“You’ve got the bull by the wrong leg,” Marta said. “Did you know the girl was besotted with your grandson?”
“I know they formed an attachment on Koskiusko, which I’m glad to see is no longer important.”
“Oh, but it is,” Marta said. “The silly child fell madly in love for the first time in her life, and nothing in her background told her what to do when a rich, beautiful, charismatic blonde moved in on her love life.”
“But she’s—what?—almost thirty.”
“She’s also Altiplanan, lost her mother when she was five, and apparently no one told her about anything to do with love. So when she finally fell, she fell like the side of a mountain. Something she heard in a class on professional ethics started her worrying about whether she should have—as if rules ever affected gravity or love—and while she was fumbling around trying to put her emotional affairs in order, Brun started playing come-hither with your grandson. Who resisted, by the way, but Esmay didn’t know that when she blew up.”
“I can hardly believe—”
“Oh, it’s true. And your grandson is equally besotted with her, though he’s tried to fight it. He was angry and hurt that Esmay didn’t trust him, and—since he wasn’t the one feeling unsure and jealous—he was appalled at her attack on Brun.”
“Where did you get all this . . . inside knowledge of my grandson’s head?”
“His heart, not his head. By poking around being a nosy old woman and then a more . . . er . . . traditional grandmother than you are. He could hardly confide his guilty passion to you, now could he? Not when his lady love was in your black book and he knew your position was shaky, with dear Admiral Hornan doing his best to grab your command.”
Admiral Serrano looked thoughtful. “They both still think they’re in love, do they?”
Marta chuckled. “All the symptoms. They blush, they tremble, they look shy—it’s rather sweet, actually, as well as unmistakeable. I admit my fondness for young love, messy though it often is. It’s why I helped Raffa and Ronnie get free of their appallingly stiff-necked parents. So you can quit looking for hidden political motives in Lieutenant Suiza’s behavior—this is the oldest story in the book.”
“That may be, but it doesn’t excuse—”
“What she said? No. But if her commander had known from day one that this was a squabble over a man, would he have handled it the way he did?”
Admiral Serrano pursed her lips. “Well . . . probably not. We do get late bloomers from time to time, and they do usually make a mess of things at least once.” The admiral sounded thoughtful, less harsh.
“Making a mess of love is part of growing up,” Marta said, nodding. “Making a mess of someone’s career, however, requires the connivance of others.”
“I don’t follow you.” But the dark eyes were alert, watchful.
“Well . . . as the resident sweet old lady in this facility—” The admiral snorted, and Marta flashed a quick grin but went on. “The youngsters tell me things. They always have. It’s why I was Raffa’s favorite aunt. I’d already begun to wonder how so shining a young hero could become everyone’s favorite wicked woman quite so fast. I suspected that someone else’s interest lay in making Lieutenant Suiza look as bad as possible, and I found that the tainted effluent, as it were, led to a few sources quite remote from Copper Mountain. That’s why I went planetside, so I could do a little discreet database poking from a civilian facility.”
“And you found—?”
Marta held up her hand and ticked off points on her fingers. “I found Academy classmates of Esmay’s who were jealous of her success—who resented her honors—who would be quite happy to see her back in tech track, or out of Fleet, because she can fight rings around them. Much that’s been attributed to her has come from these sources, and they’ve put the worst possible interpretation on what she did say. The people who’ve actually served with her are confused and upset right now, but find it hard to believe she could be the way she’s now being painted. I found others who want to get influence with your grandson because he’s a Serrano . . . who are very glad to put a barrier between him and Lieutenant Suiza.”
“All very interesting—but are you sure you’re hearing the truth?”
“Vida—remember Patchcock? My nose for this kind of nastiness—”
“Yes . . . all right . . . but that doesn’t get Lieutenant Suiza off the hook for what she actually said and did. And there’s a witness to her saying that Brun wasn’t worth starting a war over.”
“So did I, m’dear. So did you. So did the Guernesi ambassador, more than once. We wrapped it in platitudes, but you know and I know that no one—not even the Speaker, and certainly not his daughter—is worth starting a war for. Taken in context, what she actually said cannot be construed to mean that she thought all those things attributed to her.”
The admiral spread her hands. “So—what do you propose to do about this? Since you came here, I presume you have a plan in mind.”
“Well . . . having played fairy godmother to at least three other romances recently—you know about Raffa and Ronnie, but you don’t know about the others—I feel I’m on a roll where love is concerned. If Esmay and Barin can work out their problems—”
“You mean you aren’t planning to do it for them?” That with a challenging grin.
“Of course not.” Marta made a prim face. “Children learn by doing. But if they can work it out—and since they’re both still smitten, I expect they can—that will take the teeth out of some of the other criticisms. After all, if a Serrano is her lover—”
“Ah—so that’s why you tackled me first. So I wouldn’t tell young Barin to avoid her?”
“Got it in one. Incidentally, if you thought Suiza was bad, you ought to see what’s working on him now. One of Esmay’s classmates, and a very sleek piece of work she is, too. Knows everything Esmay doesn’t know about men, and since she’s also a colonial, from one of the Crescent Worlds, you have to wonder where she got that kind of skill. Rumor has it, from seducing her senior officers.”
“Pull in your claws, Marta—I won’t do anything to warn Barin off. And I already know about Lieutenant Ferradi—she may have done even worse than you know, according to Heris. If so, her doom is about to be upon her: Heris lent Koutsoudas to the cause.”
“You’re going to tell me, I trust? No? Wicked woman—but then you are an admiral.” Marta’s chuckle ended. “There’s another thing, though. Lieutenant Suiza, when I talked to her, had what I think are some very good insights into Brun’s situation and some concerns about the planning. She is convinced that no one will listen to her, and asked me to pass these ideas on, as my own. I’d much rather get her involved in the planning herself—”
“Can’t be done,” Admiral Serrano said crisply. “Lord Thornbuckle’s adamant. Apparently he had liked her when he met her at Copper Mountain, and feels that this proves she is . . . treacherous, was his word. He will not have her involved at all. And I doubt you can change his mind. Not in the time we have left.”
She glanced at the wall calendar and Marta followed that glance. A red rectangle covered the most probable dates for the end of Brun’s pregnancy; a green one covered the time the Militia were known to allow before rebreeding a captive. That was their target; somewhere in that period they had to extract her—or face even more difficult problems.
“All right. One war at a time. I’ll present Esmay’s ideas; they certainly make sense in terms of my knowledge of Brun’s character.”
Chapter Eighteen
Marta found Esmay at work in a cubicle, paging through a report, looking thoughtful.