Flandry dismisses Lady Diana Vinogradoff so that he can talk shop with Aycharaych:
"'I'm sorry, my lady,' he said, 'but I'm about to talk shop, and you're not initiated in the second oldest profession. Have fun.'" (p. 159)
Does he imply that she is initiated in the oldest profession?
"Her eyes flared offended vanity. She whirled about and welcomed the Duke of Mars with far more enthusiasm than that foolish young man warranted." (ibid.)
Many years later, in another novel, Tetsuo Niccolini, Duke of Mars, tells Flandry of a disaster in space near Jupiter and adds:
"'My poor young nephew, that I inherited the Dukedom from, was among the casualties...'"
-Poul Anderson, A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows IN Anderson, Sir Dominic Flandry: The Last Knight Of Terra (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 339-606 AT III, p. 377.
So that was the foolish young man welcomed by the spurned Diana. It is good to see continuity even among background characters.
It is fascinating that a work of fiction can exist as a unit or as part of a great whole. We Claim These Stars/"Hunters of the Sky Cave" has existed as:
a shorter magazine version;
a single volume;
part of a Dominic Flandry collection;
part of one volume of The Technic Civilization Saga.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
No, I don't think Flandry meant to imply Lady Diana was a prostitute (or, if you like, a courtesan). He simply meant spying was almost as old as prostitution.
I think of WE CLAIM THESE STARS as being set late in Josip's reign, about two years before he died. And I think Tetsuo Niccolini's unlucky nephew was killed in that space disaster two years later. So four, not "many" years.
Ad astra! Sean
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