Woman's Work: Shikari Book Four

by Alma T. C. Boykin

  “What did you call my wife?”

  “Did this one offend your person, Wise Eye?”

  Tomás and Kor radiated fury as the stood on either side of the doubled-over man. He tried to straighten up and Rigi caught a glimpse of junior sergeant’s insignia. “I saw her stealing— Your wife?” The last came out in a near squeak.

  “Mrs. Bernardi-Prananda, what happened?” Tomás inquired.

  She replied with equal formality. “I saw a small bit of rock that had been tracked into the vehicle, Captain Prananda, and I reached in to retrieve it, so as to leave the run-about clean inside. I heard unfamiliar steps approach. Before I could stand properly and turn, I saw motion of hands reaching for me without hearing any greeting or caution. I fear that perhaps I may have reacted a touch precipitously, sirs, in my attempt to get away from the hands.”

  “Do you always greet unfamiliar females by reaching for their posteriors, Sergeant? And then insult their rank and lineage?” Kor inquired, //anger/umbrage.//

  “No honest civilian woman would be in this section of camp. And no proper woman hits a man.” Whatever else the sergeant planned to say died as Tomás pushed his identity plate into the sergeant’s face and Kor rose onto the toes of his hindfeet, forefeet up in preparation to attack.

  “What is my name, Sergeant?”

  “Prananda, Tomás, Captain of scouts, sir.” Rigi almost heard the sound of bones clattering together as he braced to attention.

  “I do not know what rumors you may have heard about my wife, or about neoTraditionalist women in general, but Mrs. Bernardi-Prananda is not a thief. She is an official government illustrator and has research faculty status with the University. She is also considered equal in rank and honor with a first Stamm Staré, an Elder. You are fortunate that you did not touch her, or the other Staré would be justified by their law and customs in disciplining you for the insult.” Tomás kept his voice calm, steady, and quiet. But the look in his eyes scared Rigi.

  Was he going to kill the sergeant? Please don’t Tomás, she begged silently. He didn’t touch me, I stopped him.

  “Did your hands touch my wife?”

  “Sir, no sir! No sir, I did not touch Mrs. Bernardi-Prananda.”

  Tomás looked to Rigi. “Is this correct, ma’am?”

  “It is correct, Captain Prananda. His hands did not touch my person,” although her elbow had most certainly struck his stomach.

  Tomás nodded once. “Thank you, ma’am. Sergeant, I suggest that in the future, you inquire before presuming. Now leave, before Kor guts you for so grossly insulting a fellow Elder. And never, ever refer to my lady wife by that epithet again.”

  “Sir, yes, sir. No sir!” Tomás stepped one pace to the left and the young man fled, one hand on his gut. Kor settled back onto his full hindfeet, but his fur remained ruffled and his ears back.

  “I will have a word with his supervisor, after we eat,” Tomás stated. He, Rigi, and Kor walked toward the section of camp with the residential tent-shelters. Kor left them after a few hundred meters, turning in the direction of the Staré section and the Stamm dining facilities. Once he had passed well out of hearing distance, Tomás murmured, “If you were curious, he gets food from the second Stamm kitchen, on his own mess kit. The Staré kitchens are almost entirely mechanized, and Stamm contamination is not considered a risk until after the foods are transferred into smaller serving containers that are handled by the various mess orderlies. Kor can handle any food before it is transferred and not cause problems for the lower Stamme.”

  That made perfect sense to Rigi. “Thank you. I had wondered.” She’d been a little worried, but as best she could tell, Kor was not suffering from hunger. When he’d been “merely” Kor the hunter, he’d cooked for himself and had broken Stamm whenever he chose, acting as if he were very low Stamm. Rigi still wondered why the other Staré had accepted his claim to be outStamm or low sixth, but perhaps they believed that no one would take on a Stamm lower than his birth Stamm, and so it passed without comment, or at least without comment that humans heard. A few humans and two Subala-minors passed by on errands. After a few more meters, she admitted, “Capt. Prananda, for all that I have lived with the Staré for most of my life, there remains a great deal about them that I still fail to understand.”

