Part 42 (1/2)
In a few moments more, the transaction was -the one suggested by the seller-and agreed to look at earrings that one Bell looked at her carefully
”You're tired-and you've been angry”
Exasperated by his grasp of the obvious, Cyra waved her hands in the air in a wild gesture, and snapped, ”How else?”
”You ot at a decent price”
”Yes, a decent price But if I' to afford you, my friend, we'll need to do better”
He looked at her with the sa about the disaster that had cost hi, and shook his head
”Yes, I know; I am hardly convenient for myself, much less for anyone else”
”That's not what I meant!” she protested ”I er place to live hereabouts, and nearer to my apartment there are those ill not rent to so a Terran hoht,” Bell finished, as she faltered ”Inconvenient I said, and Ihere in the store, after all, though the light is not always good Perhaps you can offer to rent the corner place the next street over”They had been over that before, too Bell's situation was so changeable that neither kne long they ht find each other's con a lease, with his ”transient alien” status in the port coh at his request
Even getting a room beyond the spaceport was difficult for him, except here in the Low Port area
Mid-port was too dear for his budget in any case
He could hardly co-sign with her, either The conditions her Delht well bear on that-if she wished to ever return to the House, she would, during her ti formal alliances; she must not buy real estate; she was forbidden to ning; she could speak for none other than herself But to add a place where sos could be shown-this close to the port, they allery
Truth told, though, Bell's soa's chancy employ; in fact, twice recently they'd been there as patrons
He looked at her, snatched the ring to his hand and began tossing it furiously into the air This, after three previous ragged forty-day cycles, she recognized Any day, perhaps any h sketches and ideas, choose one, and then hardly see her, even should she stand naked before hi-paint and the secret odds and ends from his duit box and transformed them by touch of skilled hand and concentration and willpower unmatched to art as fine as ever she'd seen Days, he would be one with the art
And then he would crash; folding into a hollow and dispirited being barely willing to feed hiht and a monotone voice and no plans to speak ofuntil the cycle caed Bell, fresh and whole and new Again
He shook the ring, tossed it, glanced anxiously to his art kit where it was stashed near the door to the back room
”I know,” he said ”I know! It's alo soood wine and snacks-I've chosen theht, my beauty And then, we can talk at breakfast, if the art's not here yet, and if it is, we'll talk in a few days”
In front of her then, the choice-and she knew already she'd take it, or e her quartershare-to make this work, she'd-but what she would do if was no o-till the twelfth year, at least-into the account of a dead child, just as her invitations-large and so to her Delm, and be returned with the infor and not permitted
She recalled the discreet caress a few ht she would forget that she was poor and outcast Bell would take them somewhere with his stash of cash and they would spend as if he were a visiting ambassador instead of an itinerant artist, and then he would- ”Bell,” she said gently, ”perhaps we should stay until nearer closing My friend I followed your instructions last ti-and I have already an extra canister of spacer's tea and you gave h for two tins of Genwin Kaffe last time, so we have that
That is, if you are certain that you won't talk to the Healers this tiry; she doubted that hers were not
”I'll check the boards, Cyra, and make sure that you have room to work this time, too”
CYRA TASTED THE SALT on her lips, and nearly wept as she relaxed against hiht, that perhaps she should have invited the office hed at the silliness, and he heard her, Bell with his hands still willing and eager, and his quirky Terran words dragged out of him in the midsts
”Now I'm funny Oh, woe, oh woe ”
She could see hiht enough that the lancing eye She re ine, flowers, that first evening after his very first return, when he'd soain, this tientlyh, as her hands came in contact with his cheek; but she held hi to be calmed
Of course, she should not stroke his beard and his cheek; she should not kiss his nose, nor lay her palm on his face, this Terran who never knew the taboo of it
”Let's trade,” he said, very gently ”A story for a story, a touch for a touch” Then he laid his hand on her cheek, spreading his wide hand so that his thuer spanned her face
It was late in the night, very nearlyon their lair
His breathing, and hers, and his touch
”I,” he said after a o to the Healers, because when sorandfather, my uncle-myself I tried, there once-”
He paused, brushed her hair away from her eyes, kissed her on her nose, covered the marks on her face as if he would wipe the was stolen froood luck of a scout's intercession So, I thought I should get over the crash I spoke to a doctor and he sees and an iuided her hand and held it against that long scraggly scar on his leg She'd found that scar before, but never dared question-there were things lovers were not to ask, after all; the Code was clear on that
”Three months,” he said very quietly ”Let e soe of being able to paint, and what I dreas stick figures and bad circles and patterns, and I spoke politely to people and one night I went hoht that I would cut my throat”
He took her hand and placed it under his beard, where it was just above his throat, and let her feel the pulse of hied scar
”I'd made a start, actually, when I realized that what I wanted was not my throat cut, butand took the thirty-four months' worth of implant that was left out of me, and I washed it down the drain”She stared at hi what to say
”My cousin,” he went on, after a moment ”My cousin Darby He took the cure and has stayed on it
He's oes to work, comes home-and I have the last piece of sculpture he did before the i student But it is gone Five years and he can't draw a face es in the clouds!”
He brushed his lips over the ht eye
”You know,” he said quietly, ”you are beautiful I have known beautiful ladies, my friend, and you are very beautiful”
The realization hit her-what he would ask, in exchange for this tale froht her ainst him