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‘W HERE COULD SHE be? What could she be doing?’ Keffria wondered.

‘I don’t know.’ Her mother replied testily.

Keffria looked down into the cup of tea she held.

She forced her tongue to be still. She had nearly asked her mother if she was certain she had really seen Althea earlier.

The last week had been so exhausting, she could have forgiven her mother for imagining the whole thing.

That would be easier to forgive than her younger sister turning up and then abruptly vanishing again.

It didn’t help that her mother seemed simply to accept Althea’s outrageous behaviour.

Her mother relented and added, ‘She told me she would be back before morning. The sun has scarcely gone down.’

‘Does it not seem odd to you that a young, unmarried woman of a good family should be out and about on her own at night, let alone on her first night home after she has been missing for nearly a year?’

‘No doubt that is so. It seems very like Althea to me, however. I’ve come to accept that I can’t change her.’

‘No such leeway is allowed to me!’ Malta interjected pointedly. ‘I am scarcely allowed to walk around Bingtown by myself by day.’

‘That’s true,’ Ronica Vestrit replied affably. Her needles ticked rhythmically against each other as she worked. She ignored Malta’s noisy exhalation of frustration.

They had dined early and were now sitting together in the study.

No one had said that they kept vigil for Althea’s return.

No one needed to. Her mother knitted as if she were in some sort of race.

Keffria had no such concentration. She stubbornly poked her needle through her embroidery and dragged another stitch into place.

She would not let her sister upset her; she would not let the small peace she had found be stolen from her.

Malta did not even pretend to be constructively occupied.

She had poked at their simple meal discontentedly and commented that she already missed Davad’s servants.

Now she strolled about the room, trailing her fingers on the desktop, picking up the smaller mementos of her grandfather’s sailing years, handling them and then putting them down.

Her restlessness was an irritant to Keffria’s raw nerves.

Keffria was glad Selden was abed, exhausted after the long week of company.

Malta had thrived on it. Ever since the last carriage had pulled away down the drive, the girl had had a desolate look to her.

She reminded Keffria of some sea-creature stranded by a retreating tide.

‘I’m bored,’ Malta announced, echoing her mother’s thought. ‘I wish the Rain Wild Traders were still here. They don’t sit about in the evening and do quiet work.’

‘When they are at home, I am sure they do,’ Keffria countered firmly. ‘No one has parties and games and music every night, Malta. You must not make that the basis for your relationship with Reyn.’

‘Well, if he marries me and we have a home of our own, it will not be dull every night, I can tell you that. We shall have friends over to visit, and bring in musicians. Or we will go out to visit other friends. Delo and I have decided that when we are married women and free to do as we please, we shall often have…’

‘If you marry Reyn, you will live in the Rain Wilds, not in Bingtown,’ Ronica pointed out quietly. ‘You will have to make friends there, and learn to live as they do.’

‘Why do you have to be so dismal?’ Malta demanded sharply. ‘No matter what I say, you always say something to make it not so. I think you just want me to be unhappy forever!’

‘The fault is not in what I say, but in the silly fancies you spin to start…’

‘Mother. Please. I shall go mad if you two begin to bicker and snip tonight.’

A heavy silence followed. ‘I’m sorry. I do not wish Malta to be unhappy. I want her to wake up and see that she must choose to be happy within the framework of her life. These wild fancies of endless parties and entertainment are not…’

‘No wonder Aunt Althea ran away!’ Malta’s cry cut off her grandmother’s words.

‘All you can see ahead for anyone is boredom and toil. Well, my life is not going to be like that! Reyn has told me many exciting things about the Rain Wilds. When we go to visit his family, he is going to show me the ancient city of the Elder race, where flame-jewels come from, and jidzin and other wonderful things. He has told me that there are places where you can go, and at a touch of your hand, you can light the chambers as they were of old. He says that sometimes he has even glimpsed the ghosts of the Elder folk coming and going on their errands. Not all can do that, only the very sensitive, but he says perhaps I have that skill. Very sensitive folk often do. Those most gifted can sometimes hear their music echoing still. He will dress me as befits a woman of the Khuprus family. I will not have to dust furniture or polish silver or cook food; there will be servants to do that. Reyn says…Mother, why are you smiling at me like that? Are you making fun of me?’ Malta demanded indignantly.

