Page 43 of The House of the Red Balconies

Zo swung his feet out of bed and went to the door, aggrieved that Hylas had been driven away so abruptly. Of course he wouldn’t come back.

Mistress Aula didn’t open the door herself before Zo got there, a mark of how pleased she evidently was with Zo at the moment. She was smiling when he opened the door, although the smile dimmed somewhat when she saw him.

“You look like a wreck.”

“Thanks. I feel great, too.”

“You need to take care of yourself.”

“I do. I was. I had to get up to answer the door.”

She sighed. “Right. Well, there’s a message for you from Timon of Kos.” She presented a tablet tied with a red ribbon. “So, that’s good. You, um, go rest or whatever you need to do.”

He went to drop down onto his divan after she left, where he untied the ribbon around the tablet and flipped it open. It was just a note to tell him that Timon was busy and wouldn’t be able to see him for a few days.

He hadn’t finished his tea or touched the buns that Hylas had brought that morning, and now they were all the way on the other side of the screen at the far end of the room. He leaned his head back against the cushions and closed his eyes.

Another knock, this time Hylas’s characteristic soft tap at the garden door. Zo’s eyes popped open.

“Come!”

Hylas slipped back into the room.

“I thought you’d gone.”

“I came back.” He disappeared behind the screen by Zo’s bed and reappeared with the tea tray.

“What would I do without you?” Zo sat up and accepted the bowl which Hylas had refilled with hot tea.

“Who’s the message from? If—if it’s my business. It’s probably not my business.”

“It’s Timon. He’s trying to play hard to get.”

Hylas sat on the divan next to him, not very close. “Is that, um, how that’s supposed to work?”

“No.” Zo laughed. “It’s a terrible gambit. I wish he’d just go away. I don’t want to have to be the one to tell Mistress he’s not a good prospect.”

“I’ll try to get the governor here before you have to,” said Hylas, apparently serious.

“Is he still speaking to you? I thought we were afraid he was going to fire you for getting thrown up on.”

“No, we’re on good terms again, I think. He apologized.”

“Good man. Well, invite him, then. By all means.”

He was humouring Hylas, of course; he didn’t really think the governor of Tykanos was likely to take up with him. A man like that would take a mistress from one of the big houses, someone with more status in the town than Zo would ever have. It would be foolhardy of him not to, no matter what his personal preferences might be.

“I have to go, I’m afraid,” Hylas said, getting to his feet. “Do you need anything else?”

“No. I’m all right. I might go up and work with the girls for a while later.”

“Good. I’m—I’m so glad you’re doing that again. Well. I’m off.”

Zo sketched a lazy wave and watched Hylas leave through the steam from his tea. He wondered if Hylas too had felt that it would have been natural for him to lean down and give Zo a parting kiss. No, probably not.

CHAPTER 14

For the first two weeks of the new year, Governor Loukianos did not go out to any of the tea houses. He didn’t come to the government office much, either. Exactly what he was doing, in the dead of winter when he couldn’t reasonably be gardening, Hylas didn’t know. He wavered between feeling worried for the man, that he was perhaps sliding into a depression, and annoyed with him. He needed Loukianos to come to the Red Balconies to meet Zo, and he also needed him to do something, anything really, to help with the stalled aqueduct project.