Chapter Two
We sipped gin and talked away the hour or so before the feast was to start, probing each other now and then with things said or asked. Mindy spoke her mind without much hesitation. She also asked rather candid questions, I discovered.
A couple of kids ran past the tent.
"You have any of those?" asked Mindy.
I shook my head. "No kids. I got fixed back in 1971."
"You aren't extremely short, fat, or ugly, so why aren't you here with a wife or girlfriend?"
With a grin, I said, "Gee, such a delicate way of asking. I'm not married, I've only been back from Germany for about a month, and I haven't met anyone else who really grabbed my attention."
Our cups were almost empty. I dosed each with ice and gin and poured in the Coke.
Mindy looked as if she were making her mind up about something, then asked," 'Else'? That means I've managed to grab your attention?"
It was a direct question without a hint of frivolity in her tone. I stopped pouring her new drink and looked up at her. Mindy's gaze was rock-steady as she waited for the answer.
I looked in her eyes and said simply, "Yes, you have," then I finished pouring and capped the bottle.
There was an awkward silence as we sipped our new drinks, so I tried to break it with, "And you? You're tall and beautiful and you carry a conversation. How have you managed to evade motherhood and marriage?"
Her silence didn't break immediately. She regarded me thoughtfully another few moments before appearing to make up her mind yet again. There was a hint of nervousness about Mindy as she spoke.
"I'm not ready for children and I'm not exactly alone, Ed. Diane and I are very, uhm, close."
I considered that. "Close enough that she has to approve of me?"
Mindy made a wry grin. "Oh, yes. You could definitely say that."
"Lovers, then?" Mindy nodded slightly. I asked, "And if she doesn't approve of me?"
"I think she will," Mindy said with a small grin.
I considered that for a moment. "I'm not looking for flattery, Mindy; I'm looking for a real answer, here; would Diane go along with us because she liked me or because you wanted me?"
"Either or both, probably. Would that matter?"
Shrugging, I said, "Yeah. It would to me. I like you a lot, Mindy, but you've shown how strong-willed and commanding you can be. I wouldn't want to think you'd force Diane to go along with bringing me aboard."
I could see anger forming in her face, but then it suddenly faded, to be replaced with a look of bemused amazement.
Mindy laughed. "I'm going to make her sit down before I tell her you said that."
"I wasn't trying to be funny, Mindy."
"Don't worry, you weren't," she said, then laughed again, "But her reaction will be. She doesn't think men like you exist."
"Huh?" I'm sure I sounded real intelligent just about then.
"Yeah," said Mindy, laughing again, "Diane doesn't believe in men like you. Boy, will she be surprised. Look, I'll explain later, when I can breathe again."
I smiled and nodded and sipped my gin, wondering if I really wanted into this, after all. Diane sounded like a woman bitter from her experiences, and my real interest was Mindy, anyway, but I had a feeling that it would be a 'both or neither' situation.
We'd been sitting cross-legged, facing each other. I decided to stretch and powered myself straight up to a standing position. Mindy rearranged her skirt a bit, then quickly did the same, meeting my gaze.
"Where to?" she asked, dusting herself off.
"Just stretching. Loosening up."
Mindy didn't seem to do things with the delicateness of most women. Small things had tipped me off that she was unusual, but then she did something specific.
Her ice had lumped up in her glass, so she poured a little of the gin on her fingers, wiped her hand on the underside of her skirt, and reached into her cup to grab the floating lump.
She looked up at me as she squeezed it hard enough to shatter the ice-blob back into little bits. I wondered if it was her way of telling me not to try to escape.
"Mindy," said an approaching woman, "You're gonna scare that poor boy if you haven't already."
She was about as tall as Mindy and looked about 40, with long brown hair and a confident stride. She came to within two feet of me and stood looking at me.
Mindy introduced us with, "Diane, meet Ed. Ed, Diane." She looked meaningfully at Diane and added, "And I'd just love for all of us to be friends."
Diane stopped near Mindy with her hands on her hips.
Her left eyebrow raised slightly in mild surprise as she looked from Mindy to me, and she didn't bother with archaic English when she asked softly, "Is that so, now? What makes you so special today, I wonder?"
She extended her hand for a handshake, not a courtly kiss. As we touched, her eyes widened a bit and she looked briefly at our clasped hands.
I felt a pushing sensation in my mind, and my eyes widened, too. I pushed back a little, grinning at her as I discovered in her touch a creature like me in at least one respect.
After a moment Diane grinned back at me. We just stood there, holding hands and grinning silently at each other for some seconds before Mindy waved a hand between us and said, "Hey! What's going on here, guys?"
