“Lieutenant Leary,” Adele said without missing a beat, “I need your input immediately to make up the crew list.” She tapped the purse where she’d just placed her data unit.
“Very good, Mundy,” Daniel said in a similarly carrying voice. “We’ll go over it on the way back.”
“Looks to me like you had a pretty good time,” Hogg said, flicking a shower of dust from beneath Daniel’s collar. It glittered in the air, then vanished. When disturbed, the trees of Joart sprayed great silver fountains of pollen which sublimed in sunlight unless it touched receptive stamens within a few moments. Daniel’s collar had shielded a portion of the gouts loosed while the trio thrashed in a glade on Joart Islet.
“Besides which,” Hogg added judiciously, “you’re missing both epaulettes.” He patted the denuded shoulders for emphasis.
“Ah,” said Daniel. He’d almost forgotten that. “Ah, yes. Shawna wanted one to, ah, remember—”
Though he’d have thought the memories would be clear enough without a trinket; heaven knew his own would be.
“—and of course when she said that, Elinor too . . . It just seemed simpler. And I figured they could be replaced?”
The last sentence, though phrased as a statement, was really a question and not much short of a prayer. Daniel knew what effort Hogg had gone to so that his master would have a 1st Class uniform, and now on first wearing Daniel had gone and damaged it.
“And so they can,” said Hogg with the formality of a priest giving absolution. “I will waylay an admiral this very night and remove his epaulettes, young master.”
“No, Hogg,” Daniel said firmly. “I personally will visit Sadlack and buy a pair of epaulettes. I regard the task as proper punishment for having mutilated my uniform in this fashion.”
Which was true in a way, but it was also a lot easier than dealing with the consequences if Hogg hadn’t been joking. Hogg had a sense of humor: a bawdy, raucous one that had rubbed off on Daniel. On the other hand, there was almost nothing that Hogg might not do, especially if he was drunk. There were many things that Daniel wouldn’t do; though now that he thought about it, forcibly borrowing an admiral’s epaulettes probably wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility.
“As you say, young master,” Hogg muttered. “A Hogg would never be able to live with himself if he disobeyed his master’s order.”
“Daniel,” Adele said to break into Hogg’s maunderings—and whatever the truth of the threat to an admiral, the notion that Hogg would never disobey Daniel was not to be taken seriously, “Tovera placed an eavesdropping device at Vaughn’s table. I’ve heard the conversations.”
She tapped the data unit in her purse. Daniel controlled his reflex to glance at Tovera. Adele continued, “During the afternoon Vaughn’s agreed with three people here to rent a new townhouse for the next year. That’s three separate townhouses, giving each owner the same story about wanting larger quarters. He must be lying to two of them, but I can’t imagine why he’d do that. He’s bound to be caught in a few weeks.”
“Ah!” said Daniel, because Adele’s words gave him a vivid recollection of some of the things he’d recently been murmuring to Shawna and Elinor. “Only if he’s here, you see.”
It wasn’t the same, well, quite the same, because Daniel had used words like, ” . . . for all the time I’m on Cinnabar. . . .” But he knew the girls thought the phrase meant, “for the future,” while Daniel knew he’d be off-planet in a week at the latest.
“I think,” he amplified, “that Vaughn expects to leave Cinnabar very shortly. I don’t know of any reason he should expect that . . . but it seems he’s confident enough that he’s making sure as many movers and shakers as possible ‘know’ that he’s planning to stay.”
Guests were moving toward the boats under the gentle urging of the aides from Strymon. Many were under the weather, and a few were being supported or even carried by servants: Vaughn’s hospitality had been lavish and of high alcoholic content.
“Lieutenant Leary?” Vaughn called. He stood with Tredegar beside the four-seat craft which had led the flotilla to Rakoscy Islet. “I’d appreciate it if you and your guest would ride back with me. I’d like to hear from your own lips how you captured the Princess Cecile.”