Irresistible Forces

He asked in return, 'Did you… serve him very long? Out there?' In the galactic backbeyond where m'lord had acquired such exotic friends.

Her face softened, the fanged smile reappearing. 'In a sense, all my life. Since my real life began, ten years ago, anyway. He is a great man.' This last was delivered with unself-conscious conviction.

Well, he was a great man's son, certainly. Count Aral Vorkosigan was a colossus bestriding the last half century of Barrayaran history. Lord Miles had led a less public career. Which no one would tell Roic anything about, the most junior armsman not being ex-ImpSec like m'lord and most of the rest of the armsmen, eh.

Still, Roic liked the little lord. What with the birth injuries and all — Roic shied away from the pejorative mutations—he'd had a rough ride all his life despite his high blood. Hard enough for him to just achieve normal things, like… like getting married. Although, m'lord had brains enough, belike, in compensation for his stunted body. Roic just wished he didn't think his newest armsman a dolt.

'The library is to the right of the stairs as you go down, through the first room.' He touched his hand to his forehead in a farewell salute, by way of paving his escape from this unnerving giant female. 'The dining's to be casual tonight; you don't need't' dress.' He added, as she glanced down in bewilderment at her travel-rumpled loose pink jacket and trousers, 'Dress up, that is. Fancy. What you're wearing is fine.'

'Oh,' she replied with evident relief. 'That makes more sense. Thank you.'

Having made his routine security circuit of the house, Roic arrived back at the antechamber just outside the library to find the huge woman and the pilot fellow examining the array of wedding presents temporarily staged there. The growing assortment of objects had been arriving for weeks. Each had been handed in to Pym to be unwrapped and to undergo a security check, rewrapped, and as the affianced couple's time permitted, unwrapped again and displayed with its card.

'Look, here's yours, Arde,' said Sergeant Taura. 'And here's Elli's.'

'Oh, what did she finally decide on?' asked the pilot. 'At one point she told me she was thinking of sending the bride a barbed-wire choke chain for Mles, but was afraid it might be misinterpreted.'

'No…' Taura held up a thick fall of shimmering black stuff as long as she was tall. 'It seems to be some sort of fur coat. No, wait — it's a blanket. Beautiful! You should feel this, Arde. It's incredibly soft. And warm.' She held a supple fold up to the side of her head, and a delighted laugh broke from her long lips. 'It's purring!'

Mayhew's eyebrows climbed halfway to his receding hairline. 'Good God! Did she…? Now, that's a bit edgy.'

Taura stared down at him in puzzled inquiry. 'Edgy? Why?'

Mayhew made an uncertain gesture. 'It's a live fur — a genetic construct. It looks just like one Mles once gave to EM If she's recycling his gifts, that's a pretty pointed message.' He hesitated. 'Though I suppose if she bought a fresh new one for the happy couple, that's a different message.'

'Ouch.' Taura tilted her head to one side and frowned at the fur. 'My life's too short for arcane mind games, Arde. Which is it?'

'Search me. In the dark, all cat blankets are… well, black, in this case. I wonder if it's intended as an editorial?'

'Well, if it is, don't you dare let on to the poor bride, or I swear I'll turn both your ears into doilies.' She held up her clawed fingers and wriggled them. 'By hand.'

Judging by the pilot's brief grin, the threat was a jest, but by his little bow of compliance, not an entirely empty one. Taura observed Roic, just then, refolded the live fur into its box, and tucked her hands discreetly behind her back.

The door to the library swung open, and Lord Vorkosigan stuck his head out. 'Ah, there you two are.' He strolled into the antechamber. 'Elena and Baz will be down in a little — she's feeding Baby Cordelia. You must be starving by now, Taura. Come on in and try the hors d'oeuvres. My cook has outdone herself.'

He smiled up affectionately at the enormous sergeant. While the top of Roic's head barely came up to her shoulder, m'lord just about faced her belt buckle. It occurred to Roic that Taura towered over himself in almost exactly the same proportions that ladies of average height towered over Lord Vorkosigan. This must be what women looked like to m'lord all the time.

