Page 43 of Jace

“I don’t have much of a sense of humor,” Jace replied evenly.

“Why not?” she asked.

“I don’t really understand what makes people laugh,” he said, scratching the back of his head and looking down at his feet.

Susannah gaped at him, shocked.

What he was saying made sense. He hadn’t laughed at a single one of her dumb nervous jokes since they met. She had thought he wasn’t dignifying them with acknowledgment. But now he was saying he didn’t get humor?

“I want to explain it to you, but it’s hard,” she said thoughtfully. “A lot of times humor is when something is out of place - like me in the gown adopting the baby.”

“To me, humor seems to be based on humiliation or pain,” Jace said lightly. “You were embarrassed and inconvenienced by that gown. Your feet were badly hurt. And I judged you harshly, thinking you might not be a fit person to care for a child on a frontier moon. This does not make me smile.”

That was a lot to unpack.

“I didn’t think about it that way,” she managed. “But me wearing the gown isn’t what’s funny. It’s why I wore the gown that is funny.”

“The staff of the adoption agency, who are meant to prepare you to care for a child, instead made you wear dangerously inappropriate clothing for a reason that exposes their lack of cultural understanding,” Jace said. “This does not make me smile. It makes me sad and worried.”

“Sweet stars,” she murmured.

“Have I gotten it wrong?” he asked.

“No, but I’m starting to think maybe I have,” she admitted. “Surely, all humor isn’t so dark.”

“You let me know if you can think of something humorous that doesn’t involve humiliation, pain or both,” he told her. “For now, let’s explore your new home. If there is anything dangerous here, we must find it now, while it is light.”

“Good thinking,” she said, nodding. “Where do you want to start?”

“Let’s explore the area around the house,” he suggested. “We’ll see if we can find anything indicating who was here earlier with those berries.”

“Sounds good,” she said. “How far from the porch should we start?”

“Let’s go all the way to the path that enters the clearing,” he said. “We’ll walk in the grass, so we don’t disturb the trail.”

The brisk morning air was so fresh, and the view over the lush clearing so pleasant, that Susannah couldn’t bring herself to worry, even though they were essentially investigating a crime scene.

“It didn’t rain overnight,” Jace said.

“So, if there are clues, they should still be here,” Susannah said, nodding. “Unless animals or the wind interfered.”

“Exactly,” he agreed.

They reached the end of the clearing and turned back.

Susannah was already pretty sure there were no clues. She had been scanning the path on the way up. But maybe another angle would reveal something different.

The path appeared to be undisturbed almost until they reached the house.

“Wait,” Susannah said, looking at scuffle marks in the dirt.

“I think this is where we dismounted from the float-rays,” Jace said.

“Right,” she replied. “Where are they?”

“They’re on long tethers behind the house,” he told her. “I left them with enough food and water for a week yesterday, but they would usually rather hunt their own.”

“Can they do that on a tether?” she asked.

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