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He selected a few that were guaranteed to please the twins. Jacen and Jaina would be asleep in no time. He began to sing.

“Now what are they crying about?” Leia said, sitting up sharply and looking toward the bedroom. “Maybe I should go and see.”

Winter reached out to touch her wrist, stopping her. “It’ll be all right. They’re tired, they’re frightened, they’re anxious. Bear with them. And since you’re new to them, they’ll be testing your limits every moment, finding out how they can manipulate you. Don’t teach them that you’ll come running every time they make a sound. Children learn those sorts of things very quickly.”

Leia sighed and looked at her personal servant. For years Winter had advised her in many things, and she was usually right. “Looks like I’m the one who needs to learn things quickly.”

“Every part of it is a learning process. You must balance your love for them with their need for stability. That’s what parenting is all about.”

Leia scowled as hidden concern began to drown out her happiness at having the children back with her. “I might be doing this all by myself.”

Winter’s gaze seemed incisive, and she asked the question that had been on her mind for hours. “Where is Han?”

“He’s not here—that’s where he is!”

Not wanting Winter to see her flustered outrage, Leia stood up and turned her back. Over and over, she had imagined possibilities of Han hurt, lost, attacked … but she found it safer to believe other possibilities. “He’s flying around in the Falcon with Chewbacca. He should have been back two days ago. He knew when the twins were coming home, but he couldn’t bother to be here! It’s bad enough we’ve been practically nonexistent as parents for the first two years of their lives, but he can’t even spare the time to greet Jacen and Jaina when they finally come home.”

Han had felt the razor of Leia’s words many times, and her tongue had grown more precise with years of diplomatic practice. A small part of her was glad he was not here to bear the brunt of her anger. But then again, if he had been here, she would not have had cause for such anger.

“Where did he go?”

Leia waved her hand, trying to sound casual “Off to Kessel, to see if he could convince any of the old spice miners to join the New Republic. He hasn’t bothered to call since he left.”

Winter gazed at her, not blinking. Winter’s intense periods of thought always unsettled Leia. “Let me tell you this, Leia. I think I’m right. If it were anyone else on a mission like this, two days overdue and no contact for a week or so, you would be concerned. Very concerned. With Han, you are making an assumption that he is just being irresponsible. What if something happened to him?”

“That’s crazy.” She turned away again, to keep Winter from seeing that the same worries had been plaguing her.

Winter’s grave expression did not change. “According to the reports I have seen, Kessel is relatively hostile territory. Not only the spice mines, but the Imperial Correction Facility, with some powerful defenses in place to keep prisoners from escaping. The entire system has been out of contact with us for some time.”

Winter paused, as if accessing other memories. “When Mara Jade and Talon Karrde unified some of the smugglers two years ago, Jade noted that Kessel might cause certain problems. Shouldn’t you check with a diplomatic contact there to make certain nothing has happened to the Millennium Falcon?”

Leia blinked her eyes, annoyed at Winter’s suggestion, though she had thought of it herself dozens of times. “Seems like overreacting, doesn’t it?”

Winter regarded her calmly. “Or are you just unwilling to show your concern because it would embarrass you?”

• • •

The private communications chamber looked different in the bustle of a bright morning on Coruscant. The last time Leia had stood inside the room had been to contact the infuriating Caridan ambassador in the dead of night.

Now, as she looked out the mirrored walls, Leia watched minor functionaries hurrying