A Rational Arrangement, page 27
“I just realized we’ll be spending the better part of an hour in this carriage, given the crush of traffic that’ll be around the palace. Alone, with no mothers or fathers or servants to listen in. We could talk about anything!”
“Oh, we could, couldn’t we?” She fluttered her hands, silk and jewels trailing from her wrists. “There’s no one to check me but you.”
He grinned. “And I have no interest whatsoever in checking you. What would you like to speak of? We should pick the most awful forbidden unsuitable topic imaginable.”
After a moment’s thought, she shook her head. “Perhaps we should save that for the return, my lord. I shouldn’t like to alienate you while we’ve the whole of the evening left to spend together.”
“I cannot imagine anything you could say that would alienate me,” Nik protested.
She turned to regard him with light brown eyes. “Perhaps I have a better imagination than you do.”
Nikola abruptly envisioned her asking the exact nature of his relationship with Justin, and swallowed. “One or two things that might alienate you from me, perhaps,” he admitted reluctantly. “Still, surely you wouldn’t waste this opportunity on mere small talk, Miss Vasilver?”
“My lord, there is no chance of that. My parents assure me that my idea of ordinary conversation is peppered with the outrageous, and that is when I am trying to be normal. If you are authorizing me to be unsuitable—”
“My dear Miss Vasilver, I all but insist upon it,” Nik told her, grinning.
“—then perhaps I may use something lower on my list of forbidden topics than number one.”
“You have a list?”
“An outline. With subheadings and clarifying points. It’s still not comprehensive. Will you promise me that If I broach some topic you do not care for, you will tell me so plainly and we may move on to another?”
“I give you my word on it.” Nik sobered his expression in the face of her solemnity. “What is, oh, the fourth item on your list?”
“Why did you ask me to the Ascension Ball, my lord?” she asked, unhesitant.
Nik gave a startled laugh, but answered gamely, “Because I want to know more about you, and it’s a chance to get you away from your parents, if not mine. Because you are good company, and I admire – enjoy – your taste for honesty.” You make me forget Justin, and it has been a long time since anyone but the Savior has been able to do that. “And…as I already told you I wasn’t looking for a wife, I thought it was…safe.”
“As opposed to the usual threat a woman poses to life and limb?” Miss Vasilver was grave, making Nik laugh again.
“You know what I mean. The politics around balls – this ball, especially – are thick. If I bring one of my sisters, everyone wonders what plague I have that no unrelated woman would accept my invitation. If I ask a woman I’ve met more than a few times socially, then she must be a marriage prospect. If I ask a woman I’ve only met once or twice, it’s as likely as not an unbearably awkward evening as she tries to figure out how serious I might be, or if I plan to, I don’t know, assault her in the carriage or somesuch.”
“…assault her in the carriage? Does that happen often?”
“What, actual assault? In my own first-hand experience, never. For others—” Nik paused, watching the greatcats’ white tails swaying in perfect unison as they pulled the coach. “My information on that would be skewed, of course. One young lady I escorted, whom I will not name, was in any event quite terrified of me. I am not in the habit of asking people if they wish to petition me, but there were three or four points during that evening when I was on the verge of asking her if there was anything the Savior might do for her.”
“Why didn’t you, if her distress was so plain?”
Nik shrugged. “Because for all I know, it’s my Blessing itself that had her petrified. And some people become more anxious if you ask them about their anxiety, because ‘am I conspicuous?’ becomes a new source of anxiety. My great-grandmother taught me not to ask people who aren’t petitioners. They know I am Blessed, and they know better than I do what disorders they might have. It’s rude and presumptuous to imply that I, from a few hours of acquaintance, can perceive a problem they don’t.”
Miss Vasilver tilted her head. “But don’t some forms of madness keep the sufferer from realizing they are mad?”
He flashed a brief, lopsided smile. “One must make exceptions at times, true. But I don’t want to spend all evening talking about me, Miss Vasilver. Shall I ask some forbidden question of you? Did you have that dossier prepared on yourself?”
