be the best ensign to come out of Owens Steading since Abigail Hearns.
Commander Greentree lost his recruiter vid star grin to a careful blankness. The master chief had reported back apparently.
Claire realized that she'd have to share another bombshell. “Actually, I come from Burdette Steading, Sir.”
Several of the listening officers repeated the steading name for the ones in the back, and this time the entire wardroom stared at her, shocked.
The exec broke the silence from all the way across the room this time. “Wait a minute, here, Ensign Lecroix. That was entirely left that out of the officer's biography sent over from the Ephraim. You gotta tell us how you got a Saganami Island nomination out of Steadholder Burdette.”
Claire swallowed, carefully marshalling her thoughts to try to explain without saying anything that would be horribly misinterpreted, either here in this company or back on Burdette Steading. The less said the better, but this group didn't seem interested in letting this one go without a full explanation. First, brush over the dueling death of Lord William Fitzclarence. No, be honest at least in your thoughts, she reminded herself. It must have been at least an attempted murder of Admiral Alexander-Harrington. She could see in the groups eyes' that they were all thinking about how the last Steadholder Burdette had done his best to kill Admiral Harrington, the first and most impressive woman to wear a uniform in defense of Grayson.
“Um.” Great, Claire, she told herself, brilliant start. “Lord Burdette was good enough to nominate me for a position, Sir.”
She paused as some of the officers murmured to each other that this was Nathan Fitzclarence, the cousin who had inherited the steadholder position after William's duel.
Lieutenant Loyd watched Claire with his lips parted as if he were trying to find a way to ask more without taking her into another orbital minefield. She wished he'd just stop and let the subject change.
“What was he thinking?” The lieutenant finally asked, and Claire tried to shrink into the wall.
“Steadholder Owens sent Abigail Hearns the year before,” she said. “The Protector seemed to approve . . .” Claire did blush now, and fiercely. “I really don't understand all the politics, Sir, but Lord Burdette was only interested in nominating girls that year. Our elder said, ah, not very nice things, but Lord Burdette said that we were to try, and when it got too much for our, um, sensibilities he'd see what he could do to help us marry properly. But that he had to show Cr—”
The CO coughed, loudly, and Claire realized she had almost said Crazy Benjie, the barroom nickname for the protector common under the old Steadholder Burdette.
“Ah, he said he had to show Protector Benjamin that Grayson women weren't meant to be like Steadholder Harrington.”
A baffled silence followed, and even Rustin seemed completely speechless.
Lieutenant Loyd spoke first with: “I'm totally lost. You were sent to Saganami Island with directions to quit. So what happened?”
Claire just glared at him entirely forgetting the last five years of carefully developed military courtesies. “It's a good job.”
Loyd's jaw dropped again but in a wide open-mouthed smile. He turned to the Commander Greentree and the exec. He called across the room, as if everyone hadn't already heard Claire's response, “It's a good job, Captain.”
Claire contained her glare, barely, by keeping it focused on her amused lieutenant instead of her CO.
“A steader can't just quit a good job.” Her intended soft reply rasped with anger, carrying clearly back across the room, and she strangled the volume back to a whisper in an attempt to control the thoughts spilling out. “I got people to keep fed, you-” She managed to not use the disparaging term for scions of steadholder families that came to mind.
Claire pleaded with her lieutenant, “Sir, I can't go dropping a good job just 'cause someone thinks it should be too hard.”
Her bottled rage simmered as she thought: Hard? What did a steadholder's family know about hard jobs anyway?
Lieutenant Loyd just stood in front of her shaking with laughter interpreting her fury as just slightly off-color humor.
The next man had to take several minutes to finish guffawing before asking his question. Now all the questions were about Burdette. None of them noticed that she didn't find her situation funny. It didn't seem to matter what she said. They all thought it was a phenomenal joke.
Most of them now said things on the theme of “Can't keep a good steader down.” Slowly Claire realized that most