A Match for the El Maiens

Please leave comments for me. Thank you! (Diolch.)

*****

Vadya walked into the castle courtyard, kicking a stone along the cobbles as he went.

He had been down to First H'las' camp to lunch. The officers had annoyed him by talking constantly about Captain-Lord el Maien and how brilliant a military brain "he" was and how Vadya would miss "him" if his father were able to get around "his" van Sietter birth and take "him" up to the Generals' strategic staff.

Suddenly Tashka herself appeared, walking out of the stables in muddy riding boots, jodhpurs and a green jumper. A grubby Imp was jumping around her heels, she was teasing him with a piece of biscuit she was holding above his nose. Her slanted blue eyes caught on Vadya's stare, she tripped on a cobblestone and stumbled to a halt, letting Imp take the biscuit without teasing him any more. She started to snap her heels together then she started to set her legs apart then she just stood staring back at him.

"Um, er," Vadya could not decide how to address her. "Have you seen my father?" Of course she had. They always seemed to be together, even playing cards one evening! The number of times he had warned his father off playing cards with Tashka.

"No sir," she tilted her head, narrowed her slanted blue eyes and then she began eyeing him up and down in a way that made him feel strange.

"Oh," he said.

She was looking in an unnerving speculative way, unlike the way any of his junior officers had ever done before. He could not quite believe she was looking at the part of his body her eyes seemed to be lingering on. She opened her mouth then looked down at herself and shut it again. Imp scratched at her booted leg and whined.

"Shut it!" she said in an unusually rough voice.

"Did you have a good ride?" Vadya enquired, half polite, half sneering.

"Yes," she said. "I went into the hills for lunch at Vidor Hyaline and Faffie Velor's farm. Did you enjoy it there, when you went?"

Vadya jerked his head in a sullen nod. He looked her over, yet again tried to think of her as a woman and failed again. She only ever looked like the perfect young officer. He gave a heavy annoyed sigh.

"What?" she said roughly, "do you not like the cut of my shirt?"

"Not much," he snapped back. "It is hardly the dress of a Lady." He immediately felt ashamed and walked off so he did not have to see her rose-petal mouth bunch up in the rueful pout that would only make him want to kiss her again. If only she would wear a dress but he reminded himself that that would not make her willing to give him a kiss, it would only make him feel better about lusting after one of his junior officers.

At last her awful father and that scum her uncle had gone. Lord Esha had made it plain to van Sietter that the el Gaiels would not be ridden rough-shod into jilting his scandalous daughter. He had taken pains to demonstrate his affection and respect for her, reiterating his offer to take her onto his strategic staff with a hopeful gleam in his eye.

van H'las had been moved into the great bed-chamber where van Sietter had previously been placed. (By moving him into the family quarters Clair had sought to demonstrate his gratitude towards his former enemy.) Vadya ran up the stairs and along the veranda and knocked on his father's door.

"Enter," said Lord Esha's warm deep voice. Vadya opened the door and found his father sitting at the desk in the room, scowling and scratching at a letter. Lord Esha looked up to see Vadya and pushed the letter away with an expression of great relief.

Vadya strolled moodily around the floor, poking with one foot at the stools set out by the fireplace and the chairs in a circle in the middle of the room. He came back round in front of the big curtain-hung four-poster bed and went to the narrow slit window by the desk, peered out of it at the hills rising behind the castle up away into the skies, standing broad-shouldered and muscular in his white cotton shirt and fawn breeches in the sunny light that fell through the window.

"Where is your clerk?" he asked in a bored voice.

"I gave her an holiday," van H'las replied, sucking on his quill pen as if it were a pencil and then looking at it with a surprised expression of disgust. "There is a long letter come from the Port Ithilien Council that is marked urgent and is probably a lot of rubbish. I concealed it and sent poor Ladda off to get some fresh air." He sniggered.

Vadya sat down sideways in one of the carved wooden chairs near the desk and leant over the back of it, frowning irritably at the floor. He knew the letter would be crucially important and he ought to ask to look at it and tell his father what to do about it but he was too cross to care.

"Was your lunch with Mada good?" his father asked.