“I began it, my lord, but I fear I did not complete it. Byron thought you must have been joking when I asked him for a character reference for it.”
Nik grinned. “Half-joking, I suppose. But I am not joking about wanting to hear more about you.”
“Then I will finish it for you. But in the meantime, you may ask me whatever you please, my lord.” She had turned to face forward again, hands clasped in her lap, the long dangling beaded sleeves of her dress trailing over her skirt.
“I did, in fact, resort to interrogating Lysandra about you.” Nik felt odd about the admission – not normally something he’d confess to, although he’d pumped his sisters for information on people before. Yet it felt wrong to be less than straightforward with Miss Vasilver. “She said the two of you used to correspond after her graduation, particularly while you travelled the world.”
“Oh yes. When one is a passenger on a ship one has a great deal of time to keep up on correspondence. Although delivery is erratic.”
“I can imagine. Lys told me you’d spent years in Southern Vandu, and she’d never been clear on why the long overseas stay there. Some course of study they provided?” His sister had several speculations to offer beyond that, but Nik withheld them to see what Miss Vasilver would volunteer.
“Oh. Southern Vandu.” Miss Vasilver was silent for a moment before continuing, “The reason for the two years I spent there is the eighth item on my list. I will tell you, my lord, but you must first promise me you will tell no other. Not even Mrs. Warwick.”
Nikola blinked at her. “Of course, you have my word. But you needn’t say if you’d prefer not to.”
“No, I should like to. You can tell me if it’s as horrifying a tale as my family thinks it. It’s rather complicated. It’s true that I undertook a course of study there – fascinating, actually – but it was not by my choice. Or my parents’. Technically, I was a prisoner.”
Nik gaped at the words, and the calm way she spoke them. “…what? Why did they imprison you?”
“Well, ‘imprison’ is perhaps the wrong way to describe it. Hostage? I did say it was complicated. Perhaps I should start earlier.”
“Perhaps that would be advised.” Nik remembered to close his hanging jaw.
“I don’t know if you’re familiar with Southern Vandu at all, my lord, but their textile industry is world-renowned: they have the most remarkable manufacturies, automated looms two stories high which produce tremendous amounts of wonderfully high-quality cloth. Three years ago, Vasilver Trading was negotiating with their Kyr for import/export rights to the nation. We wished to ship in raw ivywool, encotton, and agris, and export bolts of cloth. Southern Vandu is finicky about whom they’ll permit to conduct business in their nation, and no Newlant business at the time was licensed to operate within their borders. All the contracts for their goods were ferried through companies at third-party nations. Now, one of the peculiarities here is that Vandese law prohibits foreign men from venturing about their country unaccompanied by a female relation – wife, mother, cousin, what have you.”
Nikola blinked at her. “Truly? The man needs a chaperone?”
“Yes. It’s…perhaps not dissimilar to the anxiety of that woman you described. The reasoning – not all Vandese believe this, mind – is that non-Vandese men are uncivilized brutes who can only be checked by the presence of a woman. A relation, because an unrelated woman would not be able to exert moral authority over his bestial nature.”
Nikola snorted, trying to restrain a disbelieving laugh.
“This gets worse, I’m afraid. But let me continue. My father sent myself and my brother Stephen to negotiate. Stephen was our lead negotiator – women in Southern Vandu are not expected to engage directly in such things – and I was along in advisory capacity and to fulfill Vandese legal requirements. Along with two wives and one daughter, for the other men on the negotiation team. We made quite a parade. Our first problem was just a little bobble on the evening of the second day, when seven of us went out for dinner without Mrs. Hughes because she was unwell. One of the Kyr’s men chanced upon us on the street as we returned to our lodgings, and pitched a fit over Mr. Hughes being about without a female relation. At that point, we understood clearly that the men needed chaperones in this nation, but we’d quite forgotten that each man needed his own specific one. Miss Caphly made up some bit about her being Mrs. Hughes’ second cousin once removed and therefore a relation of a sort, and they got it smoothed over. After that, we were all careful and things went splendidly for the next three days. Then there was the evening of the fifth day.” Miss Vasilver looked straight ahead as she spoke, focused on her words and seeming unaware of Nik. “We had everything settled for the formal licensing the next day: the Kyr was having clean copies of the documents drafted for his stamp and print, and he was hosting a feast for us. There was a huge quantity of food and copious amounts of a local drink, misfil, served over ice. Stephen’s favorite dish was this spicy duck-and-spinach affair, and he was gulping down glass after glass of misfil to wash down the heat of it.”
