Do You Have To Tell Him?
"Who cares for you now... with your papa gone?" Men don't really need women, you see. But women... they sure need men. Don't they?
"Well.. The Ubar is my guardian, if that's what you mean. I live with Mama and an elderly woman who I care for.. she is Letti."
I had been younger than her when I'd lost my own father. A fledgling adolescent at the age of fourteen. I'd only just earned my name and my very first courage scar when it had happened. And right up to that point, I'd been at my father's side almost constantly. We two were inseperable. Make that three... counting Necessity, who'd been the elder Year Keeper's mount for a few decades. When he died, I didn't have the luxury of running to find another man for help. I was forced to become that man. Overnight. It was do or die.
Now the mention of the Ubar being her guardian made me stop dead in my tracks. For there she was, wearing my clothes after having been out all night long. All night long, drinking paga and... being generally naked in my wagon!
What is it, Kazhuye? You knew I sang for the First Wagons, yes? I'm sure I mentioned it before."
"Well..." Now Mrs. Cornwall's snooping might've been easily fended off, despite her apparant reluctance to believe nothing had happened between us all night in my wagon. Despite the fact T'zuri had spilled out of it early next morning... dressed in my clothes! But another man? Pfft. He wasn't going to buy it. Men always believed the worst... mosreso when it came to their own dotters. Or... little girls they guarded like surrogate fathers.
"Are you... do you have to tell him?" Naturally her mother and the other woman she lived with, might demand an answer. But was she gonna tell her guardian... the Ubar??
I was already backing away from her, dreading deep down the answer had to be 'yes!' I knew I'd be in for an ass kickin... sleeping all night with a woman whose guardian is the Ubar himself!
