II
Lyddy was curious about her husband-to-be and kept trying to find out all about him. Fortunately, in the code of the Far Planets, a man's past was his own business, so he was able to be evasive without actually lying to her. Not that he had any scruples, about lying; it was simply easier to tell as few stories as possible, rather than worry about keeping them straight.
But it was all right to ask about a man's present. "Do you have anybody, Len? Relations, anything like that?"
He frowned a little, remembering the boy on Fairhurst. "No," he said, "I have no relatives. I have nobody."
Her face fell. "It would've been kind of nice to have a ready-made family."
"Oh, I don't know," he said. "There are times when it's better to have no family."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. They might not approve of me."
"We'll be everything to each other," he assured her.
There was a ghost of a sound then—a laugh or a sigh. He hoped she didn't hear it.