But what in heaven’s name was she planning to do?
“Wait a moment, Adele,” Daniel said, rising from the command console. “I’ll tag along if I may.”
There wasn’t a right answer to the situation. The Princess Cecile’s captain had no business leaving her on the eve of departure; on the other hand, Daniel Leary wasn’t going to let a friend go off alone wearing the expression he’d seen on Adele’s face. Needs must, Mon could handle the corvette; probably handle her better than Daniel could.
Adele turned. “No,” she said. “There’s no need—”
“No, Mr. Leary,” said Tovera from the hatch of the cabin. The pale woman’s expression was, as always, unreadable, but this time it had an unfamiliar depth to it. “I’ll accompany the mistress. It’s my duty, after all.”
“There’s no need for anyone to come with me!” Adele said. “I’m just—looking over some real estate before I leave Xenos again.”
Daniel looked from one woman to the other. “Yes, all right, Tovera,” he said. “But you’ll inform me if there’s some way I or others can be of service, will you not?”
“Yes, Mr. Leary,” Tovera said. “I’ll be sure to do that.”
Adele grimaced, but rather than argue she disappeared into the cabin. Tovera swung the hatch to, but remained on the bridge.
“With all respect, Mr. Leary,” Tovera said softly. “I’m a member of the Mundy household. Accompanying her is my duty.”
“I see,” said Daniel, who suddenly did see. “Ah, I could send Woetjans with a detachment to, you know . . . provide visual evidence of Adele’s high merit?”
“That won’t be necessary, sir,” Tovera said with a crooked smile. “And I think even the suggestion would embarrass the mistress.”
Adele opened the hatch and stepped through, wearing civilian clothes of brown fabric with fine black stripes. Her expression would have been angry on another person; Adele being who she was, Daniel suspected it was merely a general comment on the unsatisfactory nature of human existence.
“Good luck in your endeavors,” Daniel said. “I—the whole ship, Adele—look forward to your return.”
Adele quirked an odd smile. “Yes,” she said. “I’m rather looking forward to that also. But I think I have to go.”
She stepped down the companionway awkwardly, still not fully comfortable with a warship’s structure. Her servant followed without expression.
Tovera was carrying her attaché case.
* * *
The new front door was the same style as the one Adele had known, but the center of the solid lower section was the head of a barking dog in relief; worked into the grille protecting the glazed upper portion was the legend rolfe house. The doorman playing solitaire on the doorstep gathered his cards into his hand and stood when he saw Adele and Tovera eyeing the dwelling as they approached.
“My mother’s people were Rolfes,” Adele murmured, feeling a touch of disdain that she supposed was undeserved. “Their crest’s a pun on that: Rowf!”
She added, “I suppose they had to replace the door after the Proscriptions, but one could wish that they’d shown a little better taste.”
Adele walked up to the doorman, smiling faintly as she considered what she’d just said. It wasn’t true, though if she were a better person it might have been. The Adele Mundy who existed in this world was glad that the present owners of what had been Chatsworth Minor were people that she could look down on.
The Mundy townhouse was in the style of three centuries past: narrow and four stories high, with brick facings accented by stone transoms and tie courses. The ground floor openings were simple, save for the rose window decorating the pediment above the door. The central windows of the second and third stories were bays half the width of the building, and the facade of the level immediately beneath the peaked roof was fully glazed. At night it had frequently provided a lighted backdrop when Adele’s father had stepped onto the balcony to address a crowd of his supporters in the street below.
The doorman looked at Adele with something between a sneer and a frown. His orange-and-black livery hadn’t been cleaned in too long, and he didn’t bother to slip the deck away into a pocket.