“This isn’t going to end well, is it?” Nik asked.
“It’s going to end with me spending the next two years in an enforced stay in Southern Vandu, so no. But it could have been far worse.
“At midnight, the feast was still going strong. Stephen was very drunk and relating his favorite story about repelling pirates in rather bad Vandese – neither of us were fluent at this point, though we’d both been making an effort. Several Vandese had taken an interest despite the language difficulties. I was talking to Kyriel Aunles – that’s the Kyr’s wife. One of Stephen’s new friends asked Stephen to show him the constellations they use for navigation. So he and Stephen stepped outside, and I remember thinking ‘Should I go with him? Does that count as ‘unaccompanied’?’ I asked the kyriel if it it would be a problem, and she told me no, it was fine.
“Some minutes passed, then there were shouts and a commotion outside. A few of the Kyr’s honor guard rushed to see what it was. A few moments later, two of them hauled in my brother, who struggled and cursed them in Newlantian. A third was helping the Vandese man who’d accompanied Stephen outside. He wore, I noticed now, a gold torc with a tigereye amber set in it: that’s the Vandese equivalent of your chain, my lord.” She gestured to the seldom-worn chain that signified Nik’s Blessing. “It meant he was a healer of flesh. I also noticed that his nose was bleeding and looked disjointed, and he had a few other marks about the face. I thought that strange – why wouldn’t he heal his own injuries?
“I started to make my way over to see what had happened, but the guards reached their kyr first. The Kyr asked something on the lines of ‘What’s going on here?’ The local healer drew himself up and accused my brother of attacking him. The whole room went quiet at that; all the murmuring and jostling stopped. Stephen was, perhaps, too drunk to recognize the seriousness of this charge, because he said in Vandese, ‘Of course I did!’ And then he used some rude Newlantian words I shan’t repeat, and ‘—kissed me! What was I supposed to do?’”
Nik stared, shocked. “This Vandese man kissed him?”
“He did, my lord. The healer responded with something I didn’t understand, followed by ‘he agreed!’
“The Kyr turned about to me and asked, ‘Do you take responsibility for this man?’
“Of course I replied, ‘Yes, kyr imen, I do.’
“Stephen, who was perhaps starting to pick up on the gravity of the situation but remained the greater part drunk, said, ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Wisteria. I’m resp—’ at which point I clapped my hand over his mouth, which startled him into silence.
“Our translator had scrambled forward to join the tableau, so I told him to translate and switched to Newlantian. And remembered to look at the Kyr as I said, ‘My brother is not a wild animal that must be put down. He is within my influence. If he has erred, the fault is mine for giving poor guidance.’”
Nik cleared his throat. “I am unclear on how any part of this could be construed as your fault, Miss Vasilver.”
The slender woman paused in her narrative. “As a practical matter, in a Newlant context, perhaps not. But as a legal matter in Southern Vandu, I not only was responsible for my brother’s actions but had to be. If I disavowed him, or if he denied my influence, then Vandese law is clear: even as a blameless foreigner he would need to be expelled. As a violent criminal – one who assaulted a healer – he would be executed.”
“Executed? You’re never serious? For striking a man who’d insulted him?”
“I am entirely serious, my lord. By their custom Stephen had not been insulted, but it would not matter if he had: the Vandese have no tolerance for violence in private life at all. They are as peaceable as greatcats. One may not duel a man for an insult, or cuff a servant for slovenliness, or smack a child for backtalking, or anything of the sort. It is all criminalized. Only a soldier in battle or an officer of law may use brute force legally, and even officers exercise this authority with great care. A violent man who asserts that his female relations have no moral authority over him has declared himself both uncontrollable and unreformable. From the Vandese perspective, the only recourse is to put him to death.”
