The Mansions of Idumea (Book 3 Forest at the Edge series) (27 page)

Agitated, Perrin got to his feet, walked
behind the chair and braced himself against it. “I can’t. I just
can’t leave Edge.”

“I know,” his father said in a bored tone.
“You hate Idumea.”

“It’s more than that, really. From the first
time I went to Edge it was like I
belonged
. As if I’d been
looking for that place all my life. It’s where the Creator needs me
to be. When I come here, I’m out of sorts. Everything feels off,
like I’m riding on a saddle backward. Still getting around, but
nothing’s right.”

Relf exhaled. “Is it because Edge is where
you met your wife? Where your children were born? Maybe the problem
is that you’re too comfortable. No one likes change, Perrin. But
change is always good.”

“I’ve thought of that. It’s not
always
good, and I don’t have a problem with change.”

When his father gave him a challenging look,
Perrin restated it. “All right, I don’t enjoy change, I’ll admit
it. Now what’s
that
look for? Yes, all right, I fight
change! Satisfied?” he grinned mischievously at his father who
nodded at him.

Perrin sobered again. “But really, that’s not
it. It’s deeper, somehow. Please, Father,” he moved to sit next to
him again, “whatever you can do to keep me in Edge, please do it. I
must stay!”

The general was thoughtful for a moment.
“It’s rare that an officer doesn’t get transferred. Sixteen years
you’ve sat out there. I’ve even let you keep Karna all that time.
Granted, no one has
wanted
to go all the way to Edge. Much
rather enjoy the beaches at Waves, or the warm Raining Season of
Grasses. I’ll do what I can to convince the Command Board you
should stay, but I can’t guarantee anything.”

He tried to sit up a little, but settled for
resting on his arm.

“Perrin, your mother and I were really hoping
to hand this house over to you and your family when I retire. We’d
be happy to stay in the guest house in the back. Just consider:
your mother could help Mahrree with all the entertaining duties,
your son and daughter could attend the best schools—with a
general’s pay you could afford those private schools that bribe the
Administrator of Education so they can bend a few rules—and I could
sit in the corner and tell you what to do, and you could tell me
all my ideas are bad ones.”

Perrin leaned forward on his chair, resting
his elbows on his knees. “Father, I can’t tell you how many
elements of what you just said actually sound very appealing to me.
But, I just can’t be
here,
” he said. “Now, you consider:
what’s to keep you and mother from coming to Edge when you retire?
We could find you a great house, Mahrree might even consider moving
from our little place into something closer to you. Her mother
keeps begging that anyway. Don’t worry—you wouldn’t have move to
the same road as Hycymum Peto and her band of eager widows.”

His father thought for a moment and said,
“And there are many elements of what you just said that’s appealing
to me as well. Avoiding the lonely widows would be important,
however. But Edge is a charming little place, and I think I’m one
of the few people in the world who enjoys the mountains. However,
there’s one flaw: what’s to keep you in Edge once I’m retired? Who
will be
here
to keep you
there
?”

Perrin breathed out heavily. “I hadn’t
considered that.” He sat back in the chair, dejected. His eyes
searched the floor looking for an exit of some sort, but there was
none. “Father, I’ll be transferred out of Edge!”

“Is that really so bad, son?”

“Yes! Yes!” He stood up and paced the
floor.

“That really bothers you, doesn’t it?” Relf
said, surprised.

Perrin stopped. “What if I retire too? Just .
. . quit the army when they want to move me?”

“No!” said Relf decisively. “You have to
stay!”

“Why?”

Both men saw Peto standing at the door,
clutching a copy of The Writings to his chest. Neither man knew how
long he’d been there, but his face was white with worry.

“Because you have to be the next general in
Idumea, Father,” Peto said quietly. “Besides, what else could you
do? Be a rancher? Cows hate you.”

A smile began to spread across Perrin’s face
as he saw the anxious expression on his son’s. He knew he had to
erase it, quick. “You’re right. Cattle hate me. Never understood
why. And Mahrree hates gardening, so there goes farming. I could be
a builder. Your room didn’t collapse in the land tremor. Maybe
Chief Curglaff will be ready to quit sooner if I put a little more
pressure on him. I could be chief law enforcer. I already do most
of his job—”

Peto still looked troubled.

