Once she returned to the apartment, Cheaine went to the message center, checking her contacts she saw that her husband had linked. With a secretive smile, she returned the call. “Darling, I had a wonderful day! But it is still the best part of the day to hear your voice again!”

After a pause, Cheaine heard Rentap chuckle. “Wonderful to hear yours as well. Now how much is this going to cost me?”

“Oh don’t worry about that! You called me,” Came the laughing response. “who are we having to entertain tonight?” Cheaine guessed at the reason her husband called.

“Very well, I will wait.” Rentap, was feeling better just talking to his wife. “Councillor De Markus is coming by. A social occasion. It will just be him, no one else.”

“A social occasion? Just him and no one else?”

Rentap could hear the questions that his wife could not ask, and felt a touch of guilt. He trusted his wife completely. “Yes, so just a small sideboard with a few drinks.”

“Very well, but I do need to discuss something with you, an option I took today.’

“An option?” The surprise was clear in Rentaps voice. “Is it not too soon?” He knew what ‘an option’ meant.

“I don’t think so, Dinis is fifteen going on sixteen and it is time he started practising his manners properly and I think that you will find the girl a suitable subject.” While sexual relations were forbidden under the age of sixteen, and both sexes were closely monitored, the practice of using a lower class girl as a surrogate teacher without sex was not uncommon. This, of course, would be carefully monitored by the parents and as well, by the housekeeper. Sometimes, although rarely, the girl became the boy’s first mistress when they both were of age. Usually they became just too close to become intimate. Also the girl had the right of refusal, without penalty.

“Very well, how long do we have the option?” Rentap was actually relieved to have something to occupy his mind other than the bombshell he had just been handed.

“A standard week, but we can discuss all the details when you get here.”

“I can barely wait.” Came the dry response.

“I am sure,” chuckled Cheaine in her turn. “Will you be on time tonight? And the Councillor?”

“I will be. The Councillor, the twentieth period.”

“Lovely, see you soon then.”

Ending the call, Cheaine went in search of the housekeeper. There was much to do before her husband returned from his office.

*********

Arriving home at the end of the seventeenth period, Rentap handed his hat and coat to his house keeper to stow while he went to find his wife. Knocking and entering Cheaines study, Rentap found and slumped into a chair.

“There you are dear.” Cheaine rose and went to her husband, kissing him on the cheek. Looking at him critically, she saw the unmistakable signs of strain on his face. “Not a good day?”

“No.”

Cheaine stared. This was so unlike her husband she was uncertain what to say. Opting for silence, she shut the door and sat at her desk.

“I had a visit from the police today,” He began.

Cheaine stared, her eyes big. She waited for her husband to continue.

“One of them was a Gray.”

“A Gray?” Whispered Cheaine in spite of herself.

“Yes. There may be trouble.”

“But why? You haven’t done anything!” She stared at him. “Have you?”

Rentap gave a bark of a laugh. “Done anything? According to some, it seems that I have done a lot. I have dealt with the Empire. That is what I have done!”

“But, but what has that to do with anything?”

“These agitators, they are trouble makers and worse.” Rentap stood up and paced backwards and forwards. “They want to cause trouble for me and others who deal with the Empire. That is why the police were there. To warn me.”

Cheaine spoke quietly, “Warn you against what?”

Rentap sighed, he knew that it would come to this. His wife was too intelligent, so it had to be done.

“I said that there may be trouble. It goes deeper than that, there may be violence.”

“What do you mean violence? Against who or what?”

“Against us, against me,” Rentap regarded his wife steadily, then his shoulders slumped. “I really don’t know. The Gray warned me against a lot of things. These agitators go deeper. Even some of us, the High Class, may actually be helping them. The police are getting ready to move against them and there could be a reaction. I don’t know what’s going to happen.” He shrugged helplessly.

“Why would we, the High Class, help agitators?” Cheaine was astonished.

“Out of a misplaced sympathy, the Gray said.” Rentap gestured, showing his agitation. “It really doesn’t matter to me the fact is some are betraying their class. Our class!” He threw his hands up in his frustration. “I feel sympathy for those of the lower classes, but I help by employing them, educating them and giving them work so they can improve their status. Not getting them thrown in jail by encouraging them to violent agitation, that is not helping.”

A chime sounded. “It is time for dinner, my love. Let’s put this off for now. We can discuss it later, and I want you to look at this girl.” She smiled. “I think that you will like her and find her very suitable.” Slipping her arms around his neck in an unusual display of semi-public affection, she kissed him. “Let’s go eat. It’s Sezlu, your favorite!”

