Ch 4

Mal walked into the banquet hall in the center of town with Heather on his arm. The shindig wasn’t nearly as fancy as the one he’d taken Kaylee to on Persephone. Names were not announced as they walked into the room. There was no invisible screen checking for weapons or a flying chandelier. Instead there was a large hall with hanging chandeliers, crystal by the look of them, which were mounted on a ceiling of mirrors. The hall was carpeted in red. The walls had red and gold floral wallpaper, looked like a print from an ancient Chinese dress. There were about twenty circular tables in the room, each adorned with white, lacy table clothes, crystal wine glasses, and fine silverware of every variety. Mal made a mental note to watch Inara to see which fork to use for what salad and such. Each table seated six folks. This was the Landowner’s Lunch, the first event in a week of festivities that would celebrate the opening of the new textile factory on Three Hills.

There were five days of events planned – all for Landowner’s Only, as if they were the ones who mattered, the beating hearts of the small towns scattered all over the moon. Three Hills was a lot like Shadow in that way. The majority of the citizens were ranchers and hired hands. They didn’t own property of their own, or if they did, not enough to warrant an invitation to a fancy meal. There were sixty male landowners, give or take, on the moon, each of whom had come to the lunch bearing brides.

Heather led the four to their table. The girl was a clever fox. Mal had taken a liking to her immediately. He could sympathize with her plight. It wasn’t right for the Alliance to barge in and take what didn’t belong to them, to change the way of life that the people on this gorram moon had held dear for generations. They took their seats at the table in the very center of the room. Through the labor of some wily manipulation on Heather’s part, Heather Zagorska and Gilbert Crane were entitled to the most prestigious seats at the event. They would be sha