She came and stood over the crib.
Peter reached down and flipped something. A paper.
"What is it?" she asked. In a whisper.
He shrugged.
If he didn't know what it was, why had he pointed it out to her?
She pulled it out from under Ramon. It was an envelope, but it didn't contain much.
Peter took her gently by the elbow and guided her out the door. Once they were in the hall, he said softly, "You can't read in that light. And when Ramon wakes up, he's going to look for it and be very upset if it isn't there."
"What is it?"
"Ramon's paper," said Peter. "Petra, Bean put it there before he left. I mean, not there. It was in Rotterdam. But he tucked it under Ramon's diaper as he was lying asleep in bed. He meant you to find it there. So it's been there every night of his life. It's only been peed on twice."
"From Bean."
The emotion she could deal with best was anger. "You knew he had written this and--"
Peter kept the both of them moving out of the hall and into the parlor. "He didn't give it to me or anyone else to deliver. Unless you count Ramon. He gave it to Ramon's butt."
"But to make me wait a year before--"
"Nobody thought it would be a year, Petra." He said it very gently, but the truth of it stung. He always had the power to sting her, and yet he never shrank from doing it.
"I'll leave you alone to read it," he said.
"You mean you didn't come here for my homecoming so you could find out what was in it?"
"Petra." Mrs. Delphiki stood in the doorway to the parlor. She looked mildly shocked. "Peter didn't come here for you. He's here all the time."
Petra looked at Peter and then back and Mrs. Delphiki. "Why?"
"They climb all over him. And he puts them down for their nap. They obey him a lot better than me."
The thought of the Hegemon of Earth coming over to play with her children seemed freakish to her. And then it seemed worse than freakish. It seemed completely unfair. She pushed him. "You came to my house and played with my children?"
He didn't show any reaction; he also stood his ground. "They're great kids."
"Let me find that out, will you? Let me find it out for myself!"
"Nobody's stopping you."
"You were stopping me! I was doing your work in Moscow, and you were here playing with my kids!"
"I offered to bring them to you."
"I didn't want them in Moscow, I was busy."
"I offered you leave to come home. Time after time."
"And let the work fall apart?"
"Petra," said Mrs. Delphiki. "Peter has been very good to your children. And to me. And you're behaving very badly."
"No, Mrs. Delphiki," said Peter. "This is only slightly badly. Petra's a trained soldier and the fact that I'm still standing--"