Oh.

M'lord waved his guests through to the library but, instead of following them, shut the door and motioned Roic to his side. He looked thoughtfully up at his tallest armsman and lowered his voice.

'Tomorrow morning, I want you to drive Sergeant Taura to the Old Town. I've prevailed upon Aunt Alys to present Taura to her modiste and fix her up with a Barrayaran lady's wardrobe suitable for the upcoming bash. Figure to hold yourself at their disposal for the day.'

Roic gulped. M'lord's aunt, Lady Alys Vorpatril, was in her own way more terrifying than any woman Roic had ever encountered, regardless of height. She was the acknowledged social arbiter of the high Vor in the capital, the last word in fashion, taste, and etiquette, the official hostess for Emperor Gregor himself. And her tongue could slice a fellow to ribbons and tie up the remains in a bowknot before they hit the ground.

'How't' devil did you—' Roic began, then cut himself off.

M'lord smirked. 'I was very persuasive. Besides, Lady Alys relishes a challenge. With luck, she may even be able to part Taura from that shocking pink she favors. Some damned fool once told her it was a nonthreatening color, and now she uses it in the most unsuitable garments — and quantities. It's so wrong on her. Well, Aunt Alys will be able to handle it. If anyone asks for your opinion — not that they're likely to — vote for whatever Alys picks.'

I shouldn't dare do otherwise, Roic managed not to blurt aloud. He stood to attention and tried to look as though he were listening intelligently.

Lord Vorkosigan tapped his fingers on his trouser seam, his smile fading. 'I'm also relying on you to see that Taura is not, um, offered insult, or made uncomfortable, or… well, you know. Not that you can keep people from staring, I don't suppose. But be her outrider in any public venue, and be alert to steer her away from any problems. I wish I had time to squire her myself, but this wedding prep has gone into high gear. Not much longer now, thank God.'

'How is Madame Vorsoisson holding up?' Roic inquired diffidently. He had been wondering for two days if he ought to report the crying jag to someone, but m'lady-to-be had surely not realized her muffled breakdown in one of Vorkosigan House's back corridors had included a hastily retreating witness.

Judging by m'lord's suddenly guarded expression, perhaps he knew. 'She has… extra stresses just now. I've tried to take as much of the organizing off her shoulders as possible.' His shrug was not as reassuring as it might be, Roic felt.

M'lord brightened. 'Anyway, I want Sergeant Taura to have a great time on her visit to Barrayar, a fabulous Winterfair season. It's probably the only chance she'll ever have to see the place. I want her to look back on this week like, like… dammit, I want her to feel like Cinderella magicked off to the ball. She's earned it, God knows. Midnight tolls too damned soon.'

Roic tried to wrap his mind around the concept of Lord Vorkosigan as the enormous woman's fairy godfather. 'So… who's't' handsome prince?'

M'lord's smile went crooked; something almost like pain sounded in his indrawn breath. 'Ah. Yes. That would be the central problem, now. Wouldn't it.'

He dismissed Roic with his usual casual half-salute, a vague wave of his hand in the vicinity of his forehead, and joined his guests in the library.

Roic had never in his whole career as a Hassadar municipal guardsman been in a clothing store resembling that of Lady Vorpatril's modiste. Nothing betrayed its location in the Vorbarr Sultana thoroughfare but a discreet brass plaque, labeled simply ESTELLE. Cautiously, he mounted to the second floor, Sergeant Taura's massive footsteps creaking on the carpeted stairs behind him, and poked his head into a hushed chamber that might have been a Vor lady's drawing room. There was not a garment rack nor even a mannequin in sight, just a thick carpet, soft lighting, and tables and chairs that looked suitable for offering high tea at the Imperial Residence. To his relief Lady Vorpatril had arrived before them and was standing chatting with another woman in a dark dress.

The two women turned as Taura ducked her head under the lintel behind Roic and straightened up again.