‘No. It’s not that at all. I was thinking that it sounds to me as if you like this young man very much.

’ Keffria gave her head a small shake. ‘I remember all the grand plans that your father and I made for our life together. Those dreams do not always come true, but the spinning of them is very sweet.’

‘It sounds to me as if she likes the prospect of all he will bring her,’ Ronica corrected softly. More gently, she added, ‘But there is nothing wrong with that, either. Young people who share the same dreams often make very good partners.’

Malta came back to poke at the fire in the grate.

‘Don’t talk as if it were all agreed upon, because it isn’t,’ she said petulantly.

‘There are a lot of bad things about him. Not just his veil and gloves; who can even imagine what he really looks like? He also goes on and on about politics. One minute he is talking of parties and friends; the next he speaks of war with Jamaillia and how we must stand firm no matter how difficult life becomes. He talks as if that would be some big adventure! Moreover, he says slavery is evil, although I told him that Papa thinks it might be good for Bingtown and that Papa is rebuilding our fortune by selling slaves. He dared to say that Papa would have to change his ways and see that slavery is wrong and bad for our economy, too, and trade up the Rain Wild River instead! And he talks about having children as if I am to have a baby the day after we are wed! When I said we must have a house in Bingtown as well as in the Rain Wilds so we can visit often and see my friends, he laughed! He says that once I see the wonders of his city, I will forget all about Bingtown, and that we will not have our own house, but only a set of rooms in the great house the Khuprus family shares. So. I am not at all certain that I will choose Reyn.’

‘It sounds as if you two talked a great deal about your future together,’ Ronica ventured.

‘He speaks as if it is all assured! When I tell him it is not, he smiles and asks why I love to torture him so. Are all men so obtuse?’

‘Every one of them that I’ve ever known,’ Ronica assured her complacently. Then, more seriously, she added, ‘But if you have decided to deny his suit, then you must tell us so. The sooner the courtship is broken off, the least discomfort to both families.’

‘Oh…I haven’t decided. Not really. It may take me a while.’

The room fell silent as Malta considered her prospects and the two older women privately contemplated what her choices might mean to them.

‘I wish I knew where Althea was,’ Keffria heard herself say again.

Her mother sighed.

Althea set her mug down. There was very little left of the roast fowl on the table before them.

Across the table from her, Amber set her knife and fork carefully across her plate.

Jek leaned back in her chair and picked at something caught in her teeth.

She caught Althea watching her and grinned.

‘You don’t have any big brothers at home, do you?

’ she teased. ‘Eyes such as yours are wasted on a woman.’

‘Jek,’ Amber rebuked her amusedly. ‘You are making Althea uncomfortable. Why don’t you go and stroll about Bingtown for a bit? We have some serious talking to do.’

Jek pushed up from the table with a grunt. She rolled her shoulders and Althea heard the crackling of muscle. ‘Take my advice. Do some serious drinking instead. Serious talking is no way to spend your first evening back in your home town.’ When she grinned, her teeth were white as a carnivore’s.

‘Who knows? It may come to that as well,’ Amber conceded affably.

She watched Jek tug on her boots and then find a light cloak.

As soon as the door closed behind her, Amber leaned forward on her elbows.

She pointed a long finger at Althea. ‘Continue from where you left off. And this time, don’t bother to gloss over the parts where you feel you behaved badly.

I’m not asking this of you so I can judge you. ’

‘Why are you asking this of me?’ Althea asked. To herself, she wondered why she was granting this to Amber. She still knew relatively little about the woman. Why was she favouring her with a detailed account of her travels and experiences since the last time she had seen her?

‘Ah. Well. I suppose that is a fair trade, considering all I’ve asked you.

’ Amber took a breath as if putting her words in order.

‘I cannot leave Bingtown. I must do things here. But the timing of those tasks is dependent on events that are happening elsewhere. In Jamaillia and the Inside Passage, for instance. So I ask you to tell me what changes you have seen in those places.’

‘That tells me nothing at all,’ Althea pointed out quietly.