Hunting Party

by Elizabeth Moon

  “Nothing’s broken,” Ronnie said. “You let that fellow in the other bed leave just twenty-four hours after a broken leg—”

  “Bones aren’t brains,” the nurse said. Ronnie closed his eyes, feigning sleep, and was surprised to find dark outside his windows when he opened them again. The next morning (which morning?) he woke without a trace of the headache, and the awareness that he had not been clearheaded before.

  “And you’re not yet,” the doctor said, when she arrived to talk to him before he left. “You think you are, but it’s like climbing out of a hole: it’s lighter where you are, but you’re still in shadow. I know this will disappoint you, but I’ve already notified Lord Thornbuckle’s head groom: you are not to ride for at least ten days, and you’ll have to be reevaluated then.”

  “But I didn’t—” Ronnie began, but the doctor smiled and patted his knee as if he were a child. Considering her white hair and wrinkles, she probably thought of him that way. I didn’t want to ride, he said silently. And now I don’t have to. “What about George?” he asked. They had told him nothing so far except soothing murmurs. He braced himself to hear that George had died.

  “That young man,” the doctor said. “Do I understand that everyone calls him the odious George?”

  “Yes,” Ronnie said.

  “I can see why,” she said. “He can have visitors—in fact, he has visitors all day, now. So if you want to know, just take the lift up one, and it’s the third door on the left. He’s still on the surgical floor, though really—” She shook her head without finishing that and left. Ronnie pulled on his clothes, hardly wondering where they’d come from, and went to see George.

  George lay propped up in bed, looking like an advertisement for a hospital company: dark hair perfectly in place, fading bruises on his face suggesting courage without diminishing his good looks. Ronnie knew that on anyone else the yellow and green and dull purple would have looked hideous, but George’s luck seemed to hold.

  “Ronnie!” His voice sounded the same, if not quite as loud as usual. “I wondered when you’d make it up here. You missed all the excitement.”

  Ronnie stared at him. Missed all the excitement? Had no one told George about the admiral and the gas grenade, or the prince, or—

  “My father’s on the way,” George said. He looked exactly as he had always looked, smug. Odious. Ronnie wanted to hit him, but you couldn’t hit someone in bed with a gunshot wound. He went in, nonetheless, holding a vague grudge but not sure how to let it go. Should he tell George about the prince? He thought he remembered it was supposed to be a secret.

  George’s face changed, and his voice softened. “I—was really scared. You passed out on me, then they caught me, and those two—”

  “Who?”

  “The guards back on Bandon. I never saw the hunters at all, just these two men.”

  “They’re the ones who shot you?”

  “Oh, no. One of Bunny’s militia shot me, and it wasn’t an accident, either. I tried to tell Captain Serrano, but couldn’t get it across. . . . He was standing there, eyeing your aunt as if he’d like to kill her right then.”

  “Did you tell Bunny? When you got back here?” Ronnie had an urge to leap up himself, right then, and go find his aunt.

  “It’s all right. That’s part of what you missed. That’s the same man who tried to kill your aunt and Captain Serrano when they went to find you in the cave.”

  “Oh.” Ronnie tried to remember if he’d heard about that man before. He remembered some things vividly: finding George unconscious, trying to build a litter, the storm, Raffa’s warmth against him in the cold, dark cave, that moment of sheer terror when he jumped for the gas grenade. But he had no clear mental map of the time . . . how long they’d been on the island, or whether they’d stayed on Bandon overnight or flown straight back.

  “Your aunt plugged him,” George said, with relish. “He had the captain covered.”

  “She would,” Ronnie said vaguely. He hated not remembering; it was like being very old, he thought. He had probably said things, and done things, without really knowing it. What if he had said something stupid? What if he had said something stupid to Raffa? Was that why he couldn’t remember seeing her in the hospital?

  George sobered again. “It’s not that easy, being a hero. At least, it wasn’t for me. You—”

  “Not for me, either. There’s a lot I can’t remember.”

  “There’s a lot I wish I couldn’t remember.” George scowled. “I have never been so scared, so humiliated, in my life—not even that first term at school.” He sounded far more human than usual. “At least you didn’t have to scrub any toilets.”

