The Protectors war

"Mary, Ritva, if you can leave off trying to murder your old man, there are guests to meet," Mike said.

Loring hid a smile as he gravely shook hands with both; so did Alleyne, and had the effect he usually did on females.

I can't quite understand it, the elder Loring thought, watching them blink and beam at his son. Granted, he's taller than I was at his age, and a good deal more handsome: perhaps it's the smile? He must have gotten it from Maude.

Then he watched their eyes go wide as they looked up and up and up at John Hordle. The big young man laughed like boulders rumbling as his huge paw engulfed their small hands, then knelt.

"Want a ride, young misses?" he gri

Mike Havel started to follow, when a voice checked him:

"Lord Bear!"

The crowd had dispersed, except for a few. One was a determined-looking young woman of about twenty with a man only a little older standing off to one side, obviously trying to look as if he wasn't with her. The occasional angry glares they exchanged argued for a close relationship.

"Lord Bear, I've got a petition."

Havel paused. "It can't wait until tomorrow? Di

She had an open-air prettiness, work-worn hands, dark hair in braids down past her shoulders, and she wore a sweater and denim skirt and broguelike shoes.

"Yes, Lord Bear," she said, ducking her head. "Milking, and on the separator. My folks farm on Lord and Lady Hutton's land. I've got a complaint."

The Bearkiller chieftain suppressed an impatient snort-Loring thought it unlikely the girl would notice-and set himself, with the air of a man who does something necessary but unpleasant.

"Why didn't you take it to Angelica, or Will?"

"Well: it's a complaint against an A-lister, and he's not serving in their household, Lord Bear. And: " She twisted in embarrassment.

"And people like to go to the top," Havel said.

True, Loring thought. More to it than that, I think. At a guess, she thinks you'd be less eager to judge her about something.

"OK, you're a member of the Outfit, you've got a right to appeal to me, so spit it out," Havel went on. He'd banished his air of impatience, and waited with all his attention on her face.

She flushed and looked around, then steeled herself.

"He" -she pointed-"promised to marry me. Now I'm pregnant and he won't. I wouldn't have: well, you know, my lord. Not unless I thought we were getting married."

Havel turned on one heel towards the man, stripping off his mail-backed gauntlets. "OK, Morrison, now you. Did you make a promise to Ms. Hawkins here? And you're the father?" The young man hesitated, then nodded twice.

Havel went on, with a chilly glare: "That was smart. Lying to Ms. Hawkins would be bad. Lying to me would be stupid."

He didn't add fatally stupid. From the way young Morrison's ta

"OK, there's no law here against being a fink," Havel began, and the girl's face fell. "But there is a regulation against dishonorable behavior among A-listers, in case you hadn't noticed; we've got more privileges than other people, and more obligations, too. Breaking promises is right up there with things we're not supposed to do; and that does not mean just promises to other A-listers and their families, in case the regs aren't clear: and they are. Any explanation, Morrison?"

"My lord, I: I just didn't want to get married yet," the younger man said helplessly. "It's not-I don't have a holding of my own yet, I'm still doing household service with my brother Karl, and-"

"Well, you should have thought of that, shouldn't you?" Havel said. "Christ Jesus, son, do I have to tell you where babies come from? Or what to do about it if you're not angling to reproduce yet?"

The girl flushed more deeply; Morrison shuffled his feet. "We did," he said. "I mean, we were careful but: it just didn't work, and then Yvo

Loring stroked his mustache, smiling to himself. Barrier contraceptives still worked, but they were a good deal more cumbersome than the vanished Pill, and a bit less reliable.

"He wanted to get rid of the baby!" she snapped. At Havel 's raised brow. "I won't. It's not right. I'm Catholic."

As are the Huttons, I understand, Loring thought.

Havel pointed at Morrison again. "You?" Then: "Speak up, I can't hear you, Morrison!"

"The Old Religion, sir."

There seem to be a good many of them about, here, Loring thought.

He wasn't altogether surprised; accidents of survival in the period right after the Change had left odder imbalances in the lands he'd seen-most of the few people left in Spain spoke Basque, for example. It all depended on who lived; a single charismatic leader or small group could be very influential. Witness His Majesty in England -or for that matter, Colonel Sir Nigel Loring.

Havel 's grin was less pleasant to see this time. "And what exactly do you think Juney-I mean, the Mackenzie, would say about the way you've been acting? Something about a threefold rule?"

Morrison winced again, and this time there seemed to be more in the way of genuine fear in his expression. Loring's eyebrows rose. The Mackenzie leader had seemed a mild sort to him, without any of the hard-man menace you could sense under Michael Havel's rough good humor. And her authority here in Bearkiller territory would be religious, not secular, from what he understood.

A lady with unsuspected depths, he thought. Hmmm. For a woman to emerge as a leader in times like these: A lady with very considerable depths, I should think. Besides her obvious charm, of course.

"OK, it's your kid, and you promised to help look after it, so you owe the young lady big-time, one way or another," Havel said briskly. "That's my judgment. You can appeal to the A-list assembled, Brother Morrison, if you think I'm overtreading your rights. I wouldn't advise it, seeing as Brother Hutton would be speaking for Ms. Hawkins, and if I know Will, he and Angelica would be somewhere between furious and ripshit. With you, not her."

Morrison shook his head this time, emphatically. "I'll accept your judgment, Lord Bear."

"Ms. Hawkins, do you still want to marry this man? He's not a bad sort, just young and using his head for a helmet rack and not much else."

She hesitated a moment. "Yes, my lord Bear. He's: I'm angry with him, but I still love him."

He gri

"Yes, my lord. Definitely."

Havel's expression softened. He thumped a hand down on the young man's shoulder. "Good." Then he leaned closer, and spoke softly; Loring could make it out, but he didn't think that the girl could. "And just between me and thee, Brother, I was going to assign her a third of your income for the next eighteen years if you said no. Glad you got smart."

He shook his head as the youngsters walked away; as they did, the two figures grew closer. "Christ Jesus, I didn't expect this sort of thing would be part of the job."

"Stranger things have happened," Loring said reminis-cently. "There are times an officer has to be a father to his men. And at Tilford-well, you wouldn't be interested in an old man's maunderings."