“So you came to Serendipity. How will you prove yourself here, Sariana?”
“I’m hoping to prove my potential by making a reputation for myself as a business manager who can rescue clans such as the Avylyns that are in real financial trouble.” Sariana looked up at him with a shy eagerness. “I’m going to reapply to the academy and ask for permission to retake the entrance exams”
“Will that be allowed?”
“It’s highly unusual, but under special circumstances the academy members will allow it. My goal is to give a graphic demonstration of my abilities here in Serendipity and use that to persuade the academy to give me another chance. I’m very close to pulling the Avylyns out of the red, you know. In a few more months, if all goes well, they should be back on their feet financially.”
“If the academy members agree to give you another chance,” Gryph said slowly, “you’ll go back to Rendezvous?”
She smiled. “You’d better believe it. I’ll be on the next available windrigger home. How else could I finish my education and take my proper place in society?”
Gryph had to fight to control the frustrated rage that shot through him in that moment. Deliberately he subdued it. He must take this slowly and carefully.
“What will you do if the academy is not willing to relent?” he asked.
Her smile vanished into a rather grim line. “Then I’ll be trapped here in Serendipity. I have thought about it a great deal and I’ve decided Etion Rakken is right. It would be better to stay here if I can’t take my rightful place back home.”
“This Rakken,” Gryph said, “he’s already made such a decision for himself?”
Sariana nodded. “He has resigned himself to his exile. He is very successful here and he takes what consolation and satisfaction he can from that. If I am forced to stay, I’ll probably marry him.”
Gryph reached out reflexively with his free hand and snagged a huge whispflower. His fingers closed around it, plucking it from its stem and crushing it into a pulpy mass in the blink of an eye. Sariana stared in shock.
“What are you doing? Those are Lady Avylyn’s prize whispflowers! She’s planning to enter them in an exhibition next week.”
Gryph opened his hand and looked down at the smashed petals. “Accidents will happen.”
“That was no accident. You did that deliberately,” Sariana accused.
Gryph shoved the evidence into his jacket pocket. “Maybe Lady Avylyn won’t notice if one of her precious flowers is missing.”
“If she does notice, I’m certainly going to tell her who is responsible,” Sariana threatened.
Gryph laughed softly. “Little tattletale. You’d inform on me?”
“In a flash.”
He shook his head, still grinning. “What? No loyalty at all to your poor, underpaid employee?”
“What has my poor, underpaid employee accomplished since he started this job?” she demanded.
Gryph was slightly taken back by the way she had switched the topic. “As a matter of fact, I’ve subcontracted out some work to an informer. A man named Brinton. He’s one of those very useful people who knows every back alley in Serendipity. And he makes a living selling information to those who are willing to pay to know some of the things that go on in these alleys.”
“A clanless man?” Sariana asked, obviously appalled. “A criminal?”
“Not everyone has the advantages of belonging to a respectable clan, Sariana. In spite of the social philosophers’ fine plans, society is a long way from being perfectly structured. Here in the west the rules get bent a lot. You know that. I doubt we’re all that unique. Don’t you have any clanless people in the eastern provinces?”
“Well, yes, but to actually deal with such a person. . . “
“You’re not dealing with him. I am. To tell you the truth, Brinton’s not such a bad sort. His information is usually highly reliable. If a rival clan hired someone to steal the Avylyns’ prisma cutter, the chances are good one of Brinton’s many sources will have heard some rumors to that effect.”
“I don’t like it,” Sariana stated.
“You don’t have to like it or dislike it. It’s done.”
She chewed on that for a moment. “When will you hear from this Brinton?” she finally asked.
Gryph smiled grimly. “I’m glad you have enough common sense to be able to accept the inevitable. At heart you’re a practical woman. That’s a useful trait. As far as your question goes, I’m not sure when I’ll hear from Brinton. He does things in his own way and in his own time. It shouldn’t take him long to find out if there are any rumors going around about the cutter, though.”
“I’d like to get this matter settled as soon as possible.”
“I’m aware of that fact, lady. But you’re going to have to be patient.” Gryph paused until he had her full attention. “Unless you’d like to fire me and continue the investigation yourself?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I wouldn’t know how to conduct such an investigation and I can hardly go to the town guards with this.”
“Not if you want to keep the matter quiet,” Gryph agreed blandly.
Silence settled on Sariana for a long moment. Gryph could practically hear the thoughts churning in her head. But when she spoke she surprised him with her question.
“Why did Lady Avylyn address you as Lord Chassyn the other morning in my office?”
“The title is mine by right. I’m a direct descendant of a Prime Family of the Shield class. Our class may be an insignificant one in your eyes, with no equivalent in the east, but it is a legitimate class here in the west.”
She looked at him curiously. “I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“Didn’t you?” Sometimes, Gryph reflected, his future Shieldmate displayed a most amazing talent for annoying him.
Sariana appeared uncharacteristically contrite. Her apology was gracious and formal. “I’m sorry if I have offended you or your social class. Please forgive me. All social classes are deserving of respect and equality, just as the social philosophers decreed when they created them. I have been under a certain amount of strain lately. Sometimes I speak before I think.”
