"The next I knew, Elizabeth was pregnant. Her old man, who was on the tour, was a director of the Magic Carpet Travel Bureau, and he'd have yanked the rug from under me, unless ..." Reith smiled wryly. "So before you could count ten, I found myself with an adolescent bride."
"When did this happen? How long after I—we ..."
"About three years after you left for Earthside. By then I'd stopped bleeding."
"Oh, dear Fergus ... Go on, please."
"We got along well enough until young Alister was a toddler. Then Elizabeth got itchy about my job and my absences on tours. She thought I was giving all the female tourists the extra service I'd given her, although I wasn't. She talked about a communal family—you know, couples to take turns with each other's spouses."
"That's been tried on Terra," said Alicia judicially. "The experiment nearly always ends in divorce."
Reith said: "Two couples tried it here, and it ended in murder. I'm sure some of my tourists have played such games, but usually they're discreet about it."
"What about Elizabeth?"
"I returned one day to find she'd gone off with a fat slob of a drug smuggler, a Terran, from the Hamda'.
Elizabeth got her divorce; but when she asked for custody of Alister, Judge Keshavachandra turned her down with some scorching remarks. Later, she told a friend she'd left because I was too sober and rational and predictable—in a word, dull."
"Any woman who found you dull," said Alicia, "should have her pulse checked to make sure she's alive."
"Thanks. Anyway, Elizabeth was one of those who, never having had a real adventure, imagines they're fun. They may be fun to tell about later; but whenever I've been caught in one—well, as the saying goes, on the whole I'd rather be in Philadelphia."
"I know," said Alicia.
"After I won the custody suit, Elizabeth's lover boy sent a couple of Krishnans to kidnap Alister."
"The poor baby! Were you living in your house at the time?"
"We'd just moved in. By pure luck, I came home from working the livestock to find these two bravos carrying my kid out, screaming. I let the sawdust out of one, and the other dropped the boy and ran.
"Later, Elizabeth showed up, begging me to take her back. I turned her down."
"I could have told her you would," said Alicia. "Do go on."
"The next thing, I learned that she had killed herself in the Hamda'. For a while I felt guilty as hell. Why was I such a resounding failure as a husband?"
"You're an excellent husband," said Alicia. "It's just that some women don't appreciate your virtues until it's too late. And now it's your turn to ask the question you had in mind."
Reith hesitated; the moment of truth had arrived at last. "Well—uh—I don't know quite how to put it. You know we've been through a lot together."
"So?" her face had gone blank.
Trying to keep his voice steady, Reith continued:
"We've had our troubles, but perhaps these are behind us ...
"What I mean," Reith stumbled on, "is, I think we should give serious thought to ..."
"For-gass!" cried a high-pitched Krishnan voice, which went on in Gozashtandou: "I knew not that ye were in town. Why didst not let me know?"
Reith and Alicia looked up. A comely young female Krishnan stood before them, wearing a topless dress of sheer, shimmery fabric, through which her lithe body was visible.
"And who is the Terran lady?" continued the native girl. "I do perceive that she be a fair dame, even by our human standards."
In English, Reith muttered: "Gods of Krishna, not again! It must be a curse!" In Gozashtandou he said: "Mistress Sári bab-Khahir, I have the honor to present Doctor Alicia Dyckman, a learned lady who works for a Terran company. I am showing her about the country."
"I am honored to meet the learned Terran lady," said Sari, bending one knee almost to the ground and rising again.
"I am equally favored by the charming Mistress Sari," said Alicia, nodding.
"Oh!" cried Sári. "Ye speak our language? Ye must have spent much time in this world, to utter it so purely."
"I lived on this planet years ago," said Alicia. "And did ye know Sir Forgass then? Hast known him well?"
"Fairly well." Alicia raised her delicate eyebrows. "And you?"
Sári clasped her hands. "Ah, words cannot describe my good fortune, to have so marvelous a friend amongst the Terrans. He hath bought me this beautiful dress!" She pirouetted.
"Really, Lish," said Reith in English, "I don't want to sit through another discussion of my personal habits between two—uh—"
"How well have you known him?" Alicia persisted, ignoring Reith's complaint.
Sári rolled her eyes heavenward. "Ah, Doctor, how favored by the gods am I, to have the love of so magnificent a Terran gentleman! So brave! So kind! And such a lover! Why, compared to—"
"Please, Lish," said Reith. "I beg you—"
"Relax, Fergus," said Alicia. "This is a valuable sociological sidelight, and I mean to make the most of it."
Sári rushed on. "I have but two regrets. One is that he visits me no more than once a moon; the other, that he will not wed me. I understand his reasons—that he could never father an egg—"
Reith rose. "If you think I'm going to sit here turning pretty colors while you two analyze my sex life ..."
Alicia smiled. "Tell me, Sari, why did you not force this dezd to marry you before giving yourself to him? Would that have improved your social standing?"
"You'll find me back at the inn in an hour or two," barked Reith, turning and striding away. Behind him, he heard Sári's high, sharp little voice.
"Oh, some old fogies still disparage the mistresses of Terrans, but ..."
Hiking furiously, Reith worked off his anger. He marched down to the waterfront and back with so formidable an air that Krishnans, even if they could not read Terran facial expressions, shrank out of his way.
By the time he returned to the inn, he took a more indulgent view of his recent discomfiture. He knew Sári to be a garrulous, gushy young thing. He should have foreseen this meeting and, if he truly feared it, should have changed the schedule to avoid the stop in Rimbid. He should also have known that whenever Alicia scented some new fact in her field of xenanthropology, she would go for it like a terrier after a rat.
When they met at dinner with Ordway and White, the temperature between Reith and Alicia was noticeably lower. They were polite and friendly; but their exchanges were cooler, more impersonal and siblinglike, as if the undercurrent of sex had been washed out of them. After dinner they bade each other a prim goodnight, without a kiss.
This coolness persisted all next day, during the long drive to Novorecife. Reith spent most of the day either driving the carriage or riding one of the spare ayas, so time for conversation was limited. Upon reaching Novorecife, he drove into the compound, dropped all three passengers at the Visitors' Building, carried Alicia's bag in, and said: "Have a good night's sleep! I'll see you all in the morning."
Without further words, he returned to his box. Turning the carriage smartly, he slapped the ayas with the reins and headed for his ranch.
VII - Attila Fodor
Kardir the ranch cook answered the doorbell. Reith asked, "Where's Alister?"
"He hath gone to visit a friend, sir. I believe he left you a note, yonder." The cook indicated the mantelpiece, whereon lay a folded sheet of paper. Reith read: