‘What you’ll be doing next year is not your concern.’ Mara fanned herself with the slate. However she tried, she could not seem to control this conversation. ‘But taking the merchant who sells us the posts and tying him upside down over the river by the feet is an outrage.’
Kevin unlocked his hands, folded his arms across his chest, and looked smug. ‘Oh? I thought it was perfect justice. If the post held, the merchant stayed dry. If the wood was unsound, he got a dunking. Made him think twice, when we pulled him out of the water, about selling us inferior lumber.’
‘You shamed my name!’ Mara broke in. ‘The man you dunked happened to come from a guild house, and an honourable family, even if they are not noble. Jican had to pay significant compensation to redress the injury done to the man’s dignity.’
Now Kevin sprang to his feet with the sudden wild grace that always startled Mara. He paced the floor. ‘That’s what I don’t understand about you Tsurani,’ he shouted, shaking an accusatory finger in the air. ‘You’re obviously cultured, educated, and the factors you have in your service aren’t stupid. But this confounded honour code you have, it makes me crazy. You cut off your toes to spite your feet with it, keep lying, lazy, or just plain incompetents in positions of authority because they happen to be born to an honourable house while better men are wasted in jobs of low demand and reward.’ He spun in a tight stride and faced Mara. ‘No wonder your father and brother got killed! If your people thought in straight logic, instead of in tangles of duty and tradition, your loved ones might still be alive.’
Mara went white. Kevin didn’t notice, but went on shouting, ‘And my people from the Kingdom might not be in such straits were your generals to play a straight war. But no, they advance here, savage a town without mercy, then retreat for no apparent reason and go off and ravage someplace else. Then they camp for months and do nothing.’
Mara fought to hold her ebbing composure. ‘Are you saying my people are fools?’ Vivid in her mind were the memories of the family killed through Minwanabi treachery. The thought that fate might have provided means to bring them home alive, if Tsurani honour had been somehow ignored, was cause for unanticipated anguish. Though the loss by now was six years past, the grief still lingered.
Kevin drew breath to answer, but Mara interrupted. ‘Say no more.’ Her voice broke over the words, and tears welled in her eyes. Daughter of a proud heritage, she tried to rein them in, but did not succeed. She averted her face to hide this shame, but not quite quickly enough.
Kevin saw the sparkle in her eyes, and his anger abruptly drained away. He knelt down and reached an awkward hand toward her shoulder. ‘Lady,’ he said, his tone gone gritty with honesty. ‘I never intended to hurt you. Mostly I was mad because I thought I pleased you, before you sent me away.’ He took a deep breath and shrugged. ‘I am only a man, and like most, I don’t like to find out I’m wrong.’
‘You weren’t wrong.’ Mara spoke softly, without turning her head. ‘But you frightened me. Many of your ideas are constructive, but others are an affront to the gods – to what I believe in. I would not see the Acoma be ground down into the dust because I listened to your outworld “logic” to the exclusion of wisdom, and spurned divine law.’
Her shoulder spasmed with a sob, and Kevin’s heart went out to her. Had he stopped to think, he would have hesitated, but analysing emotions was not his habit. He gathered her small, tense form into his arms. ‘Mara,’ he spoke softly, into her hair. ‘Sometimes powerful, greedy men interpret the laws of heaven to suit themselves. I’ve learned a bit of your gods from your countrymen. Your Lashima is much like our Kilian, and Kilian is a kind and loving goddess. Do you think Lashima in her generosity would shrivel the hands on your wrists if you took pity and gave coins to the poor?’
Mara shivered in his grip. ‘I don’t know. Please say no more. Keyoke and Lujan lead our warriors to counter a Minwanabi offensive, and at such a time the Acoma must not tempt the gods’ anger.’
His hands gentled her, pulled her around to face him. His calluses felt rough, and his person and his hair smelled of sun-warmed sweat and meadow grass. Yet the feel of his skin upon hers made her heart race. Finding a calm in his presence that until now had eluded her, Mara wrinkled her nose. ‘You need a bath.’
‘Do I?’ Kevin drew her closer and lingeringly kissed her lips. ‘I missed you, though I’m foolish to admit it.’
Mara’s body burned in response and she leaned into him, feeling his strength. The pressure of his hands on her flesh made her throw caution, and Nacoya’s advice, to the winds, ‘I missed you also. Maybe we both need a bath.’