Why?"
"I . . . have some interests there. In fact, it's where I'm planning to retire. It's a very beautiful place, really. And underpopulated. They encourage, um . . . children." He was skirting dangerously close to breaking his cover, the strained identity he'd risked so much lately to retain. "And there'd be lots of work for a galactic-trained physician."
"I'll bet. But I've been a slave all my life. Why would I choose to be a subject, when I could choose to be a citizen?" She smiled wryly, and came to him, and twined her arms around his shoulders. "Those five days we were locked up together at Vasa Luigi's—that wasn't an effect of the imprisonment, was it. That's the way you really are, when you're well."
"Pretty much," he admitted.
"I'd always wondered what adult hyperactives did for a living. Running several thousand troops would just about absorb your energies, wouldn't it?"
"Yes," he sighed.
"I think I'll always love you, some. But living with you full-time would drive me crazy. You are the most incredibly domineering person I think I've ever met."
"You're supposed to fight back," he explained. "I rely on—" he couldn't say Elli, or worse, all my women, "my partner fighting back. Otherwise, I couldn't relax and be myself."
Right. Too much togetherness had destroyed their love, or at least her illusions. The Barrayaran system of using go-betweens to make marital arrangements was beginning to look better all the time. Maybe it would be best to get safely married first, and then get to know each other. By the time his bride figured him out, it would be too late for her to back out. He sighed, and smiled, and gave Rowan an exaggerated, courtly bow. "I shall be pleased to visit you on Escobar, milady."
"That would be joust perfect, sir," she returned, deadpan.
"Ow!" Dammit, she could be the one, she underestimated herself—
Lilly Junior, sitting on the sofa watching all this with fascination, coughed. Miles glanced at her, and thought about her account of her time with the Dendarii.
"Does Mark know you're here, Lilly?" he asked.
"I don't know. I've been with Rowan."
"The last time Mark saw you, you were going back with Vasa Luigi. I . . . think he'd like to know you changed your mind."
"He tried to talk me into staying on the ship. He didn't talk so well as you," she admitted.
"He made this all happen. He bought your passage out of here." And Miles wasn't sure he wanted to think about the coin. "I just trailed along. Come on. At least say hello, goodbye, and thank you. It will cost you nothing, and I suspect it would mean something to him."
Reluctantly, she rose, and allowed him to tow her out. Rowan gave them a nod of approval, and returned to her hasty packing.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
"Did you find them?" Lord Mark asked.
"Yes," said Bothari-Jesek tightly.
"Did you destroy them?"
"Yes."
Mark flushed, and leaned his head back against Lilly's chair, feeling the weight of gravity. He sighed. "You looked at them. I told you not to."
"I had to, to be sure I was getting the right ones."
"No, you didn't. You could simply have destroyed them all."
"That's what I finally did. I started to look. Then I turned off the sound. Then I put them on fast-forward. Then I started just spot-checking."
"I wish you hadn't."
"I wish I hadn't. Mark, there were hundreds of hours of those holovids. I couldn't believe there was so much."
"Actually, there were only about fifty hours. Or maybe it was fifty years. But there were multiple simultaneous recordings. I could always see a holovid pick-up hovering, out of the corner of my eye, no matter what was going on. I don't know if Ryoval made them to study and analyze, or just to enjoy. A bit of both, I guess. His powers of analysis were appalling."
"I . . . don't understand some of what I saw."
"Would you like me to explain it to you?"
"No."
"Good."
"I can understand why you'd want them destroyed. Out of context . . . they would have been a horrible lever for blackmail. If you want to swear me to secrecy,