“Oh, like Cerisa’s office,” Nolan said with a grin.

Pakt smiled back. “Even more so. But that’s the right idea.”

“Well, you keep it pretty clean. If I had a—a hoker—”

“Hoechter.”

“It would be a mess.”

“Don’t you clean your own apartment?”

“I have a service,” Nolan answered. “Why—do you do all your own cleaning here?”

“Not me. My wife.”

Ah, the silent woman in the kitchen who acted so much like a servant in fact was treated like one. Nolan thought he kept his expression neutral, but Pakt was regarding him with a gently ironic smile.

“I can see it troubles you, the way this household is run,” he said softly. “But you are judging by your own standards, and not mine. And not my wife’s.”

“I didn’t mean—that is, you are mistaken—I don’t—” Nolan tripped over the words, unable to frame a coherent disclaimer.

Pakt waved him to silence. “Mine is a world where everything runs most smoothly if everyone’s position is—not only defined, but honored. Running a household efficiently, raising healthy children, and seeing to the needs of the people under her care are considered great and grave tasks. A woman who performs them well feels a justifiable pride and has an envied place in her community.”

“I’m sure that’s true,” Nolan said in a low voice.

“But you see the life as circumscribed. Valueless.”

“Not valueless,” Nolan said hastily. “Restricted, yes. There are so many other things a woman can do in this world—”

“More important things? Than bearing and raising children? I know the indigo think so, but how can that be? The female body has been designed with a capability the male body cannot possibly duplicate. You’re a scientist, Nolan. Why would nature create a being with specific, unique abilities and then expect that being to function as if those abilities were not a part of its makeup? Why would nature create wings for a bird if the bird was not meant to fly? Or silk for the spider if it were not meant to spin a web? We are all, to some extent, defined by our biology. Why would we try to reverse or deny it?”

“Yes—true—only women can actually bear children, but that is not all their bodies can do,” Nolan said, floundering a little. He could not believe he was having this debate, at close to midnight, in the house of a guldman who was his host. He had never attempted to think it through; he had never expected to have to defend what seemed to him such basic tenets. “You may as well say that since humans have mouths and digestive tracts, all they were designed to do is eat. We’re all complex organisms, designed to perform a multitude of tasks. We shouldn’t be defined by one aspect of our bodies or one function of our brains.”