Shayat laughed at me. In that moment, it was very hard to believe Dirva when he said it didn’t matter if I gave her the satisfaction. “He says he’s from Ardijan, Papa.”

“Well, people say many things.”

“Give him a good price, Papa.”

The tailor nodded and opened the door for me. I considered not going in, I considered walking away and wearing those clothes until they fell off of me seam by disintegrated seam, but I caught the way Shayat looked at me. She looked like she expected me to leave, tail between my legs, my pride wounded. I shot her what I hoped was a defiant look and followed her father across the threshold. “Well, professor,” the tailor said, “what style do you want?”

“This style.”

“All the rage in Ardijan, I take it,” he said. He gestured to a bench in the main room of the shop and slipped behind a curtain.

Shayat lingered in the doorway. The robe she had worn earlier that day had been replaced by loose-cut Semadran clothes, which suited her. She was broad-hipped, and the clothes drew attention to her waist where Qin robes hid it. Her hair was long and fell in loose waves down to her elbows, and she was barefoot. My face grew hot. My pride shattered into a thousand pieces. I was undeniably attracted to her, but I would have killed myself before letting her know that. “You’re forty-six, and you live with your father?” I asked. Venom dripped from my voice.

“I am forty-six, and I have rented the attic apartment while I take courses at Ralah University. You’re thirty-nine and have one pair of pants?”

“I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

She laughed and held up her hands. “You certainly don’t. May I ask you a question about the classes?” She smirked and leaned forward slightly, haughty and conspiratorial. “You don’t have to answer.”

“Yes, ask.” I did my best to sound uninterested, but I’m sure it came out strangled and shrill.

“It might help me learn if you taught vocabulary along with grammar.”

I looked over. “But you won’t know what to do with the vocabulary until you understand the grammar.”

“But I won’t be able to work with the grammar until I have some words to use it with.”

“But you won’t get the words right if you don’t understand the grammatical structures.”

“But building sentences in foreign grammar using Qin words makes no sense to me.”

I blinked at her. “That’s what you’re doing?”

“Yes.”

“But I’m just lecturing.”

“There’s no way I can learn a language just by listening to you lecture. I’ve been trying to practice it. But how do you practice speaking a language when you don’t know the words?”