Allara had no idea what a “cake” was but it seemed rude to say so.
“I am certain it will be wonderful,” she said, trying to smile at Kat.
“Good! I’m going to go arrange for it. I’ll see you later in the tent,” Kat told her and bustled away.
“She’s really professional about all this,” Brand said, and Allara realized he was talking to her. “I hope you like everything we have planned,” he added, looking down at her. “I wanted to learn more about your people but there’s almost no information out there.”
“Is there…more information about other people from other planets, then?” Allara asked him.
“Oh, yes!” He nodded firmly. “Why, long before we ever saw the people of Earth, the Kindred knew they would be good genetic trade partners. That’s because the humans had been pumping out decades worth of entertainment vids for years,” he added. “So we already knew their likes and dislikes and their cultures and religions and customs long before we first made contact. But with the Q’ess…” He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Nothing.”
“I…do not know what entertainment vids are, so I cannot answer as to why my people have not put them out,” Allara said apologetically. “But I can tell you that my culture has…strict rules about privacy. We do not speak about our customs—we simply keep them.”
In fact, among the Q’ess, males and females did not often converse, especially not as freely as she was currently talking to Brand. Though her father and aunt were brother and sister, Allara had never seen the two of them have a discussion like she was having with the big Kindred right now.
Married couples didn’t talk much either. The women stayed home and did the work of raising the children and keeping the house and the men went to work outside the home to earn a living. Their two worlds almost never intersected.
Well, until it comes time to make the children the women raise, I suppose, Allara thought uncomfortably. But she tried to push the thought out of her mind.
“We Beast Kindred don’t make much in the way of entertainment vids either,” Brand remarked, drawing her back to the present. “But the Earth vids can be very entertaining. I’ll show you a few, if you like.”
“I suppose…that would be all right.” Allara nodded hesitantly. He would never get the chance to show her these “vids” whatever they were, but of course she could not tell him that.
“I’m just trying to think of things we can do together,” Brand rumbled. They had entered the cool, white linen tent and come to the head table, where Kat had directed them to sit by now. He pulled out her chair attentively and helped her get seated before sitting himself.
“Do together?” Allara looked up at him uncertainly. Now that they were seated, the difference in their height wasn’t quite as noticeable, but it was still quite pronounced.
“I want us to get to know each other,” Brand told her softly, looking into her eyes. “I know I can’t expect you to love me right away, Allara. So I think it’s a good idea for us to get to be friends, first.”
“Friends?” Allara echoed. The idea was strange to her and not just because she planned to kill him later that night.
Among the Q’ess, there were friendships among women and friendships among men but almost no friendships between men and women. It would have been…unseemly. Strange. What could the big Kindred mean, asking her to be his friend? It would have been considered a mark of degradation for a man on Q’ess to claim a woman as a friend. Not even a man and wife would claim such a thing.
“How can we be friends?” she asked, honestly confused. “When you are a man and I am a woman? What would we have to speak of when I know only women’s matters and all your knowledge is of the man’s world?”
He frowned.
“Is that how they do it on your planet? Total separation between the male and female worlds?”
“Well…yes.” Allara shrugged. “It is the way things are. For what woman could work outside the home and what man would want to learn to do a woman’s chores?”
He raised an eyebrow at her.
“And what exactly are ‘women’s chores’ according to your people?”
“Oh, well…making bread, for instance,” Allara said. She herself had been taught how to do a woman’s work, as all girls of the Great Houses were. Just because they lived in grand domiciles and had impeccable bloodlines did not excuse anyone from learning their duty.
But Brand surprised her by saying,
“I can make bread.”
“What?” Allara stared at him blankly. “How did you learn?”
“My mother taught me.” He shrugged. “It was one of the first things I learned from her. In the Kindred culture, we believe that it’s important for a male to be able to cook and bake.”
“What? But why?” It seemed so strange that Allara could hardly understand it. Why would a man want to learn lowly women’s work?
“Well, so we can cook and care for our bride, when we find her,” Brand explained. “You see, in my culture, females are extremely rare due to the fact that my people are 95% male. We view females as valuable—to be cherished and taken care of.”
“That seems like…a strange way of thinking,” Allara said, frowning. “It is certainly different among the Q’ess.”
“We’ll both have to get used to each other’s ways,” Brand rumbled. “Maybe to start with, we can make bread together. You can show me your way and I’ll show you mine. Cooking together is a good way to get to know each other and build our friendship.”
“But are you not worried that the other men in the ship will think less of you for having a woman as a friend?” Allara demanded. “Will it not degrade your status to claim me as such?”
Brand raised an eyebrow at her.
“I guess among your people males and females aren’t friends very much, huh?”
She shook her head.
“No man would want to degrade himself by having a female friend. Women are lower than men—their thoughts and ways are below a man’s thoughts and ways.”
“Well, that’s another difference between us,” Brand remarked. “We Kindred believe that males and females are equals.”
“Equals?” Allara couldn’t help staring at him in surprise. “But…but only men can do the difficult work outside the home!”
“Not with us,” Brand said firmly. “Our females have jobs outside the domicile if they want them. Did you meet Doctor Olivia?”
“You mean Liv?” Allara shot the yellow-haired Earth woman a glance. She was sitting at a table close by with her mate, another Beast Kindred. “She’s a physician?” she asked, frowning at Brand.
He nodded.
“A damn good one. And her mate, Baird, couldn’t be more proud of her. And Sophia teaches art classes…Lauren owns a bakery. And of course, you know that Kat plans and coordinates all the weddings and other ceremonies aboard the Mother Ship, as well as doing research for anyone going on a mission to another planet.”
Allara’s head was spinning. All the Earth women she had met actually worked outside the home. How could that be?