Even though I knew they knew I was a numeric illiterate, I had gotten awfully tired of saying "Duh, I don't know" in varying forms, and, in an effort to salvage a few shreds of my self-respect, had taken to saying instead "Let me look these over and get back to you." Unfortunately, this meant that at any specific point in time, I had a batch of these "mystery sheets" on my desk that I felt obligated to at least try to make sense of.
Anyhoo, that's what I was doing when a knock came at my door. In short, I was feeling inept, frustrated, and desperately in need of diversion.
"Yes?" I called eagerly, hoping beyond hope that it was news of an earthquake or attacking army or something equally disastrous that would require my immediate attention. "Who is it?"
The door opened, and Massha's head appeared.
"You busy, Hot Stuff?" she said with the respect and deference she always shows me as my apprentice. "You've got a visitor."
"Nothing that can't wait," I replied, hastily stacking the offensive spreadsheets and replacing them in their customary spot on the corner of my desk. "Who's the visitor?"
"It's Luanna. You remember, the babe who almost got us killed over in Limbo."
In hindsight, I can see that Massha was both expressing her disapproval and trying to warn me with her description of Luanna, but at the time it didn't register at all.
"Luanna?" I said, beaming with delight. "Sure, bring her in. Better yet, send her in."
"Don't worry," Massha sniffed, disdainfully. "I wouldn't dream of intruding on your little tete-atete."
Again, her reaction escaped my notice. I was far to busy casting about the room quickly to be sure it was presentable ... which, of course, it was. If nothing else, the maid service in the castle was stellar.
And she was there ... standing in my room, as lovely and winsome as I remembered.
"Uh ... Hi, Luanna," I said, suddenly at a loss for words.
"Skeeve," she said in that soft, low voice that seemed to make the simplest statements an exercise in eloquence.
We looked at each other in silence for a few moments.
Then, suddenly, it occurred to me that the last time we saw each other, she had left in a huff under the misapprehension that I was married and had a kid.
"About the last ..." I began.
"I'm sorry about ..." she stated simultaneously.
We both broke off abruptly, then looked at each other and laughed.
"Okay. You first," I said finally, with a half bow.
"I just wanted to apologize for the way I acted the last time we were together. What I heard later from the rumor mill at the Bazaar convinced me that things weren't what they seemed at the time, and I felt terrible about not having given you a chance to explain. I should have looked you up sooner to say how sorry I was, but I wasn't sure you'd even want to talk to me again. I ... I only hope you can forgive me ... even though there's no real reason you should ..."
Her voice trailed off as she dropped her eyes.
Looking the way she did, so demure, so defenseless, I could have forgiven her for being a mass murderess, much less for any minor misunderstanding between us.
"Don't worry about it," I said, in what I hoped was an offhand manner. "Truth to tell, Luanna, I was about to apologize to you. It must have been terrible for you ... coming to me for help and walking into the ... ah ... situation you did. I've been thinking that I should have handled it a lot better than I did."
"That's so sweet of you, Skeeve," Luanna said, stepping forward to give me a quick hug and a peck of a kiss. "You don't know how glad I am to hear you say that."
Not surprisingly, her brief touch did strange things to my mind ... and metabolism. It was only the second time she had kissed me and the other time I had been in the middle of conning her out of a handkerchief so I could get Aahz out of jail. All of which is to say I was far from immune to her kisses, however casual.
"So ... ah ... What brings you to Possiltum?" I said, fighting to keep my reactions from showing.
"Why, you of course."
"Me?"
Despite my feigned surprise, I felt my pulse quicken. I mean, I could have assumed that she was here to see me, but it was nice to have it confirmed that I was the sole purpose of her visit rather than a polite afterthought.
"Sure. I heard about your new position here, and figured it was too good a chance to pass up."
That didn't sound quite so good.
"Excuse me?"
"Oh, I'm getting it all turned around," she said, cutely annoyed with herself. "What I'm trying to say is that I have a proposal for you."
That was better. In fact, it was a little too good to be true. While I had been indulging my fantasies about Luanna as a possible wife, I never dared to think that she might be thinking the same thoughts about me ... as a husband, I mean, not a wife.
"A proposal?" I said, deliberately stalling to organize my thoughts.
"That's right. I figure that you've probably got a bit of discretionary funds available now that you're on the kingdom payroll, and the kind of scams I run have a good return on investment, so I was hoping that I could get a little start-up money from you and ..."
"Whoa! Stop the music!"
It had taken a few beats for what she was saying to sink in, obsessed as I was with my own expectations of the conversation. Even now, with my pretty dream-bubble exploding around me, I was having trouble changing gears mentally to focus on what she was actually getting at.
"Could you back up and take it from the top? You're here to ask for money?"
"Well ... Yes. Not much really ... maybe fifty or seventy-five in gold should do." she clarified hastily. "The nice thing with scams is they don't really need much up-front capital."
"You mean you want to borrow money from me so you can run a swindle? Here, in Possiltum?"
The look she leveled on me was, to say the least, cold and appraising. Not at all the coy, shy, averted gaze I was used to from her.
"Of course. That's what I do," she said levelly. "I thought you knew that when you offered me a job. Or are you just miffed because I prefer to operate independently? I suppose this is pretty small potatoes to you, but it's the best I can do."
As she spoke, my mind was racing back over the previous times I had seen or spoken with her. While I was aware then that she was always involved in or running from the results of some swindle or other, I had always assumed that she was a sweet kid who was going along with her partner, Matt. I realized now that I had no basis on which to make that assumption, other than her innocent looks. In fact, beyond her looks, I really didn't know her at all.
"Is it?" I said. "Is it really the best you can do?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, couldn't you do as well or better trying your hand at something legitimate? What if I passed you enough money to start and run a normal business?"
The last vestige of my idealized fantasies regarding Luanna died as her lip curled in a sneer.
"You mean run a little shop or grocery store? Me? No thanks. That's way too much like work. Funny, I always thought that if anyone would understand that, you would. You didn't get where you are today by hard work and sweat, you did it by fleecing the gullible and flim-flamming the ignorant, just like Matt and I did ... just on a larger scale. Of course, we didn't have a demon helping us along, like you did. Even now, as rich and respectable as you're supposed to be, I'll bet you're pulling down a healthy skim from this kingdom. It's got to be real easy, what with having the Queen in your pocket and everybody doing whatever you say. All I'm trying to do is to cut myself in for a piece of the action ... and a little piece, at that."