Free Conflict and Courage by Candy Rae Page A

large side. He would most definitely come off the
worst if he got into an argument with her.
    “Dawn,” he
contented himself by way of warning as he turned away.
    Ganya opened
one eye as she watched him disappear into the evening gloom then
shut it again. She was also planning a busy day for the morrow.
    Alastair
McCallum spent a restless night and in the morning his worst fears
were realised when he discovered that Duguld was gone. His son had
taken most of his clothes, a holo of his dead mother and his
grandfather’s silver trumpet.
    His father set
about preparing himself for a journey to Settlement, cursing all
Lind and conveniently forgetting how much they had done for them
all. He would arrange that his son be returned to him forthwith and
if Robert Lutterell did nothing then he would do something about it
himself.
    Alastair
McCallum could not accept that his only son would not inherit the
farm.
    He was doomed
to disappointment. Robert Lutterell refused to take any action in
order to repatriate Duguld and forbade Alastair permission to go to
Vadath and retrieve his son himself. Alastair McCallum had been an
awkward and argumentative passenger on the WCCS Argyll and
Robert was secretly full of glee to hear that young Duguld had
managed to circumvent his father’s wishes.
    That night
Robert toasted Duguld and his newfound life-partner and wished the
two of them all the best for the future.
     
     
    * * * * *
     
     

CHAPTER 11 - VADATH
     
    At the Vada
stronghold, after the office block, the medical facility, cookhouse
and individual dagas had been built, the workgroups began building
the cadet barracks, Susa Francis having decreed that the cadets
needed a central somewhere to live. He did not wish the cadet
vadeln-pairs strung out throughout the countryside, outside the
safety of the walls.
    Brian and
Sofiya were making themselves at home. They had been the first
cadets to arrive at the half-built stronghold and took a
proprietary interest in it since they had helped build it with
their own hands and paws.
    The barrack was
a long low building set near the centre of the stronghold and Brian
described it to his family as ‘rudimentary and basic but it keeps
out the weather’ which had the predictable effect of making his
mother Janice even more worried than before about her younger son’s
wellbeing.
    The building
was split into two wings with a communal area in the middle. It was
Laura Merriman who had insisted on a separate wing for boy and girl
cadets.
    “They’ll be of
an age when the opposite sex is of more than a passing interest.
Lets try to keep their explorations down to a minimum,” was her wry
comment. Francis had agreed. Asya and Faddei didn’t understand why
Laura was so insistent. Courtship and play was an integral part of
the way the Lind lived although sexual intimacy was not encouraged
until they were at least sixteen summers old.
    Each wing had a
central corridor with partitioned cubicles down each side. If Brian
stood on his tiptoes he could just about look into his neighbour’s
space. Within each partition sat a narrow bed for the human element
of the partnership and a large low divan-like structure for the
Lind.
    When Sofiya saw
hers for the first time she whined in approval. Brian had laboured
long and hard weaving the dried river reeds that made the divan
most luxurious.
    “Why should I,”
Sofiya said as she watched him arrange them, “lie on hard wood with
bits of twigs and bits of jaggy greens for a bed when these reeds
are so handy?” Then she had tried it out, “soft too,” she added,
nestling in. “I be most comfortable.”
    Brian laughed
and, bed arranged to her satisfaction, dumped his kitbag on the
wide shelf designed for that purpose. A small rough table and a
chair completed the furnishings.
    “Not exactly
palatial,” he said, “but I suppose we’re in the army now. We’ve got
time to add some rugs and other amenities if we can before most of
the others arrive. The