Diane let go of my hand, leaned over and kissed Mindy's cheek, and said, "Gotta run. Feast's on in a few minutes. Don't lose him."
She then retrieved something from their tent and quickly strode back the way she'd come. Mindy looked somewhat confused as she watched Diane leave.
I was still grinning as I took her hand to lead her toward the tables.
"I think she likes me," I said.
Mindy stopped us and stared at me for a moment.
"Oh, hell, I know she likes you," she said, "The question is why? Diane's not fond of men in general, Ed. She just uses them now and then for free labor."
I tried to get us moving again by stepping forward as I said, "Maybe it was something I said."
Mindy was irritated and unwilling to proceed. She poked me in the chest with a finger.
"You didn't say one goddamned word to her. Not even one word, Ed. What's going on?"
I faced her squarely and took both her hands in mine as I spoke.
"Mindy, you trust Diane, but you've only known me a few hours. Could she be the one to tell you, please?"
Mindy glared at me tight-lipped. After a moment, she relented somewhat. We kept our voices low as we waited in line to wash up at the sinks.
"Well, how about a hint, then?" she asked. "Maybe I can figure it out for myself."
"Okay," I said, "She touched me. That's the hint."
"Oh, Jesus. Come on. You're saying she can do stuff like that, too? I'm supposed to believe that?"
"Diane is probably better at it than I am, Mindy."
"Why, because she's a woman? Oh, what the hell am I saying? I can't take all this psychic stuff seriously, Ed. I'm sorry, I just can't."
"Okay. Not a problem for me, but if this is the first you've ever seen of it with Diane, you might want to at least talk to her about it."
Mindy crisply whispered, "I plan to ask her why the hell she's playing along with you, at any rate."
I looked at Mindy questioningly as I stepped up to the sink, then soaped my hands.
"Well?" she asked sharply enough to make a few others at the sinks look our way.
"Think about it Mindy," I said softly, "We just shook hands, and she was apparently very happy to meet me, yet you said she doesn't like men in general."
Mindy didn't speak for a moment, then said flatly, "She doesn't."
"But she liked me instantly, and that really bugs you 'cause you don't know why. It almost makes you want to feel as if she's jumping your claim, which she isn't, and that's why you need to talk with her about all this."
"How the hell would you know what...?" Her voice turned sarcastic as she said, "Oh, hell, I forgot! You're a psychic, right?"
"Something else, ma'am," I said, "Real or imagined, you feel left out the same way you would if she and I had shared a private joke. We had a moment of mutual discovery, Mindy. That's all."
Mindy thought a moment and seemed to calm down as she said, "Yeah, I saw that moment," she said, "I don't really know why it upset me."
"You felt excluded. It wasn't intentional, Mindy."
She glanced sharply at me but said nothing. The line for trenchers and food was beginning to move. We tacitly agreed to shelve the conversation for the moment.
Diane was serving the roast beef. As we appeared in front of her, she said softly, "Once the rush is over, I can turn these people loose and be free in about half an hour. If you eat slowly I can join you for dinner. Still got any gin?"
I turned to show the bottle poking out of my shoulder bag. "Lots of it, milady. We'll need more mixer, though."
"No problem. I'll grab a bottle of something. Any preferences?"
"Whatever," I said, "As long as it isn't 'diet' anything. We've been using Coke."
"Okay. See you in a few, then."
We didn't speak as we loaded our trenchers and found seats at one of the big tables, nibbling at our food as people settled in around us.
Just before the "King" and "Queen" took their seats, Diane showed up and squeezed in next to me at the long table. Mindy's eyes narrowed a bit at that.
I took a moment to study Diane. She was older than Mindy by almost a decade, but well-kept and vibrant, and she filled her dress well without over-filling it.
Definitely a rather attractive woman, I decided. As my eyes returned to her face, I saw she had been watching me appraise her.
"Well?" she asked.
"Well, indeed, ma'am," I said with a grin, "If your brains match your looks, you really lucked out."
"Crudely said, but sufficient," she said with a small smile. "I think you'll find they do."
Mindy nudged me in the ribs. The King and Queen had arrived and were being ostentatiously seated, so of course everybody else was expected to stand until their royal butts hit their portable thrones.
In the course of the feast several songs were sung, parodies and skits were performed, and individuals contributing in some manner to the kingdom and the event were duly honored, which meant that the kitchen staff volunteers got a round of applause to go with their royal ribbon awards.
