'Just one thing you and I need to straighten out here, Trent.' Oscar studied the grove of giant hybrid ferns- trees that surrounded the rear terrace of the old mansion. 'You'll have to do a better job of keeping Amaryllis out of trouble if you're going to marry her. She's been in one scrape after another since she met you.'
Lucas handed Oscar a cold bottle of Five Hells beer. 'Don't worry, I'm going to insist that she accept only routine focus assignments from here on.'
'You do that.' Oscar took a swallow of beer and wandered closer to the nearest fern-tree. 'If you can.'
The phone rang somewhere inside the house. Lucas ignored it. Hannah and Amaryllis were in the kitchen. One of them could answer it.
'Hell of a garden you've got here.' Oscar pulled down a massive frond to examine it with professional interest.
'Place used to belong to a horti-talent.'
'Horti-talents always go in for the fancy stuff. We ag-talents prefer to concentrate on crops that have some practical use.'
Lucas hid a grin. 'Is that a fact?'
'It is.' Oscar released the huge frond. He looked at Lucas. 'I won't pretend that I'm entirely satisfied with this marriage you're planning. I'd feel a hell of a lot better about it if you two had met through an agency. But I can see that Amaryllis has her heart set on marrying you. Just remember what I once told you. Hurt her and I'll--'
'Lucas?' Amaryllis appeared in the doorway. 'Phone call for you. Shall I take a message?'
'No, that's all right. I need a good excuse to get away from Oscar here. He's lecturing me again.'
Amaryllis frowned at Oscar. 'I told you to stop that, Uncle Oscar.'
'Can't help myself,' Oscar said.
'The hell he can't.' Lucas brushed Amaryllis's arm and her mind in a light, fleeting caress as he went past her to take the phone call. 'He plans to spend the next six months trying to scare me off.'
'Aunt Hannah will handle him,' Amaryllis assured Lucas.
'Somebody better or I'll have to do it myself.' Lucas picked up the phone. 'This is Trent.'
'Mr. Trent. Hobart Batt here. As we marriage counselors like to say at times like this, have I got a girl for you.'
'Forget it, Batt. I've decided to cancel my registration with Synergistic Connections.'
'What?' Hobart sucked in air. 'But, Mr. Trent, you don't want to do that. I've got a wonderful match for you.'
'I'm no longer in the market.'
'Just let me tell you about this one. It's a bit unusual. However, I can assure you that I've already spoken to Miss Lark's counselor. Mrs. Reeton and I have double-checked our results. We are convinced that this is an excellent match.'
Lucas held the phone away from his ear and stared at it in stunned amazement. Then he repeated the only two words he had heard clearly.
'Miss Lark? Miss Amaryllis Lark?'
'Why, yes. You once asked me if I had ever matched a high-class talent and a full-spectrum prism. I told you at the time that such matches were rare, but they did occur occasionally.'
Lucas started to laugh.
'Mr. Trent? Are you listening?'
Lucas laughed harder.
'The thing is,' Hobart Batt continued in a determined tone, 'we feel that your strengths and those of Miss Lark nicely complement each other. Definitely a synergistic balance between the two of you. Certainly there will be areas of slight disagreement. There's no such thing as an exact match. We are dealing with human beings here, after all, but on the whole... Mr. Trent, is something wrong?'
Lucas did not respond. He was laughing so hard that he dropped the phone.
'Lucas?' Amaryllis smiled quizzically from the doorway. 'What's so funny?'
'You aren't going to believe this.' He strode toward her, caught her up in his arms, and swung her around in a circle. Then he pulled her close and cupped her face between his hands. 'We're a perfect match.'
Hobart Batt's tinny voice continued to babble somewhere in the distance. Lucas ignored it. All he cared about was the love that shone more brilliant than a thousand massed jelly- lamps in Amaryllis's eyes.
'For some odd reason,' Amaryllis said. 'That doesn't come as any great surprise.'
Lucas grinned. 'No, it doesn't.'
He bent his head to kiss her. Out on the psychic plane a crystal clear prism formed. Energy poured through it in a rainbow of color that seemed to stretch out into the future.
The focus was perfect.
Just like the woman in his arms, Lucas thought.
