“Well, by all means let us relate our adventures,” he saidThe colour of the water and the thin slick of oil suggested that he was wise to soak. His hands stung a bit from the soap-sand, and he’d several broken nails as well as various scrapes and nicks. Nothing that wouldn’t heal. Salt water was good to clean wounds, even tittle ones.
So he tended to his appearance and nails as he dressed in clean, warm clothes. He must see about getting some new things. These were all old: serviceable, but not exactly stylish. Clostan, the Hold’s healer, was always so well turned out that he might ask the man which tailor he used in Tillek. Clean at last, Robinton became conscious of the
reek from the carisak of dirty clothing. He’d take it down to the washroom himself rather than have it contaminate his quarters. After all, maybe Kasia… and he cut short that delightful thought, although the prospect might be possible.
He was apologizing to the old auntie in charge of the laundry drudges for the state of his clothes and she was grinning toothlessly up at him, when light steps on the stairs alerted him to Kasia’s arrival with her bundle. Their eyes met, and he was sure he was blushing at the intensity of her gaze. That her cheeks reddened, too, was an excellent sign.
“Juvana wants to hear how we fared, Robinton,” Kasia said, almost formal in manner. She passed over her clothing to the auntie, all too casual, and the woman’s grin broadened as she looked from one to the other.
“Well, by all means let us relate our adventures,” he said as blandly as he could, and taking her arm in his with a grand gesture – at which the auntie cackled – he led her up the stairs.
This time they did not race but walked slowly, eyes meeting when their legs brushed as they climbed the steps. At the top, Robinton was almost trembling. Oh, he’d sung lover songs and knew the various degrees of loving as well as the next harper. But to be himself immersed in precisely what the lyrics described was another experience entirely. To see Kasia responding to him was an even greater miracle.
They spent an hour with Juvana and helped her to sort mending yarns, allowing their hands to meet in the process. Robinton knew how to spin out a good tale about his inadequacies on board a working ship, while Kasia loyally corrected him with her version of the mattel
“I have considerably more respect for fishmen now, I assure you, Lady Juvana,” he said when the bell sounded for the midday meal.
“D’you think Gostol will give Vesna her ticket now?” Juvana asked Kasia as they made their way down to the dining hall.
“I know he was pleased with her docking … stylish and accurate,” Kasia said after a pause to consider her answer. “And she certainly knows her craft. Is she after the new hull in the shipyard?”
“Which joumeyman isn’t?” Juvana said in a droll tone. “Now
you’re back, will you help me with fitting the children’s new clothes?” “Did you get the borders all done?”
“I didn’t waste my time while you were having fun sailing …”
“Fun?” Kasia protested, giving her sister a stern look. “In the weather we had?”
Robinton felt left out of this exchange, but told himself not to be silly. Just because he was besotted with Kasia, it didn’t mean he could expect her undivided attention. And she might not wish to ascribe more to that quick kiss than the whimsy of the moment.
Gloomily he added to himself that it might only have been the elation of getting home. There were other men, as he’d told Gostol, who showed a keen interest in Kasia. What did he, a journeyman harper, really have to offer a girl of good Blood?
So he plunged back into the work he was contracted to do and tried not to think of ways to intercept Kasia in her daily rounds. But it was hard and they did seem to keep meeting – in the halls, on the steps, certainly in the schoolroom and for meals. She accepted his company at table as readily as she accepted that of Valden, who was soon to take over a new hold created in the forested lands above Tillek – which Robinton devoutly hoped might be too isolated to attract a socially active girl. Or Kalem, who was a journeyman shipbuilder with a cot of his own up the hill, so that Kasia would be near her sister. Emry was exceedingly handsome and managed one of the Storage and Shipping holds for Melongel.