  “Not that again!” Raffa’s voice; Ronnie turned to look. She might never have been off the mainland; she looked like all the other polished young women who had come for the hunting party, and she looked like no one else in the universe. Bubbles, beside her, leaned against the door and grinned broadly.

  “Now I can quit holding Raffa’s hand every night. You had us all scared, Ronnie.”

  “Me? George is the one who got shot.”

  “All George needed was a good surgeon, a day in the regen tank, and a personality transplant; my father could supply the first two, but not the last.”

  “You’ll regret that, Bubbles—” George said, but it had no bite. “My reputation depends on being odious. And wrinkle-free.”

  “Your reputation depends on your father,” Bubbles said. “Or someone would have beaten the odiousness out of you long before.”

  “Unfair,” George said. Then he grinned. “Well—partly unfair. And I do resent the damage to my good trousers.”

  “I assure you,” Bubbles said, in the same dry tone, “that you’ll be wrinkle-free and out of here in time for the Hunt Ball. If you promise to keep your mouth shut and cause no trouble about Mr. Smith.”

  George made an innocent face that would not have fooled anyone. It certainly did not fool Ronnie or the girls.

  “If you don’t promise—and keep that promise,” Bubbles went on, “I’ll make sure that someone slips the wrong stuff in the regen tank for your next treatment, and you’ll have wrinkles in places you don’t think wrinkles can form. Permanent wrinkles. Then you can stay in this room until you die of genuine old age.”

  “And I,” Raffa said, coming over to take Ronnie’s hand, “will personally ruin every garment you own and send your tailor a certified letter giving your new measurements. Interesting new measurements.” She mimed the anguish of someone in trousers with a short rise, the problems of skimpy sleeves and a baggy, short jacket.

  George rolled his eyes dramatically. “You might have trusted me. Lawyers’ sons learn some discretion.” The others snorted. He went on. “All right. I promise. No leading questions, no suggestive remarks, nothing about Mr. Smith or his . . . mmm . . . other identity. But how am I supposed to explain my disappearance from the noble sport of fox hunting?”

  “We took the flitter to go picnicking, and we crashed, and you and Ronnie were hurt saving us. Very simple, very—”

  “What about Lady Cecelia and Captain Serrano?”

  “Unrelated, except that Lady Cecelia is the one who let Bunny know we were missing—just as it happened. We’re hoping to get past the Hunt Ball without the whole story coming out.”

  * * *

  Neil had pronounced Petris’s seat “untidy but effective,” and passed him into the blue hunt at once. Heris had little interest in riding to hounds any more, but also little choice; if she stayed home, it would be noticed, and tongues were already wagging. Cecelia, pleading age, could go out only twice a week; Heris had to ride five days out of seven. She knew Cecelia was up to something again—or still—because the Crown Minister stayed in the same days as Cecelia.

  “I might just as well go back to the ship,” she argued with Cecelia one afternoon. Her horse had stumbled on landing from a wall, fallen heavily, and come up lame; Heris herself had bruised her shoulder. The fox—if th
ere was a fox—had got clean away. She wanted to be back on a decent ship, where large heavy animals didn’t dump her off and then roll on her. Her leg wasn’t broken, but it felt reshaped.

  “You should go by the hospital and spend a few hours in the tank,” Cecelia said. “You’ve had a hard fall, and you’re sore. It’ll heal.”

  “We’ll have crew changes—”

  “You can’t go until after the Hunt Dinner and Ball. We have to finish out this much of the season, or it will be suspicious. You notice that no one comments on what happened?”

  “But—”

  “But Mr. Smith is safely contained; I’ve offered to take him home since we already officially know. We’ll stay until the Hunt Dinner, and leave the next day. I always stay for the first Hunt Dinner.” Heris found this confusing, since in the books she’d read there was only one official Hunt Dinner per hunt club, but presumably Bunny did things his own way. And with such a long season, perhaps most people didn’t stay for the whole thing. Cecelia patted her shoulder; Heris tried not to wince. “Now go spend a few hours in the tank, and ask Sari to give you a good rubdown. Petris will be in the green hunt, Neil says, by the day after tomorrow, and you’ll feel much better by then.”

