Page 54 of Single Stroke

“I never expectednotto work. Does that make sense?”

Yas’kihn understood that an Ahn’hudi male expected to labor his entire life, but could not quite grasp the concept of a female who labored outside her home. “Do females on Earth expect not to work? Are you an exception then?”

Louella shook her head and took a deep breath. She needed to retain her calm, rational demeanor, not allow his failure to understand ratchet up her emotions. “Most women on Earth do expect to work. They hold jobs, paying jobs. Many also take care of their families and households.”

Yas’kihn shook his head. “Females on Earth should not live under such harsh expectations.”

“We usually don’t have a choice, Jax. Especially if we’re not married or living with someone who contributes to the household income. When we grow up and leave home, we have to take care of ourselves, earn our own money, pay our own bills.”

Yas’kihn was appalled. “Do your kin not care for you then?”

She sighed. “My mama had all she could do to take care of all her kids. She didn’t even finish high school, so the only jobs open to her were minimum wage. She had a choice to live on welfare or work a job that wouldn’t pay the bills.”

He still did not understand the circumstances or financial realities of the urban poor, but he did understand his mate was distressed. Nuzzling her again, he said, “You are safe from such worries here. I will assure you never worry about such things.”

“That’s not the point, Jax.” Louella sighed, because she’d gotten off-track.

“Then what is the point, pretty spark?”

“The point is that I have skills—valuable skills—and I don’t want to waste them.” She forced herself to cut off the river of words that wanted to spew forth.

“You are the empress consort. You do not labor in a medical clinic,” he stated.

“I get that. I really do. It’s just not done,” she said. “But Evangeline—”

“Lady Evangeline is strong-willed,” he muttered, an under-the-breath indictment of her mates’ failure to control her.

“And really smart,” Louella said. “Anyway, she told me that Ahn’hudin does not have a government agency or bureau overseeing health care.”

“Why would we? Healers are not governed by rules and regulations; they are called by the divine to their purposes. They answer to their god, Yk’sih.”

“See, where I come from that’s a huge problem. In the old days, there were too many healers—we call them doctors—who were not held to any sort of standard. Unfortunately, they harmed a lot of people. So, to protect its citizens, the government regulated them to ensure minimum standards of competence.”

“You worry over nothing. Yk’sih is an exacting god and tolerates no misuse of the knowledge and skills imparted to his devotees.”

She shook her head. “Even in my homeland, religion is regulated—”

“Either dishonor is rampant on Earth, or Earth is populated by imbeciles who require every facet of their lives to be ruled,” Yas’kihn scoffed. “It is good you are here with me on Ahn’hudin. Here you are free.”

Louella could have begged to differ, but didn’t want to get off-track again. “Anyway, I was thinking—”

“Inspired by Lady Evangeline, I suppose.”

“—that Ahn’hudin would benefit from a well-funded agency dedicated to researching why the Ahn’hudi birth rate is so low and why the preponderance of children born are male.”

“Our lore tells us that, pretty spark. We Ahn’hudin are a warlike species. A warlike people needs many more males who fight and die, with the victorious living to breed with our females. The evolution of our species has made us so.”

Louella absorbed that information, unable to contradict him because she did not have any facts allowing her to do so.

“You’ve got a point,” she admitted, “but Ahn’hudin no longer fight among themselves—”

“Who says?” he challenged and gave her a light squeeze. “Pretty spark, I see where you are going with this, and I do not think it will benefit Ahn’hudin. I understand you wish to use those good skills you worked so hard to acquire on Earth. That is admirable. If you wish to teach others those skills, I would not object, for theyhaveproved valuable and will make you much admired among all our people for your compassion and generosity in sharing such knowledge. But Ahn’hudin has no need to regulate or govern what Yk’sih already rules.”

Well, crap.Louella sighed then considered what he’d just said and perked up. “You’d let me teach? You don’t mind that?”

“What you know is valuable,” he repeated and ignored her second question as rhetorical. Of course, he minded, but the good of his people came first. Always. “We Ahn’hudin are not so arrogant or close-minded as to deny the value of knowledge and skills of other peoples. In fact, we are happy to take advantage of it, to learn from it, and to integrate it into improving our own technology and body of knowledge and strengthening our people.”

His words made Louella feel a bit deflated.

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