"Mother, will Father come visit us?"
She paused, her back to him at that moment, then slowly turned, her expression unusually bleak.
"That will be up to your father, Robinton," she said, and turned
back to fuss with the things in the top drawer of the chest. "Likely he'll come to the Spring Gather here at Benden," she added in a totally different tone of voice, as if it made no difference to her at all. "Now, let's wash up, shall we? I think that soon enough it'll be time to eat." She gestured towards the fading light and then pulled the heavy curtains across each of the narrow windows, as if shutting out more than the end of this day.
At dinner that night, Robinton had a place with the Hold children: it was a crowded table for his age group – he counted twenty-four – but Falloner had held a place for Robinton beside him.
"No, you got to take his things up," one of the Holder boys said, rushing to crowd into the space on Robinton's right. "Mother said we' ve all got to make him feel at home, and you had your chance."
"Rob and I are friends," Falloner said loftily, "but you can sit on the other side, Hayon. He's Lady Hayara's oldest son," he added, and started naming everyone at their end of the table. "Rasa's beside him, then there's Naprila, Anta, Jonno, and Drevalla on the other side."
Robinton had a moment to glance up at the head table where his mother sat beside Lord Maidir, with Raid on her other side and Maizella by her stepmother.
"They got graduated off the younglings' table last year," Falloner said with a sniff. He took the bread and board from the serving drudge and started cutting neat slices from the loaf, flipping them from the knife point up and down this end of the table until everyone had a piece. "Stew, I betcha," he added. His bet was a fair one, because the next thing to come was a big pot.
"My turn," Anta said, standing up and grabbing the ladle before he could.
"Fair enough, only don't slop," he said, sitting down again and shoving a friendly elbow into Robinton's side as he grinned.
The upper table was not receiving stew, Robinton noted, but bowls of soup first and then slices of what looked like wherry, sauces, dishes of vegetables, and individual loaves of bread. He also noticed that his mother was mushing her food around her plate instead of eating, although she was talking to both father and son and seemed her usual self. Except she didn't smile as much as she usually did at the head table in the Harper Hall, and he didn't hear her laugh once. The stew was good, and so was the bread, and he was hungry. And the "afters' served at their table were small cakes and fruit which disappeared with amazing rapidity, though Robinton didn't see them all eaten at the table. Maybe his mother was getting special treatment what with her being MasterSinger, which he felt was only right and proper. Especially as he was getting specials, too.
His mother sang, too, after the head table finished eating. And there were good voices joining in the choruses, so he wondered why Benden Hold would need a MasterSinger of his mother's standing. A good journeyman would have done as well. No, she was also here to teach Maizella and help C'gan. Robinton wrinkled his nose: it was obvious from the loud way the girl was singing that she thought her voice was good. It wasn't bad, he had to admit, but she didn't need to shriek and she hadn't much breath control.
His mother sang only four songs, though, and smiled and nodded encouragingly when instruments appeared and she gestured for the musicians to come forward into a unit closer to the head table.
There were two gitarists, a tall, pale older man and a younger one who looked sufficiently like the older to be son or nephew; one violinist who played with his instrument held on his knee instead of under his chin, but his fingering was very good; a woman playing flute; two pipers, both young; and a drummer who had the sense to keep to a mute beat. Of course, when Merelan gestured encouragingly, the rest of the Hold sang the choruses to her first song. The harmonies weren't bad either, Robinton decided, though he didn't sing out as he would have done back in the Hall. Falloner sang lustily in a good strong alto treble, however, as did all the other younglings at the table – showing off to him, probably, but Robinton was used to how new-come apprentices to the Harper Hall acted, so he pretended not to notice.
"It doesn't cost any marks to be gracious, no matter where you are or what you're doing," his mother was always saying. "No singer of a professional calibre would think of drowning out other singers," was another point she often made – especially when she had been having all that trouble with Halanna. He hoped Maizella wouldn't be as difficult.
Although he knew all the words, Robinton didn't sing along with Merelan in the new song she presented as her final one of this evening. Then she sweetly begged to be excused for such a short programme, but promised she would be more forthcoming when she'd caught up with Benden time.
She sat down to very enthusiastic applause and shouting.
Falloner then nudged Robinton and rose. "Can you find your way back to your room, Rob?" he asked. "That was the signal for us to get out of the Hall and let the adults have it to themselves."
Lady Hayara had risen too, and gestured towards the younglings so that they all obediently rose and started to leave the Hall. His mother caught his eye and motioned him to wait for her.
"I'll go up with Mother," Rob said, though he would have liked more time to ask Falloner questions.
"You're lucky," Falloner said under his breath. "A room of your own. I have to sleep with a half a dozen. Oh, well, I did at the Weyr too," he added in a philosophical tone. "I'll see you tomorrow, I "spect."
"Thanks, Falloner," Robinton said, a little shy but earnest in his thanks. Falloner grinned a response as he started herding some of the younger ones ahead of him towards the inner staircase.
Robinton never did find out from his mother the real reason for their precipitous departure from the Harper Hall, but he did learn that no one at Benden Hold had ever expected the famous MasterSinger to come there. And because she curbed the loudness of Maizella's rather good basic voice, she was very welcome indeed – not just by the girl's disenchanted half-brothers and sisters, but by many of the adults who resided in the Hold. Lord Maidir was a good man, and generally fair, but he adored his daughter Maizella, who at sixteen hadn't the wisdom or common sense that characterized her brother Raid. Robie found Raid a bit stuffy and prim, but he had inherited his father's sense of fair play and would take criticism from any of the more senior members of the large group of people who managed the big Holding. Unlike his sister, he was popular. And there was a discreet understanding that Hayon, Rasa and Naprila, the older of Lady Hayara's children, were to be protected from Maizella, who either teased them outrageously or ignored them as the fancy took her.
Inured to such tactics as Robinton was, having survived Halanna's antics, he learned to smile and keep his tongue in his mouth. He had some sort of revenge a little later when his mother required Maizella to sing duets with him. He knew he had a good treble voice and had been more than adequately trained by Washell as well as his mother. In fact, he would have stepped into Londik's place as senior boy soprano when Londik's voice changed, but he'd also observed what happened to apprentices who flaunted their prowess. Besides which, his mother wouldn't have stood for such behaviour from him for one moment longer than it took to twist his ear to remind him to keep his place.
Dealing with Halanna had also taught Merelan a trick or two about overdeveloped conceits.
"Sing with a child?" The girl's tone was insulting.