“You look nostalgic.”
Hecht started. His thoughts had drifted to Helspeth.
“Now you look like you got caught with your pants down.”
“Titus!”
“Just reporting what I see, Boss.”
“Addam Hauf. Advise me. Should I see him?”
“He thinks his reason for seeing you is important enough to give away the fact that he has a supernatural connection.”
“I wonder what that could be.”
“He’s sure to let you know. Isn’t he?”
“Titus, you are, truly, a pain in the ass at times.”
“We don’t have a slave to whisper in your ear so I have to remind you that you’re only a man. So far.”
“So far?”
“That dimwit Asgrimmur managed to ascend. In a non-pagan land, in a non-pagan time. Look at the connections you have.”
That was not a fate that appealed to Piper Hecht, Else Tage, or Lord Arnmigal. He was no pagan, however much he consorted with pagan Instrumentalities. Right now he owned no god at all, saving Helspeth Ege.
Anna broke his reverie by appearing with tea and a light lunch. She was so cheerful Hecht’s guilt became self-loathing. “Principaté Delari is hosting a reception for us tonight. Titus, bring Noë and your children. The girls will be there. They dote on your boys. Piper, you can see Addam Hauf there. He can visit Principaté Delari without causing comment.”
“Anna, once again you show me why I count on you. You think and create while I fuss, worry, and waste time.”
“I do what I can.”
Her response surprised him. Her tone was just short of sullen.
Titus felt it, too. He finished his tea. “Will the Principaté send a coach?”
Anna brightened slightly. “He will. Be here before the seventh hour. We’ll ride over together.” She gave Hecht a hard look.
Did she know about Helspeth?
No. Her attitude had to be a reflection of his own. “Titus, we’ll see you then.”
“All right. How will you get your invitation to the Master of the Commandery?”
“I’ll think of something.”
* * *
Titus was gone. Hecht felt oddly distraught. He could not articulate his malaise.
His loathing for Piper Hecht grew.
As Anna cleared lunch’s leavings, he said, “I get the feeling you aren’t happy with me. What did I do? Or not do? And what can I do about it?”
She startled him by stepping close and pulling him into a gentle embrace. “There isn’t anything you can do, Piper. The problem is mine. My wishes have outstripped my expectations, and those exceed the most generous whims of reality.”
Hecht had to admit, secretly, that he had no idea how the female mind worked.
Titus might be right. This visit might have been a mistake. Maybe he was supposed to leave this part of his life behind.
He could not. Abandoning Anna would mean abandoning Lila and Vali, too. It would mean turning his back on the Ninth and Eleventh Unknowns. It would mean leaving Heris behind. It would mean giving up the only family he ever had.
Heris, surely, would tell him to go to hell, even if the others tried to be understanding.
“Piper?”
“Anna, coming here may not have been the best thing to do.”
“Piper!”
“I was almost at peace with being separated. Now I’ll be in torment all over again.” He would miss Anna. Anna Mozilla was the personification of home and hearth, always back there behind him, wherever he went. Anna Mozilla was the sure retreat, always waiting.
He was a selfish man. “But I’ll get through it again. It’s only one more year. Then there’ll be no more crusades.”
“So you’ll just walk away from being a Grand Duke?”
“It isn’t a real title. Well, it is, but without the powers and responsibilities. I get to use the revenues to pay for the Enterprise. If I don’t walk away afterward Katrin’s family will probably kill me.”
“People haven’t had much luck doing that, have they?”
“It only takes once. What do you think of Addam Hauf?”
“A true gentleman. That’s unusual in a member of the Brotherhood. But he is merciless toward God’s enemies.”
* * *
Muniero Delari’s coach was crowded by two couples and three children. Only three? The Consent spawn seemed like several more.
Noë Consent was radiant. Quiet and shy, she never called attention to herself. Hecht was surprised that she had become such a beauty. He told Anna, “Coming back was definitely right for Titus.”
“It was right for us, too. Whatever you think.”
That was wise old earth goddess Anna Mozilla talking. She was an Instrumentality in her own right, to Piper Hecht.
“I bow to your feminine wisdom.”
“There is no need for ridicule.”
He turned on Titus. “Mr. Consent. You’re an old married man. Can’t you keep your hands to yourself?”
Noë turned beet red but Titus said, “I could, but why waste time? I have to compress a year’s worth into a two-day window.” Unrepentant. And far from being as publicly demonstrative as Hecht’s challenge suggested. Three children were underfoot, after all.
Actually, they were more present than underfoot. Only the infant was not hanging out a window, awed by the city as seen from a carriage.
Anna said, “I believe that was, in the lexicon of the soldiering trade, a diversion. Worry not, Piper. It worked. We’re here, now.”
True. Muniero Delari’s man Turking opened the door. He put a portable step in place, then began handing the ladies down.
Anna went first. She left Hecht with a look that told him he was not as clever as he thought.
Principaté Delari himself came out to greet his guests. Hecht got the feeling his grandfather was putting on a show. He looked around for the target audience. Was Delari using him in some political scheme?
Heris and Cloven Februaren came outside, too.
Hecht felt a sudden chill. He turned. The light of an almost full moon revealed a dark silhouette atop one of the Old Empire triumphal columns that dotted Brothe. Most of those had lost the figures that topped them. This was one such.
The figure there now spread fifteen-foot wings.
“Message received.” His dire guardians were with him.
The Ninth Unknown, he noted, had missed nothing.
Muniero Delari enveloped Anna in a huge hug. “So wonderful to see you, dear woman. You have become a stranger.”
“An anchorite, of sorts,” Anna admitted. “It’s age, I think. Most days it doesn’t seem worth the trouble to leave the house.”
Hecht detected a note of melancholy.
He started to shake the Principaté’s hand but the old man swept him into an embrace. He held that for a moment, then turned to the house with Hecht and Anna to either side. “I’m hearing amazing things about you, Piper. Amazing things. Let’s get inside, away from the bugs.”
Vali and Lila waited inside. So did Hourli and Ferris Renfrow, engaged in idle chatter.
Hourli was Raneul. Maybe that meant her prejudice against the Bastard was less virulent. Maybe it was just the times.
Hecht said, “You’ve gotten the place completely restored.”
Delari said, “It’s better than ever. And I’ll be in hock to the moneylenders for two hundred years.”
The girls came to greet Hecht. He said, “Don’t you two look marvelous? Grandfather, I hope you’re riding close herd on these two.”
Anna said, “Really, Piper! Is that appropriate?”
“Look at them! Every randy moron over the age of eleven…”
“Use your head. They’re women. And they’re beyond any control but their own because they can go anywhere they want any time they want.”
Whereupon Lila gave him an arch look that, in essence, dared him to trump that.
Februaren chimed in, “They’re old maids already.”
Vali said, “I see no point to getting married. Or even involved with a man. We have too much fun doing the stuff we’re doing.”
Hecht nodded. Considering the circumstances in which he had found the girls they were sure to have distorted attitudes about man-woman relationships.