  “I share you lack of understanding, Mrs. Bernardi-Prananda,” he agreed with a bit of a sigh. “And Kor is Kor, who accepts Stamm when he choses and ignores it when he so desires.”

  “Was it Mr. Trent who suggested that the day humans understood Kor, it would one of the signs of the end of the world?”

  “If not, it should have been.” They chuckled, but quietly, lest someone wonder what they found amusing. Some of the other officers and officers’ wives felt that married life demanded giving up amusement and humor, something Rigi considered at best confusing and at worst somewhat disturbing. How could you survive if you could not laugh? “What is for dinner?”

  “Marinated and slow-cooked grazer-bird ham with blaustock, just enough for a good flavor, and casstater to keep the blaustock from overwhelming everything else.” And to tone down the gaminess of the grazer-bird ham, as Rigi had learned from Nahla and Shona.

  “That sounds excellent.” He glanced around, then leaned very close and whispered, “And for dessert?”

  Rigi blushed and ducked her head. Married couples certainly did not discuss the delights of the marriage bed in public! His chuckles did not help matters, and she wanted to swat his arm, but again, proper wives did not do things like that. “You are going to get the smallest piece of meat if this continues, Captain Prananda.” That was what her mother had always done, instructing Shona to serve the offender the smallest, most over-done bits.

  “Then I shall cease forthwith.” And he did.

  Later that afternoon, after dinner and a nap of sorts, Tomás left to see how Kortala Andat fared. “No, he’s not under my direct command as he would have been when I was a lieutenant, but I’m still responsible for him and the others, and I dearly want to know just how he got bitten and then run over. Because it suggests that someone failed to do a proper reconnaissance of the area. Those fanged birds are not exactly easy to overlook. Their nests are easily the size of the bed and work-table combined, sticks and things piled this high,” he held one hand at waist level. “And they make them in the open, not tucked away into the trees. Apparently nothing in this region bothers them while they are nesting.”

  “Dear, that makes two exceedingly large birds in this area, both larger than anything on Southland that I can think of, and larger than the grazer-birds and kitfengs. Is this continent known for birdlife that you recall?”

  “Not that I recall, but Aunt Kay would know if anyone.” He took his leave and Rigi made a note to ask their aunt-by-marriage, and to look in the biologists’ files when she regained full database access. That done, she settled down in her work-chair with a clean piece of art-parchment and began work on another image of the not-a-kitfeng. It would help warm her hands up before she tried to do a formal landscape study of the Terrace Site.

  Kor returned with Tomás, the pair of them deep in conversation and neither looking too pleased with the topic. Makana turned on the water-boilers and retreated to his shelter section as Rigi moved her art things out of the males’ way. “I’d prefer not to do that, but if there is no other option…”

  //Refusal/frustration/resignation.// “The flesh-cutter removed much of the shoulder meat. The Kortala will not grow it back. No shoulder strength, no carrying strength.” Rigi listened to Kor and realized that they were discussing her patient. “But he must work in some way.”

  “Agreed. He cannot be transported to the south just now, and he cannot work with the animals or machine repair crews.”

  “No. Fifth, sixth, and seventh work with the animals here, and humans.”

  Tomás sat, but not as firmly as he usually did. “Rigi, you do not have a proper staff.”

  “Dear?”

  “I have bee
n informed by several people, all well meaning I assure you, that you are in desperate need of servants and domestic staff. No, they do not know that you cook, or I would have gotten even more of an earful.” Tomás cleared his throat, as if quoting someone, and intoned, “Captain Prananda, it appears that your lady-wife is not properly provided for given your rank. It behooves you to remedy this lack forthwith.”

  Rigi poured hot water for Tomás’s tea, and rolled the little cart with the second water-boiler on it toward Kor’s seat. “Would it be wrong for me to assume that an appropriate individual has been found to help remedy this dreadful lack?”

  “It would be entirely correct.” Tomás added a glop of sweetener to his cup, then stirred it before drinking. “You have met him, although he has no memory of the occasion, I hope.”

  “Kortala Andat?”

  “Correct,” Kor stated. “He can no longer meet the military fitness standards, but he must remain employed. He is high third, like Makana and Nahla.”

