“I appreciate the offer, Your Grace, but I have the channels to take care of that myself.”

“Good. And if I may offer one bit of advice—or, perhaps, make a request?”

“Certainly you may, Your Grace,” Allison said. Of course, I don’t have to follow the advice if it violates my own professional oaths, she thought, bracing herself for some last-minute swerve towards suppression of her findings.

“This information must be made public, and the sooner the better,” he said firmly, “yet it would be wiser, I think, to allow the Sword to make the announcement.” She cocked her head at him, and he twitched his shoulders with a small, apologetic smile. “You remain a woman, a foreigner, and—if you will forgive the term—an ‘infidel.’ We learned from your daughter that those were not necessarily bad things, yet some of our people, especially the more conservative, remain uneasy with the notion of women in positions of authority. Including, alas, myself from time to time. I wrestle with it in prayer, and with the Comforter’s aid, I feel I have made some progress, yet I had hoped that Lady Harrington would—”

He broke off, his expression sad, and Allison felt a brief, terrible stab of hurt deep down inside. “I had hoped Lady Harrington would live long enough to change our minds,” she completed the thought for him, and felt her eyes sting. Well, she didn’t. But that doesn’t mean other people can’t pick up the torch for her, and I can damned well be one of them! Howard Clinkscales’ request flickered in the back of her mind as the thought flashed past, but she only looked at Sullivan and nodded.

“I know, Your Grace.” Her voice was just a bit husky. Then she inhaled deeply. “And I understand. I have no problem with allowing Protector Benjamin’s people to make the announcement. Besides, there’s no huge rush about this—your planet has survived for the next best thing to a thousand years with the problem, and I’m nowhere near devising a corrective procedure that I’d feel comfortable recommending, anyway. Better to go through channels and possibly even give the Sword a little while to consider the best way to go public… and what position the Protector should take when it hits the ’faxes.”

“That was very much my own thought,” Sullivan told her. “Nonetheless, I also believe I’ll personally suggest to the Protector that you should be present—and clearly credited with the discovery—when the announcement is made.”

“You will?” Allison blinked in surprise, and he shrugged.

“My Lady, you did discover it, and you and the clinic your daughter endowed will undoubtedly take the lead in devising any ’corrective procedure’ which may be found. Besides, if we’re ever to overcome that ’foreign and female’ problem among our more mulish people,” he smiled and flicked one finger briefly at his own chest, “then we dare not miss an opportunity such as this.”

“I see.” Allison considered him with fresh thoughtfulness. Reverend Sullivan was not only less comfortable with the changes in his society, on a personal level, than his predecessor had been; he was also aware that he was. His faith and his intellect impelled him to accept and support them, but a part of him longed for the stability and comfortably defined roles of the planet on which he had been raised, and that part resisted his own duty to help demolish those definitions. Which made his last suggestion even more impressive, and she felt a deep, warm rush of affection for him.