Adam Roberts Omnibus by Adam Roberts

Author:Adam Roberts
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

[second leaf]

They had married less than a year after the death of Polystom’s two fathers. Too sudden a wedding, some people said. Stom’s father had died of one of the illnesses that claim old men, and Stom’s co-father had followed him into the ground within a month, despite seeming stronger and healthier than his partner. Polystom had grieved, but not alone. Naturally, at moments such as this, the family gathered round him. Two of his aunts, one of them his father’s sister, and a dozen cousins ranging in age from eighty to twelve, came to the estate and stayed with him. Cleonicles himself, Polystom’s favourite uncle, came down from the moon for a weekend; although he had important science to perform (he claimed) and didn’t stay. All in all, Stom was glad of the company.

Aunt Elena, his father’s sister, had been particularly wise in the ways of mourning, having lost her own love-husband several years before, and having watched a favourite cousin go down to the Mudworld to fight and not return. She had counselled Polystom not to attempt to restrain his grief for the first week, but thereafter to attempt a more manly self-control. Polystom had wept and wailed on his aunt’s shoulder for the allotted seven days, and on the eighth had found it surprisingly easy to control himself. By the end of the month his co-father was dead as well, and Polystom wept again, although the fount of his tears was not as copious the second time. After that his family endeavoured to keep him occupied to the point where absorption in his grief did not stagnate into something unhealthy, but not so much that he was unable to work through the natural grieving process. They swam and fished despite the chill of the Middenstead in Winter Year; they played catch-hoop and netgame on the lawn. Polystom spent time with each of his cousins, getting to know them a little better.

After six months, Aunt Elena began talking of the need for companionship. Firstly, she inquired, gingerly, after Polystom’s preferences. It was awkward, she admitted – given her nephew’s relatively advanced years – that she needed elucidation upon this point: ‘of course I ought to know, dear boy, but somehow I’ve remained in ignorance of the direction in which your passions flow.’

‘Women,’ said Polystom. ‘As it happens, girls.’ Then Aunt Elena began, delicately, discussing possibilities for companionship. Perhaps even marriage, eventually. With his father’s death he had inherited a splendid estate. There was no denying it – it was a large estate, she said. Large, Polystom repeated gloomily, looking through the reception-room window at the dusk-darkening forests, void now of his father’s presence. Large and beautiful, of course, Aunt Elena had added diplomatically. A jewel in the crown of the System. But if Stommi (she used the childhood abbreviation) could find a heart’s-ally, somebody with whom to share the burdens of stewardship … Polystom nodded. He had thought this himself, of course. Perhaps now he was ready for a wife.

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