  High third? Then why had he been treated as a high fourth? His coloring... As she considered she realized that she'd not noticed anything aside from the wounds. Rigi sipped her own tea, trying to sort though her thoughts. After most of the cup, she stood up and leaned toward Makana’s section of the tent. “Makana, if you have a moment please?”

  He appeared before she sat. “Yes, ma’am?”

  “It appears that a captain’s wife must have at least two staff members, and that Martinus and Slowth do not count in the eyes of the other officers.” Rigi wondered if she should make a comment about Kor not being reliable, but decided not to tempt his wrath. “Would you have difficulties if Andat, a high third Stamm, joined us? Not to replace you, but to help you if needed.”

  //Confusion// flowed through the space. “Why do you ask, Mistress?”

  Rigi blinked. “Because if you object, we will find another place for Andat. I do not want to cause you difficulties.”

  //Confusion// grew stronger. “If the Wise Eye asks, it should be done.”

  Rigi looked to Kor for assistance. He appeared preoccupied with his tea, although the tilt of one ear suggested that he was waiting to see how she sorted through Makana’s bemusement. Tomás seemed likewise distracted. Right, Rigi snapped at her spouse. You will get the overcooked bits next time. “Makana, it is not right for me, even as a Wise One, to force you to do something you are not comfortable with unless it is necessary for safety or health. You are not a hopling. Andat was bitten by a fanged terror bird and his shoulder was damaged so badly he cannot carry things the way a soldier must. But he has to work or he cannot get food and shelter.”

  “He is third, mistress?”

  “High third.” She added after a moment, “He will have his own space, he will not be in yours. You will remain senior in experience.”

  Tomás gave her an odd look but held his peace. Makana’s ears straightened up and Rigi wondered if that was a hint of //relief// that she smelled along with //agreement.// “It is proper for the Wise Eye to have staff to show her Stamm.”

  “He will probably stay in the hospital for another week, to let the leg heal and to make certain he’s over the infection,” Tomás said.

  Rigi winced. She thought they’d gotten the wound clean, but apparently not clean enough.

  Mrs. Bugolich raised one perfectly curved eyebrow and said, “It has been said that your staff is increasing, Mrs. Bernardi-Prananda.”

  Rigi set her cup down before answering. “Yes, ma’am. Capt. Prananda has agreed to an increase, and Andat will join my staff once he is released from medical care.” That her being a medic had helped secure an earlier release for him would remain her secret, at least until the ladies heard it through the thumping network from their own staff. Although, as strangely as they treated the Staré around them, Rigi wondered if they ever learned anything that way.

  “Two males? Is that proper?” one of the other captain’s wives asked with a little titter.

  Mrs. Chang’s eyes narrowed and she gave the younger women a firm look. “To my knowledge and albeit limited understanding of Staré, having two males on the staff is less disruptive than having a male and female.” She looked to Rigi, both eyebrows slightly elevated in what Rigi took to be a question.

  “Thus far, ma’am, I have not encountered difficulties with having multiple males as household staff, either in my parents’ employ or Capt. Prananda’s, but those have been relatively small households. My sister-in-law’s father might have a different experience. He has,” Rigi counted in her mind, “eighteen males and females on staff at the moment.” And that did not include the fruit-farm employees. Rigi added, “Stamm appears to be a greater concern than male or female, at least among the Staré of my knowledge.”

  “An excellent point, Mrs. Bernardi-Prananda,” Mrs. Stellare-Lowen said. “I understand that Andat will be invalided out of the army?”

  “Yes, ma’am, that is my understanding as well. He will go on the injured reserves rolls until such time as the exact degree of his recovery can be determined.” That would make two charity employees in her and Tomás’s employ, Rigi realized. Well, Nahla was no longer charity, not the way she could cook! Rigi had become dreadfully spoiled.

  “Good.” Mrs. Bugolich stated with a firm nod that made the black plumes tucked into her upswept coif tremble. “Really, it does not enhance the dignity and authority of a captain for his lady to do so much domestic work. I realize that your Tradition encourages such things, Mrs. Bernardi-Prananda, but appearances are vital to maintaining proper authority over the troops and servants.”

