He said, 'Speckles pouches. Merchants sell speckles in these. I never saw them used for anything else.'
She nodded. Then she showed him how to make meringue shells. They cut fruit into the shells.
'Men lie to their wives,' Harlow said. 'Women lie to their husbands.' She sipped at her brandy.
Brandy wasn't familiar to Jeremy, and he thought he was being cautious with it. He said, 'I've gone through this in my head. Scripted it, my lines, her lines. I'm not who she thought I was. I'm a Crab shy, right. I killed a man and had to run, right. I was in prison, right, but never convicted of anything. I didn't hurt anyone getting out except Andrew Dowd. I can say all that, but, Harlow, how can I tell Karen that I knew her sister?'
'What? Oh, Barda.'
'Barda was a trusty when I got to the Windfarm.'
'I never met Barda.'
'We escaped together. Brenda must have told you the rest, we helped her run the Swan-'
'Barda told you about us? You already knew us? Karen?'
They were dining by firelight and an awesome variety of candles. Harlow was mostly shadow. He couldn't make out her face. 'Not you. You were a shock. Harold, though, and her mother, Espania Winslow, and Karen as a little girl. Harlow, when I last saw Barda she was all right. I never told Karen that. When did Karen last see her?'
'At the trial, when they took her away. It was just Karen and Barry and Espania. Harold didn't go. Did Barda tell you what she did?'
'No.'
'Poison. The whole second class at Wide Wade's. Two students died.'
'The proles had to know that,' Jeremy realized. 'The Parole Board decides who does the cooking. That's why they made her a trusty!'
'You think that's funny? And you knew what happened to Barda and never told Karen? Jeremy, you...' She trailed off.
He said, 'Barda got as far as the Swan, but after that... and the longer I waited, the harder it was to say anything. Now it's twenty-seven years. Harlow, I'll lose her.'
'Leave it out. Tell Karen you escaped from the Windfarm. Don't tell her who came along.' She watched him absorb that.
'No Barda?'
'No Barda. So how did you get to the inn?'
'Let's see. If Barda didn't tell me about Wave Rider...' He played it through his mind. 'I didn't know it was there. I was... running home? Back across the Neck. If I meet a caravan, I'm dead. Here's an inn. I can cook. Merchants don't notice a chef. A week later I've heard too much. Nobody hut a merchant gets across the Neck alive.'
'At least it doesn't sound so... premeditated,' Harlow said. 'Why did you come here?'
''Mmm?'
'Carder's Boat. Jeremy, you were nearly home. With your board and your gloves you could have crossed the weed, straight to shore. That would put you on the beach at, at the inn there?'
'Warkan's Tavern. With Bloocher Farm right next door. Yes. Harlow, they would not have been glad to see me.'
'Who would? But they'd take you in. Why did you throw your life to the ocean currents?'
'How did you get to know me so well?'
'I pulled you under the surfboards twenty-six years ago.'
'Repeatedly. It comes back to me.'
'But I don't know you. Even Karen didn't know you. Why didn't you go home?'
'I had to know where Cavorite went.'
Harlow laughed in the dark. 'Jeremy!'
He tried to tell her, but he barely remembered himself.
Cavorite's path was the path of humankind, from the stars down to Destiny, to Spiral Town, on to the mainland, and out again to the stars. Jemmy Bloocher was tracing the path of Cavorite, and he was looking for a home.
When he killed Fedrik he'd blown his home apart. He'd left Spiral Town, then married and settled down the first chance he got.
Tagged by the caravan, he hadn't resisted. There was the Road, and he followed it, donning the life of a caravan yutz like a well-fitting glove. He'd never taken it off until his life was threatened. After that... there was joy in learning and exploring, but his roots waved in the air. The farther he went, the less he was tied to anything at all, unless it was to Loria Bednacourt.
Rejected by Loria and by Twerdahl Town... he'd gone mad.
Still mad, perhaps, he'd rebuilt the life of a pit cuisine chef from nothing more than escaped felons and the abandoned wreck of an inn.
When that collapsed in blood, he did it again at Wave Rider.
And he settled in as Wave Rider's pit chef, and forgot Cavorite for twenty-seven years.
'I knew where Cavorite was,' he said. 'It was just down the Road, and a bus every two days, but anyone who asked me to pay for something would know I didn't belong. They'd put me back in the Winds, or kill me. After a while I stopped thinking about Cavorite. I burrowed in and spent twenty-seven years half-asleep. There's a civilization out there, Harlow! Spiral Town and the Crab are all barred from it! And I forgot. I just forgot.
'Then Karen burned herself,' he said, 'and here I am.'
'And now what?'
He couldn't tell her what he'd decided. He didn't know what she'd do. Harlow was of Destiny Town. He was of Spiral Town, and he'd learned too much.
He'd learned what it really meant to be a Crab shy.
He'd learned about the Overview Bureau.
But he could tell her a little. 'I can't stay here forever. As soon as Karen's better... back to Wave Rider, I guess. I want to stop at the Swan. Maybe I can figure out what happened to them. To Barda.'
'Want company?'
'Sure.' His mouth had run ahead of his mind. 'Don't you have a shop to run here?'
'I can get Belle Kuiger to cover, with a few days' notice. You'll be shorthanded, come the caravan. I can help. I miss Wave Rider, Jeremy.' She reached across to take his hand. 'I miss you.'
He was Harlow's guest, and everyone else had gone home. Best to be wary here. He asked, 'Why did you leave? I always-'
'You didn't notice what was happening?'
'Dominance games, you and the rest of the family. Property rights.'
'Harold's brothers and sister didn't like it when Harold married me. They waited it out, but when Harold died, he... didn't leave a will. They could hassle me, I could hassle them. It just looked better to let them buy me out. And you, you didn't do anything.'
'With what?'
'You were just the pit chef, weren't you? But I thought you had some authority. Karen, she sided with her brothers.'
'Will they want you at Wave Rider?'
She settled back in her chair, the firelight behind her. 'I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking. Still, they might want the help, with Karen in Medical and you in a cast and the caravan coming.'
He got himself onto his crutches, a little off balance: the brandy. Harlow wrapped herself around him for a deep kiss. 'Thank you,' she said, and held him steady until he had his balance.
He hadn't felt this since Karen burned herself. The flash of lust had knocked him off balance, but his breath was coming back and his mind was catching up.
He made his toppling foot-crutches-foot way to bed. Maybe Harlow hadn't noticed. Any man could miss a signal.
Lisa Schiavo told him at Reception. Karen was dead.
'But, but... What happened?'
