Sheri Tepper - Grass

“So, who’s to say it shouldn’t be?” Roald responded. “If your good husband is determined, my Lady, then it would be a thing to try. Otherwise, wait until summer when the hunting stops. Then you can have your reception among the summer balls.”

Rigo did not want to wait until summer. “That’s over a year and a half. Terran,” he said. “We have to start getting some information from the bons, Marjorie. There’s no time to wait. We’ll get everything ready and send the invitation as soon as the place looks decent. Undoubtedly I’ll hear from bon Haunser if we’ve overstepped some barrier of local custom “

The invitations were dispatched by tell-me to all estancias. Surprisingly, at least to Marjorie, acceptances were prompt and fairly widespread. She got a bad case of stage fright and went up into the summer rooms to reassure herself.

The chill rooms had been transformed. Though still cool, they glowed with color. From the greenhouse in the village — which had been half ruined until Rigo had ordered it rebuilt — had come great bouquets of off-world bloom. Terran lilies and Semling semeles combined with plumes of silver grass to make huge, fragrant mounds reflected endlessly in paired mirrors. Marjorie had provided holo-records of valued artworks the Yrariers had left behind, and duplicates of the originals glowed at her from the walls and from pedestals scattered among the costly furniture.

“This is a beautiful table,” she said, running her fingers across satiny blue-shadowed wood.

“Thank you, Lady,” said Persun. “My father made it.”

“Where does he get wood, here on Grass?”

“Imports much of it. Much though they talk of tradition, now and then the bons want something imported and new. Things he makes for us, though, he cuts from the swamp forest. There are some lovely trees in there. There’s this wood, the one we call blue treasure, and there’s one that’s pale green in one light and a deep violet in another. Glume wood, that is.”

“I didn’t know anyone could get into the swamp forest.”

“Oh, we don’t go in. There’s a hundred miles of forest edge, and these are trees that grow at the edge. Even so, we don’t take many. I’m using some native woods in the panels for your room.” He had spent hours designing the panels for her study. He longed for her to praise them.

“Are you, now,” she mused. Outside, on the balustraded terrace, a slender figure passed restlessly to and fro: Eugenie. Forlorn. Childlike. Head drooping like a wilted flower. Marjorie fingered her prayer book and reminded herself of certain virtues. “Will you excuse me a moment, Persun?”

He bowed wordlessly, and she left him there while he tried to give the appearance of not staring after her.

“Eugenie,” Marjorie greeted her with self-conscious kindness. “I’ve seen very little of you since we arrived.” She had seen nothing of her at home, but this was a different world and all comparisons were odious.

The other woman flushed. Rigo had told her to stay away from the big house. “I shouldn’t be here now. I thought I might catch a ride into town with the merchant, that’s all.”

“Something you need?”

Eugenie flushed again. “No. Nothing I need. I just thought I’d spend a day looking at the shops. Maybe stay at the Port Hotel overnight and see the entertainment…”

“It must be dull for you here.”

“It is bloody dull,” the woman blurted, speaking before she thought. She flushed a deep, embarrassed red, and her eyes filled with tears.

This time Marjorie flushed. “That was tactless of me, Eugenie. Listen. I know you’re not one for horses or things like that, but why don’t you see if they have some kind of pets for sale in Commons?”

“Pets?”

“I don’t know what they might have. Dogs, maybe. Or kittens. Birds of some kind, or something exotic. Little animals are very amusing. They take up a lot of time.”

“Oh, I have so much of that,” Eugenie cried, almost angrily. “Rigo… well, Rigo’s been very busy.” Marjorie looked out across the balustrade of the terrace toward the multiple horizons of that part of the grass garden called the Fading Vista. Each ridge partly hid the one behind, each one was a paler color than the one before, until the horizon hill faded into the sky almost indistinguishably. She was amused to make a mental connection: In such fashion had her original animosity toward Eugenie faded, retreated, become merely a hazy tolerance almost indistinguishable from tentative acceptance, “We’ll be having our first official party soon. Perhaps you’ll meet some people…” her voice faded away like the horizon line before her. Who could Eugenie meet, after all? The children despised her. The servants thought her a joke. No one among the bons would associate with her. Or would they?

“There are particular people I want you to meet,” Marjorie said thoughtfully. “A man named Eric bon Haunser. And Shevlok, the eldest son of the bon Damfels.”

“Trying to get rid of me?” Eugenie said with childish spite. “Introducing me to men.”

“Trying to assure that you have some company,” Marjorie said mildly. “Trying to assure that we all do. If some of the men find you fascinating, you and Stella and maybe me — though that wouldn’t do to admit officially — perhaps they’ll frequent the place. We’re here to find something out, after all.”

“Don’t talk as though I knew anything about it. I don’t. Rigo didn’t tell me anything!”

“Oh, my dear,” said Marjorie, more shocked than she could admit even to herself. “But he must have! Why would you have come, otherwise?”

To which Eugenie merely stared at her, eyes wide and wondering. This woman married to Roderigo Yrarier, this woman, his wife, mother of his children, this woman… She didn’t know? “Because I love him,” she said at last, almost whispering “I thought you knew.”

“Well so do I,” Marjorie replied shortly, believing that she did. “But even so, I would not have come to Grass had I not known why.”

Though Eugenie had not particularly appreciated Marjorie’s advice about pets, she had heard it. Normally she would have ignored it as a matter of principle because it came from Rigo’s wife and Rigo would be unlikely to appreciate his mistress taking his wife’s advice about anything. As it was, however, Eugenie could not afford to ignore anything that would alleviate the blanketing boredom which afflicted her. At home there had been restaurants and parties and amusing places to go to. There had been shopping and clothes and hairdressers to talk with. There had been gossip and laughter. And running through all that, like a thread of gold through the floating chiffon of her life, there had been Rigo. Not that he’d been around a lot. He hadn’t been. But for a long time he had been there, in the background, providing whatever she needed, making her feel treasured and important. Men such as he, Rigo had explained, with all his important work on committees and clubs and such, needed women such as she as a necessary relief from the tiresome but urgent works they were called upon to do. This made women such as she especially important. Eugenie thought of this often. Men had told her many sweet things about herself, but never before that she was important. It was the nicest compliment she had ever received.

And so she was here, and so was Rigo, and for all they saw of one another she might as well have stayed on Terra with some other protector — which she had, quite truthfully, considered. Had there been another man immediately available, she would probably have chosen to stay. Weighing the relative inconvenience, however, of finding a new man or submitting to packing and coldsleep, she had decided that finding the new man would be more trouble. Not so much finding him but learning about him. His little ways. His favorite foods and smells and colors and little magics in bed. All men believed they had their own magics in bed.