Zeah Korlann begins life in The Voyage of the Minotaur as the Dechantagne’s head butler, but he grows quite a bit as the story goes along.  One of the main subplots in the book is the growing relationship between Zeah and a much younger Egeria Lusk.  In many ways, it parallels the story of Mike and Patience in His Robot Wife.  Egeria isn’t a robot, but she is a genius and pretty much damn well perfect in every other way.  People could accuse me of throwing in one of my own male fantasies, and to that I say– so what.  It’s all my fantasy.

Zeah starts out the story with a noticeable stutter when under stress.  It disappears as the book goes along, but resurfaces in his encounters with Egeria.  Here is one of my favorite scenes between the two of them.

“Well, you’ve outdone yourself, Mr. Korlann,” said Egeria, looking at the food.  “You must have been cooking all day.”

“I… didn’t cook it.”

“I know, silly,” she laughed.  “Even if cooking was one of your many talents, I doubt you would have prepared Potatoes Kasselburg.”

“Is that what they are?”

“Yes.  I had them last time I was in Freedonia.”

“Last time?”

“Mm-hm.  I’ve had to travel Kasselburg and Bangdorf several times.”

“I’ve never been to Freedonia,” mused Zeah.  “I guess I’m not very well traveled.”

“Are you kidding?  Look where we are.  We’re in Birmisia, for heaven’s sake.”

“I suppose you’re right.”

The fish was excellent.  All in all, Zeah thought the meal could have rivaled Mrs. Colbshallow’s cooking, maybe not Mrs. Colbshallow at her best, because at her best she was unrivaled, but Mrs. Colbshallow on an average day.  He thought that he could become used to the Potatoes Kasselburg, sliced and baked and layered with cheese and pepper and some spices that he wasn’t familiar with.  It was a more than satisfactory meal.  They drank water with dinner, but near its end, Zeah uncorked a bottle of fine red wine.

“I was thinking,” said Egeria as she brought the red wine to her red lips.  “The day after tomorrow would be the appropriate day to become engaged.”

“Why is that?” asked Zeah, not really realizing what she had said.

“You know.  It’s the twentieth.  It’s the traditional day of starting new tasks.  It would be a fine time to become engaged.”

“Engaged in what?”

“Engaged to be married.”

“Muh… muh… married?”

“It was good enough for the Bratihns.”

“I wonder… I wonder if Corporal Bratihn went off to fight alongside Master Terrence?”

“Don’t change the subject,” she said.

“I’m not trying to…”

“We don’t have to get married right away.”

“We don’t?”

“No.  We can be engaged just as long as you like.  We need to announce our engagement though so that all of the other men will know I’m taken.”

“Uh… Other men?”

“Many other men.  They’re hovering around everywhere.  They’re like bees.”

“Bees?”

“Yes.  They’re like bees, and I’m the honey.  I can see them just waiting to get their stingers into me.”

“We have to announce our engagement,” he said.

“You have to ask me to marry you first.”

“Will you…”

“Not now.”

“No?”

“No.  You have to think up some very romantic way to propose marriage to me.  You have two days.”

“The day after tomorrow.”

“Good,” she said.  “Now that that’s out of the way, we can enjoy our wine.”

Zeah ran over this conversation in his head again and again the next day, and was never quite sure how exactly Egeria had maneuvered him into agreeing to ask her to marry him.  He knew that jealousy had been the key, but who could blame him for being jealous.  She was young and beautiful, and he was… well, him.  He also knew that she was way too smart for him to outsmart her.  She had said it herself.  She was the most intelligent person in the colony.  So after twenty four hours he was forced to go from wondering how it had happened and how to fix it, to trying to think of a romantic way to propose.