“You ought to watch that, Sariana,” Gryph couldn’t resist saying.
She frowned. “Watch what?”
“Speaking before you think. That’s a western habit. We tend to get emotional about things, you see.”
To his surprise she took the comment seriously. “I have noticed the tendency.”
“I’ll bet you have. You couldn’t have lived here for a year and not seen a lot of examples of that tendency. We’re a little hot-blooded here in the west. Also occasionally rash, passionate, and amazingly reckless at times.”
Sariana grinned unexpectedly. “The Avylyns call it artistic temperament. They seem to think it was inevitable, given the fact that most of the social classes on board The Serendipity had an artistic orientation. Sometimes I’ve wondered if it might be caused partly by your environment. Everything seems very strongly stated here in the west. The climate, the landscape, the plants and animals. Nothing is dull or colorless.” She glanced at the huge conservatory clock and gave a start. “I’d better get back to my suite. It’s very late.”
“I’ll walk you back.”
“No, no, that’s quite all right,” she protested quickly. “I wouldn’t want you to go out of your way.”
“It’s not out of my way. My suite is in the same wing as yours. Lady Avylyn graciously assigned it to me this morning.”
“Oh.”
Gryph took some satisfaction from the fact that she couldn’t find anything else to say to that. Sariana, he was learning, was rarely at a loss for words.
They walked in silence down the long gallery of the wing in which their chambers were located. At Sariana’s door they came to a halt and Gryph reached down to
touch the hidden spring mechanism. The door opened on its silent hinges and Sariana stepped inside. She started to turn, a polite farewell on her lips, then stopped abruptly as her attention was caught by something inside the room.
“Oh, no!”
Gryph was inside the room at once, scanning the interior with a practiced eye. “What’s wrong?”
“The scarlet-toe. It’s out of its cage.” Sariana hurried forward to examine the empty gold cage. The tiny door stood open. “How could it have gotten out? I’ll have to find it. I can’t possibly go to sleep knowing there’s a lizard running around my room.”
“Scarlet-toes are very clever,” Gryph remarked. The alert tension that had gripped him when Sariana had cried out in dismay vanished. He took a good look around the room while Sariana darted about anxiously looking in corners and under chairs.
The ornate bed was suspended from the ceiling by four heavy chains in the typical western fashion. It hung a half meter above the floor, but it was impossible to see under it because of the bed drapes.
The walls were painted a warm yellow, the elaborate architectural details picked out in white and gilt. High, arched windows looked out over the gardens toward the river. There was a fine cabinet finished in black enamel and decorated with a flower motif. A couple of suspended chairs and a writing desk completed the basic furnishings. A doorway on the other side of the room led into what Gryph knew would be an ornate bathroom. Westerners loved ornate bathrooms. The wealthier the family, the more exotic the household baths.
“We’ve got to find it,” Sariana said, glancing inside an empty vase. “I can’t go to sleep in here unless I know it’s back in its cage. Here, Lucky. Where are you, Lucky?”
“Scarlet-toes are harmless, Sariana. You don’t have to worry if we don’t find it.”
“Easy for you to say,” she muttered as she began to check all the tiny drawers of the writing desk. “You’re not the one who has to sleep in a room with a lizard.”
“The real danger is to the scarlet-toe,” Gryph pointed out as he went down on one knee beside the bed and swept aside the drapery. You might accidentally step on it when you got out of bed in the morning.”
Sariana groaned and opened another drawer. “What a horrible thought.”
“Yeah. Especially for Lucky.” Gryph bent down to look beneath the bed and saw the flash of red gems in the shadows. “Ah, here we are.”
Sariana slammed a drawer shut and hurried across the room. “You found it?”
Gryph settled back on his heel. “It will be easier for you to catch it than it will be for me. I told you this morning, they like females.”
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” Sariana looked ruefully resigned.
“I’m afraid so.” He waited, curious to see what she would do.
“Well, I can’t leave it where it is. It will drive me crazy all night wondering if it’s sneaking around my bed somewhere.” She dropped to her knees and peered under the bed.
“Don’t make any sudden moves. It’s still quite wild. But it will be curious about you. Put out your hand very slowly.”
“What if it bites me?” Sariana hissed. She went down on her stomach and slithered halfway under the bed. She disappeared from the waist up, leaving Gryph with a view of her charming rear.
“It won’t bite.” Gryph stayed where he was, enjoying the soft curves of her buttocks and thighs as they were revealed, by the shifting folds of her robe. “Don’t worry, Sariana. All it secretly wants to do is curl up in your palm and warm itself against your skin.”
“I hope you know what I’m doing.” She wriggled a little farther under the bed.
Gryph fought the almost overpowering urge to shape his hand to the lush curve of her hips. “Just trust me, Sariana. It doesn’t want to hurt you. It wants to be held and touched and petted by you. At this point it just isn’t quite certain how to approach you, that’s all. You need to show it that you want it.”
