He loved to bait her, as he had loved to bait his mother. It was safer with Ninian, though, because when he pushed her too far, she would cry instead of mopping up the floor with him.
"But I can't understand," he would say, keeping his face straight. "Why do you have to come from the future to protect me against your cousin Conrad?"
"Because he's coming to kill you."
"Why should he kill me? I ain't done him nothing."
Ninian sighed. "He's dissatisfied with the current social order and killing you is part of an elaborate plan he's formulated to change it. You wouldn't understand."
"You're damn right. I don't understand. What's it all about in straight gas?"
"Oh, just don't ask any questions," Ninian said petulantly. "When you get older, someone will explain the whole thing to you."
So Martin held his peace, because, on the whole, he liked things the way they were. Ninian really was the limit, though. All the people he knew lived in scabrous tenement apartments like his, but she seemed to think it was disgusting.
"So if you don't like it, clean it up," he suggested.