Being here, I feel like I should be doing my work, and it’s difficult for me to resist working.

“Please sit down,” he says.

I sit, and he does as well.

I can’t speak. Firstly, because my physical body is thinking about being intimate with him and what he might expect. I know almost nothing about Silver sexual practices beyond the weekly masturbation, which he has always been discreet and dignified about. I have no idea about any other sexual customs because they don’t talk about it much, and I’ve had no access to their online information. Second, my mind is preoccupied with my role now as his wife. Do I lose my position as his valet? Do I have to go live on the Home Planet all alone? I don’t want that. I wish to remain here.

“You look as scared as the day you were dragged out of that farmhouse,” he says, offering me a glass of water.

I take a sip and then meet his sharp eyes. “It only just occurred to me that I don’t know much about being a wife.”

“Ask me anything, and I will answer honestly,” he says.

I relax a little. This is more the role I’m used to with him. Not him holding my hand or treating me like an equal, but him teaching me, guiding me through Silver life. I don’t know if I’ll always want this from him, but right now, I most certainly do.

“Am I your property?”

He hesitates to answer but then says, “Not in the way you might have been as a volunteer.”

“What’s the difference?”

“You have a higher status, and when I die, you are not tied to my estate as another good.”

“Do I still have a GC account?”

“Yes, but I have access to your money and control of it if I want.”

“You had that access before,” I say, brushing it aside. I’m not naïve enough to think I would have gained equality through marriage. I want to figure out what rights I might have earned besides the new name of ‘wife.’ “Can I still work?” I ask.

“Yes. However, some of your duties will change with your status. You can no longer do the laundry or enter the servants’ quarters.”

“You want me to stay here with you? There’s only one bed.”

“You are my wife.”

“I know, I just….” I trail off. “This is all so new and so fast.”

The look on his face tells me he’s deciding something; after a minute, he says, “Wife, how about you stop asking questions that are shots in the dark, and I tell you what I expect to happen?”

“Yes. That sounds more efficient.”

“You are my wife, meaning you no longer are a servant. I would be very happy for you to continue taking care of my personal correspondence and dressing me here if you so choose. I will still pay you the same salary, and you can choose to spend that money as you would like. If something were to happen to me, you inherit my wealth unless we have a son. I have no living male relatives. You can send messages just like before with your GC account, and I will not interfere.”