She gestured, then continued, “My console provides me with that in a more readily accessible form than I could find anywhere else on this planet.”
Except just possibly at a similar installation on the Goldenfels.
“Countess, you say countess!” the Klimovna said with a moue and a shake of her head. “Please, call me Valentina. I should like that we be friends.”
She paused, staring intently at Adele, then continued, “You are not the jealous sort, I think? Are you, Adele?”
“What?” said Adele in puzzlement. Light dawned, bringing a broad—perhaps tactless—smile to her face. “Ah, I understand. Ah, Valentina, at the risk of mistaking where this conversation is headed, let me assure you that I have no physical relationship with Lieutenant Leary—with Daniel. I’ve never had such a relationship.”
“But . . . ?” said the Klimovna. “You seem . . . ?”
“We’re friends,” said Adele. “Daniel happens to be a tenant of the house I own in Xenos. But to be more frank with you than our slight acquaintance warrants—”
And to cut short a conversation that Adele found extremely distasteful.
“—I’ve never been interested in a man—or woman—in that fashion. Whereas Daniel, so far as I’ve seen, has never been interested in a woman as old as I am. That’s thirty-two standard years, Valentina.”
She paused, holding the other woman’s eyes, then added, “I’m only seventeen years younger than you are.”
The Klimovna jerked back as though struck. In fact a slap probably wouldn’t have shocked her as badly as that bit of precise knowledge did. Well, she’d forced Adele into an unpleasant conversation, so she could take the consequences of it.
“Piffle!” the Klimovna said after a long moment, rubbing her hands hard on the thighs of her pants suit. “Men are fools, some of them. What can some young bubblehead offer them, compared to an experienced woman of the world, eh?”
“I’m sure I don’t know,” Adele said dryly. Then, because it was an aspect of the matter that had irritated her too—though improperly—during her friendship with Daniel, she added, “Though it appears that the bubbleheadedness is at least part of the attraction. I won’t even speculate why.”
“Piffle,” the Klimovna repeated, staring at the outer bulkhead with a disgusted expression. She rose to her feet, her hands interlaced behind her back. She didn’t leave, though, as Adele first thought—and hoped—but simply looked away.
She turned back to Adele abruptly. “I suppose my husband’s still out?” she said.
“So far as I know,” Adele agreed, “though you should check with the watch officer to be sure. I thought the two of you were together.”
“Faugh!” said the Klimovna. “Georgi likes to drink and gamble and who knows what? Why would I want to watch that? I bought an aircar to replace the other one.”
She waved her hand. To replace the one you crashed, Adele amended, but silently.
“Daniel’s man Hogg arranged it,” the Klimovna continued. “A very clever fellow, Hogg. I wonder if he would care to serve me in place of his present master?”
“I doubt it,” said Adele dryly.
“I don’t think Hogg would cut your throat for asking,” said Tovera unexpectedly. It was like having the chair itself speak. “But he might. Hogg’s quite an interesting fellow—as servants go.”
“I take Tovera’s point,” Adele said, raising her voice to speak through any chance that the Klimovna was going to say the wrong thing. “It would be unwise to raise the question with Hogg. Old family loyalties, you know. I suppose you have the same thing on Novy Sverdlovsk?”
The Klimovna sniffed. “At home, servants know their place,” she said, but she wasn’t looking at either Tovera or Adele when she said it. “Anyway, I bought this car from a store of unclaimed goods. Hogg introduced me to the warehouse manager.”
Did he indeed? Adele thought, struggling to keep a straight face. Well, it was no business of hers. Knowing Hogg, the Princess Cecile would have left Todos Santos long before any owner returned to claim his property.
Because Adele had reduced her display, a small red asterisk appeared in the air over the data unit. She closed her lips over the polite fluff she’d been creating to offer Klimovna—small talk must be easier for other people—and brought the display up to full size.