Meya wiped tears from her eyes and cuddled next to him.

"Quilla's going to wear a dress," she said. "It's sort of orangy-browny, and it comes all the way to here." She pointed to her knees.

"Mim told her that she should take it up, but she said she didn't want to."

"It's her own choice."

Meya plucked her package from the bed, grinned at Jes, and pulled at the string. "Anyway, since she wasn't going to be wearing them, I asked her if you could wear these. I washed them all by myself."

Meya pulled a pair of pants from the package and held them out. They were a soft spring green, of a fine material that draped over Jes' hands.

"Oh, Meya. They'll never fit."

"Sure they will. Go ahead and put them on. Quilla said you both wear the same size. Go on, don't just sit there."

Jes grinned and stripped off his pants, then put on the green ones.

They molded to his thighs and hips, and fit snugly over buttocks and crotch.

"They're perfect," he said. "But I don't have a shirt to go with them."

"So don't wear a shirt at all. Taine'll love that."

"Will you cut out this Taine stuff? She doesn't care about me one way or another, and that's that." He looked down at himself. "It's a pity about the shirt."

"Oh, close your eyes," Meya said.

"Why?"

"Just close them, or I'll make Quilla take the pants back."

Jes sighed and closed his eyes. He heard a rustle of paper and string, then felt Meya's small fingers at the seams of his blue shirt.

"What are you doing?"

"Don't open your eyes! You just be still. I'll be done in a minute."

She slid the shirt away and grabbed at his arm, pulling something over it. He extended the other arm and stood still, repressing a smile, as she fumbled at the seam. Finally she sighed and said, "Okay, you can open your eyes now."

Jes stared at himself in the mirror. The shirt was cut tight around the torso and loose in the arms, made of the same fine material as the pants. Its intricate print echoed the green of the pants amid swirling colors. Jes smiled, then grinned, then laughed aloud.

"It's wonderful! Where in the world did you get it?"

"I made it," she said. "Well, Mim helped me a lot, but mostly I made it myself. I did the basting, and I told Haive what colors to put in the cloth, too. That's a lot."

"It certainly is, lumpkin." Jes picked his sister up and swung her around the room, then kissed her forehead and dumped her back on the bed. She collected the remains of her package and went to the door.

"Taine'll go wild when she sees you," she predicted. Jes swore and threw a shirt at her retreating form.

Tabor picked up his naked daughter and held her on his hip. She reached for his silky, pale beard and yanked on it. He yelped. His son laughed and slapped the water with his hands, spattering Quilla as she knelt on the wooden platform beside the small tub.

"Jared, cut that out," she said. "Decca, leave your father's beard alone."

"No," the children said simultaneously.

Quilla sighed. "It's their favorite word this month. I think they don't know any others."

"Do so," Jared said, insulted. He grabbed at the bar of soap. Quilla took it from him, rinsed him, and put him on a towel. He wriggled and gripped the towel with his teeth. Tabor put Decca in the tub.

"When does the party begin?" he said.

"Another hour or two. Mim said she'd watch them while we dressed."

"You're filthy," Tabor said to Decca. She ignored him, intent on popping a bubble with her toes. He put a towel over her eyes and held it there while he poured water over her head.

"No!" she howled. "Don't like it!"

"Got to wash your hair, pretty. Come on, don't do that. Damn it, Decca, I don't want a bath."

"Bath," she repeated and giggled. Her light hair darkened with water and lay flat along her cheeks and neck. Tabor rubbed the soap into her hair and worked up a lather.

Jared escaped from Quilla's grasp and made a dash for the tub. Quilla grabbed him and took him to the pile of clothes against the half-wall. Steam beaded along the kaedo leaves overhead and fell down as Jared hammered on the wall with his fists.

"Remember to wash her bottom," Quilla called over her shoulder. She pulled Jared away from the wall and reached for his shirt. "She likes to sit in the dirt."

"I've noticed. Here, stand up, Decca. Come on. Hold onto my shoulder.

There, that's a girl."

"Mim!" Quilla yelled.

"Want to stay with Keka," Jared announced. He sat and held onto the bench.

Decca tried to climb out of the tub. "Be with Aded!" she yelled.

"Okay, okay," Tabor said. He wrestled her into the tub again and rinsed her off. "There. Now hold still for a moment."

Eventually, overalled and damp, the children were collected by Mim and taken back to the house. Quilla sighed and tilted the tub over the platform's edge, splashing water into the drain trough below, then pulled the cover from the hot tub while Tabor collected the damp towels and piled them in a corner.

By the time he finished, Quilla was already soaping herself in the shower, and when he entered she kissed him and slid into the tub. She gasped as the hot water lapped up her shoulders.

