Free The Pixilated Peeress by L. Sprague de Camp, Catherine Crook de Camp Page B

future, I should be forewarned. Am I your son or not?" Thorolf used the tone of a professor to a refractory pupil.
     
                  "Oh, very well." said Zigram de jectedly. "They dis covered that, years ago whilst your dear mother was yet young, I had taken up with another woman, over in Uberunnen. I had in fact committed bigamy. If the tale were spread abroad, away would go my chances for a second term."
     
                  "Ha!" sa id Thorolf. "And what of this other wench? Meanst that I have a stepmother across the mountains?"
     
                  " Nay. She got a quiet annulment and hath since rewed. I've not set eyes upon her for years. But you comprehend the potential scandal. By Kernun's antlers, b reathe not a word of this!"
     
                  "Never fear. How did they find out? Filching docu ments?"
     
                  "I know not; but I am sure they have done the like with certain senators. Thus grows their power."
     
                  "What is this lady's name? I ought to know in case I should enc ounter her."
     
                  "Nay, that I will not tell. Let the dead past ... "
     
                  They argued, but Zigram was adamant. At last Tho rolf said: "My Countess brought her coronet with her. Who were the safest banker to leave it with?"
     
                  "Waddo Sifson were as good as any."
     
                  "Thanks. Here are the barracks. Come over some time and, if you won't take exercises, at least watch me at mine. Good day, sire!"
     
    -
     

IV – The Desirable Dragon
     
                  During the following days, Thorolf's attention was often distracted by thoughts of Yvette. He saw her fine-boned face in the visage of every girl he passed on the streets. Afternoons, af ter drill, he found himself lingering on the Street of Clockmakers, ostensibly absorbed in an elaborate as tronomical timepiece in a merchant's showcase. By sil v ered disks, gilded hands, and moving mythological figurines it displayed not only the time but also the phases of the moon, the tides, and the motions of the planets.
     
                  Thorolf's examination of the clock was but a pretext for shooting furtive glances up Ca stle Hill to the for tress where he had left Yvette. He realized that his fa ther was right; he was falling in love.
     
                  He knew it was a folly. Yvette had told him plainly that her next husband must be of noble blood, an issue that she took with utmost seri ousness; and he was just a plain citizen of the Commonwealth. Even if she ac cepted, she was too arrogant and aggressive to make an endurable wife. She would insist that he move out of the barracks, buy a house, and hire servants; and away would go whatev e r money he might still save for his advanced studies.
     
                  Her candid confession of unchastity also bothered him. He had long assumed that he would marry a virgin and that they would explore the mysteries of love to gether. This was still the common, socially accepted pattern of behavior in Rhaetia, where Doctor Mersius' contraceptive spell was not yet widely known. If many Rhaetians failed to live up to it, enough others adhered to it to make such behavior no cause for remark.
     
                  Thoro lf was not much surprised by Yvette's candid admissions; he had long heard tales of the Carinthian nobility. But even if he overlooked this matter, the straitlaced Zurshnitters were cold to brides with color ful pasts. Marriage to Yvette, even in the wild l y im probable case she would have him, had as favorable a prospect as a wrestling match with one of the fifty-foot serpents of Thither Ethiopia.
     
                  His first task was to get her away intact, in her proper form. This done, he thought that, from her free-and- easy ways in such matters, she might permit