She had made her application to the Star Service Academy in secret, at the same time she had made an open application to the Sorbonne. That hadn’t been a problem at all, because the Academy was supported by public funds. She didn’t have to come up with fees; and since any Commonwealth citizen eighteen years old or of equivalent maturity could apply for admission there without a guardian’s consent, she hadn’t had to deceive anyone except her parents to complete the process. The only tricky part had been taking the personal interview while the admissions team was on Narsai without anyone Katy knew finding out she had met with them, and she had actually enjoyed arranging that small intrigue.
Once she arrived on Terra, of course, the rest had been easy. After she took the oath, no one could interfere between her and the organization she had joined.
Her parents hadn’t spoken to her for years after that, not until she had unfairly put one twin into her mother’s arms while George had put the second twin into her father’s arms—while small Ewan had clung to her trouser-leg, and regarded his grandparents with curious dark eyes. Although her defection from her duty hadn’t impoverished anyone in her birth family because the farmstead’s income was handled with great fairness, she had caused them terrible embarrassment. Even after they had allowed her back into their lives when she enticed them with the chance to know their grandsons, the old easy affection between Katy and her parents had never quite been restored.
But Johnnie had forgiven her, promptly if not easily. In his way Johnnie really had loved her, and still did.
After a time during which he had frankly hoped she might wash out of the Academy and be sent home, he had married the cousin who was third heir: Lorena, who was still his wife today. They had produced the one child that Narsatian couples were encouraged to have, and now their grandchild was old enough for university.
And far from disliking Katy because she had been first in Johnnie’s bed and in his heart, Reen still told their cousin from time to time how glad she was that Katy had refused the role that Reen had stepped into with such happiness.
Ivan Romanov was past seventy now, but in excellent health and in superb physical condition. Even today a farmer worked hard, that was still the nature of that life in spite of all technology could do to make the land more productive. Reen had worked beside him through all these years, so now she was slimmer than Katy (who had always fought against her body’s determination to thicken, and who was finding that battle more difficult than ever now that she was no longer setting the example in physical training for all the people who until seven months ago had reported to her).
“Linc and I will be visiting you later in the winter, I hope, Johnnie,” Romanova said now, and leaned toward the holoscreen as if that could bring her closer to the beloved face within it. “Right now we’ve inherited a house guest who needs a quiet place to rest. I’d rather not tell you anything about her, not even her name; and I’d rather you and Reen kept her presence quiet once she’s joined you. Oh, Johnnie, I can’t think of anyone except you and Reen that I’d dare to ask for this!”
“In other words you think it’s possible you may be asking us to do something dangerous.” Not exactly the smartest thing to say on comm, even on Narsai where privacy was respected; but then Johnnie was no military officer, he was a farmer. But he continued without pausing, “I’m glad you know you can ask us, Katy. Whoever your house guest is, send her along. We’ll expect her.”
“Thank you, Johnnie. Give Reen my love, I don’t have time to ask you to put her on right now.” Romanova ended the transmission, and nodded to Casey. The two of them spoke and gestured to each other like any normal couple, the only time they confined their communications to their mental link was when they needed privacy in the presence of others. She said, “I’m ready for George now,” in a crisp tone that she often used when she was getting ready to deal with something unpleasant as quickly and as efficiently as she could.
Her former mate’s image replaced her beloved cousin’s in the holoscreen. He was annoyed at having been made to wait, and with her he didn’t try to conceal that aggravation. “Katy! What in hell’s going on down there that’s so important? I thought you and Casey were retired now, so you can’t get away with telling me you had the defense minister on comm.”
“No, it was someone more important than Fothingill. I was talking to Johnnie,” Romanova said, deciding that there was no reason she should dissemble about that fact. “What do you want, George? It’s months until I can have my next visit with Maddy. And where are you, anyway?” The second question came when she realized he had spoken as though he were in orbit above Narsai, and not light years away on Kesra.
“I’m aboard the Archangel, practically over your head,” George Fralick said with plain satisfaction. “I’ve got Maddy with me. Katy, I’m on my way to Terra and I’ve got no idea when I’ll be free to go back home to Kesra. P’Tara died just before we left, K’lor went back to his birth-house that same day, and there was no one else I wanted to leave our daughter with. You always said you wanted me to let her visit you here—so I guess now’s your chance.”
At this moment Catherine Romanova soundly blessed the fact that her first husband did not have her second mate’s ability to read her thoughts and her feelings. She could and did allow her face to register nothing but the simple surprise, and the mixture of suspicion and pleasure, that Fralick would be expecting from her after that announcement. She said sharply just what she knew he would be anticipating: “George, I’m not putting Linc out of our home. Not even for Maddy. That’s what you said I’d have to do before you’d even consider allowing her to visit with me here, and I meant it when I said no deal. If I’d been willing to let you blackmail me with her, I’d have done it thirteen years ago when she was a baby and you thought you could make me stay married to you by taking custody of her away from me.”
Oh, gods, why now? When on any day for the past seven months, this offer would have seemed like years of prayers and dreams at last coming true?
Fralick scowled. Like so many other superb politicians and diplomats, the face he showed to his immediate family was not always the one his public saw. He said reluctantly, “Well…she’s old enough to understand now, I think, why you’re sleeping in the same room with him. And I would rather leave her with you than with anyone else, Katy, with things the way they are right now. Then if anything goes down politically, she won’t be on one world and you on another and me on still a third. At least she’ll have one parent, if the worst happens.”
So that was it, even George thought that war might be coming. Romanova forbade herself to shiver, and she gave up the privilege of reminding him that long ago when they had faced each other in that alien court on Kesra he had claimed a girl-child wasn’t safe on Narsai. He had backed that claim by citing Katy’s own liaison with her cousin Ivan, starting on her thirteenth birthday as was usual with landed Narsatian women and ending only when she had “fled to safety on Terra” as George had chosen to paint the start of her military career; and he had pointed out that under Terran laws, Ivan Romanov would have been executed for the rape of a minor.