“I remember. You were pulling strings from behind the scenes.”
“It’s all out in the open now. Has been for four months. I liked it better the other way. Much easier when the old man was there to serve as a figurehead. He was a lot more tactful than I am. You probably remember that, too.”
He tried not to smile. “I remember you always saying exactly what you thought.”
“Precisely. That’s no way to run a major commercial concern. I need somebody else to talk for me, someone who’s experienced with business people and able to smooth ruffled feelings.”
He swallowed. “You haven’t, ah, bonded with somebody by now?”
“ ‘Bonded’? You make it sound like I’m looking for glue.” She glanced down at herself. “If I lost a hundred pounds, I’d need every one of these soldiers to keep the men off me. As it is there are plenty who try, but I know it’s just the money they’re interested in. The money and the power. They’re terrific aphrodisiacs, Ethan, but they don’t get you honesty.” Those piercing green eyes locked on his and wouldn’t let go.
“I could never be sure of any of them. Not the way I’m sure of you. Because of what we went through together more than a year ago. You told me then you couldn’t marry me, Ethan. You wanted time, you said. Time to consider, time to think. That’s why I’ve come back. You’ve had plenty of time to think.”
“Actually there hasn’t been time for long stretches of contemplation this past year, what with all the fighting and unifying and exploring.”
“Don’t tell me I’ve wasted this trip, Ethan. I mean, I’m glad I was able to show up in time to help out and rescue the lot of you and save the planet and all that, but that’s not why I’m here. I’m formal head of the family du Kane now. I don’t have to ask anyone’s permission for anything. I know what I want.”
“You always knew what you wanted, Colette.” He smiled affectionately. “Ten minutes after you were born I’m sure you were telling the doctors how to handle you.”
Her eyes glittered. “I had to. It probably took two of them to carry me. Ethan, I need someone to share my life. You’re the only man I ever met who accepted me for what I am. Whether it was the situation or what doesn’t matter. You liked me for myself. I need a companion and a helpmate. I need… I need you. I’ve never needed anything else in my life.
“So I put all my business on hold and crossed a few hundred parsecs to ask you the same question you said no to a year ago. I thought that maybe after another year on this world you might be ready for some permanent luxury and relaxation. I won’t make too many demands on you.” She dropped her eyes and for the first time he had to strain to make out what she was saying. “I still love you, even if you don’t love me. But if you’ll give me a chance, I promise you I’ll do everything I can to make it work between us. If it’s a submissive woman you want or even a fully equal one, then there’s no chance. I wasn’t brought up that way. Blame it on my family, my father if you want to.” She lifted her face and stared into his again.
“But if you say yes, I guarantee you’ll never have to sell so much as a pocket communicator again and you’ll lead the kind of life most people only dream about.”
“Colette, I…”
“Whatever you’re going to say, give it another minute. It’s cost me plenty, both financially and emotionally, to do this. I’m not going to beg. If you say no this time, I promise you’ll never see me again. But if you say yes, boy, if you say yes, you’d better mean it. I can’t stand anything that’s tenuous or halfway. It’s all or nothing, Ethan. No partial commitments.”
He turned away from her to stare past the Slanderscree, letting his gaze rove beyond the harbor gate to the vast ice ocean. Was there anything more he could do here? Anything else he could accomplish for the Tran? If he accepted, he would lose his freedom, but Maxim Malaika had taken care of that by sticking him with a permanent position at Brass Monkey. So if he was so worried about his freedom, why had he taken that post? Because it offered the prospect of being able to retire in ten years instead of twenty or thirty? Hell, Colette was offering him the chance to buy and sell people like Malaika.
Wouldn’t he be in a better position to aid the Tran and their development as the titular head of one of the Commonwealth’s most powerful commercial families?
All right, so what if Colette was no raving beauty? So what if there was enough for two of her? She might be ample but she wasn’t unattractive. And how much did physical beauty have to do with living with another person for the rest of your life anyway? He was no tridee star himself. Life was what you and your mate made of it and you couldn’t, shouldn’t, prejudge it according to other people’s perceptions of what was good and what was bad, what was attractive and what was ugly.
When he turned back to her he found those remarkable eyes waiting for him. They were pleading even as she couldn’t plead aloud. He glanced across to September, found the giant smiling paternally and nodding slowly.
“What the hell. Of course I’ll marry you.”
She threw herself into his arms. The impact nearly sent both of them over the side of the skimmer. “Very sensible,” she told him. Then she gave him a quick, firm kiss and hugged him to her so hard he thought his ribs would crack.
A few of her soldiers smiled and decorously looked elsewhere. The Tran on the icerigger labored under no such cultural restraints. They let loose with a farrago of appreciative growls and roars.
Finally she released him, still intact, and turned toward Yingyapin. “That’s settled, then.”
“There’s just one qualifier.”
She looked back sharply. “What’s that?”
“I don’t want it to be a Tran ceremony.”
She looked puzzled, not understanding, while Skua September burst out laughing.
“Done. Now let’s take care of this slime that thinks it can make an inhabited world its private development. Want anyone else to come with us?”
“Cheela Hwang should come along to represent the science staff. And Hunnar and Elfa. Also a young Tran named Seesfar, who I think deserves to see that we’re not all motivated by self-interest.” He unsnapped the beamer from his belt. “I’ll leave this with Ta-hoding. With the firepower you’ve brought along, I won’t need it.”
“All right.” She looked past him. “Roger!”
Iriole came over and saluted.
“You know what’s going on here?”
The soldier jerked his head in September’s direction. “I have been briefed.”’
“What do you think about it?”
“If I may be allowed to say so, ma’am, it stinks.”
“You’re allowed to say so and you’re quite right. We’re going to make a few citizens’ arrests. We’re going to shut this operation down. I saw that they finally put in a deep space communications system at Brass Monkey. When we get back there I’m going to get on the horn. I know the counselor for this whole volume of space. We’ll have a peaceforcer brought in to haul the rest of these maggots off-planet in comfortable cells.” She shoved a clenched fist into the air.
“Tran-ky-ky for the Tran!” Then she added in a softer tone, “That felt pretty good. In business you can’t always be sure you’re doing the right thing. No such uncertainty here. It’s a nice feeling.”
Hunnar, Elfa, Seesfar, and Cheela Hwang were brought aboard, the Tran marveling at the prospect of flying not across the ice but through the air.