“I don’t mind.”
Gladia said, “I would like to serve tea.” It was a statement and Baley nodded.
He said, “I didn’t know that Spacers drank tea.”
“It’s not Earth tea. It’s a plant extract that is pleasant but is not considered harmful in any way. We call it tea.”
She lifted her arm and Baley noted that the sleeve held tightly at the wrist and that joining it were thin, flesh-colored gloves. She was still exposing the minimum of body surface in his presence. She was still minimizing the chance of infection.
Her arm remained in the air for a moment and, after a few more moments, a robot appeared with a tray. He was patently even more primitive than Giskard, but he distributed the teacups, the small sandwiches, and the bite-sized bits of pastry, smoothly. He poured tea with what amounted to grace.
Baley said curiously, “How do you do that, Gladia?”
“Do what, Elijah?”
“You lift your arm whenever you want something and the robots always know what it is. How did this one know you wanted tea served?”
“It’s not difficult. Every time I lift my arm, it distorts a small electromagnetic field that is maintained continuously across the room. Slightly different positions of my hand and fingers produce different distortions and my robots can interpret these distortions as orders. I only use it for simple orders: Come here! Bring tea! And so on.”
“I haven’t noticed Dr. Fastolfe using the system at his establishment.”
“It’s not really Auroran. It’s our system in Solaria and I’m used to it.—Besides, I always have tea at this time. Borgraf expects it.”
“This is Borgraf?” Baley eyed the robot with some interest, aware that he had only glanced at him before. Familiarity was quickly breeding indifference. Another day and he would not notice robots at all. They would flutter about him unseen and chores would appear to do themselves.
Nevertheless, he did not want to fail to notice them. He wanted them to fail to be there. He said, “Gladia, I want to be alone with you. Not even robots.—Giskard, join Daneel. You can stand guard from there.”
“Yes, sir,” said Giskard, brought suddenly to awareness and response by the sound of his name.
Gladia seemed distantly amused. “You Earthpeople are so odd. I know you have robots on Earth, but you don’t seem to know how to handle them. You bark your orders, as though they’re deaf.”
She turned to Borgraf and, in a low voice, said, “Borgraf, none of you are to enter the room until summoned. Do not interrupt us for anything short of a clear and present emergency.”
Borgraf said, “Yes, ma’am.” He stepped back, glanced over the table as though checking whether he had omitted anything, turned, and left the room.
Baley was amused, in his turn. Gladia’s voice had been soft, but her tone had been as crisp as though she were a sergeant-major addressing a recruit. But then, why should he be surprised? He had long known that it was easier to see another’s follies than one’s own.
Gladia said, “We are now alone, Elijah. Even the robots are gone.”
Baley said, “You are not afraid to be alone with me?”
Slowly, she shook her head. “Why should I be? A raised arm, a gesture, a startled outcry—and several robots would be here promptly. No one on any Spacer world has any reason to fear any other human being. This is not Earth. Whyever should you ask, anyway?”
“Because there are other fears than physical ones. I would not offer you violence of any kind or mistreat you physically in any way. But are you not afraid of my questioning and what it might uncover about you? Remember that this is not Solaria, either. On Solaria, I sympathized with you and was intent on demonstrating your innocence.”
She said in a low voice, “Don’t you sympathize with me now?”
“It’s not a husband dead this time. You are not suspected of murder. It’s only a robot that has been destroyed and, as far as I know, you are suspected of nothing. Instead, it is Dr. Fastolfe who is my problem. It is of the highest importance to me—for reasons I need not go into—that I be able to demonstrate his innocence. If the process turns out to be damaging to you, I will not be able to help it. I do not intend to go out of my way to save you pain. It is only fair that I tell you this.”
She raised her head and fixed her eyes on his arrogantly. “Why should anything be damaging to me?”
“Perhaps we will now proceed to find out,” said Baley coolly, “without Dr. Fastolfe present to interfere.” He plucked one of the small sandwiches out of the dish with a small fork (there was no point in using his fingers and perhaps making the entire dish unusable to Gladia), scraped it off onto his own plate, popped it into his mouth, and then sipped at his tea.
She matched him sandwich for sandwich, sip for sip. If he were going to be cool, so was she, apparently.
“Gladia,” said Baley, “it is important that I know, exactly, the relationship between you and Dr. Fastolfe. You live near him and the two of you form what is virtually a single robotic household. He is clearly concerned for you. He has made no effort to defend his own innocence, aside from the mere statement that he is innocent, but he defends you strongly the moment I harden my questioning.”
Gladia smiled faintly. “What do you suspect, Elijah?”
Baley said, “Don’t fence with me—I don’t want to suspect. I want to know.”
“Has Dr. Fastolfe mentioned Fanya?”
“Yes, he has.”
“Have you asked him whether Fanya is his wife or merely his companion? Whether he has children?”
Baley stirred uneasily. He might have asked such questions, of course. In the close quarters of crowded Earth, however, privacy was cherished, precisely because it had all but perished. It was virtually impossible on Earth not to know all the facts about the family arrangements of others, so one never asked and pretended ignorance. It was a universally maintained fraud.
Here on Aurora, of course, the Earth ways would not hold, yet Baley automatically held with them. Stupid!
He said, “I have not yet asked. Tell me.”
Gladia said, “Fanya is his wife. He has been married a number of times, consecutively of course, though simultaneous marriage for either or both sexes is not entirely unheard of on Aurora.” The bit of mild distaste with which she said that brought an equally mild defense. “It is unheard of on Solaria.
“However, Dr. Fastolfe’s current marriage will probably soon be dissolved. Both will then be free to make new attachments, though often either or both parties do not wait for dissolution to do that.—I don’t say I understand this casual way of treating the matter, Elijah, but it is how Aurorans build their relationships. Dr. Fastolfe, to my knowledge, is rather straitlaced. He always maintains one marriage or another and seeks nothing outside of it. On Aurora, that is considered old-fashioned and rather silly—”
Baley nodded. “I’ve gathered something of this in my reading. Marriage takes place when there’s the intention to have children, I understand.”
“In theory, that is so, but I’m told hardly anyone takes that seriously these days. Dr. Fastolfe already has two children and can’t have any more, but he still marries and applies for a third. He gets turned down, of course, and knows he will. Some people don’t even bother to apply.”
“Then why bother marrying?”
“There are social advantages to it. It’s rather complicated and, not being an Auroran, I’m not sure I understand it.”
“Well, never mind. Tell me about Dr. Fastolfe’s children.”
“He has two daughters by two different mothers. Neither of the mothers was Fanya, of course. He has no sons. Each daughter was incubated in the mother’s womb, as is the fashion on Aurora. Both daughters are adults now and have their own establishments.”