Luce pick himself up out of that pond. Probably all of the revenge some of us will ever get.'
Rafe looked politely interested. 'Revenge?'
'I'm tending bar today to pick up some extra cash. But in my real life, I'm an assistant in Professor Luce's department at the institute. Last month he published a paper that summarized the results of a year's worth of my work in the Journal of Synergistic Theory. Didn't even put my name on the list of research assistants who contributed to the project.'
'Hold on, here,' Rafe said. 'If you're implying that I deliberately tossed Luce into that pool, I assure you, it was an accident.'
The waiter grinned. 'Every student of meta-zen-syn knows that there are no true accidents.' Without waiting for a response, he moved off down the bar to pour wine for another guest.
Out of the corner of her eye, Orchid saw her parents walking toward her. She leaned back against the edge of the bar and took another sip of champagne.
'An accident you say?' she murmured.
'He lost his balance and fell. Could have happened to anyone.'
Orchid was suddenly absurdly pleased. 'Preston did not fall into that pool by accident.'
Rafe gave her a superior smile. 'Remember North's Second Principle: The struggle for balance and harmony governs all natural processes.'
Anna appeared at Orchid's side. She smiled serenely at Rafe.
'And in a shining illustration of that important principle,' she said, 'it would appear that Professor Luce just lost the struggle to maintain his synergistic balance.'
Orchid was startled to see the undisguised satisfaction in her mother's eyes. 'Mom?'
'Yes, I know dear. It's not very meta-zen-syn of me to take such pleasure in seeing Preston fall into a pond. But we all have our little lapses. Don't tell your father.'
'I don't think Preston fell into that pond.' Orchid glanced at Rafe. 'I think he may have had a little help.'
'Nonsense,' Edward said as he strolled over to join the small group. 'Your mother is right. Preston just got a sharp lesson in synergistic realignment. Isn't that so, Mr. Stonebraker?'
Rafe shrugged philosophically. 'Like they say, synergy happens.'
Chapter 17
Shortly after midnight, Rafe came awake with the sudden, all-over awareness that Orchid was not asleep. He turned on his side, automatically reaching for her before he remembered that she was not here with him. This was the guest bedroom in her parents' home. She was in another room down the hall.
Earlier in the evening Edward had explained that no two homes in Northville were precisely identical, but all were built along the same meta-zen-syn aesthetic lines. The principles of simplicity, harmony, and balance dominated. The Adams' house was a serenely designed structure built around a courtyard. Every room had windowed walls that opened onto the central garden.
Rafe pushed back the covers and got to his feet. He started toward the door and belatedly remembered his trousers. Something told him that it would be very un-meta-zen-syn to be caught wandering naked down the hall to Orchid's room at this hour of the night. There were those who might view such activity as downright primitive.
He pulled on his trousers, fastened them, and headed toward the door.
Halfway there, he paused again.
He could not feel her presence in the room down the hall.
He freed his senses with a short flash of para-energy, allowing them to absorb the vibrations of the sleeping house. Two people in a single chamber at the far end of the hall. Mr. and Mrs. Adams. But no sensations came from the other bedroom.
Orchid was elsewhere. He turned slowly, listening for her with all of his senses.
She was outside in the courtyard garden.
He walked to the windowed wall of his bedroom and looked out into the night-shrouded scene. Orchid sat in the hollowed-out seat of a moon-washed meditation rock. She had her arms wrapped around her up-drawn knees. The folds of a white robe flowed around her.
He smiled to himself. The lady did have an instinct for the romantic.
He opened the glass door and stepped out into the balmy night. Simultaneously he released a psychic probe onto the metaphysical plane. The brief sense of disorien-tation lasted only a few seconds. When things steadied he saw the clear crystal prism Orchid had crafted for him. He sent power through it, watched it shimmer as she tuned its various facets to focus his talent with perfect clarity.
The night opened up around him.
For a moment he savored the heightened awareness, knowing that through the focus link Orchid was able to enjoy some of the same sensations.
Then he cut off the flow of talent and walked across the meta-zen-syn garden to where Orchid waited for him. He wondered how much longer it would take her to understand that she was his true mate.
He knew she was aware of him, but she said nothing until he reached the rock where she sat. Then she turned her head to look at him.
'You pushed Preston into that pond for me, didn't you?'
'Why is everyone so convinced that I pushed Luce into that pond? I keep telling you, he slipped and fell.'
She ignored that. 'How did you know that I very much wanted him to fall into that pond?'
'It came to me in a blinding flash.' He took a seat on the rock beside her.
'I'm serious,' she said. 'How did you know?'
'Telepathy?'
She waved that aside with an irritated little motion of one hand. 'Tell me how you knew.'
He was surprised by the urgency in her voice. 'It wasn't as if there were a lot of options. I mean, you had the reflecting pool no more than a couple of steps away and you had Luce almost within pushing distance. There was a certain sparkle in your eye that I have come to know very well. I already knew you didn't much like the guy. It didn't require telepathy to figure out what you were thinking.'
'I see.'
'But the synergistic result was very similar to telepathy.' The meditation stones were more comfortable than they appeared, he discovered. He settled into the curved seat, leaned back, and rested his weight on his elbows. 'Why does it worry you that we might be developing some kind of psychic connection that goes beyond a focus link?'
She was silent for a moment. 'I've spent my whole life being different. I'm not sure I want to be any more different than I am already.'
'I can see where you would have felt a little out of place here in Northville,' he conceded.
'Don't get me wrong. I love my family. I value what I learned here. I even enjoy coming back to visit my relatives. Northville will always be a part of me, but this is not where I belong.'
'I understand.'
'I always knew that I disappointed everyone by failing to pursue a career at the North Institute the way my brothers and my cousins have.'
'Hey, you want to discuss disappointing other people?' Rafe heard the glass door of Anna's and Edward's room open behind him, but he did not turn around. 'Try walking away from Stonebraker Shipping when everyone in the family expects you to join the company the day you graduate from college.'
'I can imagine what it must have been like for you. But now you're going back. You've completed the circle. I can't do that. I can't come back here. Not permanently.'
'There's no need,' Anna said gently from the shadows beyond the pool. 'You are finding your own balance in life.'
Orchid turned her head. 'Think so?' She smiled faintly. 'That's a very meta-zen-syn thing to say, Mom. You know, I always knew that stuff was good for something.'