“Ah, Peto. Don’t fret about it right now. All
of this is years down the road. Much can happen in a few years.
Much can happen in just a few days. Two weeks ago would you have
imagined yourself standing in your grandparents’ house in Idumea?
Well?”

Peto dared a small smile and placed The
Writings on his grandfather’s bed.

“And would you have imagined your father
about to take you to see the new arena?” his grandfather reminded
him.

“That’s right!” Perrin said, eager for a new
topic. “Go get something to eat, and send that lieutenant back. The
general’s getting feisty and I want to make sure he doesn’t get any
ideas while we’re gone and do something foolish.”

“I’m too tired for foolishness, Perrin. And
don’t you think for one moment this discussion is over yet.”

“Of course not. I’m already thinking about
available houses you and Mother would enjoy in Edge.”

“Perrin!” the general barked his best at his
son as he left the study.

“Sorry, General, on my way out. Talk to you
later, if I remember.” He waved without turning around.

Relf watched his son put his arm around his
grandson as they headed to the kitchen. When Perrin was nearly
fourteen he was already as tall as Relf. Peto’s form was much
slighter, and he’d never be as tall as his father, but he had the
same face.

Relf smiled. It was shocking how good it was
to have them here.

Worth almost dying for.

Chapter 9
~
“Says the most competitive woman in the
world.”

M
ahrree tried to
sort out the variety of emotions that caught her completely by
surprise that afternoon. As her mother-in-law played dress-up doll
with Jaytsy, Mahrree mentally created her List of Shame.

Top of her list was the utter embarrassment
she experienced in the first shop they walked into. Her dress,
which she had always liked, felt terribly ‘old fashioned’. Suddenly
she understood the meaning of the phrase as she looked at the
variety of dresses and gowns—there was a difference, Joriana told
to her—on display. But no one was about to look critically at the
daughter-in-law of Joriana Shin.

The next emotion she experienced was surprise
at how marvelous the fine linen of the dress she tried on felt
against her skin.

Then, when she saw herself all gussied up in
the mirror she felt—

Mahrree shook her head again. Yes, that was
the humiliating emotion: giddiness.

How completely ridiculous. Forty-three years
old and she actually giggled with delight that she could look like
a beautiful woman. Jaytsy even pinned back her hair with twisted
silver fastenings the shop sold, and clapped her hands in
approval.

Mahrree looked Idumean and
liked
it.
Jaytsy insisted she wear the dress out of the shop and Mahrree
stuffed her old frock into a neat box.

Now she was experiencing a strange mixture of
guilt and glory. She still didn’t know what Perrin would think of
the pale green dress with useless ruffles on the sleeves. But as
she walked through the busy clothing district of Upper Idumea on to
a shop specializing in fashions for younger women, she enjoyed the
looks and nods she received as part of her mother-in-law’s
complement.

But she knew full well people were merely
glancing at her before staring at her daughter.

Mahrree hadn’t realized until this trip just
how much Jaytsy had matured. In the company of children her age in
Edge, it was easy to think of her as a little—albeit rather
developed—girl. But when she saw her daughter as complete strangers
did, she realized this tall, shapely child was actually a young
woman.

That was a very fast fifteen years.

Sometime during the past couple of weeks her
daughter had grown up. Maybe it happened when Jaytsy spent hour
after hour moving rock to find someone’s lost toy or another
undamaged dish.

Maybe it was when she sobbed with a little
girl upon discovering her cat didn’t survive after all.

Maybe it occurred when she was sitting by her
grandfather’s bed this morning listening attentively to stories he
never told anyone before, but now felt the urgent need to
share.

Whatever or whenever it was, there was
something changed in Jaytsy, something that lurked under her
occasional silliness and rolling eyes, that knew life was much more
than clothes and boys and being liked, contrary to what her friends
believed. Mahrree could even see it in the way she walked. Jaytsy
was developing a sense of purpose; a greater understanding and an
appreciation for the fullness of life.

And then there were moments like
this
.
Moments when the ‘young’ in ‘young woman’ reared its head . . .

. . . and giggled.

