The topic seemed painful to him, so she let it drop. For now. She followed his lead, glad of the etiquette her mother had tried to drill into her when she was a girl.
Funny, she hadn’t thought of her mother in years, but she supposed the old gal would have approved of this situation. For once, Lisbet was behaving like a lady, sitting down to dinner with a rich and titled gentleman. Okay, so he was an alien. Lisbet figured it probably didn’t matter – her mother was long dead.
Still, the thought brought a wistful smile to her face as he uncovered the steaming dishes that had been laid out for them.
The silence lengthened, but she didn’t mind. There was a great deal of information to process here, and if she wasn’t very careful, she might succumb to the captain’s charms. He had said he wouldn’t interrogate her, but she wouldn’t put it past him to try to weasel out information while wining and dining her. She had to be on her guard.
“What amuses you, Lieutenant?” he asked as he poured blue liquid from a wine bottle into her crystal goblet. She watched as he poured another glass for himself. He took a sip before she followed suit.
The flavor was fruity and delicious – and intoxicating, she had no doubt.
“I had a stray thought about my mother. She always despaired of my tomboy ways. She taught me the proper way to set a table, and all the womanly things she thought important, but I always wanted to do stuff she thought wasn’t seemly.”
“Like flying a fighter craft?” One of his dark brows arched, and she got the impression he agreed with her long-lost mother.
“It was good enough for my older brother. Why should he be allowed to follow his dream into the sky and not me?”
“And did you truly dream of the sky, Lieutenant? Did the stars sing to you?” He stared at her over the rim of his goblet, seducing her with nothing more than the tone of his deep voice and the look in his dark eyes.
“Always. My mother despaired, but my granny knew my destiny was in the stars. She had a bit of the
‘sight’, and she argued on my behalf with the family. They listened to the old girl, thank goodness, and let me go. A month after I left Earth, my entire family was killed in an industrial explosion that leveled half the town.”
He stilled, his expression growing very serious.
“I am sorry for your loss,” he said in that deep voice, soft now with true emotion. She gazed into his eyes and met sorrow there. He understood. He’d lost people close to him, too. She knew the look. He’d felt the pain of losing those who made his life whole.
“Thank you.” She dragged her gaze from his and took a sip of the fruity wine. It numbed her throat a bit and dulled the jagged edges of her pain momentarily.
“Our first course is roast waterfowl from Solaris Delta. I believe all the ingredients used by the chef tonight are compatible with your system, but please alert me if you perceive any difficulties. I’ve been surprised by how much alike human and Jit’suku physiology is since I’ve begun my study of your species.”
“Am I the first human you’ve met?”
“Yes,” he answered with some surprise in his voice. “This ship was only completed a few standard months ago. We have only engaged with your folk from afar until today.” He frowned as he cut into the succulent bird with his knife. She was lured in by the delicious aroma of the perfectly cooked meat. It tasted delicious, too. “It worries me that we might have inadvertently engaged with female pilots before now.”
“Is it really that big a deal? I knew what I signed on for when I came out here. Every man and woman in the military knows they could die at any given time. We agreed to the danger when we volunteered to defend our galaxy against your empire’s expansion plans.”
She spoke matter-of-factly. She didn’t see any reason to pussyfoot around the issue, but she also didn’t see any point in getting all worked up. She was a prisoner here, for all that he was treating her like some kind of honored guest.
“Making war on women is not the Jit’suku way. Already the men under my command are speaking of what happened today, worrying that their honor has been stained by what we did to you. It is a very serious matter.”
“Really?” Lisbet’s eyes widened as she regarded him. The man was serious. Wow.
“I would not dissemble. The warrior’s code is very specific and sacrosanct. We do not make war upon females, children, or each other. With so many in the warrior caste, we need these rules to keep peace among ourselves and our various colony worlds.”
“Your people live in a caste system?” She was learning all kinds of things she’d never imagined about her enemy.
“Many males in each generation – usually more than seventy per cent – are born warriors. The rest are skilled craftsmen or artisans. Some have other talents that bring them to their proper caste. As is the case with our women. Is that not the way of human society?”
“The ratio is flipped. Only about thirty per cent of our men go into the military. Usually they’re the biggest and strongest from each world or colony, but not always. Women who want a military career tend to end up in supporting roles – piloting shuttles, doing supply or other organizational roles, simply because we’re smaller and usually can’t fight hand-to-hand the way the men can. Mechanization equals things out, so women are equal with men when it comes to piloting, gunnery, et cetera. But a lot of women don’t seem to go for those kinds of roles anyway. They put us where we are best suited and needed. In my case, that was patrolling the rim until you blew up my ship.” A bit of her bitterness about losing her ship bled through into her words, but she couldn’t regret it. He had to know she was upset about almost dying out there at his hands.
“If I had known you were female, I would never have fired upon you. Even if I had given the order, had my gunner known he was firing on a female pilot, he would have refused, and been within his rights to do so. He was very upset when we discovered your gender.”
“I had no idea you guys were so touchy about women. If my commanders knew this, they’d probably recruit all the women they could to throw at you. I bet that would end the war real fast.”
He frowned, his dark brows lowering as he considered her words. “Which is why I cannot let you go, Lieutenant.” He sat back, ignoring his food while he studied her. “You present a very large problem for me, Lisbet Duncan, and I have no idea what to do about you.”
“Who says you have to do anything? You could just let me go and jump back to your own system, where you belong.”
“Retreat? That is not the Jit’suku way.” His frown deepened.
“It’s either retreat or fire on more women. Can your honor take that chance? I’m not the only female out here. I wasn’t the first, and I certainly won’t be the last.” She challenged him, wanting to zing him a bit, even if her position was precarious at best.
He stared at her for a long time before shaking his head and returning to a more composed state. He lifted his fork and speared another bite of the meat, bringing it to his mouth. She watched him chew, realizing he had the sexiest mouth she’d ever seen on a man. Disconcerting and incongruous as that thought was, she felt her body warm as she watched him. He really was incredibly attractive, even if he was the enemy.
She took her cue from him and returned to her food as well. It was delicious, and she didn’t want to waste a gourmet meal. Not when she’d been living on rations for far too long.
“You said something before about your granny having sight. What did you mean by that?” he asked out of the blue after the silence had stretched.