“I hate to break this to her, Gryph,” her voice was muffled, “but I don’t particularly want a lizard for a pet. I just didn’t know how to tell Luri that.”
“You can’t really know how you feel about it until you’ve held it close,” Gryph said softly, still studying the gentle mounds that were so close to his hand. “Don’t make snap judgments.”
“It’s not a snap judgment. I’ve never been fond of lizards. I don’t know many people who are.”
“The scarlet-toe seems strange and alien to you now. You’re wary of it because it’s unfamiliar to you. Just as I am.”
Her wriggling body went still. Then Sariana said tartly, “I hadn’t thought of you and the scarlet-toe as having all that much in common.”
“We’re both from the west,” Gryph noted in soft amusement.
“And you both have teeth.”
Gryph blinked, unsure how to interpret that. “Sariana…”
“Ah! Got ‘em.” Her body snapped forward quickly and an instant later she was sliding back out from beneath the bed. She sat up, triumphantly holding her captive. “Here it is. Get the cage.”
Gryph studied the careful way she was clasping the small red lizard. “It’s not necessary to keep a scarlet-toe in a cage. Not after it gets to know you.”
“This one will very definitely stay in a cage.” Sariana stated firmly. “I’m not taking any chances with something that has as many teeth as this thing does.” She got to her feet and went quickly across the room to deposit the small lizard inside its gold filigree home. Then she latched the cage door shut. “There we are. Safe and sound. In the morning I’ll try to convince Luri that his gift would much rather be free to romp along the riverbank.”
Gryph rose slowly, watching Sariana as she bent over the gold cage. “I don’t think it will want to be free in the morning, Sariana. I think the bonding has already started. Lucky won’t want to leave you.”
“Nonsense. Any wild creature would rather be free.”
“There are exceptions to every rule.”
Sariana grinned as she turned around to confront him. “Not in the eastern provinces, there aren’t. We don’t bend the rules very much where I come from, let alone make exceptions.”
“You’re not at home,” Gryph reminded her. He went slowly forward, approaching her as she had approached the scarlet-toe. “Things are different here.”
She didn’t move, but some of her amusement faded. She seemed to realize finally that there was more going on in the room than the successful capture of a scarlet lizard. She searched his face, her eyes wide and questioning. “Gryph?”
“Don’t be afraid of the differences between us.” He moved a little closer, pleased that she still wasn’t trying to dodge his slow, careful advance. In another step or two, he could touch her. He wanted that. Wanted it very badly.
“I’m not afraid of you, Gryph.”
He smiled faintly, pleased by the words. “I think it would take a lot to frighten you. A nervous little coward would not have made the voyage to the western provinces when things went wrong at home.”
Sariana shook her head slightly, her mouth trembling between a smile and uncertainty. “I didn’t have much choice.”
“You had a choice. You took the one that held the most promise, but also the one that held the most risk. With a temperament like that, you might be more at home here in Serendipity than you would be in Rendezvous. Have you ever thought of that?”
“No,” she said flatly, “I haven’t.”
Gryph took a chance. He put out his hand and touched the fold of her robe where it fell just below her shoulder. The soft thrust of her breasts was only a few centimeters from his palm. He sensed her catching her breath and he sought desperately for a way to calm her again.
“You’re a woman who’s not afraid to take risks,” he whispered, his voice rough and husky with need. His fingers trembled on the fabric of h
er robe. “Will you take a risk with me?”
“I don’t know what you mean. I’m already taking a tremendous risk just by hiring you.”
He brushed that aside, impatient with her small attempt to sidestep the issue. “I’m talking about another kind of risk and I think you know it.”
A frantic protest mingled with anger leaped into her wide eyes. “You ask too much, Shield!”
“And I overstep myself, don’t I?” he taunted gently. “I go too far, reach too high, dare too much, demand more than I have any right to expect”
“I see you understand your situation perfectly,” she muttered. Her lashes came down to veil her eyes. “Gryph, please, it’s very late. You must leave. Don’t embarrass both of us by going any farther with this.”
“I can give you a little time, Sariana. Not much, but a little. Would that help? I want to do this right.”
She trembled. He could feel the small shiver that went through her and he knew with absolute certainty that it was caused by excitement as well as feminine wariness. He could make her want him. He was sure of it. He just had to give her time.
“Time?” she breathed. Her eyes were luminous pools. Emotions moved just beneath the surface of those pools, sending tremors through her whole body.
“Would that make it easier for you?”
“I don’t know,” she gasped. “I don’t know. Please, Gryph I can’t think.”
“I want you.”
“You hardly know me.” Her eyes were pleading with him now, pleading for understanding and reassurance. But he saw the passionate curiosity in them, too, and he aimed for that.
“I know you better than you think.” He leaned down to brush her mouth with his own. Relief and triumph swept through him when she didn’t instantly pull away.
Deliberately he kept the kiss gentle and undemanding. He would not make the mistake of overwhelming her as he had the last time he had kissed her. He didn’t want her to be frightened of him. His whole body was clamoring for release, but he could control himself tonight. He would give Sariana the time she needed.