Candace drove the aircar well and fast. The women weren’t professionals; so long as the car was in Kostroma City they sat on the two seats in the vehicle’s closed back where they couldn’t be seen. Margrethe, Candace’s “special friend,” had a nipped-in waist between a remarkable bosom and lush hips; Bet, Daniel’s date for the afternoon and evening, wasn’t so much petite as egg-shaped. Her face, framed with lustrous black ringlets, was extraordinarily pretty.
“Benno”—Candace to Daniel—”tells us Cinnabar has the greatest navy there ever was, Lieutenant Leary,” Margrethe said. She gave Daniel a smile that showed her dimples. “You certainly have lovely uniforms.”
Bet giggled behind her hand and whispered something in her friend’s ear. She winked at Daniel and giggled again.
Daniel was wearing his 2nd Class uniform as the best compromise between his needs and his means. Although Bet was already hooked, so to speak, Daniel was too good a craftsman to wear civilian clothes and miss the effect the uniform could have on the girl he was meeting. On the other hand, he wasn’t going to risk his full-dress Whites at a rundown fishing lodge.
“We’re fortunate to have allies like Kostroma,” Daniel said cheerfully. Candace didn’t look best pleased at the way both women were fawning over the exotic stranger. He’d been very well aware when Margrethe leaned forward to point out her parents’ townhouse to Daniel—and flopped a breast on his shoulder in the process.
The car was over open sea by now. The water was shallow. Knobs rose from the sea floor, their crests fringed with coral and sponges in colored bands varied by depth. Fish swam among the fixed life-forms. They were as brilliant as daubs of light flung from diffraction gratings.
Daniel looked over the side, wishing that he’d brought an identification chart. The Aglaia’s database wasn’t complete on Kostroman sea life, but he was sure that Adele could have downloaded something suitable if he’d thought to ask her.
“What do you think of Kostroman girls, Lieutenant Leary?” Margrethe asked. “I’m afraid we must seem very provincial to someone who’s travelled the way you have.”
“Madame Margrethe,” Daniel said; the girls resolutely refused either to call him “Daniel” or to give him their last names. It was a piece of coquetry that he didn’t understand, not a concern for their security. “I can honestly say that no female company has impressed me as favorably as that by which I now am honored.”
That wasn’t true, of course, but it wasn’t any greater a lie than failing to correct the impression that he was well-travelled. Besides, the girls were quite adequately pretty and Daniel shared with most men of his acquaintance the feeling that availability enhanced a woman’s attractiveness. He knew there were other philosophies on the question, but he didn’t hold them.
Bet giggled again. That could get old; but not in the length of time Daniel expected to know the lady.
Candace cleared his throat. “Why don’t you switch places with Daniel now, Margrethe?” he said, his tone smoothing as the sentence continued. “That’ll let Bet and our guest get to know each other better. And some wine wouldn’t be amiss.”
“Ooh, yes!” Bet said, perhaps the longest sentence Daniel had thus far heard from her lips. She turned and knelt on the seat to lean into the luggage space. “I brought the special white from Herrick’s own vineyard!”
Bet wore a thin dress that shone either orange or golden depending on how the light struck it. The fabric was opaque but very clinging. From this angle, Daniel was willing to say that Bet’s face wasn’t her most attractive feature after all.
“Here, you come back and then I can take your seat, lieutenant,” Margrethe said as she half-rose and smiled at him.
It was going to be close quarters to trade seats like this. Daniel could only hope that Candace wouldn’t turn to watch the inevitable contact between the moving parties. Daniel doubted the Kostroman lieutenant would abandon him on a deserted island, but jealousy was an emotion Daniel had enough second-hand experience with to respect.
He rose; something in the sea thirty feet below caught his eye. “Say!” he said. “Circle here! Candace, can you circle here?”