  Heris didn’t want a rubdown from Sari; she wanted a pleasant night with Petris. But with her bruises, it wouldn’t be pleasant. “When is this Hunt Dinner?” she asked, resigned to a trip to the hospital. She would remember to look in on everyone.

  “End of next week.” Cecelia took a few twirling steps that startled Heris. She flushed. “I may be old, and plain, but there’s no law that says I can’t dance.”

  Dance. Heris thought of dancing with Petris, and felt her bones begin to melt. She would manage not to hunt in the next week; she didn’t want to risk missing that. It might even be worth the hours in the regen tank. She was in the tank, trying to relax as the technicians fussed over her bruised arm and leg, when one of the things Cecelia had said brought her bolt upright, splashing.

  “Sorry,” she said, to the technician who had contained his own curse but not the expression on his face. “Bad memory.” The prince. Cecelia had said they were going to transport the prince home. That meant . . . she squeezed her eyes shut, and thought about it. Would Ronnie stay here? Surely she wouldn’t have that pair on her ship at the same time!

  * * *

  The last week passed in a flurry . . . cold blue days, icy nights, glorious rides across the open land the green hunt favored. Heris had come out of the tank with more than her bruises healed, and suspected Cecelia of telling someone to load her IV with mood elevators. Either that, or the old books were right when they described the glow of lovers riding stirrup to stirrup at a gallop.

  “Gallop by day, and . . . other gaits by night,” Petris said, his arm under her head again. Heris didn’t answer, as the gait in question required concentration. They could talk again, she had discovered, but this was not the time. Later, he asked, “And what are you wearing to the ball tomorrow?”

  “A dress,” Heris said. She could feel herself starting to chuckle in anticipation, a quiver that Petris must surely recognize. He tapped her nose with his finger.

  “A dress. Amazing. I thought fox hunters wore skins and furs to a ball. Or horse hides or something equally barbaric. What are you laughing about? Are you wearing a fur dress?”

  “No . . . but I won’t tell you. You’ll have to see it.” An extravagance, which she had not intended, but it had made an excuse to miss one day’s hunt. It made a sizeable hole in the salary Cecelia had yet to pay her. She could hardly wait to see Petris’s face when he saw her in it.

  * * *

  Heris had not meant to wait until the day of the Hunt Dinner to tackle Cecelia about the changes needed in the ship, but there never seemed to be time. But she had made promises to Petris and the others; she had to make sure Cecelia understood before they actually boarded. The argument (she was sure it would be an argument) must be private. She slithered into her own gown, and shook her head at the image in the mirror. The beaded bodice shifted color with every movement, shimmering; the soft pleats of the midnight-blue skirt were spangled with random beads, as if the bodice had dripped fire onto it. And she looked . . . very unmilitary, she decided. Very unmilitary.

  She found Cecelia almost dressed, and fiddling with the amber necklace she favored. A flounce of ivory lace refused to lie properly beneath it.

  “I need to talk to you about the ship,” Heris said.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing’s wrong. . . .”

  “So what is it now?”

  “Some changes will have to be made.” Heris watched Cecelia as she said it. The older woman had looked tired for the last week, and claimed it had nothing to do with the ship. The Minister? Mr. Smith? The Service?

  “Such as?” Cecelia’s voice was tart. “Oh—I suppose we’ll have to have another environmental system, to take care of the extra people?”

  “Not really.” Heris ignored the tartness, and went on. “You have four crew who have asked for separation. Three want to stay here, and have applied for employment with Lord Thornbuckle’s personnel. The other wants to leave at the next major Roads. Then there’s a member of your house staff who got pregnant in Hospitality Bay—Bates says he is sure of intent, in this case, because she had pursued even him. And one of your undergardeners—so you see, we won’t be overloaded.”

  “What changes then?”

