***
Ran-Del could feel Francesca’s heart beating against his. She stretched in his arms, and Ran-Del loosened his hold on her. Francesca responded by twining one of her legs around his.
“Mmm” she said. “That gets nicer every time.”
Ran-Del agreed, but he didn’t say so out loud. “The angrier the quarrel, the more passionate you become.”
Francesca shook her head. “We weren’t really quarreling that time. I’ve given up quarreling on that subject. You’ll have to find out for yourself why a person in this city should know how to read.”
Her capitulation pleased Ran-Del. He was tired of having to constantly assert his independence. “Good. I’ll start today.”
She rolled away a little and looked at him. “Start what?”
“I’ll start finding out,” Ran-Del said, sitting up and reaching for the undershirt Francesca had insisted he remove. “I’m going into the city today. I want to explore a little—learn to find my way around.”
Francesca untangled herself from the bedclothes and sat up beside him. “I’ll come with you.”
Ran-Del had already decided his first foray in the city should be on his own. Partly he wanted to learn his own way, and partly he didn’t want her to see the mistakes he was sure to make. “I’m not a child. I don’t need someone to take me by the hand and lead me around.”
She frowned. “But, Ran-Del, you could wander into a bad neighborhood or offend the wrong person. Besides, you don’t know how to operate a skimmer.”
Ran-Del’s mouth curved in a disdainful smile. “I have legs; I can walk.”
Francesca jumped up and stood looking down at him. “Walk? Ran-Del, it’ll take hours to walk. Are you proposing to stroll out the front gate and wander around the city without so much as a credit in your pocket?”
Ran-Del looked at her with appreciative eyes. Watching a naked woman jump out of bed was an adventure in itself. “Yes.”
“Ran-Del!”
He could sense frustration replacing her feeling of sexual gratification.
“It’s dangerous,” she said. “I can’t let you do it.”
Ran-Del frowned at her wording. “You’re not my ancestor, Francesca. You have no right to tell me what I can do.”
Francesca gathered up her clothes from the floor and began to pull them on. “We’ll see what Pop says.”
Ran-Del dressed more slowly. He wasn’t entirely clear what authority, if any, Stefan Hayden had over him. Perhaps it would be just as well to go with Francesca when she talked to her father. He needed to find out where he stood.
The Sixth Discipline Page 47
