Free Quantam Rose by Catherine Asaro

wouldn't surprise her if Vyrl had his men training all year too, while he supported them at a rate ten times greater than anyone else without even realizing it. Most of his staff and stagmen obviously came from Argali. She and Maxard employed the best in the village, so Vyrl must be drawing from the outlying hamlets, which were even more impoverished. By hiring locals instead of his own people, he had been supporting her province even prior to their merger.
    "Their 'wars' are more like arguments," Dazza was saying. "In the rare instances when they do fight, it's a ritualistic ceremony. Ironbridge is the only province with real calvary or troops, and they're more of a police force. I doubt you could convince these people to defy authority even if you paid them to do it."
    Kamoj blinked. What an odd notion. Why would anyone pay them to be defiant?
    Vyrl smiled at her. "They wouldn't. It was just a manner of speech." He didn't see Dazza's startled look; by the time he turned back to the colonel, her face had resumed its normal mien.
    "I'll send someone down tomorrow morning to talk to Maxard Argali," he told her. "See if we can untangle all this."
    "I think that's a good idea." Dazza packed up her book. She smiled at Kamoj, gratitude on her face. Why? Kamoj saw nothing she had done to make the doctor grateful.
    After Dazza left, Vyrl lay back down on the bed. The bags under his eyes had darkened again.
    "You look tired," Kamoj said.
    "Just a headache. I should have asked Dazza for something." His scowl came back. "But then I would have to listen to her harp on 'my drinking.' Tell me she can 'treat' that too. As if I have a problem. It's ridiculous. I have a few drinks, I go to sleep, I'm fine."
    Kamoj knew he wasn't fine. But she had no idea what to say. All she could think of was, "I can rub your head."
    "That would be nice, Kamoj." He paused. "Is that right? Kamoj?"
    "Yes." She drew his head into her lap. As she massaged him, he sighed and closed his eyes.
    After a while he said, "What you said before, about us having a 'dowered merger'-what does that mean exactly?"
    "Merger is perhaps not the best word." It implied a more balanced partnership. "Your corporation absorbed Argali."
    He opened his eyes. "My what?"
    "Your corporation. It was far too big for us to best."
    He sat up, facing her. "I don't understand. It was a dowry. I know that's the word. Our anthropologists double-checked. The dowry is the property a man brings to his wife at marriage, right? Drake told me that in your culture, inheritance goes through the female line, and that the women court the men. To get a highborn wife, you need a good dowry. So I, uh, got one."
    Dryly she said, "The man is usually more subtle in making his interest known."
    He squinted at her. "I don't actually remember what I did. I think I told my stagmen to clear out a storeroom and send the contents to Argali House. I almost fell over when they said you had accepted it."
    She stared at him, unsure which stunned her more, his manner of instigating the take-over, or the extent of his corporation. "That was only one stockroom's worth of your dowry?"
    "Well, yes, I guess you could put it that way." He studied her face. "I don't understand how the idea of a corporation got mixed up here with a dowry. You make it sound like I bought you."
    That was, in fact, how it felt. Kamoj doubted he would appreciate her saying it, though, so she hid the thought by imagining a blanket over it. "It seems normal to me." She tugged on his arm.
    "Come lie down again."
    His face gentled. "I won't argue with that." He lay down, putting his head in her lap, and closed his eyes. As she rubbed his head, she thought what an irony it was that a merger certain to become a legend may have been a whim born of a drinking binge. Would he regret it tomorrow? What if he changed his mind? She had no wish to return to Jax. He might not want her anymore. If Ironbridge spurned her, Argali would starve, and even if Jax wanted her