“But – he—” Nik tried to wrap his mind around this concept. “That is insane. But if you take responsibility, doesn’t that mean they’d—?”
“Oh, no, not at all. The Vandese regard all women as trainable. If I claim the fault, then I merely need to be educated to ensure the men within my influence behave appropriately in the future.”
Nik stared forward. “These people are exceedingly strange.”
“They are, my lord.”
“Do they apply all this nonsense to their own people? I thought you said it was only foreign men they were terrified of?”
“Foreign men frighten them more, yes, and are under far more strictures. But the general theory that men need to be influenced by women to keep their bestial nature in check is also applied to themselves. However, they trust their own men to have internalized these lessons and therefore not need, for instance, a constant escort to remind them.” After a moment, Miss Vasilver added, “It’s all so condescending and degrading, my lord, the whole idea that men, especially our men, cannot control themselves. It infuriates me still.” Her condemnatory words made a strange contrast with the even, nonjudgemental tone of her voice. “The worst of it was to have Stephen perpetuate their myth, of all things. Maddening to have my own brother’s actions reinforce this mass delusion of theirs.
“In any event, we settled the matter that night. We could have requested formal legal proceedings, but our information on the Vandese legal system suggested that would not improve the outcome and would publicize the mess further. The Kyr removed us to a private council room. The Vandese Blessed, it turned out, had requested – um – certain intimacies of Stephen in a traditional Vandese manner. Which used language that we’d not covered in our lessons or heard during negotiations, and had flowery comparisons to stars and meteorites and the privacy of night. Stephen had not understood half of it and so went with the default of ‘smile and nod’,” Miss Vasilver said. Nik winced. “But that was not seen as exculpatory: the misunderstanding would have perhaps excused Stephen if he’d shoved him away or caused accidental injury, but Stephen had already admitted to hitting him with deliberate intent to harm. Kyriel Aunles told her husband how I’d asked if I should go with them and that she had deterred me, and that was counted in our favor, however. Ultimately, the Kyr decided that Stephen must be deported at once, and that I must remain to be educated in appropriate behavior. So that I might prevent other male relations from doing this sort of thing.”
“But they had to know that their customs would not matter outside their borders?” Nik asked, amazed by the whole wild tale. “Why didn’t they just have you leave as well?”
“It didn’t matter to them. They know that other countries are full of what they regard as barbaric practices, and they see themselves as having a duty to improve those with whom they come into contact. I was in their nation, I had demonstrated imperfect understanding and influence, I was female and therefore capable of improvement, and accordingly I needed to be corrected. That was the legal reasoning as I understood it, more or less. There was more to it than law, however. The Kyr wished to open Southern Vandu to more nations, and expelling our entire expedition would only entrench their isolation. He and his wife thought keeping me would expose more of their people to foreigners and show that we were teachable people capable of being civilized. I had no notion of this at the time, of course – Kyriel Aunles explained it to me months later.
“But you mustn’t imagine that I spent two years locked in some dungeon cell and subsisting on gruel and water. I spent much of my time in the house of the Kyr and kyriel, and they treated me as an honored guest. There were mandatory lessons, but they were by no means onerous. It was fascinating, if perplexing and at times outright insulting. But I fear I am giving altogether the wrong impression of the Vandese. All of these things I’ve said, about women being accorded moral superiority and men considered innately violent and in some ways inferior – it’s not that they don’t believe this true, but it has little impact on their day-to-day lives. It’s not as if you see men constantly seeking the advice of a woman or submitting to one’s opinions generally. Most positions of political power are held by men and most business is conducted by men, just as in Newlant. They are by no means subservient. The character of interactions between sexes is different in certain ways, of course, and in some rare cases one does see shocking occurrences. I did witness a man, a Vandese man, executed because his mother and sisters declared him uncontrollable and no other female relation would step forward to take responsibility for him. But it is not as if Vandese men live in fear of repudiation – it’s almost as rare as a Newlant duel ending in death.”