He turned off the water and stood for a moment by the entrance, listening to the distant sounds from the barn. He could hear Meya's high, ringing shout, and an answering yell from some adult. Kasirene moved between Tor and barn and village, carrying plates and pots of food. The last of the morning mist had burned away, leaving the day fair and warm. A child's sandal lay abandoned on the platform. Tabor picked it up and looked at it, then put it atop the pile of clothing and stepped into the tub beside Quilla.

"This isn't working," he said after a while. She turned her head to look at him.

"What isn't working?"

"Being a distant father. I've only seen them twelve times in the past two years. It's not enough, Quilla."

"So move here. You know you can live with me if you want, and if you don't you can find a place in Haven. The children can live with both of us -- sometimes in Haven and sometimes at the Tor -- if you don't want to live here."

"What kind of life is that?" Tabor slid down until the water reached his chin. "Living in Haven. Dividing them up like muffins. They're my children, Quilla. I want them."

"Tabor, be realistic. How would a lame man, living alone, cope with a pair of two-year-old twins? Even I can't manage them alone. But there's Mim, and Laur, and Jason, and Mish to help out. Even Meya."

"Children need a father."

"They have a father. They also have an entire house full of family to care for them and love them. They're fine right here."

"They're not with me right here."

"So move to Haven."

"Move them to the Cault."

"Tabor, you know very well that won't work." She pushed at the water.

"The Cault's snowbound in the winter. What if something should happen to them?

Even in the summer the mountains are more dangerous than the Tor. They could get hurt, and you wouldn't be able to get them to help." She looked at him. "I don't understand you. You want the children, but you don't want to move here and you can't take care of them alone up there."

"I don't want them alone up there."

"Then what in the Mother's name do you want?" she said, exasperated.

"Marry me."

She turned to leave the tub, angry, but he caught her wrist and held her.

"Quilla, listen to me. I've wanted to marry you for years. I didn't get in your way when you got pregnant, even though you didn't see fit to tell me about it. I haven't made any trouble for you since. I just want to be with my children. I want to be with you."

"What does that have to do with marriage?"

"Everything, damn it!" He breathed deeply and released her wrist. She sat again, not looking at him.

"You say you don't want to tie me down, that if we married things would be just the way they are now. Except that we'd live together all the time. I don't see why we can't live together all the time without being married."

"Maybe I'm a traditionalist. Perhaps I'm afraid."

"Of what?"

"You might leave me."

"I don't think you've a right to say that. I don't think I belong to you. I go my own way. If I wanted to leave you, and I don't see why I would, it wouldn't make any difference whether we were married or not."

"I'm thirty-three, Quilla. You're twenty-four. That's nine years."

"So?"

"I'm lame."

"And you worry about it more than I do."

"I love you. You know that. I wish you could feel the same way about me."

She looked away and remained silent. He wanted to reach for her, touch her, but instead climbed out of the tub, wrapped himself in a towel, and walked back to the Tor.

She came into the room as he finished dressing, and still had nothing to say.

Jason strode down the hill, a grandchild under each arm.

"Hey, Manny!" he shouted. "How much to ship these out? Price at Shipwright?"

The children howled with glee.

"About four each," Hetch said, frowning. He poked Jared in the belly.

"Maybe a little more for this dumpling. What good are they?"

"Exercise machines." Jason set the children on the floor of the barn.

They joined hands and ran toward the haystacks. Jason watched until they disappeared into a group of kasirene.

"Beer?" Hetch said. Jason nodded and the captain handed him a cold stein. Jason sat in the hay and took a long drink. The barn was almost ready.

Bright flags and banners floated from the lofts and beams, blankets covered piles of hay to make comfortable couches, and the tables were loaded with food and drink. An area had been cleared for dancing, and the musicians were present, tuning their instruments and making jokes. Jason waved to them and tugged at the leg of Hetch's dress uniform.

"Sit down, Manny. We won't have another chance to talk until tomorrow."

"What's to talk about? Beer and dancing, that's enough for one evening." But Hetch sat and held his stein.

"How's Jes doing?"

The captain shrugged. "He's still in love with being a spacer, and until he gets over that he's not going to be much good. Oh, he's fine crew, does what he's told, learns fast, takes orders. He can even figure things out on his own. He's bright, and that's good. But until he gets over this romantic nonsense, he's going to be a lousy officer, and that's that."

"What romantic nonsense? Don't tell me he's fallen for Merkit."

"Don't mean romance that way, Jase. But he's wild about space, got visions of commanding ship in dire emergencies. That sort of stuff. Won't believe me when I tell him the whole idea of space travel is to get from A to B in the most boring way. Excitement's no good up there. Emergencies can kill you."

Jason frowned and drank. "Think he'll get over it?"

"Yeah. Once he gets laid."

"Manny, you've got to be kidding. Jes is a virgin? After two years in space? Don't you give him planet leave?"