Araminta Station Read Free

father, Scharde, gave him a pair of silver and turquoise epaulettes, as worn by gentlemen at the most exclusive resorts of the Gaean Reach, if the fashion journals were to be believed.
    Scharde and Glawen took breakfast in their chambers, as usual. They lived alone; Glawen’s mother, Marya, had died in an accident three years after his birth. Glawen dimly remembered a loving presence, and sensed latent mystery, though Scharde would never discuss the subject.
    The bare facts were simple. Scharde had met Marya when she visited Araminta Station with her parents. Scharde escorted the group around the circuit of wilderness lodges and later visited Marya at Sarsenopolis on Alphecca Nine. Here the two had married, and shortly after returned to Araminta station.
    The off-world marriage took Clattuc House by surprise, and provoked an unexpected furor, instigated by a certain Spanchetta, grandniece to Housemaster Fratano. Spanchetta was already married to the mild and uncomplaining Millis and had produced a son, Arles; nevertheless, she had long, shamelessly and vainly, marked Scharde for her own.
    Spanchetta at this time was a flashing-eyed young woman, buxom and large, with a tempestuous spirit and a great roiling mass of dark curls which usually lay in a cylindrical heap on top of her head. To justify her fury, Spanchetta seized upon the problems of her sister Simonetta: “Smonny.”
    Like Spanchetta, Smonny was large and burly, with a round face, rounded shoulders and large moist features. Where Spanchetta was dark-haired and dark-eyed, Smonny showed taffy-colored hair and golden-hazel eyes. Often she was jocularly assured that with yellow skin she might have passed for a Yip, which never failed to annoy her. 3
    To gain her ends Smonny was purposeful but lazy. Where Spanchetta preferred to bluster and domineer, Smonny used a wheedling or peevish persistence which rasped away at her adversary’s patience, and eventually reduced it to shreds. Through indolence she failed her courses at the lyceum, and was denied Agency status. Spanchetta at once placed the blame upon Scharde, for introducing Marya into the house, thereby “rolling” Smonny out.
    “That is absurd and illogical,” she was told, by no less than Fratano the Housemaster.
    “Not at all!” declared Spanchetta, eyes glittering and bosom heaving. She took a step forward and Fratano drew back a step. “The worry absolutely destroyed Smonny’s concentration! She made herself sick!”
    “Still, that’s not Scharde’s fault. You did the same thing when you married Millis. He’s out-House too, a Laverty collateral, as I recall.”
    Spanchetta could only grumble. “That’s different. Millis is our own sort, not just some little interloper from God-help-us!”
    Fratano turned away. “I can’t waste any more of my time with such nonsense.”
    Spanchetta gave an acrid chuckle. “It’s not your sister who is being victimized; it’s mine! Why should you care? Your position is secure! As for wasting your time, you are anxious only to get to your afternoon nap. But there will be no nap for you today. Smonny is coming to talk with you.”
    Fratano, not the most obdurate of men, heaved a deep sigh. “I can’t talk to Smonny right now. I’ll make a special exception. She can have a month for study and another examination; I can’t do any better. If she fails, she is out!”
    The concession pleased Smonny not at all. She set up a howl of complaint: “How can I cover five years of material in a month?”
    “You must do your best,” snapped Spanchetta.  “I suspect that the examination will only be a formality; Fratano hinted as much. Still, you can’t get by with nothing! So, you must start studying immediately.”
    Smonny made only a perfunctory attempt to encompass the material she had so long ignored. To her consternation, the examination was of the usual sort, and not just a pretext for granting her a passing grade. Her score was even worse than before, and