  “Indeed.” Mrs. Chang sniffed, “Was it not Lt. Col. Andreé who left the army in disgrace because he allowed his wife to permit their servants too much latitude, and the men under his command took that as license to mischief?” She gave Rigi a pointed look, just in case Rigi failed to properly understand the warning.

  Mrs. Chang's servant saved Rigi from having to reply. The upper fourth male ear bowed and presented her with a selection of small sandwiches. After she selected two, she murmured, "Thank you." He bowed again and eased around Mrs. Bugolich, then set the tray on the little table and removed an empty platter. Mrs. Stellare-Lowen's eyebrows rose father, but she held her peace. The other women had not noticed.

  “Oh, ma’am, I thought it was Vice-Admiral Riccardo,” another captain’s wife whispered. Her adult daughter nodded her confirmation, eyes bright with eagerness to tell the tale, or so Rigi guessed.

  “Ah, how could I forget! Quite right, Vice-Admiral Riccardo,” Mrs. Chang agreed. “To rise so high and then fall so quickly. Truly, it should have been a lesson for all of us, navy and army, of the perils of allowing servants and staff too much latitude.”

  Rigi made a little noise of agreement, as she was supposed to, and nodded from behind her teacup. Inside, she wondered what would happen if the ladies realized that Makana had been ordered into her service by the Staré Elders’ Council. She did not want to know. However, there was something that she did want to know.

  When a lull developed in the gossip and chatter, Rigi set her cup down. “Your pardon, but, ah, am I correct in understanding that Major LeFeu’s wife remains ill?”

  Half the women either paled or turned pinker, while the other half seemed to be setting their jaws. Mrs. Stellare-Lowen alone appeared unconcerned by Rigi’s apparent breach of manners. “I’m sorry to say that, as I understand matters, she is still ill. She’s been consulting with a specialist, and when last I spoke to her, her condition appeared to be improving, but hear health remains delicate.”

  “Thank you, ma’am. I am glad to hear that she is improving.” Rigi pretended to be oblivious to the others’ consternation.

  “Mrs. Bernardi-Prananda, is it true that you cook?” Once more, Mrs. Bugolich gave Rigi a firm look, as if warning her.

  Rigi decided that a half-truth would better than complete honesty. “There are a few special dishes that Capt. Prananda has asked me to make, little sweets and savories that
the canteen does not produce and that are too delicate for a Staré cook to attempt. Since he asked, I did not feel it proper to refuse.” Rigi pretended to be confused and upset, looking up at Mrs. Chang and Mrs. Bugolich, and then glancing down at the ornate floor-cloth in the large tent the ladies’ used for their social events.

  “Hmm, at the Captain’s request?”

  “Yes, ma’am. He enjoys his little comforts. They are from his mothers’ cook’s recipes.” Rigi glanced up in time to catch a flash of laughter and a wink from Mrs. Stellare-Lowen. A murmur and bits of whispered conversation, and a few sideways looks followed her statement.

  “His mother?” The younger captain’s wife demanded.

  “Yes, ma’am. Mrs. Diane Smith-Prananda, lady wife of General Raymundo Prananda of the Royal Marines.”

  A few ladies made “O” expressions of surprise. Had they not looked into Tomás’s family background? Apparently not, and Rigi imagined she could see them sorting through the data and changing Tomás’s place in their unofficial mental ranking of the various officers. The son of a Marine general ranked higher socially than his basic rank, according to the manners files, because of the difficulty of becoming a Marine general. As Rigi had translated it into her way of thinking, it gave Tomás a skill-elevation of his Stamm. Rigi had never mentioned it, because Tomás never did.

  After that little surprise, the rest of the afternoon passed quietly. Which was all that Rigi had decided to hope for. The teas and social events with the other ladies still made her feel as if the calendar had turned backwards until she was fourteen once more, tasked with pouring the tea or coffee, passing the trays of sweets and savories, and not dropping anything on her dress. She said “yes, ma’am” or “no ma’am” as appropriate and did her best to act interested and polite. All the while, the back of her mind was sorting out just which shade of off-white worked best for the four-horned mountain mammals, and trying to solve the problem of the error in perspective on the current draft of the detailed depiction of the Terrace Site.