Diane was called to receive her award, and again I saw that purposeful stride and the figure it carried across the court. Diane was a most admirable piece of work, literally, in the costume she'd made. The beadwork trim alone probably took more than a few days of spare time.
When I turned to comment about the amount of work that went into Diane's outfit, a rather disgruntled Mindy met my gaze. I realized that she thought that I had just plain been eyeballing Diane.
"That's quite an outfit she's wearing," I said, "It must represent a lot of hand-work and a hell of a lot of time."
Damn, that sounded feeble.
"Yes," said Mindy archly, "It does."
Stone face, tight-lipped, tense. She turned back to her plate and pushed her food around in silence. I watched her for a moment as I thought of what I wanted to say.
"So I'm not allowed to find her attractive, too? That won't work for me, Mindy. I think you're both beautiful women, and after meeting her earlier, I was generally willing to go your way with things, even though you were the one I really wanted. Now I'm discovering that she isn't a stereotypical blind date, and that I look forward to being with her as well, and you don't like it. Why? I thought that was your plan."
"It was," she said, then she turned back to her food.
Hell, I didn't know what to say that would fix things, so I said nothing. This felt like something the two women needed to hash out without me.
As I handed Diane back into her seat at the bench, I remained standing and said I'd be back shortly, thumbing in the general direction of the portable toilets.
Diane realized immediately that something wasn't quite right and nodded slightly, then she jauntily displayed her ribbon award and said, "Oh, goodie! Another service ribbon. Whatever shall I spend it on?"
As if suddenly realizing something, she added, "Oh, wait, they don't spend very well, do they? Ah, well, it IS the thought that counts, isn't it?"
There were some nearby giggles, but not Mindy's.
I looked at the lines by the toilets and said, "Looks as if I may have to go find a tree..." to cover whatever amount of time I chose to be away.
Grabbing a fresh cup of Coke, I stabbed a nice piece of the roast onto my "formal" dagger as I passed the serving tables. While standing in line, nibbling my roast, drinking my Coke, minding my own business, and waiting to see if I really needed to pee, after all, a young, overweight woman who seemed rather fidgety approached me from the pathway.
"You want to go ahead of me?" I offered, moving a bit to one side.
She seemed to fidget even harder, if that could be somehow possible, and stammered out the words, "Y-you know those...uh... women you're with over there?"
Nodding, I said, "Not very well. I just met them this afternoon," then waited for her revelation about them to manifest itself.
She bumbled about a bit, fingering a gold crucifix on her necklace, before finally, in an intense, unquiet whisper, saying, "They're known lesbians!"
I thought a moment before replying, "Huh. They seem interested in me. Are you sure?"
Thus encouraged, she leaned close to whisper, "Yes! Everybody knows it!"
It wasn't much of a whisper. A number of people standing nearby couldn't help but hear every word.
I pretended to give this more thought, then said, in a normal voice, "But everybody else isn't taking the opportunity to tell me about it. Only you. Why's that?"
Some guy standing a few feet away said, "It's because she's a bluenosed busybody, milord, always either proselytizing or condemning someone else."
The woman turned a bright, angry shade of red as she tried to think of something scathing to say to him.
I derailed her thoughts with, "Never say anything about me that you can't prove in court; this kingdom's court or a real court of law in the real world."
When she began a retort, I stopped her with, "Never has already started. Now get lost, ma'am. Please."
After a moment of glaring at me, she left. The guy who'd called her a busybody spoke as she waddled away.
"In her mundane persona she's related to the king. She erroneously thinks that makes her part of the king's court and tries to throw her considerable unofficial weight around now and then. She may try to make trouble for you, sir. And for your friends."
"We'll see," I replied. "I'm going to tell the ladies what she said. They have a right to know and may want to make some kind of complaint."
"I'll mention the incident to the seneschal, then," he said, "The royals know about her penchant for malicious gossip; she'll be cautioned or she'll be asked to leave."
We chatted as the line shortened.
"One thing to remember," he said as he opened the door to one of the porta-potties, "The ladies you're with are very well-liked and have many friends here." After a brief pause, he added, "And I'm one of them."
His statement, coming as it did at the end of our friendly chatting, surprised me slightly. He hadn't seemed the type to issue challenges that might end up being met on the battlefield.
I met his gaze and grinned as I said, "Yeah, I kinda gathered that. Don't worry. The ladies and I seem to be getting along pretty well. If we stop getting along, I'll just go back to my own tent."
He nodded and gave me a slight wave as he entered the portapotty. I entered the next one to open. When I finished and washed up, he was gone.
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