especially your female officers.” He got the word “female” out with only the barest hesitation, Courvosier noted. “I wanted you to see that we’re not entirely barbarians. And that we don’t keep our wives locked in cages.”
Courvosier’s lips twitched at the other’s dry tone, but he sampled his own brandy before he replied, and his voice was level when he did.
“I appreciate that, Admiral Yanakov. But in all frankness, I’m not the one to whom you owe an apology.”
Yanakov blushed, but he also nodded.
“I realize that, yet you must understand that we’re still feeling our way into the proper modes. Under Grayson custom, it would be the height of impropriety for me to invite any woman into my home without her protector.” His blush deepened at Courvosier’s quirked eyebrow. “Of course, I realize your women don’t have ‘protectors’ in the sense that our own do. On the other hand, I have to be conscious of how my own people—my subordinates and the Chamber delegates—would react if I violated custom so radically. Not just how they might react to me, but how they might regard your own people for accepting the invitation. And so I invited