In which there is something missing from Scholar yo’Kera’s work space.
Er Thom is very carefully concealing from Anne the fact and extent of his disagreements with his mother. I can see how this is the course of action suggested by the principles of hospitality – the aim of ensuring the guest’s comfort might not be served if the guest were aware of the disruptions occasioned by her presence – but I’m not sure it’s the course of wisdom.
The bit about Jin Del yo’Kera’s youth abroad is interesting. A Liaden who had not spent time among Terrans might not have succeeded in finding the connection between Terran and Liaden, if it had even occurred to such a one to try.
(I have a certain fondness for the fact that his treasured memory is of an Aus sheep station. My own grandfather was the manager of an Australian sheep station, though he’d retired by the time I knew him. I don’t recall him ever expressing an opinion on the intelligence of sheep, but he mustn’t have found them too unbearable as company because even in retirement he kept a small flock.)
Well, there’s probably a reason most idioms involving sheep do not speak to intelligence as being one of their common attributes!
I was amused to read the description of Anne staring blankly at the blank wall. (just because both she and the wall are described as “blank’)
Commenting on my own comment above—I guess I had forgotten how often the authors include this kind of wordplay: using two or more different meanings of the same English word almost back-to-back. I didn’t record it, but did notice it again in Accepting the Lance.