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matriculate to the academy would have been the end of the line for me. I would have had to accept a low level position within my own clan or marry into a less important business clan. Last year when everything collapsed around me I needed a place to run, also.”
    “The difference between us is that I’ve accepted my fate. You have yet to come to terms with yours.” Etion leaned forward with uncharacteristic intensity. “Remember, Sariana, when you finally do realize that it’s better to be a success here than a failure back home, I’ll be waiting. You and I have a lot in common. Our skills and training compliment each other perfectly. Together we could become very successful here in Serendipity. We would make a good team. Think about it.”
    Sariana sat very still. Etion’s words would have constituted a marriage proposal back home and they both knew it. She inclined her head in a formal, gracious response. “You honor me, Etion.”
    “Think about it,” he repeated. “That’s all I’m asking.” He sat back and picked up his mug. He smiled but his dark eyes remained curiously remote. “I know you have to satisfy yourself first. You have to find out if there is any way you can ever go back to Rendezvous on your own terms. I wasted my first three years here trying to find a way back. But while you search for your own magic ticket, think about the possibilities of a future here with me. We could accomplish a great deal together.”
    “Thank you, Etion,” Sariana said gently. “You are very kind.”
    He grinned unexpectedly. “I’m desperate. If you leave where will I find a sane, intelligent, rational woman with whom I can communicate?”
    Sariana laughed and changed the subject.
    Thirty minutes later Sariana finished her tea and smiled regretfully. “I must be getting back. I have to see how much further into bankruptcy Lady Avylyn is going to take the Clan with her plans for the ball. Thank you for the tea, Etion. You’ll never know how much I needed the break.” She got to her feet. “You will be coming to the Avylyns’ party, won’t you?”
    “Wouldn’t miss it. You’re sure the Avylyns’ won’t mind?”
    “Of course not. They’ve convinced everyone that having an eastern business manager and an association with a bank run by a financial genius from Rendezvous is very trendy.
    It puts them at the forefront of fashion and they love it. They’ve also hinted to everyone that it’s a brilliant financial maneuver. Their friends and rivals are all talking about hiring easterners, too. Who knows, Etion? We may be opening up new careers for all the academy rejects from our homeland.”
    “An interesting thought. The luck of the day to you, Sariana. I’ll see you at the ball.”
    “Luck to you, Etion, and thank you very much for your gracious proposal. I give you my word I will think about it.”
    “Do that, Sariana.”
    Sariana turned away with a last smile and found herself doing exactly as Etion had asked. She thought about his businesslike, practical and eminently rational proposal for a marriage alliance. He was right, she knew. If she was fated to be stranded in this strange land for the rest of her life, Etion would make a most suitable marriage partner for her. They had a great deal in common—including their exile.
    Strangely enough, she found herself more disturbed by Rakken’s proposal than she ought to have been. Not because accepting it would mean giving up on her dreams to go home, but precisely because it had been such a businesslike, practical and reasonable offer of marriage.
    It was ridiculous, but she found herself wishing there had been a little more emotion attached to Etion’s offer. She would like to have felt he wanted her for more personal reasons than because they had business interests in common.
    Sariana sighed. She had definitely been living in Serendipity too long if she was starting to think along such lines. Every young woman of a high ranking eastern clan in