Page 40 of Summer

“I also like…I like my glidesale. I like to ride around the estate,” she continues, her voice more assured.

“When was the last time you rode?”

Her silence is answer enough.

“You don’t understand,” she says at last, her gaze back on the horizon. “The estate is my home, it’s my everything. I do love running it, I love poring through the finances, I love seeing my trades come to fruition. I love to promote staff that is doing well, to give raises where it’s fit. I love the machinations of running the family business, even if no one knows it’s me,” she adds sheepishly.

“It sounds rather boring,” I admit.

“What are your hobbies?” she shoots at me.

“I had many hobbies before Protegre,” I say, then bite my tongue.

She turns to look at me, and I feel naked under her stare, like she’s seeing a part of me I’d rather keep hidden. But it’s only fair to share a little of myself after needling her as I did.

“What did you do before Protegre? Why were you…arrested.” She hesitates to say the word.

“I stole from the wrong alien,” I admit. “Since I left Earth, I’ve been a bit of a …nomad. No planet ever felt quite right, so I hopped from one to the other looking for one that made sense,” I mean to end it there, but Gennelle’s question hits me like a ton of bricks.

“Why not just go back to Earth, instead of looking for its equal?”

Was that what I’d been doing? Looking for Earth, trying to return home? Her assessment grates on my fried nerves, a truth I’ve avoided facing.

“There is no Earth to return to – not as I remember it.” I can’t talk about Earth, so I pivot back to my arrest. That’s much easier to speak about.

“I fell in with a band of vagabonds. They were a motley crew – some bounty hunters, some gangs, some pirates. We picked up odd jobs. I was good with technology, that was my role. I got caught trying to steal a ship from a king.”

“A king?!” Gennelle gasps, and I wince.

“I didn’t know,” I say with a shrug.

“Did you not see the crest? Or the royal symbols?” she asks. I glance at her, expecting to see her scandalized. Instead, her eyes are wide and intrigued. She’s not judging me for my obvious misstep, she’s enamored by my story.

“There’s a lot of alien languages, and a lot of kings. How am I supposed to know them all? Translators only know the languages you program them to know, I must have skipped that one,” I admit.

“Speaking of – I can download Tatinnish on yours. It’s unfair that you should be unaware of what is said around you.” Or about you. That’s the unspoken part.

“Thank you,” I say, because I don’t want to admit that I’ve been aware of everything she’s said around me since my third day here.

“We should return to the ball, lest my mother have an excuse to be cruel,” Gennelle says at long last. She stands and offers a hand to help me up. I take it, entwining my fingers with hers. She glances down at our hands, her face clouding for a moment before she slips from my grip.

“Where will you go when you leave?” she asks suddenly.

I shrug and turn to the ball, gilding myself for the onslaught of noise. “The universe is large. I have a lot of planets still to explore,” I say.

“Aaoric used to have a wandering spirit like that,” she says softly.

“Used to?” I ask.

She gives a half smile before turning to head to the ball again, her face morphing into the disinterested one she always wore. “He found something worth settling down. Come, maybe we can find Aaoric and head home.”

18

GENELLE

Aaoric was not hard to drag from the ball. Removed from his fiancée, he was seen as easy prey for the single females, who part reluctantly when Summer and I approach. I expect Summer to be furious at them for overstepping, but she laughs good-naturedly.

How could I truly think she desired my brother at all?