David Drake: When the Tide Rises

Still, she hadn't drawn her pistol.

Adele would much rather have been in a gunfight than holding this conversation, but it was part of the job she did for Daniel and the RCN. Nobody had told her so, but she was Mundy of Chatsworth: nobody needs to tell a Mundy her duty.

"Mistress…," Vesey said. She stopped, apparently because she didn't know how to go on. That saved Adele from having to interrupt her.

"Something that the RCN didn't have to teach me, Lieutenant," Adele said, "is that you don't quit. Quitting would dishonor your family. My present family is thePrincess Cecile and beyond it the RCN. Not long ago I came closer than I care to remember to quitting."

"You, mistress?" Vesey said in amazement. Her back straightened again.

"In a manner of speaking," Adele said with a cold smile. "I made an effort to let the Pellegrinians kill me. Fortunately, they were bad shots and I'm a very good one. I'm glad of that now, because my honor really does matter to me. Odd though that probably sounds from someone who has no faint vestige of a religious impulse or interest in philosophy."

Vesey swallowed. "I don't think it sounds odd, mistress," she said quietly. "Nobody who knows you could doubt that."

"Be that as it may," said Adele with a sniff. "The important fact is that we both have been granted opportunities to recover from our mistakes."

She looked stone-faced at Vesey and went on, "When will you be reporting aboard theSissie? I believe you were discharged from the hospital this morning, were you not?"

Vesey's face scrunched, but she didn't resume crying. She cleared her throat and said, "Mistress, will Captain Leary let me come back?"

"Yes," said Adele. She didn't amplify the statement. She was almost certain that Daniel would be glad to have Vesey return as his First Lieutenant. If necessary, however, she'd ask him to do so as a favor to her.

Adele smiled faintly. Daniel owed her a great deal. Nothing like as much as she owed him, of course, but that was the way friendship worked.

"Mistress," Vesey whispered. "If he'll have me, I'll… Iwant to come back. More than anything in life, I want to come back to thePrincess Cecile."

"Very good," Adele said. She stood and waved to Tovera. Dust immediately puffed from beneath the aircar; a few seconds later the sound of the fans running up reached her ears. "Then let's go to theSissie and get ready for the Governor's reception. I haven't looked at my dress suit since we lifted from Cinnabar."

She added with a dry smile, "I'm going as Lady Mundy, since a junior warrant officer wouldn't be allowed into the Residence."

Vesey felt alone, and because she felt that way shewas alone. It wasn't true in any objective sense, but people don't live objectively.

Not even Adele Mundy was truly objective, not in the cold dark hours before dawn.

Daniel turned a little more quickly than he should've done and felt a touch of vertigo. "Woops!" he said, touching the terrace railing with his left hand. "The punch has more of a kick than I'd imagined."

The girls giggled, which is what they'd probably have done if he'd slit his throat here on the terrace in front of them. Suzette was a sultry brunette, Tatiana a blonde as pale as a cirrus cloud, and Kitty paired red hair with green eyes. They were all young, all stunningly beautiful, and all very obviously interested in the dashing Commander Leary.

A year ago Daniel would've said he'd died and gone to heaven, and the fact that the trio's combined IQ appeared to be comparable to that of Miranda Dorst alone should've been the icing on the cake. Well, maybe he hadn't drunk enough after all.

He turned and looked out over the harbor. The raised dorsal antennas of the warships were strung with lanterns of pastel paper which illuminated only themselves. When they trembled in the mild breeze, they seemed to be floating.

To most eyes a mere corvette made a poor show compared to the huge battleships, but the rush of affection Daniel felt when his eyes fell on thePrincess Cecile staggered him anew. He remembered the first time he'd stood at her masthead and looked up at the blaze of the Matrix. In that instant he'd realized that he was captain of a starship and that the whole cosmos was his…

TheZeno 's band was playing a waltz nearby on the upper terrace; they'd trade off with their counterparts from theLao-tze in another hour, so that all the bandsmen had a chance to celebrate too. Given that theLao-tze 's personnel were having their party now, the quality of the music was likely to deteriorate after the handover. The guests generally were lapping down the punch as fast as Daniel was, however, so nobody was likely to complain.

"Oh, Commander," said Suzette, rubbing Daniel's heavily-embroidered scarlet sash with her fingertips. "Does this mean something?"

"It does, doesn't it, Danny?" Kitty said, fondling his chest from the other side. Tatiana simply giggled.

An inside-illuminated dragon floated across the harbor. Daniel wasn't sure whether it and the several similar displays-a whale, a swan, and some sort of spiky, rounded creature-were balloons being guided by small boats or if they were made from paper over frames which the boats supported on poles. They were civilian efforts, part of a local tradition.

"This means I'm a Royal Companion of Novy Sverdlovsk, my dear," Daniel said. He held his smile even though the silk and cloth-of-gold lay on top of ranks of additional medals which Suzette's forceful caresses were driving into his chest. He didn't imagine the sensation could be very erotic for her either. "I'm told it gives me the right to drink from the king's own cup at banquets if I'm ever on Novy Sverdlovsk-which heaven forbid."

The girls giggled harmoniously. He wondered if they'd taken a course in Synchronized Laughing.

Admiral James had ordered that his officers attend the Governor's fete wearing full Cinnabar and foreign decorations. In a naval gathering that would be bad taste-particularly for a junior commander-but the intention here was to overawe the civilians. Because much of Daniel's service had been on distant planets with a gaudy sense of showmanship, he made a better display than some of the RCN captains present.

Having said that, Daniel wore the Cinnabar Star at the head of his top row of medals. RCN officers would ignore the Strymonian aigrette and the sash from Novy Sverdlovsk, but they'd respect the Star.

"Commander, come and dance," Suzette wheedled, tugging on the sash as though it were a leash. "Won't you dance with me, pretty please?"

There was dancing on the upper terrace. When Daniel looked up, he saw Adele sweep by in a gigue with Captain Bussom. She was in her occasional disguise as Lady Mundy, wearing a light gray suit slashed with violet. Formal dancing was an aristocratic skill which Evadne Rolfe Mundy had therefore seen to it that her bookish daughter Adele learned.

Pastel lanterns like those on the ships lit the grounds of the Governor's Residence. They cast a comfortable dimness over the faces of people who'd drunk too much tonight or eaten too much over the previous decades.

"My dear-" Daniel began. His tongue stopped and he looked up to the higher terrace again to be sure of what he thought he'd seen in the corner of his eyes.

He really had: Vesey was dancing with Adele's young ward, Rene Cazelet. The boy wore an attentive smile, while Vesey looked flushed. That might simply be strain from dancing despite having been so badly bruised during the battle. Still, she seemed to be having a good time.

"Dancing makes me feel all funny," said Tatiana, stroking Daniel's cheek with her fingertips. "Dreamy, sort of, if you know what I mean, Danny."

She didn't look any more dreamy than a cobra tensing to strike, though Daniel was confident that her intentions weren't in the least hostile. So long as she got her way, at least.