"Mm, it was very tasty," Vadya said sulkily. The Commander of First H'las was his father's best friend, Mada Stanies, he was the father himself of the best friend whom Vadya had lost in a duel. Vadya always took the time to go and sit with him when he could, Commander Stanies could not usually bear to talk of young Mada with Vadya (he would do that with Tashka) but Vadya knew it comforted him; he had seen Vadya grow up with his own son.

His father sat patiently for a moment then Vadya said: "They all talked about Tashka. Uncle Mada said how sorry I will be when he comes to you in the strategic staff. When I tried to change the subject he said I should not let Tashka stay so hung on my banner. I should like to hang that little ... thing from my banner, I swear it!"

Lord Esha got up, went over to the sidetable and poured himself a whisky and Vadya a bowl of the exceptionally fine brandy that Clair kept in his cellars. He fetched his long-stemmed curving pipe and filled it with his pleasant light tobacco, lit it and passed it to Vadya. Vadya drew on it and passed it back, continuing to frown at the floor.

"I will not force you to this match," his father said gently. "I do not trust that old snake van Sietter. Just the betrothal for a year will make the merchants feel more secure and they will start to go from Port H'las and Port Ithilien through the Sietter Hills. Once trade is passing that way again it will be difficult for van Sietter to start raising the taxes once more."

"van Sietter is a cold-hearted scum," Vadya grumbled, taking the pipe back from Lord Esha. "A fine father by marriage!"

"Yes," his father said patiently, "but Lord Clair is of better worth than van Sietter and Lady el Jien is an honourable Lady. We know we do not have to trouble much with van Sietter and I will be happy to spend time with Clair and Lady el Jien, what do you say?"

"I like Clair," Vadya said slowly. "He is a sportsman. He is like ... Tashka but not as mischievous. I like Lady el Jien, I am sure she is kind, but ... you know, papa, I always check my boots are clean when I see her! She is not a soldier's wife."

Lord Esha laughed at him. "Not the wife of some rough Captain perhaps!" he exclaimed. "You are forgetting that she is the Lady wife of a tip-top Commander. Ladies are like her, Vadya. They are not for taking on campaigns."

"Pava takes Ladies on campaign," Vadya protested then he had to admit: "Well, not Ladies exactly."

His father said coldly: "Is that how you practise manoeuvres these days, with the women and children mixed among the baggage wagons? If you or any of your officers intend ..."

"Of course not, papa," Vadya interrupted. "Pava is just ... who he is. Ninth Vail is a play-troop." Then he grinned suddenly, handing the pipe to his father and leaning back in his chair. "So I will not be permitted to take my Lady wife with me, even if she also be the Captain of my Second Quarter?"

Lord Esha's eyes glazed over, he sat with his whisky in one hand and his pipe in the other, staring over Vadya's left shoulder. After a while, he grinned too and said: "I know not. I would not leave him at home if he were my Captain."

"You think I should have him back to the troop," the frown was gathering up Vadya's brow again.

"You know it well," his father replied, "if you do not take him back to the troop with you I will give him a place on my own staff, at the highest level of security, and think myself lucky to have him."

Vadya looked over at the big bed in the corner of the room and crossed one leg over the other.

"Will you have him back to the troop?" his father said softly.

Vadya got up and walked to the fireplace, fiddled with a framed drawing of a hunting scene on the mantelpiece, walked back to his chair and sat down again. His face was completely lacking in expression.

"Will you marry him?" Lord Esha asked.

Vadya looked to one side then back at his father. His face still bore no expression whatsoever.

"What is there wrong with it?" Lord Esha asked in a soft gentle affectionate voice.

"What, with taking my wife: a woman, and van Sietter at that, back to the troop?" Vadya's generous mouth curled scornfully at him.

"You do not have to tell people that he is a woman," van H'las pointed out. "We can say your Lady wife has chosen to live in Sietter, it will not be unusual. He will not be van Sietter the more if you marry him, either, he will be van H'las."

There was a long silence. Finally Vadya said: "I look on him with eyes."

"What?" Lord Esha was so astonished he dropped his pipe. It broke on the floor, his face bunched up in annoyance then he kicked the pieces carelessly to one side, staring at Vadya.

