He eyed her sharply, not missing her repetitious dry reply.
"Which, incidentally," he said, "gives me my first chance to speak with you alone since we took off from Earth."
"That's so. But—"
"Miss Hemingway, you are an exceedingly brisk young woman, attractive and intelligent. May I ask if you have ever taken a lover?"
"Why, no."
"Never considered it?"
She smiled thinly. "Naturally. All women think about it. Most do. I—er—"
Alice let her voice trail away uncertainly. The direct, frontal attack had put her off-balance, but she realized that this was Andrews' direct way.
He had smiled at her uncertainty, and said swiftly, "Then may I be the first—" when he noted the fading amusement in her face and glibly ad libbed—"to congratulate you on your choice of young men? The space commodore to whom you bade farewell in Chicago was an up and coming man, I'd assume."
"I rather imagine he's out here somewhere in the search group," she said.