Deirdre glanced over with a dry smile. “Surprised?” she asked.
“Gratified, rather,” Adele said. “I don’t think there’s anything that could have made Daniel happier. Since he got his first command, at any rate. You arranged it, I presume?”
“I was acting on instructions,” said Deirdre. “My principal will be pleased that you think matters are going well.”
Deirdre’s principal would be her father—and Daniel’s.
The three-block avenue from the Stanislas Chapel to the crematorium was through public land which had been a floodplain before the Market River was first channelized, then covered. On a normal day there’d have been people doing outdoor gymnastics and running on the tracks around both halves of the property. A maze of kiosks on the north side catered to shoppers of all varieties. The booths were dismantled every dusk, leaving commercial activities to prostitutes of both sexes. Since Harbor Three lay just the other side of the perimeter fence, trade in the hours of darkness was also brisk.
This morning everybody in sight had come to watch the funeral procession. She smiled wryly. Turning to Deirdre she said, talking over the crowd noise, “Commander Bergen actually deserves this pomp for having opened so many trade routes for the Republic . . . but his actions aren’t the reason this is happening, are they?”
Deirdre shrugged. She was dark-haired and reasonably attractive in business clothing. If she’d put the effort into her looks that most women seemed to, she could look stunning. Adele doubted that Daniel’s sister felt any need to bother. Money and power would bring her any men she wanted, and the likelihood was that Deirdre shared with her brother a complete disinterest in what the partner of a night chose to do the next morning.
Adele couldn’t object. She herself wasn’t interested in a partner at all.
“It depends what you mean by ‘his actions,’ ” Deirdre said, meeting Adele’s eyes with a level gaze. “The fact that he was a good friend and teacher to Corder Leary’s son certainly has something to do with it.”
“Yes, I see,” Adele said, nodding crisply.
“But since we’re on the subject of business . . . ,” Deirdre said. “Do you know what my brother intends to do as heir to Commander Bergen’s share of the shipyard? The Republic’s present state of peace with her neighbors will limit the opportunities open to a young naval officer, I should think?”
Adele faced front, her expression cold. Her first reaction was shocked amazement; then the humor of it struck her and she chuckled aloud. They had been talking business, as Deirdre viewed the world, after all.
Everything could be refined down to business if you looked at it the right way. The cost of the most elaborate funeral in a decade was on one side of the ledger; Adele didn’t know, couldn’t guess, what Deirdre put in the other pan of the balance, but she knew there had to be something.
“I haven’t discussed the future with Daniel,” she said, wondering if the other woman would find her smile insulting. It wasn’t meant to be; not entirely, at least. “He’s been quite busy with funeral preparations, of course. Based on what he’s said to me in the past, I don’t imagine that he’s interested in becoming a Cinnabar businessman, however.”
In all truth, Adele couldn’t imagine her friend as anything except an RCN officer. Perhaps she was unduly influenced by the fact she’d only known Daniel for a year in which naval duties had absorbed him . . . but the uniform fit him perfectly. If anyone could be said to belong to the Republic of Cinnabar Navy in war or peace, it was Lieutenant Daniel Leary.
Her smile quirked wryly. Perhaps the same was true of Adele Mundy, who’d found a family which respected her talents and which was willing to use her just as hard as it used her friend Daniel.
“A shipyard can’t simply be left to the workmen to run,” Deirdre said. Her voice was thinner than it had been a moment before. Nobody likes to have her nose rubbed in the fact that someone else sees no value in what she holds dear; for all that Deirdre must have known before she raised the subject that Adele had no more interest in business than Daniel did. “Unless there’s a suitable manager in place very shortly, the silent partner will demand that Bergen and Associates be sold up. I can understand my brother having other priorities—”