"I look on him with eyes," Vadya repeated. "I cannot have him back because I look on him. He is my junior officer and I may not. I have thrown men out of the troop for it, I have beaten them for it, I have given so many sentry duties and extra runs in infantry kit to the Lieutenants for it. Am I to stand there now, knowing he is a woman and my wife and my Captain? I ... I have felt like it for a long time but it is easy not to pay attention when you are so busy in the daily life of the troop and you think you are not a man-lover and you know it is not permitted. Then, as we were coming home this leave, I ... I suddenly realised how I feel about him. And I hoped that being betrothed would cure it!" he burst out savagely.

"But then," Lord Esha said eagerly, "you will marry Tashka? If you love him like that, why would you not marry him? As for the troop, you may leave him in the strategic staff, I will give him his banner then you will be equals and you will not have to be looking on him with eyes in the field." He sat back, well satisfied with this solution.

"Papa, he does not feel like that about me," Vadya said angrily. "I am his senior officer, do you expect him to look on me with eyes? You know it well, they say the code of honour is engraved on his heart. I ... I tried to kiss him, that is how far it has gone. Actually I think his preference is for officers but he said it felt ... strange to kiss his own Commander. I should think it would! So, there, that is the problem." He took a sip of exquisite brandy and glared at his father. "Any road," he added, "I want a Lady to wife. Someone who will make the castle nice, sew me something, and ... and look after you."

Lord Esha had been taking a thoughtful sip from his whisky and when Vadya said this, he snorted into it and splashed it all over his lap. He raised an incredulous face to Vadya, with whisky drops in his beard. Vadya's brown cheeks flushed up with red.

"You are not that young!" he protested. "You might give me thanks for thinking of you!"

"You are too kind," Lord Esha said drily, "I beg you do not trouble yourself. Believe me, I will find someone to change my bedpans when the need arises. So. You want an housekeeper and seamstress to wife is it?"

"You know what I mean!" Vadya shouted angrily. "All this stuff about the troop and loving Tashka, it is all very well! but what about if there are dinners for important political people or parties. Who is going to be hostess at my parties?"

"You want the kind of parties that require an hostess?" his father inquired in a voice dripping with sarcasm. "You are going to sit around a table drinking tea and eating little cakes made like models of boats in Port H'las harbour, is it? I thought you liked hunting in Halla with your cousin Stevan. How little one can know one's own child!"

"Well, I might change," Vadya said feebly. "On any road, you know what I mean. Tashka, the way I love him, it is like he is a man. I do not want to marry him and live in a nice little house, I want us to be like we have always been in the troop. It is only that he is my junior, he ought to have been promoted long ago ... but he is a woman. And he does not want me. So."

"So there," his father said mockingly. "You'll marry a nice maiden who will stay at home with me and cook me suitable broths for my toothless gums while you go off to hunting parties with your officer friends is it? Very well, when this betrothal has had a year, you may choose your bride yourself. Only one thing I advise you. My Vadyan, choose a good card-player. When you are too old to go out with the troop you might be glad of it for yourself."

"Proper Ladies do not play cards!" Vadya shouted.

"Alright," his father said gently. "I am only teasing you. I know you do not really think you want such a soppy milkmaid to wife. Lallia, at the least she was no milkmaid."

"What was wrong with Lallia?" Vadya said, bridling and ready to take offence again.

"I know not," his father said, sitting back in his chair with a shrug of his broad shoulders. "You tell it me. Why did you not marry Lallia?"

Vadya looked embarrassed. He turned his head about, glaring resentfully at the stone walls and the plastered ceiling then he said reluctantly: "You were kind to indulge me in my affection for Lallia, papa. She was a Dame at the least of it and I was happy with her but ... she did not have my whole heart. She did not like it that I spent so much time in the troop."

"Did she ask you to give up Sixth H'las?" his father asked.

"Mm," Vadya said grumpily.

"So you want a wife who will not ask you to leave your troop," Lord Esha said.

"Of course," Vadya said irritably. "You know how much I love it. You encouraged us when ... Mada and I put our names up to go to Sixth H'las instead of staying in First. I must leave the troop one day to work on the region's politics and economic strategy. I think I will like it, papa, although I know it bores you. But I just want a two-three years more out in the field. And I want someone who will not make trouble for it if I go away with the troop, someone like ... like," he was about to talk about his Captains' wives: Petra's Sharianel and Fiotr's Izana but he remembered just in time that his father had met them both and knew that they were not quiet sweet milkmaid women who stayed at home with the children and elders. Sharianel was a doctor and Izana ran Fiotr's life out of the troop with as complete control as Vadya ran it in the troop.

