His smile went tight. “My family is very well, thank you for asking. And please, call me Rupert.”
I made a noncommittal noise and turned to Esteri. “We were interrupted before. Please, tell me about your job at RCDF. What do you do as an astrophysicist?”
“I work on optimizing the equations that the gates use to track celestial bodies,” she said. “My doctoral thesis was on a novel new way to predict orbits, and I’ve taken that research further with the RCDF. Now we’re attempting to translate it into computational improvements.”
Gates were the giant supercomputers that could calculate safe jump points millions of light-years away for spaceships using faster-than-light travel. Even small optimizations in the calculations would mean big gains for the people who relied on the gates every day to safely navigate the cosmos.
“Fascinating,” I said, and I meant it. “So do—”
“Yes, fascinating,” Henderson interrupted, “but we don’t want to bore Lady Catarina with all this talk of work. She’s much more comfortable discussing fashion.” He paused and flicked a meaningful glance at Esteri’s dress. “Oh, but I suppose you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you? Too bad.” He laughed and went so far as to give Esteri a patronizing little pat on her arm.
Esteri’s face tightened into a mask of anger, but she bit her tongue and bowed her head. “Of course, forgive me, Lady Catarina.”
I gave Henderson a bright smile filled with teeth. “Actually, I would like nothing more than to hear what Dr. Kryer has to say. I find her work very interesting, and it is important for us all.” Even you, you misogynistic asshole. I kept the barb to myself. It wouldn’t do to insult one of our potential allies outright while we were in the middle of a war.
Esteri looked between us, but something in my expression must’ve convinced her that I was serious. Her smile turned sly as she launched into a technical discussion of her job. Honestly, I followed less than half of what she said, even though I’d grown up in a High House with the best tutors money could buy. The lady next to me was practically asleep.
I understood gates and the technology behind them at a high level, but Esteri knew them down to the minutia. Listening to her explain her research and how it affected the inner workings of the gates was truly fascinating. She kept talking, I kept asking what I hoped were intelligent-sounding questions, and Henderson kept being thwarted every time he tried to change the subject.
It was a delightful brunch.
Unfortunately, when it was over, Lord Henderson made a beeline straight for my mother, presumably to complain about my behavior, so when Esteri made for the exit, I followed. Susan, my bodyguard, fell in behind us.
“Susan, call us a transport,” I murmured. I could practically feel Mother’s eyes burning a hole into my back. I linked my arm through Esteri’s. “Where are you headed? I’ll give you a lift.”
“You don’t need—” she started.
“You’d be doing me a favor.”
She inclined her head in agreement, and we cut through the house to the family entrance where a House transport waited for us.
We climbed in and Esteri set the transport’s destination to the fiftieth floor of a building in Sector Nine. The transport lifted smoothly into the air, shadowed by another transport in the black and gold of House von Hasenberg colors—our security detail.
I pulled a card from the pocket of my dress and handed it to Esteri. “Lord Henderson is known to be vindictive. If anything happens—anything at all—contact me and I’ll fix it. Even if it doesn’t seem related, like your project loses funding or you get reprimanded at work seemingly out of the blue, contact me.”
“I was happy to help,” she demurred.
“Yes, but I don’t want that help to cost you something you clearly love. That card contains my private contact information. If Lord Henderson acts against you, contact me and don’t let your pride get in your way. Handing him a victory isn’t winning. I can’t do much about him elsewhere, but I can do this.”
“But you’re a von Hasenberg. Surely there’s something you can do to get rid of him?”
My smile was grim. “Not when his attention is in the best interest of the House.”
Esteri’s eyes widened in surprise. I smoothed my expression into a pleasant social smile. I didn’t need to burden a near stranger with my personal feelings. I was extremely privileged. If that privilege sometimes felt like handcuffs, well, that was my problem, not anyone else’s.
I pivoted the conversation back to her research and asked a few more questions about how the gates worked. Now that I didn’t have to worry about sounding smart, I could ask the questions I really wanted answered.
Esteri never once made me feel stupid, even when I asked questions that didn’t make sense. And she was phenomenally smart. This year alone, she’d helped to increase the gate algorithm’s efficiency by 5 percent. I made a mental note to put her on the roster of potential House employees. That way, if the RCDF was ever stupid enough to fire her, we’d be ready to snap her up.
The transport landed and Esteri exited with a wave, still clutching the card I’d given her. When the door closed behind her, I let out a sigh. “Think she’ll contact me?” I asked Susan.
“No, not unless something terrible happens.”
“That’s what I think, too. I’ll have to keep an eye on her.”
Chapter Three
After I dropped off Esteri, I had several stops scheduled. Avoiding Mother was just a bonus. She’d already sent me a terse message, demanding my presence, but if I was constantly busy with House tasks then she couldn’t get angry when I didn’t show up.
Or, rather, she couldn’t get angrier.
I pressed my fingers against my eyes; I was being pulled in too many directions. With the war, marrying Lord Henderson would bring in desperately needed ships, supplies, and troops from House Henderson, which might save Benedict’s life, along with the lives of many of our soldiers.
Benedict would vehemently oppose the union, even with his life on the line, but perhaps it was time to grow up and do my duty. If only that duty weren’t so distasteful.
I swiped my identity chip over the reader in the transport and set the destination to a bakery in Sector Five of the Rockhurst quarter. When we arrived, I bought myself a coffee and Susan a spiced tea. She turned down my offer of a pastry, so I ordered a dozen pastries to go.
We continued to the Khadela quarter, aiming for a tall apartment building in Sector Seven. It wasn’t usually a good idea to drop in on a pregnant woman unannounced, but I happened to know that Lady Pippa August worked constantly, no matter what her condition. As the matriarch of the burgeoning House August, she had her hands full.
She also loved pastries, specifically the ones I’d just bought.
House August had yet to decide who to back in the war. They weren’t solid allies with any of the High Houses and tended to deal with each of us equally. It was my job to charm her to our side, but over the last couple of months, I’d found I also enjoyed her company.
She received me in the informal sitting room, an upgrade in friendliness since my last visit. She started to rise when I entered, but I waved her off. She was young for a matriarch, not yet forty, and had a delicate, petite build. She had golden-brown skin and big, dark eyes set in a face that was more cute than stunning, but her fragile appearance belied an iron will and a mind sharp enough to cut. This close to her due date, her stomach was as big as she was.