“You know me so well.” Rentap smiled. “First I will need to put my homework away, but I won’t delay you long.” As he turned to his study, he stopped and caressed his wife’s cheek then left.

In the family dining room, Dinis and Kapat, their son and daughter, were already standing at their places at the table waiting. Jean, the housekeeper, was laying out the family meal. Both the children were eyeing the delicious soup, a rare delicacy due to the scarcity of some of the ingredients.

Bowing, they chimed together “Hello mother,” then sat down.

“Father will be with us soon. He just has to put away some papers.” Cheaine informed them. “Jean?”

“Yes Madam?”

“I trust that you kept some for yourself?”

“A little Madam.” Jean gave a bow, appreciating the thought while she wished that some of her relatives had found such employment.

With a “Sorry to keep you waiting,” Rentap bustled in. The family all stood and bowed to each other then sat to their meal.

The meal was taken in silence. Sezlu was a rare treat for any family and tradition demanded that the dish be properly appreciated. Finally, with sighs, they all finished. Jean, summoned from the kitchen, was congratulated as she cleared the table and brought delicacies for the after dinner ritual of a family round table. She again assured her mistress that she had kept some for herself. Rentap nodded in appreciation of his wife’s treatment of their housekeeper. After Jean left, the family sat back in contentment.

Dinis spoke first. After dinner, high status children did not have to wait for their parents to speak.

“Mother, I have to ask, what’s up?”

“Why should anything be up, son?”

“Oh mother, how often do we have Sezlu, it’s a dead giveaway!” Kapat put in.

Rentap laughed, in their dwelling, he could express himself somewhat more openly then he would otherwise. “Our children know you too well dear, you cannot hide it from them.”

After giving a nod to her husband, Cheaine relayed her action in taking an option on Camis contract, although she did not reveal her name. Both the children were surprised and pleased. Kaput because she would have a slightly younger girl to mentor and Dinis as they would have a contract girl living with them and she would be the one that he would be practising with. However the warnings were also clear. They were reminded that any breach of the rules would be fully punished and, with the implants, nothing would be hidden! They both took the warnings seriously.

*********

After dinner, Dinis and Kapat subsided somewhat, but later in the evening, Dinis announced himself at Kapats room. Coming to the door, Kapat looked at her brother, her face a picture of polite interest. As she was getting ready for bed, Kapat was dressed in a comfortable and concealing robe over her night clothes. Dinis however had not yet changed, further evidence of the youths’ inner turmoil.

“I think that we need to talk.” Dinis mumbled in embarrassment, he had not come to his sisters’ door in years. Watching her brother as she strolled to a seat in their personal living room, she hid the amusement she felt at his evident discomfort, shown by his restless movements. Climbing into her favorite, comfortable seat on a couch, she decided not to ask and just waited for him to open the conversation.

Not looking at his sister, Dinis wondered how to do precisely that. He had noted that Kapat was ready for bed and this further disconcerted him as clearly his sister was, at least on the surface, comfortable with the idea of their parents purchasing a contract of a young girl. While he had studied the practise at his school, The Central Academy for Students, facing the reality was different.

“I am not sure how to…, I mean how should I deal with this girl. I don’t know how to react.” He stumbled over his words.

Kapat held her look of polite interest with difficulty. What she wanted to do was fall over onto the couch laughing her head off! Considering several answers she settled on, “Deal with? Dinis, it’s a girl, you don’t have to deal with her, try just talking to her! And remember your status as well as your manners.”

“I know,” Dinis replied, throwing an annoyed look at his sister. “It’s just while I studied all this, well, mother and father are going to bring home an actual girl soon and I am going to have to face her.” He flopped into a well cushioned chair, a frown on his face, a youthful version of his fathers. Dinis was growing and promised to be almost as tall as his father while his head was covered with the same straight, dark hair over a lean face and deep-set eyes.

“Look Dinis, it may not happen. Mother and father may not accept her after the viewing.” Kapat leant forward. “You never know.” She gave a teenager’s version of her mother’s elegant smile. Already at fourteen and a half, she was showing evidence of the same beauty that favoured her mother.