Lord Esha was significantly silent.

"Oh yes!" Vadya snarled. "Tashka would not object to my going out with the troop! Provided I took him along too! He would never stay behind and make an home for me ... for us."

"No," Lord Esha said. "You would not find him sitting over the fire with his knitting in his hands. He would want to be out there in the field your equal."

"It is madness to think of marrying such an one!" Vadya snapped.

"Well there is the succession to think of," Lord Esha admitted. "If Tashka's preference was for women any marriage would of course be out of the question and as it is ... He cannot continue to serve as your junior if you are looking on him with eyes but he would have to come in from the field to bear you children on any road. I think we had best take him up to strategic."

Vadya's face screwed up in outrage. "Papa!" he protested. "I prithou!"

Lord Esha's face became suddenly stern. "You are not a baby boy," he said, "to pretend you know nothing of these matters. You are my only child. If you cannot ask Tashka to carry a child for the succession there is no question of a match, we must think of the succession for the region."

"Poor Tashka!" Vadya protested. "Why should he come in from the field just to have children, it is not fair. He is a magnificent field officer, look at the way he handles those bird-brains el Darien and el Vaie. We owe him so much for taking them under his eye, in such a manner that the Lords of Trattai and Soomara in the parallel trading route look to us with gratitude and favour." Lord Esha looked quizzically at him at this and he suddenly blushed, saying: "Angels' sake, papa, whether he is in the field or strategic, he is an army officer not a Lady wife. Would you marry him?"

A thoughtful expression came over Lord Esha's face and he slurped at his whisky. "Mm," he said pensively. "It is a good soldier and I love him well for that. There would be great evenings playing the cards and he has a nice taste in whisky. And under the cut of his doublets, I will swear he has a shapely body, unusually good muscles for a woman of course. I like a muscular woman." Vadya's mouth fell open and his eyes bulged in horror but his father was not looking at him. "He is merry, affectionate, loyal and exceptionally honourable. You have been happy by his side these past three years and when you have been spending time with him you talk about art and music in a way you did not get from me. There is his strategic mind too, of course. Anyone with any military intelligence would be a damned fool to give the chance of taking that mind into their strategic staff the go-by. Even if there were not the muscles and the warm heart to go with it. He can probably be persuaded to bear at the least of it the one child for the succession. He is of the high nobility; he understands these things and he would strike any bargain for the chance to be a General one day in the H'las chain of command. He appreciates the importance of the emphasis we lay on duty of care. I understand young van Athagine offered him a Captain's sword but Tashka told it me the chain of command in Athagine is insufficiently integrated for the strategic work to be fully effective so he turned the offer back. He could not of course have gone higher than Captain in Athagine if he were still van Sietter so I suppose el V'lair thought of asking to have Tashka bestowed on him in order to get his strategic mind into the Generals' offices in Havanda." Vadya looked narrowly sideways at mention of Tarra el V'lair's attempt to win Tashka's heart with a military commission, he knew it was not Tashka's mind that el V'lair was interested in. Lord Esha said, "oh yes, if the el Maiens were offering him to me, I would take Tashka with all my heart! and teach him to love me after the wedding but alas, I am too old for him," and he chuckled into his beard. Then he said wistfully, "she sews and plays with the children while we are here but they tell it me Lady el Jien does a lot of riding ordinarily so I suppose she is a muscular woman."

"Lady el Jien is a woman of great honour and her husband has considerable skill in the duel," Vadya reminded his father coldly. "We are here to seek a closer accord with the el Maien family not insult young van Sietter's Lady wife with uninvited attentions."

'Disgusting old boar,' he thought, outraged, and meanly left his father to the letter from the Port Ithilien council without giving him the benefit of his advice about it. He went to sit on his own in the inner courtyard, sulking about the intractable problem of his junior officer and betrothed among the flowers and the fountain bubbling its soothing song under the pear tree.

He had been sitting in one of a set of chairs put out there by a rug with some embroidery and toys scattered on it for half an hour, the sunshine washing gently over his scowling face as he glared at the flowers and tried to think about whether he wanted a Lady or a friend to wife and pretended he did not see why Tashka could not be both. Her voice hissed suddenly at him and he looked irritably round but he could see no one in the courtyard.