Out of the Darkness

That, no doubt, was true. But it was also far away. Krasta’s concerns were much more immediate. She glared at him. “Powers below eat you, why couldn’t you have had stronger seed?” she snarled. “Then I’d have a proper blond baby, and people wouldn’t want to spit at me all the time.” Her hand started to go to the wig, but she pulled it down. She didn’t want to draw that to anyone’s notice.

“I could ask you something like, why didn’t you give me more chances?” Valnu answered. “Dear Lurcanio had a lot more than I did.”

“You weren’t living here,” Krasta said. “And you couldn’t send me off and do horrible things to me if I didn’t do what you wanted.” She didn’t mention that, at the time, she’d enjoyed quite a few of the things Lurcanio had done and had had her do. That was only one more inconvenient fact to be forgotten.

“You shouldn’t complain too much, my love.” Valnu patted her hand. “After all, you didn’t have the unfortunate accident you could have.” Now he pointed up toward the nursery. “You had a different sort of unfortunate accident.”

“Unfortunate? I should say so.” Krasta drank her third brandy as quickly as the first two. “That miserable little bastard ruins everything-everything, I tell you. And the servants you can get nowadays! It’s scandalous!” Few of the newcomers were as deferential as the ones who’d been at the mansion for a long time. Like those in charge of Gainibu, a couple had quit already, but their replacements seemed no better.

“I am sorry,” Valnu said. “I’m afraid I don’t know what I can do about any of that.”

“At least you’ve tried to do something,” Krasta said. “And when you come to visit, I know you’re not coming to laugh at me or to curse me.”

“I wouldn’t do that.” Valnu sounded unusually serious-maybe it was the brandy talking. “You could have betrayed me to the Algarvians whenever you chose, except you didn’t choose.”

“No. Of course not.” Krasta shook her head. “How could I do that to someone I know socially?”

Valnu laughed, sprang to his feet, and bowed. “You are a true noblewoman, milady.” Krasta would have taken that as a pretty compliment, but he went on, “And you show you’re every bit as useless as most of the members of our class- myself included, whenever I get the chance to be useless, anyhow.”

“I’m not either useless. Don’t you dare say I am,” Krasta snapped. “You’re as mean to me as that horrible bitch my brother married.” Tears stung her eyes. She still cried much more easily than she had before getting pregnant.

“I didn’t say you were anything I’m not,” Valnu answered. “Every kingdom needs a few truly useless people, to show the rest how to enjoy life. Look at the Unkerlanters. Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency, every bloody minute of the day and night. Would you want to live like that?”

“I should hope not.” The idea of doing anything as the Unkerlanters did it was deeply repugnant to Krasta.

“Well, there you are.” Valnu sounded as if everything made perfect sense. He raised his glass. “Here’s to uselessness!” He drank.

So did Krasta, though she’d bristled when he called her useless only moments before. She eyed him, then said, “I can never be sure when you’re making fun of me and when you’re not.”

“Good,” Valnu told her. “I don’t want to be too obvious. If I were, I would lose my precious air of mystery.” The pose he struck looked more absurd than mysterious.

Krasta laughed. She couldn’t help herself. She could feel the apricot brandy, too. It helped build a wall between her and the unpleasant world all around. She giggled and said, “If it were any other time, I’d seduce you right now. But.. ” She shook her head. The baby had come out through there, and she didn’t want anything else going in for a while yet.

“If you were really bound and determined to, there are plenty of things we might try that haven’t got anything to do with that,” Valnu remarked. “Just speaking theoretically, of course.”

“Of course,” Krasta echoed. “You’d know all about those, wouldn’t you?”

That such words might wound never occurred to her. If they did, Valnu didn’t show it. Instead, he bared his teeth in a grin of sorts. “How many times have I told you, my dear? — variety is the life of spice.”

Krasta sent him an owlish stare and poured herself more brandy. “You came over here to have your way with me, didn’t you?”

“I came over to say hello.” Valnu gave her one of his bright, bony smiles and waved. “ ‘Hello!’“ The smile got wider. “Anything else would be a bonus. You know, I didn’t intend to go to bed with you back ten months ago now, either.”

“We didn’t go to bed.” Krasta giggled again. “I ought to know. The rug rubbed my backside raw.”

“Now I was speaking metaphorically,” Valnu said in lofty tones.

“How is that different from theoretically?” Krasta asked.

“It’s different, that’s how.” Valnu’s words slurred, ever so slightly. The brandy was working in him, too.

When Krasta got to her feet, the room swirled around her. “Come on,” she told Valnu, as loftily as if she were ordering one of her servants about.