THEONE
When Theone came to him, he was sitting on the bed, waiting eagerly. Gimble got up, crossed the room and without much in the way of greeting except a rough kiss, brought her to the bed, lifted up her skirts, dropped his pants and then had her. It was rough and quick and Theone was surprised and embarrassed by the pleasure she felt in it. When it was over he rolled off of her, breathing, and said, “I bet you don’t know why you haven’t been with anyone in a month. I went to the Master and said I wanted to be the one to get you with child. We had to wait a month to see if you were with child, and then I could have you again.”
Gimble seemed so genuinely happy, as if she was sharing in his plan and ought to have been delighted. As she looked at him, suddenly his face changed. He looked young and uncertain.
“I don’t expect you to love me,” he said. “We’re not supposed to love anybody. And I’m rough. I know. I’m stupid. I have affection for you, Theone. And I want you to have it for me too. I can’t make you have it, but…”
He shook his head.
“I’m not supposed to have feelings. I’m not supposed to be like this. I’m lost and stupid, Theone.”
Then she touched his cheek and pulled him down beside her. She kissed him.
“I don’t know much about love, either,” Theone told him.
No one had ever cared for her since her mother and father. Theone reminded herself that her father and mother must have come together the same way she had come to Gimble. Now she had to think about him, about his affection for her, about how there was no way he could have been anything like romantic, not naturally, and how, having lived in the outer world and being raised in the House of Girls, all she ever thought of was romance.
She came to enjoy his eagerness, and also his attempts at being gentle. After the score of men she had been sent to, she enjoyed coming to him, night after night, sharing his bed, waking up with him. She enjoyed him holding her.
“I do think I love you,” Gimble told her. “Even though it’s forbidden.”
She didn’t dare say she loved him back. At the end of two months, though, she could give him the closest thing to confessing her love. She told him:
“I am with child.”
YARROW
The next morning he arrived at the House. Ruval knew this was where the woman had gone. He knew that she was, in fact, one of the Women. He had been away from the House a long time, so he could not be sure which one she was and, even if he had been there recently, they were shapeless creatures in black, all dark haired, the occasional one with hair that was red or gold. None of them meant anything to him. Vaguely, in his mind, was the shadow of that man from the other night, his body, limbs twisted with his own.
Ruval thumped on the door and Birch opened it.
“I am looking for a woman, dark haired. Dark eyed. Have you seen such a woman?”
“No lies can be told in this house,” the wheat haired woman said. “Do you plan to pursue her today? The night is drawing on.”
Ruval looked up, the sky was a deep and graying blue.
“You may stay the night in this house,” she said.
Ruval nodded.
“Thank you.”
He came in.
“There has been such a woman. I will even show you the way she went,” Birch said. “For I have been instructed to.”
“Instructed?”
“Wait till morning,” she said. “I’ll tie up your horse. You may bathe if you wish. Wait till morning.”
“Food will be ready soon,” Yarrow said while, Birch nodded. “I know what you are. You are a Hand. Are you going to kill that woman?”
“Yes.”
“Then you should know her name is Theone. She is on a red horse. Do you think you’ll be able to overtake her?”
“I can. If I start out early.”
Yarrow nodded.
“You have no judgment?” Ruval said. “You have nothing to say. You will not attempt to dissuade me.”
Yarrow shook her head. “I do not attempt anything.”
Ruval looked at the women closely. They looked at him with no expression in their eyes. Neither had any fear, but why should they? Whatever they were, they were other. There was a power in this Yarrow.
“You are not lying,” Ruval discovered.
“No, it’s as Birch told you. There is no lying in this house.”
