“Has it an engine?”
“It does, as does Toby’s, but the sails are the best going.”
Cajeiri’s eyes fairly danced. “One wishes we might stay out for days and days!”
“I shall show you how to steer the boat.”
Truly danced. “We shall be extraordinarily careful, doing so, nand’Bren!”
“Off with you. Wash! Thoroughly!”
“Yes!” Cajeiri said, and was off like a shot, cheerful and eager.
Bren looked at Jago, and at Banichi, who had just come in. Both looked amused.
“It seems very likely the young gentleman and his companions will wish to see the grounds and tour the building before dark. An escort would minimize troublec and keep them off the boat during preparations.”
Banichi laughed outright. “Gladly,” Banichi said.
Banichi had more than once shepherded the boy on the star-ship, but he had had very little time to spend time with Cajeiri since their return, and it was a fortunate solution on all sides. Jago said she would happily rest for a few hours, Tano and Algini were due a chance to go down to the shore, and take in what staff was doing with the boat. So all in all, it was a relatively well-arranged day.
The little hiatus for the youngsters to have their bath and take a tour provided him—granted there was no chance of resuming his speech-writing—time with Toby alone, possibly the chance to have a cautioning word or two with Toby, in fact, and to find out how things stood between them, granted he’d been back on the planet for months and hadn’t had a chance to have a conversation that wasn’t witnessed, managed, or otherwise inconvenient. There was so much they’d never had a chance to discuss: their mother’s last days, when he’d been absent; Toby’s divorce, when he’d been absent; Toby’s meeting up with Barb, when he’d been absentc
And in his imagining this meeting during the long years of the voyage, there’d been all sorts of time for them to sit and talk and reestablish contact. Now—
Now he was down to a few hours before dinner on thisday, before two days or so on the boat with Cajeiri and a day he’d be at the neighboring estatec all of which was adding up to most of a week, when Toby wasn’t going to be here that long. His chances to see Toby for the next number of months would be scant and the chance of something else intervening beyond that was high.
And the longer some things went unsaid, the worse. He didn’t particularly look forward to doing it—but if they let one more meeting go by without ever reforging the links they’d once had—
Well, it just got harder and harder to bring up the topic of his two-year absence, harder for him to find out what had gone on, harder for him and Toby to discuss family business. Harder to be anything but old friends who’d somewhere lost the “brother” part of it all.
They could become more distant than that, if events intervened and made their contacts rarer still. If Toby married Barb, and finally settled. It was a good thing in that sense that Toby had taken to the boat, and lived from port to port. He didn’t know what in hell income his brother was living off of— whether the government runs kept him in fuel and dockage and repairs. And he didn’t ask. Maybe Barb brought in resources. He hoped she did something constructive.
And he really, really wanted not to have Barb in the conversation.
Sure enough, Barb was there when he gave a single rap on the door and walked in on her and Toby in the sitting room of their suite. She was in the act of getting up, perhaps to answer the door—not the atevi way of things. Lacking the formality of a servant’s attendance, and he had absently signaled the maid on duty in the hall that he would not require that—the caller would open the door himself, if it was not locked; and he had done that. He bowed—not their way of things: the bow was as reflexive as the lift of the hand instructing the servant.
“Having a good morning?” he asked.
“A relaxing morning.” Barb went back to sit on the arm of Toby’s chair, a detriment to fine furniture. Absolute anathema to the staff.
He decided not to say anything. It just led to unpleasantness. And he might not, unless he had Barb dropped in the bay, geta chance at Toby alone.
So he did the only thing he could do, decided on intervention, and pulled the cord before he sat down, calling staff to serve a pot of tea.
“I really don’t like tea that well,” Barb said after the door had shut again.
“Well, it’s a bit early for brandy,” he said.
“Your rules,” Barb said with a little laugh, and finally got off the hand-embroidered chair arm, Toby’s hand following her, and trailing off the ends of her fingers. “Rules, rules, rules.”
He smiled, not in the least amused. “They’re everywhere, I’m afraid.” And got down to basic business. “The staff is still prepping the boat. Tano and Algini will be down there supervising. I hope you’ll go along on this trip. I’ve rather assumed you both would.”
“Sure,” Toby said. “Of course we will.”
“The two youngsters with Cajeiri haven’t likely seen water larger than ponds. I hope they won’t be seasick. Probably they won’t be: they’re athletic youngsters. I promised the boy specifically my boat, or we might all of us fit without sleeping bags. But at least one person’s going to end up sleeping on the deckc probably one of my staff.”
“I don’t mind the deck,” Toby said, “but Barb would want a cabin.”
Notably, Barb did not chime in with, oh, no, the deck would be fine.
“No question,” Bren said. “And my staff won’t let me do it, I’m afraid. The kids may want to. It’s an adventure to them. I wouldn’t turn them down. My staff deserves soft beds. But they assuredly won’t let you do it, Toby. Kids are one thing—it’s play for them. But you’re nand’ Toby. Won’t do at all. Dignity and all. Although they did talk about sleeping below the waterline. I think the notion intrigues them.”
“Just the security people are going?” Barb asked.
“Just the four. House staff will be busy here.”
“Not too much for them to do without us,” Toby said.
“Oh, they’re busy: they have the village to look after, too. Not to mention setting things up for the upcoming visit to Kajiminda—that’s Geigi’s estate. They’ll be seeing the bus is in order, that the road over there is decent, all of that. There may be some potholes to fix. Given the recent rain, that’s likely. They arrange things like thatc and that road only gets used maybe once a week, if that.” The tea arrived, and service went around, to Barb as well.
“All right,” Toby said. “Once a week. Why once a week?”
“Market day in the village. The Kajiminda staff will come over and buy supplies. We have the only fish market on the peninsula.”
“Here?” Barb asked.
“The village.” Inspiration struck him. “You asked about shopping. I suppose you might like to do that.”
“Can we?”
“Well, it’s fairly basic shops. There’s a fish market, a pottery, a cordmaker’s, a weaver’s, a woodcrafts shop and a bead-makerc I should send you with one of the maids. They’ll take you to places they know and I don’t.”
Barb’s eyes had gotten considerably brighter. He got up and pulled the cord again, and when the maidservant outside appeared: “Barb-daja would like to go shopping. Kindly take Barb-daja to the market. Just let her buy what she wants on the estate account. Walk with her, speak for her, and keep her safe and out of difficulty, Ika-ji. Take two of the men with you.”