t by intent, myself_, he
thought. _What a way for a Space Guard officer to die._

He wondered if Rockford would ever inform Headquarters that Lieutenant
Dale Hunter had died in the line of duty--by whatever twisted logic this
insane episode could be called duty--and he wondered how the
Commemoration Roll would read for him.... _Displaying courage above and
beyond the call of duty, Lieutenant Hunter sat conspicuously on top of a
hill and calmly waited for ten assassins to slaughter him...._

"It's peaceful and quiet here, isn't it?" Lyla said.

He had been trying to watch four different directions at once and he
realized that the constant swiveling of his neck was causing his stiff
blouse collar to slowly cut his throat. And he saw that it was--for the
moment, anyway--peaceful and quiet where they sat. The sun was warm and
golden before them, bright flowers sweetly scented the air, and giant
rainbow moths were fluttering over them, their tiny voices like the
piping of a thousand fairy flutes.

"I wish I had been born a country girl," Lyla said. "I'd like to have a
life like this, and not--what mine will be."

He asked the question to which he had to have the answer:

"Once you were going to marry Val and live on Jardeen, weren't you?"

"I ... so my foolishness is no longer a secret?"

"Foolishness?" he asked.

"We met two years ago when I was attending the Fine Arts university on
Jardeen. I was younger and a lot more naive then than I am now. I
thought we were desperately in love and would get married as soon as I
finished school and would live happily ever after, and all that."

"And it didn't turn out that way?"

"I had to make that promise to Daddy and when I wrote to Val about it,
he seemed to approve. He didn't suggest I renounce the proxy marriage
when the time was up, or anything. He just wrote that I knew what I
wanted to do. He seemed relieved to be free to go ahead with his
political career."

"I see," he said, and then, "you don't feel bad about it, do you, Lyla?"

"Feel bad? I wouldn't marry Val Boran if he was the last man on Vesta!
Even Lord Narf isn't as self-centered as _he_ is!"

"You don't have to marry Narf either," he said. "You know that."

She looked down at the ground and said in a dead voice, "I made a
promise."

"Rockford told me that your father never really knew Narf--that on the
few times they met, Narf put on the act of being a refined gentleman,
very respectful toward the