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Selene went on exercising. "She won't ask. People have been taking care of Mandy all her life. She takes it for granted we know what she needs." She straightened, pink with exertion. "Oh, Fd better warn you. Next week is the Senator's birthday. Mandy will be anting
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you to take her shopping for a gift." She blew me a theatrical kiss and disappeared inside.
Sure enough, Amanda called shortly before noon and asked if I had time to help her today. Caro looked disapproving but had to admit the appointment book was empty.
"Where can I reach you?" she asked as I hung up the phone.
"Somewhere in Gateside."
Caro rolled her eyes. Before she could express her opinion of running out of town on a working day, I left to pick up Amanda.
Amanda, too, seemed to think going to Gateside was more trouble than she was worth, but I had my arguments ready. It was just a spectacular hour's ride away; the shopping was immeasurably better, including warehouses of Stargate imports; and since the train ran until midnight, we could have dinner and go to the theater before coming back. That persuaded her.
By the end of the day I still thought it had been a good idea, though my feet ached from following her through what had to be every shop in Gateside before Amanda found a gift she thought worthy of her father. I requested a window table at the Beta Cygnus, where we could get some coffee and rest while we watched cafe patrons and people in the street outside.
Amanda sat back sipping her coffee with a contented smile. "I hope your business isn't suffering because of all the time you've spent on me."
"I'd suffer if I couldn't spend time on you."
She smiled. "You're very gallant. Oh, look."
She pointed out the window at a passing group who were sporting a rainbow of fanciful hair colors and wearing leotards and tights beneath coats thrown casually around their shoulders.
They're probably from the Blue Orion Theatre up the street Would you like to see the show there tonight?"
*Td love to." She looked at me through her lashes. "I can't think when I've enjoyed another man's company as much as yours."
She was almost drowned out by a rising tide of babble at the door. I looked around to see the group from the street pouring into the cafe in loud and animated conversation with each other. One of them, a tall lithe man with hair, eye shadow, and fingernails striped fuchsia and lavender, broke off from the group and headed toward us with a grin.
"Se/eene, love," he said. "What a delightful surprise."
Amanda recoiled.
My chair scraped back as I stood up. "Who are you?"
He stopped, bunking at me. He looked at Amanda's horrified expression and frowned uncertainly. "TeddyЧahЧthat isЧGerald Theodore. Selene and I were dancing partners and cohabs in London three years ago."
"I'm not Selene," Amanda whispered.
The dancer raised a brow. "Ah-I see. You're the other one." He grinned at me. "You know, all those months Selene and I were together, if I hadn't already known about her, I'd never have guessedЧ"
"Matthew, I'd like to leave." Amanda fumbled for her cape.
I helped her to her feet and into her cape. With a hand under her elbow, I guided her out of the Beta Cygnus, leaving the dancer staring open-mouthed after us.
I flagged a cab to take us back to the cabletraio station. Amanda said nothing for the entire ride, just sat staring at her hands clenched in her lap. I put an arm around her. She stiffened momentarily at my touch, then buried her face against my shoulder. At the station, waiting for the train to come in, she sat up and began pushing at her hair.
"Fm sorry. I know it seems an inconsequential thing to go to pieces about, but every time I meet one of Selene's friends I feel like spiders are crawling over me. They're all so ... grotesque." Amanda shuddered. "I don't know how she can actually live with such creatures. I suppose it's her nature. I've never let a man touch me, but sheЧshell have any man who strikes her fancy, just like her mother."
I felt my brows hop. Her voice was almost vicious in tone.
"My father could have been President but for Margot Randall. The woman was rapacious, vulgar, egocentric, and totally amoral. She nearly drove my father mad before he realized there was no helping her."
I was disturbed by her vehemence and the implied criticism of Selene. "You don't know Selene is like that," I said in what I intended to be a soothing voice. "You've never met her."
"IVe met her friends."
That ended the subject for her. She was quiet the remaining ride home. She reached for my hand after a few minutes, though, and held it, squeezing a bit from time to time. I was content
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At the cabin she said, "I'm sorry I was poor company."
"That's ail right. Do you feel better now?"
She gave me a faint smile. "Some. You're a wonderful man, Matthew. If I didn't feel like Selene is leering over my shoulder, I'd kiss you good-night. Another time I will. Please call me tomorrow."
I drove on home wishing I could have stayed. I wondered what Selene would have to say about the incident.
Selene laughed. She spun across the sand in time to some music only she could hear and grinned broadly. "Poor Vestal Virgin. How shocking to be confronted with the possibility the temple of her body has been defiled."
I had expected a more sympathetic reaction. I snapped, "You don't sound very sorry it happened."
She stopped in midstride with her leg in the air. She held the position a few moments, then slowly lowered the leg and hooked her hair behind her ears while fixing me with a speculative topaz gaze. Her voice was deliberate. "Why should I be? Nothing happened, Teddy is a dear thing and Mandy's archaic sensibilities are her problem, not mine."
I stared at her. "You don't like Amanda, do you?"
She considered the accusation. "I wouldn't choose her for a friend. I think she's insipid and gutless. She could have sent Teddy on his way with a few polite words instead of making an incident of it. Still, I think I pity rather than dislike her. Don't I let myself get sucked into looking after her like everyone else? That sweet, yielding, dependency is no more than what her father trained into her. It's the Senator I dislike." She snorted. "Imagine a contemporary man with a nineteenth-century taste in women. No wonder my mother left him." She began dancing again.
I was still angry, not ready to stop the fight yet. "She left him? It is my understanding that her infidelities forced him to divorce her."
The jab left her untouched. With perfect calm and not even a pause in her movement, she said, "He had the press, I believe." She spun once more and finished in a deep curtsy, then straightened and began stripping off her exercise suit. "I'm going to swim. Will you come with me?"
She threw herself into the Heliomere without looking back. After a bit I undressed and followed her. Compared to the chill of the air, the water felt boiling hot. The heat drew out the last of my anger,
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