A Civil Campaign

She nodded, evidently reassured. She began to speak again, but was interrupted by the double doors to the library swinging wide, and Miles escorting Commodore Duv Galeni out through the anteroom.

Seeing them, the Commodore paused to give the Countess a civil good-day. The greeting he gave to Mark was just as civil, but much warier, as though Mark had lately erupted in a hideous skin disease but Galeni was too polite to comment on it. Mark returned the greeting in kind.

Galeni did not linger. Miles saw his visitor out the front door, and retraced his steps toward the library.

'Miles!' said the Countess, rising and following him in with an expression of sudden concentration. Mark trailed in after them, uncertain if she'd finished with him or not. She cornered Miles against one of the sofas flanking the fireplace. 'I understand from Pym that your Madame Vorsoisson was here yesterday, while Aral and I were out. She was here , and I missed her!'

'It was not exactly a social call,' Miles said. Trapped, he gave up and sat down. 'And I could hardly have delayed her departure till you and Father returned at midnight.'

'Reasonable enough,' his mother said, completing her capture by plunking down on the matching sofa across from him. Gingerly, Mark seated himself next to her. 'But when are we to be permitted to meet her?'

He eyed her warily. 'Not . . . just now. If you don't mind. Things are in a rather delicate, um, situation between us just at the moment.'

'Delicate,' echoed the Countess. 'Isn't that a distinct improvement over a life in ruins with vomiting?'

A brief hopeful look glimmered in his eye, but he shook his head. 'Just now, it's pretty hard to say.'

'I quite understand. But only because Simon and Alys explained it to us last night. Might I ask why we had to hear about this nasty slander from them, and not from you?'

'Oh. Sorry.' He sketched her an apologetic bow. 'I only first heard about it day before yesterday myself. We've been running on separate tracks the past few days, what with your social whirl.'

'You've been sitting on this for two days? I should have wondered at your sudden fascination with Chaos Colony during our last two meals together.'

'Well, I was interested in hearing about your life on Sergyar. But more critically, I was waiting on the ImpSec analysis.'

The Countess glanced toward the door Commodore Galeni had lately exited. 'Ah,' she said, in a tone of enlightenment. 'Hence Duv.'

'Hence Duv.' Miles nodded. 'If there had been a security leak involved, well, it would have been a whole different matter.'

'And there was not?'

'Apparently not. It seems to be an entirely politically motivated fiction, made up out of altogether circumstantial . . . circumstances. By a small group of Conservative Counts and their hangers-on whom I have lately offended. And vice versa. I've decided to deal with it . . . politically.' His face set in a grim look. 'In my own way. In fact, Dono Vorrutyer and Ren? Vorbretten will be here shortly to consult.'

'Ah. Allies. Good.' Her eyes narrowed in satisfaction.

He shrugged. 'That's what politics is about, in part. Or so I take it.'

'That's your department now. I leave you to it, and it to you. But what about you and your Ekaterin? Are you two going to be able to weather this?'

His expression grew distant. 'We three. Don't leave out Nikki. I don't know yet.'

'I've been thinking,' said the Countess, watching him closely, 'that I should invite Ekaterin and Kareen to tea. Just us ladies.'

A look of alarm, if not outright panic, crossed Miles's face. 'I . . . I . . . not yet. Just . . . not yet.'

'No?' said the Countess, in a tone of disappointment. 'When, then?'

'Her parents wouldn't let Kareen come, would they?' Mark put in. 'I mean . . . I thought they'd cut the connection.' A thirty-year friendship, destroyed by him. Good work, Mark. What shall we do for an encore? Accidentally burn down Vorkosigan House? At least that would get rid of the butter bug infestation. . . .

'Kou and Drou?' said the Countess. 'Well, of course they've been avoiding me! I'm sure they don't dare look me in the eye, after that performance the night we came back.'

Mark wasn't sure what to make of that, though Miles snorted wryly.

'I miss her,' said Mark, his hand clenching helplessly along his trouser seam. 'I need her. We're supposed to start presenting bug butter products to potential major accounts in a few days. I was counting on having Kareen along. I . . . I can't do sales very well. I've tried. The people I pitch to all seem to end up huddled on the far end of the room with lots of furniture between us. And Martya is too . . . forthright. But Kareen is brilliant. She could sell anything to anyone. Especially Barrayaran men. They sort of lie down and roll over, waving their paws in the air and wagging their tails—it's just amazing. And, and . . . I can stay calm, when she's with me, no matter how much other people irritate me. Oh, I want herback . . .' These last words escaped him in a muffled wail.

Miles looked at his mother, and at Mark, and shook his head in bemused exasperation. 'You're not making proper use of your Barrayaran resources, Mark. Here you have, in-house, the most high-powered potential Baba on the planet, and you haven't even brought her into play!'

'But . . . what could she do? Under the circumstances?'

'To Kou and Drou? I hate to think.' Miles rubbed his chin. 'Butter, meet laser-beam. Laser-beam, butter. Oops.'

His mother smiled, but then crossed her arms and stared thoughtfully around the great library.

'But, ma'am . . .' Mark stammered, 'could you? Would you? I didn't presume to ask, after all the things . . . people said to one another that night, but I'm getting desperate.' Desperately desperate.

'I didn't presume to intrude, without a direct invitation,' the Countess told him. She waited, favoring him with a bright, expectant smile.

Mark thought it over. His mouth shaped the unfamiliar word twice, for practice, before he licked his lips, took a breath, and launched it into unsupported air. 'Help . . . ? '

'Why, gladly , Mark!' Her smile sharpened. 'I think what we need to do is to sit down together, the five of us—you and me and Kareen and Kou and Drou—right here, oh, yes, right here in this library, and talk it all over.'

The vision filled him with inchoate terror, but he grasped his knees and nodded. 'Yes. That is—you'll talk, right?'

'It will be just fine,' she assured him.

'But how will you even get them to come here?'

'I think you can confidently leave that to me.'

Mark glanced at his brother, who was smiling dryly. He did not look in the least dubious of her statement.