Irresistible Forces

Roic nodded a polite greeting. He couldn't imagine what m'lord had said to his aunt, but her eyes widened only slightly, looking up at Taura. The second woman didn't quail at the fangs, claws, or height either, but when her glance swept down the pink trouser outfit, she winced.

There was a brief pause; Lady Alys shot Roic an inquiring look, and he realized it must be his job to do the announcing, as when he brought a visitor into Vorkosigan House. 'Sergeant Taura, my lady,' he said loudly, then stopped, hoping for more cues.

After another moment, Lady Alys abandoned further hope of him and came forward, smiling, her hands held out. 'Sergeant Taura. I am Mles Vorkosigan's aunt, Alys Vorpatril. Permit me to welcome you to Barrayar. My nephew has told me something about you.'

Uncertainly, Taura stuck out one huge hand, engulfing Lady Alys's slender fingers, and shook with care. 'I'm afraid he hasn't told me too much about you,' she said. Shyness made her voice a gruff rumble. 'I don't know many aunts. I somehow thought you would be older. And… and not so beautiful.'

Lady Vorpatril smiled, not without approval. Only a few streaks of silver in her dark coiffure and a slight softening of her skin betrayed her age to Roic's eyes; she was trim and elegant and utterly self-possessed, as always. She introduced the other woman, Madame Somebody — not Estelle, though Roic promptly dubbed her that in his mind — apparently the senior modiste.

'I'm very happy to have a chance to visit Miles's — Lord Vorkosigan's homeworld,' Taura told them. 'Although, when he invited me to come for the Winterfair season, I wasn't sure if it was hunting or social, and whether I should pack weapons or dresses.'

Lady Vorpatril's smile sharpened. 'Dresses are weapons, my dear, in sufficiently skilled hands. Permit us to introduce you to the rest of our ordnance team.' She gestured toward a door at the far end of the room, through which presumably lay more utilitarian workrooms, full of laser scanners and design consoles and bolts of exotic fabrics and expert seamstresses. Or magic wands, for all Roic knew.

The other woman nodded. 'Do please come this way, Sergeant Taura. We have a great deal to accomplish today, Lady Alys tells me…'

'My lady?' Roic called in faint panic to their disappearing forms. 'What should I do?'

'Wait here a few moments, Armsman,' Lady Alys murmured over her shoulder to him. 'I'll be back.'

Taura, too, glanced back at him, just before the door eased silently closed behind her, the expression flitting over her odd features seeming for a moment almost beseeching—Don't abandon me.

Did he dare sit on one of the chairs? He decided not. He stood for a few moments, walked around the chamber, and finally took up a guardsman's stance, which by dint of much recent practice he could hold for an hour at a stretch, his back to one delicately decorated wall.

In a while Lady Vorpatril returned, a pile of bright pink cloth folded over her arm. She shoved it at Roic.

'Take these back to my nephew and tell him to hide them. Or better, burn them. Or anything, but do not under any circumstances allow them to fall into that young woman's hands again. Come back in about, oh, four hours. You are by far the most ornamental of Miles's armsmen, but there's no need to have you lurking about cluttering up Estelle's reception room till then. Run along.'

He looked down on the top of her perfectly groomed head and wondered how she could always make him feel four years old, or as though he wanted to hide in a large bag. For his consolation, Roic reflected as he made his way out, she seemed to have the same effect on her nephew, who was thirty-one and ought to be immune by now.

He reported again for duty at the appointed time, only to cool his heels for another twenty minutes or so. A sub-modiste of some sort offered him a choice of tea or wines while he waited, which he politely declined. At last, the door opened; voices drifted through.

Taura's vibrant baritone was unmistakable. 'I'm not so sure, Lady Alys. I've never worn a skirt like this in my life.'

'We'll have you practice for a few minutes, sitting and standing and walking. Oh, here's Roic back, good.'

Lady Alys stepped through first, folded her arms, and looked, oddly enough, at Roic.

A stunning vision in hunter green stepped through behind her.

Oh, it was still Taura, certainly, but… the skin that had been sallow and dull against the pink was now revealed as a glowing ivory. The green jacket fit very trimly about the waist. Above, her pale shoulders and long neck seemed to bloom from a white linen collar; below, the jacket skirt skimmed out briefly around the upper hips. A narrow skirt continued the long green fall to her firm calves. Wide linen cuffs decorated with subtle white braid made her hands look, if not small, well-proportioned. The pink nail polish was gone, replaced by a dark mahogany shade. The heavy braid hanging down her back had been transformed into a mysteriously knotted arrangement, clinging close to her head and set off with a green … hat? feather? anyway, a neat little accent tilted to the other side. The odd shape of her face seemed suddenly artistic and sophisticated rather than distorted.

' Ye-es,' said Lady Vorpatril. 'That will do.'

Roic closed his mouth.

With a lopsided smile, Taura stepped carefully forward. 'I am a bodyguard by trade,' she said, evidently continuing a conversation with Lady Vorpatril. 'How can I kick someone's teeth in wearing this?'

'A woman wearing that suit, my dear, will have volunteers to kick in annoying persons' teeth for her,' said Lady Alys. 'Is that not so, Roic?'

'If they don't trample each other in the rush,' gulped Roic and turned red.

One corner of that wide mouth lifted; the golden eyes seemed to sparkle like champagne. She caught sight of a long mirror on a carved stand in one corner and walked over to it to stare somewhat uncertainly at the portion of her it reflected. 'It's effective, then?'

'Downright terrifying,' Roic averred.

Roic intercepted a furious glower from Lady Alys behind Taura's back. Her lips formed the words No, you idiot! He shrank into cowed silence.

'Oh.' Taura's fanged smile fled. 'But I already terrify people. Human beings are so fragile. If you get a good grip, you can pull their heads right off. I want to attract… somebody. For a change. Maybe I should have that pink dress with the bows after all.'

Lady Alys said smoothly, 'We agreed that the ingenue look is for much younger girls.'

'Smaller ones, you mean.'

'There is more than one kind of beauty. Yours needs dignity. I would never deck myself in pink bows,' she threw in, a little desperately it seemed to Roic.

Taura eyed her, seeming struck by this. 'No… I suppose not.'

'You will simply attract braver men.'

'Oh, I know that.'' Taura shrugged. 'I was just… hoping for a larger selection, for once.' She added under her breath, 'Anyway, he's taken now.'

What he? Roic couldn't help wondering. She sounded rather sad about it. Some very tall admirer, now out of the picture? Larger than Roic? There weren't too many men of that description around.

Lady Alys rounded out the afternoon by guiding her new protegee to an exclusive tearoom, much frequented by high Vor matrons. This proved to be partly for the purposes of tutorial, party to refuel Taura's ferocious metabolism. While the server brought dish after dish, Lady Alys offered a brisk stream of advice on everything from gracefully exiting a groundcar in restrictive clothing to posture to table manners to the intricacies of Vor social rank. Despite her outsized scale, Taura was naturally athletic and coordinated, seeming to improve almost as Roic watched.

Drafted as practice gentleman, Roic found himself coming in for a few sharp corrections himself. He felt very conspicuous and clumsy at first, until he realized that, next to Taura, he might as well be invisible. If they drew sidelong looks from other diners, at least the comments were low-voiced or far enough away that he was not compelled to take notice; besides, Taura's attention was entirely upon her mentor. Unlike Roic, she never needed the same instruction twice.