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“Any way you can break her of that?” Jaina murmured to Leia as they walked side by side. The secret of Allana’s identity was a closely guarded one, but Leia shared Jaina’s fear. The girl was intelligent enough to not deliberately give herself away, but she had the movement and bearing of one bred to royalty, even at age seven. It would be a significant clue if anyone understood what they were looking at.

“I figure that everyone knows she’s a ward of a former Princess and Senator,” Leia replied, pitching her voice equally soft. “It would make sense.”

Jaina snorted. “I didn’t move and stand like that.”

“Well, you are your father’s daughter. There wasn’t much I could do with you in that area.”

Han had moved ahead and swept Allana up onto his broad shoulders as she giggled delightedly. Mindful not to startle the rontos, Allana, now much closer to their eye level, slowly extended a hand. One of the great creatures perused her, then stretched out its long neck to sniff the hand curiously.

“Gentle as they come,” said a voice right next to Leia. A heavyset human with a single brow, tanned skin, and a name tag that declared him to be TEVAR SHAN, OWNER, RONTO-RAMA FARMS, TATOOINE, grinned down at her. “If you have any heavy loads to move, rontos’ll do the job for you. And as you can see, they’re even good with younglings.”

“Thanks,” Leia said, “but we’re not in the market for something that large.”

“For the girl, eh?” The man’s grin widened. “How about an eopie? I’m also part owner of Eopies Extraordinaire. We specialize in the dwarf variety, perfect for a little one.” He pointed across the flood of people to a corral that housed the pale, long-snouted, humpback creatures.

“Throw in a dewback and Uncle Luke would feel right at home,” Jaina said.

“Thanks, but I think we’ll keep looking,” Leia said, giving the man her best smile. A few paces ahead, Allana seemed more than content to stay on Han’s shoulders, and Han seemed delighted to have her there. Leia nodded to herself. This had been a good idea—not just for Allana, but for all of them. So much had been going on. A little break, to look at animals and walk around for a bit, was just what they all needed.

“How is he, by the way?” Jaina continued.

“Luke? I’ve felt him in the Force now and then, but I haven’t had a lot of contact. Especially not recently.”

Jaina nodded. “Me neither. Enough to know he and Ben are all right, though. Cilghal says she’s been keeping him up to date. More than that we probably shouldn’t know.”

Something about the way she said it caused Leia to give her a searching look, but Jaina offered nothing further. Following her instincts, Leia said, “How are things with you and Jag?”

Jaina graced her mother with a smile of rare sweetness. “Good,” she said. “Be nice to be able to have a date without making a mission out of it, but good.”

“Comes with the territory, I’m afraid. Javis Tyrr again?”

“Mostly him, some others, but mostly him. We got him good, though.” In a conspiratorial tone, Jaina told her mother about how they had tricked Tyrr at the restaurant.

“Well done. Just hope he doesn’t catch you at something. He might not enjoy the idea of us laughing at him. Something about him—maybe the hair—makes me think he doesn’t have a sense of humor when it comes to himself.”

Jaina shrugged her narrow shoulders. “He’s just a journalist. This family has survived being smeared before. What can he do? He’s not even an official observer.”

“But he is observing right now,” came Radd’s voice. He jerked his head to the left. Jaina looked in the direction indicated and groaned slightly. “Shall I go over and have a word with him?”

“No,” Jaina said quickly. “Any attention will only encourage him. Let’s head inside to the main halls and see if we can ditch him.”

Leia agreed, and the family picked up their pace. Leia spoke to her husband and Natua, and the Falleen smoothly navigated them through the river of people, threading her way while Radd, watching out for Tyrr, brought up the rear. Right before they stepped inside the large exhibition center proper, Leia