“I have brought a likeness\ of my son; perhaps you could ask those of your men who are responsible for the work crews of our people, when he was last employed here.”
Inside the silk was a copper locket; Montray opened the clasp to reveal a miniature painting. His eyebrows rose as he looked at it.
“Take a look at this, Magda.”
He handed it to her, and she looked on an elaborately painted likeness of Peter Haldane.
“I can see by your faces that you both recognize my son,” Lady Rohana said. Magda’s first thought was, This is impossible, insane! Then sanity came to her rescue. A chance resemblance, no more. A fantastic coincidence.
Montray was on the communicator. “Get me a personnel solido and photos of Peter Haldane, Bethany. Magda”. -he turned back to her -“you can explain.”
Magda tried. She could see faint beads of perspiration along the lady’s hairline; whether from nervousness or from the heat of Montray’s office-or both-she could not tell.
“Chance resemblance? Impossible, my child. He was recognized by the color of his hair, and that color is borne by none but Comyn, or those of Comyn blood.”
“It is not rare among Terrans, my Lady,” Magda said. (She had known this; Peter had made jokes of it. “On the Darkovan side they think I must be some nobleman’s bastard!”) “It carries among us no claim to nobility, but means only that one’s parents had red hair, and a certain racial makeup.” She broke off as Bethany came in, took the small solido and personnel printout that bore a color photo of Peter Haldane. She handed them to Lady Rohana without comment.
Rohana studied them a moment, then looked up, her face gone white. “I cannot understand this. Are you very sure he is not one of ours, in some disguise that has misled you?”
“Very sure, my Lady; I have known Peter Haldane since childhood.”
“How can this be? One of your Terrans, so like to one of us . . .” Her voice wavered. “I can see that anyone might be deceived, if this man wore Darkovan dress. And your man is missing, too?” Not until hours afterward did Magda realize that she had not told Rohana this. “Strange. Well, I see I must search elsewhere for news of my son.”
When she had taken leave of Montray, formally, she turned to Magda, lightly touching her hand. She looked at her, a long and searching look; “Somehow I think I have not heard the end of this matter,” she said. “I thank you for your courtesy. A day may come when I can help you, my girl; until then, I wish you well.”
Magda was almost too surprised to speak; she managed a formal word of thanks, but Rohana kindly waved her away, summoned her companion and the sweating Guardsman and departed.
Left alone with Magda, Montray exploded, “Well, what do you think of that!”
“I think the poor woman is worried to death about her son.”
“Almost as worried as you are about Haldane, huh?”
“A lot more. Peter is a grown man, and entirely on his own. Why should I-”?
“Damned if I know why you should, but you are,” Montray said. “And I gather her son is a grown man, too. But on a damn feudal world like this where’ fighting duels is the most popular indoor sport, I gather there’s real cause for concern if the man of the house doesn’t come home.”
“Feudal is hardly the proper description-”
“OK, OK, Magda, you’re up on all the little nuances and fine points; I’m not, I don’t want to be. All I want is away from this damn place; you can have my job any time I can get a transfer out-or you could, except that on a world like this a woman wouldn’t be allowed to take it. I should think you’d want out, too. The point is: I understood most of what the lady was saying to you. It looks like you’ve made a useful contact. It’s not easy for a woman to do anything much on this world, but if you have an in with someone on the top levels, in the Comyn-“
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123