jeriendhal | RVA: Shadow of Doubt, Family Affair

Later that afternoon, after she’d cleaned up and left Ali to a well-earned post-coital nap, Salli hunted down her father in his personal office on the ground floor, not the one on the upper level he shared with Mother. The door was open and she found him leaning back in his desk chair, fingers laced over his paunch as he stared up at the ceiling, lost in thought.

“Hello, Father. Is now a good time?” she asked cautiously.

He smiled in irony. “I doubt any time would be a good time, but this will do.” He sat up and waved her in. “Shut the door and have a seat, would you, dear?”

Salli shut and latched it, settling into a leather armchair across from him. “So. Mother,” she said.

“So. Your mother.” He sighed, resting his chin on his paw pad. “You know, I don’t think we’ve argued like that since we were at university together.”

“I remember you both telling me you were on the opposite sides of every debate, whether it was part of your classes or not,” Salli said, smiling wryly.

“Oh, yes. She was such a firebrand back then. I swear she was convinced that the whole caste system was a useless anachronism, and should be knocked to the ground. I was of the opinion that it had served us pretty well the past thousand years or so, even with all the changes brought about by First Contact, so why muck with it now?”

Salli blinked, her vision of her mother, quiet, conservative, pious Mother, being a radical anything. Then again, who in the family had come up with the original plan of them fleeing Foxen Prime to escape the old countess Highglider anyway? “That’s not how I ever pictured you two,” she admitted ruefully.

“Oh, yes,” he said, some of normal cheer returning. “That’s why we always worked well together. She enjoyed it when I challenged her ideas. It made her final arguments stronger.” His smile faded. “Well, she enjoyed it up until now.”

“So, did you win or lose this argument. And what side did you take?”

He snorted. “I’m not sure ‘winning’ is possible here. I’m just trying to minimize the collateral damage. Your mother cannot be expected to administer our district properly while she’s distracted by, er, domestic concerns. For the sake of Commoners sworn to us, this can’t go on.”

“So what is going on in her head? Why is she insisting on driving Ali and I apart? Aside from the negative effect this is having with our relations in the Council.”

“Bah. I’m not overly concerned with the Council’s opinion. Other Countess’ with fewer resources than us, we have a whole planet after all, have weathered worse scandals than that of an heir with a questionable choice in a lover.” Father raised a paw in apology. “I’m not saying I don’t like her myself. Ali seems like a brave and loyal vixen. I’m just noting the opinions I’ve heard from some Council members.”

“Fair enough,” Salli allowed. “What’s Mother’s opinion?”

“She is of two minds I think. First, she wants you to be happy. Second, she wants Miss Blacksailor to kindly go away. The fact that you’ve made it plain if the second happens, the first will be impossible, has not escaped her notice. To her credit, I might add.”

“But she still wants Ali gone.”

Father nodded. “She remembers how badly we failed you before, Salli, and does not want to repeat that mistake. Keeping a vixen with a history so soaked in violence near you seems a foolish act from her point of view.”

“Ali never hurt anyone because she wanted to,” Salli growled in frustration. “Why won’t anyone let her free herself from her past? Why can’t they just let her go?”

“Can you free yourself from yours?” her father asked quietly.

“No,” Salli admitted. “But on good days I can stop thinking about it.” She sighed. “Sometimes I wonder if Ali ever has good days.”

“Whatever decision you make on this matter, you have my love and support of course,” he told her.

“My decision has been made. I will not separate myself from Ali,” she said firmly. “Now if Mother wants to strip me of the governorship and cut me off from our House in retaliation, that’s her right. But she can’t take Ali away.”

Father frowned. “Actually she can. If I recall correctly, Miss Blacksailor’s terms of indenture state she must serve her sentence under the supervision of the Governor of Greenholme. If you’re stripped of your authority, she’d be the responsibility of your successor. Presumably that would be Rolas, and while I can’t see him deliberately separating you two, without your position you’d be unable to grant her any legal protection.”

“Oh, yes,” Salli agreed faintly, that particular possibility having not occurred to her yet. No, Rolas wouldn’t want to separate them, and certainly his wife would object to the idea. But if Mother placed sufficient pressure on him, Rolas might have to agree to send Ali to some remote biological research station on the other side of the planet, well away from his lovelorn sister.

“Mind you, if it came to that, I think your mother and I would be having more strong words. Stronger words,” he said, evidentially trying to reassure her.

“How far do you think she’s going to push this?” she asked. “How far dare I push this?”

Father shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. For now though, I’ve managed to convince her to at least let the two of you have that interview with the Oceanic News people. If we can contain the rumor mill and generate enough sympathy for your Ali in the public mind, we might be able to turn your mother’s mind around.”

“Maybe,” Salli agreed reluctantly. After a moment’s thought she asked, “Father, when Ali went before the Stellar Court, Rolas stated that our House was paying for her defense. Why would Mother allow that if she so doubted Ali’s innocence?”

Father was slow in answering. Too slow. “Actually,” he said cautiously, “from an absolutely technical standpoint our House didn’t pay for it. Rolas did so from his his personal purse, supplemented by his wife Melanie. I gather your brother chose… not to clarify that with you… to maintain family harmony.”

“I see,” Salli said, unable to keep the disappointment from her voice. Given the amount of real time interstellar communications traffic Ali’s defense had entailed, not to mention importing legal and psychological evaluation experts to a backwater colony, the bite out of Rolas’ finances, even with Melanie’s help, had to have been painful. “Did you argue with Mother about that as well?”

“Yes. I lost that time. I don’t intend to lose the argument again.”

And here she had been worried about just breaking her own ties with Mother. Could it place her parent’s marriage at risk, after thirty years, if she continued to fight for Ali? Horrible thought. Would Mother be willing to push things so far, just to be right? She didn’t know, and found that doubt utterly terrifying.

I don’t know what to do.