Greed?

    "Weather and storms I am willing to say are his will. Stillborn children, perhaps. Though not when the husband had beaten his wife but the day before . . ."his voice trailed off into some unpleasant memory. Then his eyes came back to his grandmother's face. "I think Sa gave us our lives, and his will is for us to live them well. He gives us obstacles, yes. ... I have heard folk rail against his cruelty and loudly ask 'why, why?' But the next day the same folk will take their saws and go out and cut limbs from their fruit trees, and dig up young trees and move them far from where they sprouted. 'They will grow better and yield more,' the orchard workers say. They do not stand by the trees and explain that it is for their own good."
    He lifted the cloth from his face and refolded it to find a cooler spot. "My mind wanders," he said unhappily. "Just when I want to speak most clearly to you. Grandmother. I do not think it is Sa's will for me to leave his priesthood and live aboard a ship so that our family may prosper financially. I am not even sure it is your will. I think it is my father's will. To get his way, he proposes breaking a promise, and breaking my heart. Nor am I unaware that this unwelcome 'gift' he thrusts upon me was snatched but yesterday from my Aunt Althea's hands."
    For the first time he turned his eyes to Althea. Despite the pain and bruised skin, for an instant her father seemed to look out of those eyes. The same infinite patience cushioning an iron will. This was not some frail, cowering priest boy, but a man's mind in a boy's changing body, she realized in amazement.
    "Even your own son recognizes the injustice of what you do," she accused Kyle. "Your snatching Vivacia from me has nothing to do with whether or not you believe I can command her. It is solely a matter of your own greed."
    "Greed?" Kyle shouted in disdain. "Greed? Oh, I like that! Greed makes me want to take over a ship so ridiculously in debt, I'll be lucky to pay her off before I die. Greed makes me want to step forward and take responsibility for a household with no concept of wise money management. Althea, if I thought you had any capacity to be useful aboard the Vivacia, I'd seize on the chance of making you work for a change. No. More than that. If you could show me but one sign of true seamanship, if you had a single ship's ticket to your belt, I'd make you a gift of the damn ship and all her debts with her. But you're nothing but a spoiled little girl."
    "You liar!" Althea cried in infinite disgust.
    "By Sa, I swear it's so!" Kyle roared angrily. "If but one reputable captain would vouch for your seamanship, I'd hand the ship over to you tomorrow! But all of Bingtown knows you for what you are. A dabbler and a pretense."
    "The ship would vouch for her," Wintrow observed in a wavering voice. He lifted a hand to his forehead, as if to hold his head together.