Unseen Academicals (Discworld 37)

Vetinari pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. 'Miss... Sugarbean, there are whole rooms in this palace full of people who want to see me, and they are powerful and important people, or at least they think they are. Yet Mister Drumknott has kindly inserted in my schedule, ahead of the Postmaster General and the Mayor of Sto Lat, a meeting with a young cook with her coat on over her apron and an intent, it says here, of "having it out with me". And this is because I take notice of incongruity, and you, Miss Sugarbean, are incongruous. What is it you want?'

'Who says I want anything?'

'Everyone wants something when they are in front of me, Miss Sugarbean, even if it is only to be somewhere else.'

'All right! You made all the captains drunk last night and got them to sign that letter in the paper!'

The stare did not flicker. That was much worse than, well, anything.

'Young lady, drink levels all mankind. It is the ultimate democrat, if you like that sort of thing. A drunk beggar is as drunk as a lord, and so is a lord. And have you ever noticed that all drunks can understand one another, no matter how drunk they are and how different their native tongues? I take it for a certainty that you are a relation to Augusta Sugarbean?' The question, tagged on to the praises of inebriation, hit her between the eyes, scattering her thoughts.

'What? Oh. Well, yes. That's right. She was my grandmother.'

'And she was a cook at the Guild of Assassins when she was younger?'

'That's right. She always made a joke about how she wouldn't let them use any - ' She stopped quickly, but Vetinari finished the sentence for her.

' - of her cakes to poison people. And we always obeyed, too, because as you surely know, miss, no one likes to upset a good cook. Is she still with us?'

'She passed on two years ago, sir.'

'But since you are a Sugarbean, I assume you have acquired a few more grandmothers as a replacement? Your grandmother was always a stalwart in the community and you must take all those little dainties for someone?'

'You can't know that, you're only guessing. But all right, they're for all the old ladies that don't get out much. Anyway, it's a perk.'

'Oh, but of course. Every job has its little perks. Why, I don't expect Drumknott here has bought a paperclip in his life, eh, Drumknott?'

The secretary, tidying papers in the background, gave a wan little smile.

'Look, I only take leftovers - ' Glenda began, but this was waved away.

'You are here about the football,' said Vetinari. 'You were at the dinner last night, but the university likes its serving girls to be tall and I have an eye for such things. Therefore, I assume you made it your business to be there without bothering your superiors. Why?'

'You're taking their football away from them!'

The Patrician steepled his fingers and rested his chin on them while he looked at her.

He's trying to make me nervous, she thought. It's working, oh, it's working.

Vetinari filled in the silence. 'Your grandmother used to do people's thinking for them. That trait runs in families, always on the female side. Capable women, scurrying about in a world where everyone else seems to be seven years old and keeps on falling over in the playground, picking them up and watching them run right out there again. I imagine you run the Night Kitchen? Too many people in the big one. You want spaces you can control, beyond the immediate reach of fools.'

If he'd added 'Am I right?' like some windbag seeking applause, she would have hated him. But he was reading her from the inside of her head, in a calm, matter-of-fact way. She had to suppress a shiver, because it was all true.

'I'm taking nothing from anybody, Miss Sugarbean. I am simply changing the playground,' the man went on. 'What skill is there in the mob pushing and shoving? It is nothing more than a way of bringing on a sweat. No, we must move with the times. I know the Times moves with me. The captains will moan, no doubt, but they are getting old. Dying in the game is a romantic idea when you are young, but when you are older the boot is in the other ear. They know this, even if they won't admit it, and while they will protest, they will take care not to be taken seriously. In fact, far from taking, I am giving much. Acceptance, recognition, a certain standing, a gold-ish cup and the chance to keep what remains of their teeth.'

All she could manage after this was, 'All right, but you tricked them!'

'Really? They did not have to drink to excess, did they?'

'You knew they would!'

'No. I suspected they might. They could have been more cautious. They should have been more cautious. I'd prefer to say that I led them along the correct path with a little guile rather than drove them along it with sticks. I possess many types of stick, Miss Sugarbean.'

'And you've been spying on me! You knew about the dainties.'

'Spying? Madam, it was once said of a great prince that his every thought was of his people. Like him, I watch over my people. I am just better at it, that's all. As for the dainties business, that was a simple deduction from the known facts of human nature.'

There was a lot that Glenda wanted to say, but in some very definite way she sensed that the interview¨Cor at least the part of it that involved her opening her mouth¨Cwas over. Nevertheless, she said, 'Why aren't you drunk?'