Dinis raised his eyebrows as he returned his sisters look. “Reject a girl selected by mother? I don’t think so!” He replied. “If mother felt that this girl, whoever she is, was worth an option, I think that unless she really messes up the viewing it is almost certain that she will be here by the end of the week.” Kapat nodded in agreement, she also had faith in their mothers’ judgement

“Well, we don’t know when the viewing is going to be so we will just have to wait and see.” Kapat suddenly grinned. “As her mentor I will have to show her how to act and I will be watching you!”

At that sally, Dinis made a face. He knew that he would be under a lot of scrutiny over the next few years. He had no idea how old the girl was whose option his mother had taken, she could be just fourteen or even older than him! With a sigh he realised that he would just have to wait and see.

“I guess that I will just have to work it out when the girl gets here,” Dinis said as he stood. “Good night sister, thanks for listening.”

“Good night brother.” Kapat returned to her room while her brother went to his. Neither had ever entered the others room and they never would.

*********

Kapat was restless as she laid in her comfortable bed. She could not help but wonder about the girl that her parents would likely be viewing in the next few days. What was this girl like? It went without saying that she would be pretty, but would she, Kapat become jealous if the girl was better looking than her? Would the girl be sneaky or conniving? Such girls were present amongst the high status and Kapat had already had a taste of them and didn’t want one in her home.

Rolling onto her right side, Kapat pulled at her nightclothes. She would have preferred to wear the lighter, summer clothes as she found them more comfortable, but those were still put away and this is what Jean, the housekeeper laid out and therefore that was what she had to wear. She had already asked her mother but that brought only a soft spoken instruction to dress appropriately, even in their dwelling. With a sigh Kapat rolled over to her other side, her thoughts turning back to the option her mother had told them about at the dinner table.

Knowing her mother, she agreed with Dinis that any girl chosen by her would be more than acceptable, at least in looks and no doubt, in attitude. She would be also properly submissive, at least on the surface. From her own actions, Kapat knew that most, if not all girls in her own school knew how to appear, at least on the surface, as proper, well trained and deserving of their status, high status girls. This girl might be the same with an added edge of fighting for everything that she had earned up to now. With a sigh, Kapat knew that whatever happened, she, Kapat would be at the centre of it and she knew that the family’s status, as well as hers, would have to be guarded.

Turning onto her back, Kapat closed her eyes and with a smile went to sleep. Her last thoughts on her brothers’ turmoil. At least, she thought, Dinis was going to have trouble sleeping tonight!

*********

Dinis laid asleep in his bed, mouth slightly open. Having discussed his problems with his sister, he had changed, gone to bed and was now sleeping the contented sleep of one whose conscience was clear.

*********

In her curtained off alcove, like Kapat, Cami twisted and turned on her bed. The first step had been taken, an option. She wished that she could have called her family but this was not one of the scheduled times for speaking to them. For now, she would just have to wait. Hopefully, she thought, the option won’t be cancelled and I will soon be viewed. Forcing herself to relax, accepting that it was all out of her hands, and that she had taken the precaution of a comm search of the Dressiler's and also had spoken to the manager about the potential buyers, she closed her eyes and slipped off to sleep.

*********

None of the Dressiler's had paid any attention to a story about the arrest of a newsman for conspiracy, assault and agitation in a town in the southern part of the continent, Cami even less so. Even if they had, they could not have imagined the effect of the arrest on their lives.

*********

Councillor Leja Leves had, he had been expecting this as the whole operation had been approved by him some weeks earlier. Now if the judge would only cooperate by passing a harsh sentence on the patsy, for that is what the newsman was. While a death sentence was hoped for, approaching the sitting judge was not an option, but he would be content with any harsh sentence that aroused anger amongst the media types; he could make good use of that.

*********

In her richly furnished and solitary apartment Ardine Makapet had her own concerns. Since her daughter had been to see her, she had wondered whether she should speak up with what she had learnt from her sister, other members of the chain and her own observations. She even had learnt how information, supposedly secret, had been handed to the agitators and passed onto certain members of the media, including the one just arrested.

It was difficult as family members were involved. She knew who the source was and who actually passed the information along to the agitators. But it was family and there were strict protocols involved with family and status. The source and the leak were Li Glwen, Councillor Leja Leves secretary and Ardine Makapet’s younger sister.

Ardine knew what she had to do to protect her daughter, she would visit her sister and give her the formal warning in the traditional manner of her planet. Once given the warning could not be taken back and if disregarded, would mean death for both of them.

As a final precaution, she would gather all the evidence that she had and get it ready to be delivered to her old lover, Minister Trem de Markus.