Jaytsy bounced out of the changing room of
the fancy dress shop wearing a fluffy light pink dress and twirled.
“Isn’t this pink delicious! I could just lick it!”

Joriana, sitting next to Mahrree on the
waiting sofa—not a bench, but a true sofa in a shop of all
places—clapped her hands. “Ooh, it’s positively you! Don’t you
think so, Mahrree?”

Mahrree still hadn’t mastered the voice of
“ooh!” as she was beginning to call it, and had lost the ability to
appropriately label things as “cute” by the time Peto was
five—although the grandmothers retained that skill—but she could
still be genuine.

“It’s very nice, Jaytsy. That pink makes your
cheeks even rosier. But I’m a little concerned about the sleeves,”
of which there are none
, she added to herself. Her
mother-in-law was tugging on the narrow strips of cloth on Jaytsy’s
shoulders to reveal even more of Jaytsy.

“I don’t think Mother approves of that,” said
Jaytsy apologetically to her grandmother.

“Yes,” Mahrree said slowly, trying not to
grit her teeth, “that may be how it’s designed to be, but I’m sorry
Mother Shin. Shoulders—and especially all points below—remain
covered. That’s your son’s rule, by the way. Looking appealing
doesn’t mean a-peeling off one’s clothes.”

“He does say that,” Jaytsy muttered.
“Frequently.”

“But it’s an event gown!” Joriana exclaimed.
“She’s
supposed
to show a bit of that beautiful skin. It’s
not like it’s cut down to here.” She drew an invisible line low on
Jaytsy’s chest and Jaytsy’s eyes flared in embarrassment. “Perrin
simply doesn’t understand.”

Mahrree sighed. As a tall man, Perrin
understood more than most the problems of fashionable cleavage.

“Besides, Mother Shin, where would Jaytsy
wear such a beautiful gown? We don’t really have ‘events’ in
Edge.”

Grandmother and granddaughter exchanged
knowing and dangerous glances.

“Oh, no,” Mahrree said, dread filling her
head to toe. “What’s this all about?”

“The Dinner, Mahrree!” Joriana squealed.
“It’s still on! With Relf improving every day, he agreed to still
hold it next week. After all, we made all the arrangements over a
season ago—”

Mahrree frowned. “What dinner?”

“Only
The Dinner
,” Joriana emphasized.
“The Dinner Perrin escaped from the second year we held it, the one
we hold every year . . . He didn’t tell you? He didn’t tell you
about it
ever
, did he? Oh, that son of mine. He’s going to
hear about this.”

Mahrree growled under her breath.

Joriana sat next to her and put on her
teaching face. At least, she likely thought it was a kindly
explanatory expression, but really it was a look that said,
Obviously you’re clueless in everything that’s truly important in
the world, so allow me to set you straight.

“Each year, to celebrate the advancement of
the Administrators to power, the High General of Idumea gives a
dinner for all of the dignitaries and officers ranked colonel or
higher. It’s a yearly tradition, has been for eighteen years. It’s
The Dinner
!” Joriana gestured wildly with her hands, as if
that should say it all.

Two women sorting dresses—or more precisely,
gowns—nodded smartly at each other, then looked expectantly at
Mahrree as if she’d suddenly remember all about The Dinner in just
another moment.

Mahrree saw Perrin’s out. “He’s only a
lieutenant
colonel, not a full colonel. That’s probably why
he didn’t think it would matter to us.”

“Bah!” Joriana scoffed. “He knows that entire
families are invited. Always have been.”

Mahrree winced. “
Entire
families?”

“That means you, my dear!” Joriana beamed.
“We’re getting you a dress next!”

Jaytsy squealed again and clapped her hands
like her grandmother. How long Jaytsy had been in on this, Mahrree
was going to find out later.

“I really don’t know how I feel about that,”
Mahrree said slowly. “I’m pretty sure I know how Perrin feels,
though. And poor Peto! Oh, I don’t think this is a good idea at
all. We came to help, remember? Not get dressed up and be presented
to Idumean society.” She shook her head, ill at ease and now
feeling fake in her new dress. “We wouldn’t know how to act or what
to say! We’re Edgy, Mother Shin.”