In which Er Thom and Anne meet again.

This chapter contains the situation in a nutshell: Er Thom and Anne love each other, thrive when together and struggle when separated; all that’s keeping them apart is the entire weight of social convention and expectation on both sides. Easy.

(Communication on the internet has its advantages, but there are times when I miss the ability to convey facial expression and tone of voice.)

It appears my memory let me down again: the Liaden face-touching taboo is explained in this novel. (Of course it is; it’s an important detail. I’m not sure now why I thought otherwise. I expect I was thinking of other stories where it is just an incidental.)