“More than enough, as far as I’m concerned,” White Haven agreed with a sour chuckle. “Your autocratic, aristocratic, stiff-necked, politics-hating husband is going to be up to his neck in them for the foreseeable future. I’m sure we’ll be spending all too many nights discussing the entire depressing topic over dinner.”

“That’s as may be,” she replied serenely, then smiled ever so slightly. “Actually, it should be rather interesting. You may not like politics, but that doesn’t mean I don’t, my dear!”

“I know,” he said glumly. “In fact, that’s about the only consolation I see.”

“Oh, come now!” she scolded. “There’s always Samantha, you know. I’m sure she’ll be happy to bring her perspective to bear on your political problems.”

“That’s all we’d need!” Honor laughed. “I’ve spent decades trying to explain two-leg-style politics to Stinker here.” She reached out and tugged on one of Nimitz’s ears, and he swatted her wrist with a true-hand. “I can hardly wait to see what Her Nibs would have to say about them!”

“You might be pleasantly surprised, my dear,” Emily told her. “In fact, Samantha and I have been having long and fascinating conversations about the differences between the People and us two-legs.”

“You have?” Honor looked at her with interest.

“Oh, yes.” Emily laughed quietly. “Fortunately, I only had to learn how to read her signs. She understood me just fine when I spoke to her, which was a good thing, since it would be just a little difficult to sign with only one hand. But poor Hamish has been so busy, what with one thing and another, that Samantha and I have had an opportunity for some uninterrupted ‘girl talk’ behind his back. It’s amazing what… acute observations she had to make about him.”

“ ‘Observations’, is it?” Hamish regarded her suspiciously.

“No one’s telling tales out of school, dear,” Emily reassured him. “On the other hand, Samantha did have several interesting pithy observations on the thickheadedness of humans in general.”

“What sort of observations?” Honor asked.

“Largely on the inevitable differences between a race of empathic telepaths and a race which is ‘mind-blind,’ ” Emily replied in a voice which was suddenly considerably more serious. “In fact,” she went on quietly, “one of her most telling comments, I thought, was that by treecat standards, it’s insane for two people not to admit what they feel for one another.”

Honor froze in her chair, stunned by the totally unanticipated direction Emily had abruptly taken the conversation. She wanted to dart a glance at Hamish, but she couldn’t. All she could do was stare at Emily.

“The societies are quite different, of course,” Emily continued, “so it’s inevitable that there shouldn’t be a direct point-to-point correspondence between them. But the more she and I spoke about it, the more I came to see why a race of empaths would feel that way. They’re right, you know. It’s worse than just senseless for two people who love each other deeply, and who have no desire or intention to hurt anyone else, to condemn themselves to so much suffering and such bitter unhappiness just because two-leg society is mind-blind. That’s not just foolish, it’s insane. And the fact that the two people involved are doing it to themselves because they’re such splendid and responsible human beings that they would rather suffer themselves than risk the possibility of hurting someone else doesn’t make it any less insane. It may make them both people to be deeply admired… and trusted. But if they really thought about it, perhaps they would realize that the person whose pain they’re trying to spare knows how much pain they’re causing themselves. And perhaps, you know, she wouldn’t want them to be hurt any more than they want her to be. And so, if they were treecats instead of humans, all three of them would know what each of them felt. And that no one was betraying anyone by being a loving, caring individual… and expressing that love.”