Our wives were wearing long sleeved blouses and the brightly colored sarongs of the lowland Thai. Since both women were pregnant, the sarongs were eas...er to adjust to their conditions than regular dresses would be. Noon also had on a long sleeved blouse, but a more traditional Hmong style sarong that was very colorfully embroidered in abstract patterns around the bottom in addition to having appliques of more organic shapes on the center sections and on the blouse. With their long hair and. "You first." He smiled. She started up, trying to lower the wet shirt around her as she went up the ladder. Ever watchful, she turned in all directions, trying to determine whether anybody from any of the other shacks could see her. She was satisfied there were enough columns between and around the other shacks that nobody could see her.When Jon got in the room, Zoë was sitting on the bed, undoing the French braid. When she had her hair unraveled, she combed it out and started to dry it with a. He passed first through the red sphere, and pain took the expression of madness off his face. In another step, he made contact with the second sphere, and the expression on his face went beyond pain to unmistakable agony. He had begun to try to slow himself, but was carried through the second, orange sphere, into the green third sphere. Here his face contorted such that it was painful to look at him, knowing that the strain of his muscles against the total misery he was feeling must be coming. The animosity that had always before been in her blue eyes was absent, for they had settled the accounts between them. ‘Did you sleep well?’ Jacqueline asked, offering with a wave the sideboard’s tray of pastries and fruit. ‘Far better, I imagine, than our father and brother did.’ ‘How very true.’ ‘But it struck me this morning, Jacques. With the pair of them missing, presumed lost at sea or slain by pirates, that would mean that the estate on Veradoga, and Father’s fortunes – less the ransom.