  Heris met the problem head-on. “Weapons,” she said. And as Cecelia stared, her mouth opening, she talked on. “You are a very wealthy woman in a very luxurious and capable ship. Remember that you’ve already been used by smugglers. What if they want their cargo? What if they want the whole ship? What if they want you? The places you like to travel are not exactly the safest corners of the universe. We need proper armament—”

  “Now that you have gunners, you have to have guns.” So, Cecelia had understood—or found someone to translate—the military specialty codes her new crew members carried. Heris cocked her head; Cecelia could hardly claim to be a philosophical pacifist, not after having shot someone herself.

  “What’s the matter, milady? Do you think I’ll deliberately lead you into danger?” Of course, she had done just that, but it was for a good reason.

  “No. I don’t know.” Cecelia moved restlessly, her long fingers tangled together. “Things have changed. Before, I knew what I was doing—yes, I was just cruising around having fun, but I knew that was it. Now . . . when I think of leaving here and going off to Roledre for the qualifying trials, or on to Kabrice for the finals, it’s—it’s not that interesting.”

  Heris smothered a grin. Better than she’d hoped for. “If it’s bothering you, milady, I’m sure we can find something to do with this ship.”

  Cecelia’s eyes narrowed. “Something? You mean you still consider me an idle old lady?”

  “You said it; I didn’t. But think; you are healthy and tough, and yet you had smugglers using your ship. Don’t you have friends, equally old and wealthy—”

  “Not really,” muttered Cecelia. Heris ignored that.

  “—who might have worse parasites aboard than even your Captain Olin? There are,” Heris said, thinking of it in that moment, “other things to hunt besides foxes, and other mounts besides horses.”

  “Which prey is beneath the notice of the Regular Fleet?”

  “Or too elusive for the less agile. Consider—”

  “How many guns, Heris? What size? And do I get to mention cost?”

  “No more than we need, no bigger than we need, and I will respect your resources only less than your life.” She didn’t remind Cecelia about the weapons already purchased.

  “As you did at Takomin Roads—no, don’t defend yourself; I knew what you were doing and agreed. But from now on, I want to be a member of the hunt staff, not just the owner who pays the fees. You’ll have to keep teaching me about my ship, and let me be part of your plans.”

  “You
have earned that, and more,” Heris said, and meant it. Cecelia grinned back at her.

  “Then let us go down and dazzle the Hunt Dinner, and dance the night away,” she said. “And as for the future . . . a hunting we shall go. . . .” And she grabbed Heris’s arm and led her down the corridor to the main staircase, where Petris, correct in formal dinner attire, waited below. Heris saw his expression shift from surprise through amusement to admiration as she and Cecelia came down arm in arm, singing. “Tan-tivvy, tan-tivvy, tan-tivvy—a hunting we shall go . . .”

  “Ladies, ladies! Such unseemly levity!” But his lips twitched. He offered an arm to each, and cocked an eyebrow at Heris. “You settled it, I gather?”

  “She was never a military officer, Petris,” Cecelia said with a sweet smile. “She was born to be a pirate. Look at her.”

  “I’ll do more than look,” Petris said into Heris’s ear. “Later . . .”

  But the tumult of the others interrupted whatever Heris might have said. Already the tall rooms rang with many voices, and more and more men and women in their formal best came down the stairs. Bunny, looking as foolish tonight as he had at first, chatted with one group after another. Then he caught sight of Cecelia, and came over without obvious haste.

  “So glad you could stay for the Ball,” he said, including Petris in the greeting with a nod. “We may have a slight inconvenience. . . .”

  “Oh?” Cecelia’s brows raised.

  “Mr. Smith. He’s eluded the Minister’s manservant again.”

  Again? Heris stared; she hadn’t realized Mr. Smith had been loose before.

  “Declared he wasn’t going to be sent home like a naughty schoolboy, in an old lady’s yacht with a battleaxe for a captain.” Bunny’s mouth smiled, as if they discussed the day’s run, but his eyes were cold and angry. “As you know the Minister had refused to let me place him under a proper guard . . . but as the Minister does not know, I put a tracer-tag on him. He dashed off to the woods, silly twit. Captain Sigind will bring him in, but I’d like to sedate him and send him up in a shuttle right away, if you don’t mind. I can isolate him in the Station sickbay—”