none Page A

going to be one hell of a weddingnight.
    On second thought he would have to walk a narrow line, drunk enough to blur his awareness ofembarrassment, but sober enough to keep in mind his pledge to Callista, never to put the slightestpressure on her, or try to hurry her. He wanted her—he had never wanted any woman in his life as muchas he wanted her—but he wanted her willingly, sharing his own desire. He knew perfectly well that hewouldn’t get the slightest pleasure out of anything remotely approaching rape; and in her present state, itcouldn’t be anything but.
    “If you do not get drunk, you might be overeager and mishandle your bride.” Damn Domenic and his jokes! Fortunately none of them except Damon, who understood the problem, knew what he was going through.
    If they did know, they’d probably think it was funny! Andrew considered. Just one more dirty joke for awedding!
    Abruptly he felt distress, dismay… Callista! Callista in trouble somewhere! He hurried in her direction,letting his own telepathic sensitivity guide him.

    Page 42

    He found her at one end of the hall, pinned against the wall by Dezi, who had one arm at either side ofher so she could not dodge away and escape. He was leaning forward as if to kiss her. She twisted toone side and then the other, trying to avoid his lips, imploring him. “Don’t, Dezi, I do not want to defendmyself against a kinsman—”
    “We are not now in the Tower,   domna   . Come now, one real kiss…”
    Andrew grabbed the boy by one shoulder and plucked him away, lifting him clear of the floor.
    “Damn it, leave her alone!”
    Dezi looked sullen. “It was but a jest between kinfolk.”
    “A jest Callista seemed not to share,” Andrew said. “Get lost! Or I’ll—”
    “You’ll   what   ?” Dezisneered. “Challenge me to a duel?”
    Andrew looked down at the slight youngster, flushed, angry, obviously drunk. Abruptly his anger meltedaway. There was something to be said, he thought, for the Terran custom of a legal age for drinking. “Challenge, hell,” he said laughing, looking down at the angry boy. “I’ll put you over my knee and spankyou for the nasty little boy you are. Now go away and sober up and stop bothering the grown-ups!”
    Dezi gave Andrew a look like murder, but he went, and Andrew realized that for the first time since thedeclaration he was alone with Callista.
    “What the hell was that all about?”
    She was as crimson as her light draperies, but she tried to make a joke of it. “Oh, he said that now I was Keeper no more, I was free at last to give way to the irresistible passion he is sure he must arouse in anyfemale breast.”
    “I should have mopped up the floor with him,” Andrew said.
    She shook her head. “Oh, no, I think he’s simply drunk a bit more than he can carry. And he is akinsman, after all. It’s not unlikely he’s my father’s son.”
    Andrew had, after all, half guessed this when he saw Domenic and Dezi side by side. “But would he somisuse a girl he believes to be his sister?”
    “Half-sister,” Callista answered, “and in the hills, half-brothers and half-sisters can lie together if they will, or even marry, though it is considered luckier for them to bear no children so close akin. And horseplay and dirty jokes are expected at a wedding, so what he did was only rude, not shocking. I am too sensitive, and after all he is very young.”
    She still looked shaken and distressed, and Andrew still thought he should have wiped the floor up withthe boy; then, tardily, he wondered if he had been too hard on Dezi. Dezi wasn’t the first kid or the lastto drink more than he could handle and make himself obnoxious.
    He said gently, looking at her tired, strained face, “This will be over soon, love.”

    Page 43

    “I know.” She hesitated. “You do know… the custom… ?”

    “Damon told me,” he said wryly. “I gather they put us to bed together, with plenty of rough jokes.”
    She nodded,