“Oh. Um.” He wasn’t sure if he was relieved, or not. “It’s all out of date anyway. I’ve acquired … a whole new set of problems, since. Much worse ones.”
“I don’t sense that, Mark. To me, you have appeared much more centered and relaxed, since you and Miles got back from Jackson’s Whole. Even though you won’t talk about it.”
“I don’t regret knowing myself, ma’am. I don’t even regret … being myself.” Me and the black gang. “But I do regret … being so far from Kareen. I believe I am a monster, of some sort. And in the play, Caliban does not marry Prospero’s daughter. In fact, he gets stomped for trying, as I recall.” Yes, how could he possibly explain Gorge and Grunt and Howl and Killer to someone like Kareen, without frightening or disgusting her? How could he ask her to feed his abnormal appetites, even in some dream or fantasy play? It was hopeless. Better not to try.
The Countess smiled wryly. “There are several things wrong with your analogy, Mark. In the first place, I can guarantee you are not subhuman, whatever you think you are. And Kareen is not superhuman, either. Though if you insist on treating her as a prize and not as a person, I can also guarantee you will run yourself into another kind of trouble.” Her raised brows punctuated the point. “I added, as condition to my blessing on your suit, the suggestion that she take the opportunity during her schooling on Beta Colony next year for some extra tutoring. A little Betan education in certain personal matters could go a long way, I think, to widening her perceptions enough to admit, um, complexities without choking. A certain liberality of view an eighteen-year-old simply cannot acquire on Barrayar.”
“Oh.” That was an idea which had never even crossed his mind, tackling the problem from Kareen’s end. It made … so much sense. “I’d … thought about school on Beta Colony for myself, next year. Some galactic education would look good on my record, when I apply here for the job I have in mind. I don’t want to leave it all to pure nepotism.”
The Countess tilted her head in bemusement. “Good. It seems to me as though you have a sound set of long-range plans, well-coordinated to advance all your goals. You have only to carry them through. I entirely approve.”
“Long-range. But … tonight is right now.”
“And what were you planning to do tonight, Mark?”
“Dance with Kareen.”
“I don’t see the problem with that. You’re allowed to dance. Whatever you are. This is not the play, Mark, and old Prospero has many daughters. One may even have a low taste for fishy fellows.”
“How low?”
“Oh …” The Countess held out her hand at a level about equal to Mark’s standing height. “At least that low. Go dance with the girl, Mark. She thinks you’re interesting. Mother Nature gives a sense of romance to young people, in place of prudence, to advance the species. It’s a trick—that makes us grow.”
Walking across the Residence ballroom to greet Kareen Koudelka felt like the most terrifying thing Mark had ever voluntarily done, not excepting the first Dendarii combat drop onto Jackson’s Whole. There the resemblance ended, for after that, things improved.
“Lord Mark!” she said happily. “They told me you were here.”
You asked? “I’ve come to redeem my word and my dance, milady.” He managed a Vorish bow.
“Good! It’s about time. I’ve saved out all the mirror dances and the called reels.”
All the simple dances he could be expected to do. “I had Miles teach me the steps to Mazeppa’s Minuet last week,” he added hopefully.
“Perfect. Oh, the music’s starting—” She hauled him onto the inlaid floor.
She wore a swirling dark green dress with red trim, that set off her ash-blonde curls. In a sort of positive paranoia, he wondered if her outfit could possibly have been deliberately color-coordinated with his own clothes. Surely it must be a coincidence. How—? My tailor to my mother to her mother to her. Hell, any ImpSec analyst ought to be able to figure out that data trail.
Grunt, alas, had a distracting and distressing tendency to mentally undress her, and worse. But Grunt was not going to be permitted to speak tonight. This one is Lord Mark’s job. And he isn’t going to screw it up this time. Grunt could just lurk down in there and build up steam. Lord Mark would find a use for the power. Starting with keeping the beat. There was even a dance—Mazeppa’s Minuet, as it happened—where the two partners touched each other, holding the hand or the waist, for almost the entire pattern.
All true wealth is biological, the Count had said. Mark finally saw exactly what he meant. For all his million Betan dollars, he could not buy this, the light in Kareen’s eyes. Though it couldn’t hurt … what was that damned Earth bird or other, that built wildly elaborate nests to attract a mate?
They were in the middle of a mirror dance. “So, Kareen—you’re a girl. I, uh, had this argument with Ivan. What do you think is the most attractive thing a fellow can have? A lightflyer, wealth … rank?” He hoped his tone suggested he was running some sort of scientific survey. Nothing personal, ma’am.
She pursed her lips. “Wit,” she said at last.
Yeah. And what store are you going to buy that in, with all your Betan dollars, boy?
“Mirror dance, my turn,” said Kareen. “What’s the most important thing a woman can have?”
“Trust,” he answered without thinking, and then thought about it to the point of almost losing his step. He was going to need a mountain of trust, no lie. So, start building it tonight, Lord Mark old boy. Hauling one bloody basket load at a time, if you have to.
He managed to make her laugh out loud four times, after that. He kept count. ,
He ate too much (even Gorge was sneakily sated), drank too much, talked too much, and danced far too much, and generally had a hell of a good time. The dancing was a little unexpected. Kareen reluctantly lent him to a string of several curious girlfriends. He was interesting to them only as a novelty, he judged, but he wasn’t inclined to be picky. By two hours after midnight he was stimulated to the point of babbling, and starting to limp. Better to call it quits before Howl had to come out and take charge of his burnt-out remains. Besides, Miles had been sitting quietly in a corner for the last hour, looking uncharacteristically wilted.
A word passed to an Imperial household servant brought the Count’s groundcar back for them, driven by the ubiquitous Pym, who had taken the Count and Countess home earlier. Miles and Mark took over the rear compartment, both sagging into their seats. Pym pulled out past the Residence’s guarded gates and into the winter streets, grown as night-quiet as the capital’s streets ever did, only a few other vehicles prowling past. Miles turned the heat up high, and settled back with his eyes half-closed.
Mark and his brother were alone in the compartment. Mark counted the number of people present. One, two. Three, four, five, six, seven. Lord Miles Vorkosigan and Admiral Naismith. Lord Mark Vorkosigan and Gorge, Grunt, Howl, and Killer.
Admiral Naismith was a much classier creation, Mark thought with a silent sigh of envy. Miles could take the Admiral out to parties, introduce him to women, parade him in public almost anywhere but Barrayar itself. I suppose what my black gang lacks in savoir fairs, we make up in numbers… .
But they all ran together, he and the black gang, on the deepest level. No part could be excised without butchering the whole. So, I’ll just have to look after you all. Somehow. You just live, down there in the dark. Because someday, in some desperate hour, I may need you again. You took care of me. I’ll take care of you.