Vardin shook her head.
Ramsey was anxious all at once, though. Things had gone too smoothly. They had not been interfered with at all. Personally, things hadn’t gone smoothly with Ramsey, but that was another story. He found himself liking Margot Dennison too much. He found himself trying to hide it because he knew she could read minds. Just how do you hide your thoughts from a mind reader? Ramsey didn’t know, but whenever his thoughts drifted in that direction he tried thinking of something else—anything else, except the proto-man letter.
“Yes, that’s just what I was thinking,“ Margot said in the boat. “I can read minds, so I’d know best if we were being watched. To get a clear reading I have to aim my thoughts specifically, but I can pick up free-floating thoughts as a kind of emotional tone rather than words. Does that make sense?“
“If you say so. What else did you read in my mind?“
Margot smiled at him mysteriously and said nothing.
Ramsey felt thoughts of proto-man nibbling at his consciousness. He tried to fight them down purely rationally, and knew he wouldn’t succeed. He grabbed Margot and [p 107] pulled her close to him, seeking her lips with his, letting his thoughts wander into a fantasy of desire.
Margot slapped his face and sat stiffly in her cloak while he paddled to the other side of the river. Vardin sat like a statue. Ramsey had come to a conclusion: he did not like letting Margot know how he felt about her, but it was mostly on a straight physical level and he preferred her discovering it to her learning that he’d read the proto-man letter from her father. In his thoughts, though, he never designated it as the proto-man letter from her father. He designated it as X.
When they reached the bank, Margot said: “I’m sorry for slapping you.“
“I’m sorry for making a pass.“
“Ramsey, tell me, what is X?“