Jayne Castle: Ghost Hunter

"You won't lose your position at the college," Cooper said without inflection. "Don't worry about it."

It was her turn to raise her brows. "Why? Because you'll make a few phone calls and intimidate the Academic Council?

"If there's a problem, I'll take care of it," he said.

"Don't even think about trying to do any such thing, Cooper Boone. I will not tolerate you using your position to interfere in my career."

"I think you're overreacting here," Cooper said quietly.

"I'm furious. If you want to label that an overreaction, you're welcome to your point of view. Forget my little problem with the Academic Council. I'll handle my professional life my way. Let's get back to a more important issue."

His brows came together in a small frown of surprise. "There's a more important issue?"

"Yes." She braced herself. "You've as much as admitted that there was a duel. Let's move on to my second question. People are saying that I was the cause of that ghost-fight between you and Palmer Frazier. Is that true?"

Cooper exchanged a look with her father. She knew that he was making his decision, deciding how much of the truth to tell her. Did he realize that their entire future together hinged on what he said next? Probably not. He was a Guild boss. It wouldn't occur to him that this situation had escaped his control.

Cooper unfolded his hands. He took off his glasses with a deliberate air and set them down on the desk.

Slowly he walked across the room to stand at one of the tall windows. For a moment or two he studied the view of the ruins of the ancient alien town site that had been deserted thousands of years before humans had arrived on the planet.

"Frazier is a very ambitious man, Elly," he said quietly. "He was attempting to use you."

"We dated for a while," she said icily. "We had some fun together. He did not use me."

"He intended to marry you. He was going on the assumption that once you were his wife, he would be able to forge a natural alliance with your father. That would have given him a critical edge on the Council."

She felt the floor start to dissolve under her feet. So much for the one frail thread of hope that she had been clinging to so tightly for the past few hours.

"I see," she managed in a voice that was no more than a whisper. "This was all about the Guild."

John inclined his head in a sage manner. "It's true, Elly. Frazier was determined to marry you. I warned him off privately, but he ignored me. If he had succeeded in convincing you to contract a formal Covenant Marriage with him, I would have been placed in an untenable situation, forced to choose between supporting my son-in-law for the sake of my daughter and her future offspring, or voting against him and risking an irreparable rift in our clan. It is very likely that, in the end, I would have had to step down from the Council to avoid being caught in the middle."

"Which," Cooper said, turning back to face her, "would have tipped the balance of power on the Council in such a way that it is entirely possible Frazier would have become the new Guild boss. He certainly has the para-rez talent, the ambition, and the connections it takes to get the job. I can promise you, his leadership would not have been good for the future of this organization."

"Right," she said quietly. "Got it. You fought the duel to protect the balance of power on the Council."

"That's what we've been trying to explain, dear." John crossed the room to pat her on the shoulder. "How could you know about the political stakes involved in this affair? As Cooper just told you, it was Guild business."

She shook her head, smiling sadly at her own illusions. "Did it ever occur to either one of you to talk to me about the situation before you got involved in something as stupid as a duel?"

Both men looked taken aback by the question. Neither attempted an answer.

"I'm not a complete fool," she said wearily. "Nor am I the naive, sheltered little academic that everyone seems to think I am. Palmer Frazier isn't the first man who ever tried to get close to me in order to gain access to you, Dad. Let's get serious here. If I turned down dates from every man who was attracted to me at least in part because of my Guild connections, I'd have no social life at all. This is a small town. Everyone knows who you are and that I'm your daughter."

"I understand, dear, but Frazier is different," John said carefully. "He's very good at political maneuvering, and he's got excellent connections because he is descended from one of the founding members of the Frequency Guild. An alliance with our clan would have given him a great deal of power. When the two of you were dating it was obvious that he was trying to charm you. And you seemed to be getting rather serious about him."

"Maybe that was because he treated me as an equal," she said stonily. "He didn't put me into a little box that he could open or close whenever it was convenient for him. Sure, he was a charmer. But you know what? Palmer and I laughed at a lot of the same things. We liked to dance together. And here's a real stunner, he always showed up on time for every date. What a concept, hmm?"

Cooper's eyes tightened a little at the corners. "Where are you going with this, Elly?"

"When Palmer and I were dating, I never had to listen to a lot of excuses about how he had to cancel because of some last-minute Guild business," she said. "He was never late because of a meeting that ran too long. He never disappeared for an entire weekend with no explanation other than 'Something came up. "

John was starting to look vaguely alarmed. "Now, see here, Elly-"

"I understood from the outset that Palmer's interest in me stemmed from the fact that he thought the two of us made a good match politically, financially, and socially." She shrugged. "He was right. As we all know, marriages have been arranged between Guild families since the founding of the organization for precisely those reasons."

John cleared his throat. "Marriages at the highest levels of the Guild involve a great deal more than just the two people who take the vows. Fortunes and the futures of entire families, not to mention the Guild, itself, are at stake. You know that, Elly."

"I sure do," she said. "But in this particular instance, it is all beside the point, because I never intended to marry Palmer Frazier." She paused a beat. "And if either of you two hardheaded hunters had bothered to ask me, I would have gladly told you that."

The office filled with a heavy silence.

"Mind if I ask why you're so certain that Frazier couldn't have convinced you to marry him?" Cooper finally asked in an eerily neutral tone. "Given that he was never late for a date and all?"

Because I had just met you, and after that there was no one else, she thought. But damned if she would say those words aloud now that she knew the truth about the duel.

"Certainly." She rezzed her brightest smile. "I'll be happy to tell you why I never wanted to marry Palmer Frazier. The reason is that I did not love him. What's more, I was pretty sure I would never be able to learn to love him. And you know what, guys? This may come as something of a surprise, but I wouldn't think of marrying a man who was only interested in using me to achieve his objectives in Guild politics."

Wariness flickered in Cooper's eyes.

John stared at her, astonished. "Now, hold on here, what is that supposed to mean?"

"I think we all know what it means, Dad." She gave her full attention to Cooper. "Talk about life's little ironies. I was never at risk of marrying Palmer Frazier, so that duel you two fought was all for nothing. But upon reflection, I realize that I owe you my sincere gratitude for getting involved in that challenge."

"Why?" he asked.

"Because if the duel had not taken place, and if I had not found out about it today, I probably would have continued to allow myself to be convinced that everything that was wrong between us would have been magically fixed after we got married. Talk about naive."