“I am not an’laik’in” he said gently, taking the offered seat.
“I’m sorry. If I offended—”
“You did not. Ronan is sufficient.”
“Yes, of course.” She pulled a brightly painted chair opposite his and folded her hands in her lap. “I’ve been trying to understand, but there is so much I don’t know.”
“You were chosen as crew for the Pegasus. You must know a great deal, An Montague.”
“Lizbet. In Low Town, we never—” She hesitated, clenched her fists together. “Magnus Jesper took me in when I was very young, gave me an education, and prepared me for my duties on the Pegasus, as he did with Kord. Except for Captain D’Accorso, I’m the only Dharman woman on board.” As if by habit, her hand rose again to adjust the head-cloth.
“You wear this veil only on Dharma,” Ronan said. “Cynara does not.”
“The captain is different from any woman I’ve ever known.” She lowered her gaze. “You saw how it was in Middleton. But Cynara is a D’Accorso. That means a lot in Elsinore.”
“Is it also significant that she is a telepath?”
“Many D’Accorsos have the ability, like the other burgher-lord families. But female telepaths aren’t allowed to use their abilities. Cynara told me once…” She hesitated, biting her lower lip. “The lords are afraid their women will be corrupted by unsuitable thoughts from men, and that they’re too weak and irresponsible to control their powers. Girls are punished if they are caught using telepathy. They’re supposed to pretend it doesn’t exist.”
“Is this punishment the reason why Cynara left her House on this world to create her own?”
“There are so many reasons. I used to look up through the haze of Low Town and try to see the stars, imagining places where a woman could be anything she chose, and the people who lived there. Now I don’t have to imagine. I think the captain felt the same way.” She flushed, as if she had revealed more than she had intended.
Ronan probed lightly, feeling the artless sincerity of her words. He tried to remember when he had last experienced such naive joy about the future. If he ever had.
“Can I help you in some way?” she ventured after a silence humans always felt so obligated to fill. “Would you like me to show you the grounds? There are some lovely views from the garden.”
“I have come for guidance, An Lizbet. Human ways still confuse me.”
“What do you need to know?”
“How human females desire to be approached for mating.”
She sprang from her chair, skin very red, and subsided back into it. “Oh. I…”
“Have I offended?”
“No. Not at all. It’s just… It’s strange to be able to talk to a man as an equal, especially—” She placed her palms against her cheeks.
“Are there no males on the Pegasus who speak to you as an equal? Others of your Path?”
“The Dharmans ignore me. Kord… frightens me. But you don’t.” Her throat moved. “Do you… do you love her?”
“Love.” The word so startled Ronan that he was unable to speak.
He knew roughly what it meant. There were equivalents in Voishaaur, one which described the affection between a child and a nurturer, and another used only to express the bond between lifemates. It did not apply to mating-for-pleasure, or even to mating-for-children. The relationships among those of the same Line, or close childhood companions, were described in different ways.
“I do not understand ‘love’ as humans define it,” he said. “When do humans love other humans?”
She frowned. “I never thought about explaining it. We love our mothers and fathers, sisters, brothers, and friends. And if we’re lucky, we find one person to love above all others.”
“Humans also lifemate?”
“You mean stay together for life? On Dharma, in Middleton and High Town, parents still arrange marriages, and those are usually not based on love. They’re made to increase wealth or political power, and for children to bind two families.”
“Your culture compels male and female to remain together as lifemates even when there is no true bond?”
“We would consider it… immoral otherwise.” She radiated apology, shoulders tucked in and head lowered. “A woman who bears a child out of wedlock is outcast.”
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