“Patient man.”
“Usually, yes,” Shem said. “But when I went home on leave he said, ‘Waited ten years for my boy, and now he lives as far away from me as he can! Where have you been all this time?’” Shem laughed, a bit sadly.
Perrin stared straight ahead, a thought forming in his head that he didn’t like at all. But it would’ve been dishonest to not share it.
He cleared his throat. “Zenos, the fort in Flax will be completed in the next few weeks. I know the colonel who’s taking it over. He’s still looking for men. If you want to transfer closer to your father, to those girls . . . Consider, you could always transfer back here again later—”
Shem had turned abruptly in his saddle halfway through the major’s proposal. “No, sir! This is where I belong!”
Perrin leaned back in his saddle, surprised by Shem’s earnestness. “Just consider it, Shem. As much as I’d hate to lose you—and I suspect that Mahrree wouldn’t let me back into the house should I let you go—perhaps this is what your father needs.” His voice became quiet. “I can’t imagine how I’d feel if Peto left me and I didn’t have Mahrree anymore. I’d probably get on Jaytsy’s nerves.”
Shem smiled. “Sir, I appreciate the thought, but my father’s fine with where I am. He’s just a big tease like me. He knows who you are and wouldn’t want me serving anywhere else.”
Something in those words struck Perrin oddly. “He knows who I am?”
Shem nodded. “By association, I mean. One year he travelled to Idumea to sell some of his herd to the army, and he ran into the High General. They spoke only for a few minutes, but my father was impressed. When I told him I wanted to re-enlist long term, he said he’d be fine with it as long as I was always under your command.”
“Even if you could live closer to home?”
“Especially if I could live closer to home!” he laughed, but then sobered. “Please, Major Shin, let me stay here?”
His tone was so worried that Perrin was stunned. “Of course, of course. Wouldn’t want to upset Mr. Zenos now, would I?”
Shem sighed. “I’m fine here, sir. Really. And if you really don’t want to upset my father, you will not cheat in the relay race today. That is, after all, the only chance you have of beating me, Grandpy.”
Perrin’s mouth dropped open, shocked at the sudden insubordination, but he immediately closed it.
Because the game was on.
“Thirty-one years old is hardly a grandpy, boy.”
Zenos glared at him. “We’ll see,” he said briskly. “You’re birthday is in five days and I’ve been invited over for cake. You’ll be thirty-two, and that’s old.”
He was already improving at stifling his snort.
Chapter 18 ~ “All that cheering wasn’t just for you, Corporal!”
Forty minutes later two soldiers stood ready, watching out large windows in the forward office of the tower.
But they didn’t stand still.
They bounced and nudged and jostled each other as they surveyed the skyline in the south and west. Their eyes darted from one new tower to another, anticipating the first signals. Captain Karna waited in the compound below them, with Neeks and Gizzada on either side him. The three had faced their horses towards the main gates to follow the racers once they left.
Lieutenant Walickiah, in charge of ensuring a fair start and monitoring the banner changes, shook his head as he evaluated the situation before him. Shin was unpredictable, and now the relationship Walickiah saw between the major and the corporal explained a great deal as to why the Quiet Man hadn’t been talking. Walickiah had yet to get him alone, and now he suspected why: either they were losing him to the major, or he was even more duplicitous than even Walickiah. And that was saying something.
The major and the corporal had already shed their caps, jackets, and weapons, and left them sloppily on the large desk behind them. The race was no longer a test of the new system, nor to see how quickly a soldier in full uniform could respond.
It was personal.
Besides, the major had reasoned out loud a few minutes ago, it would be easier for the soldiers in the stations to see them coming in their white undershirts. And Zenos could take his off to signal his surrender when he was ready to quit.
That’s when the poking started.
Walickiah had been standing between Shin and Zenos to make sure it was a fair start—Karna’s orders. But when the major made that comment about the corporal surrendering, Zenos leaned behind the lieutenant and poked the major hard in the ribs while muttering something that sounded like “grandpy”.