‘What can I do?’ Karen replied. ‘I’m not sure I can ask Brenda. If I’m wrong, she’d be horribly embarrassed, wouldn’t she?’ ‘Yeah, p...obably,’ Jason said. ‘I guess I’d be if somebody asked me if I was gay.’ Karen smiled at him. ‘We certainly know that’s not the case, don’t we, my darling?’ she said, and gently stroked his face with her fingers. Jason felt himself blushing. ‘Ah…yeah…I…I guess we do,’ he stammered. ‘That music sounds so nice,’ Karen said. ‘Would you like to dance with me again,. Off Earth concubines are considered pests by the Aliens. An unwanted concubine may be killed and no one will care." I would if I was the unwanted concubine," Lenore said."You'll never be unwanted," I reminded her as I reached out to touch her hand. Lenore smiled at me and put a hand on my shoulder.Jessica frowned. "Anyways. Once they are off planet, if a male concubine tries to take over, they can be killed immediately. And the aliens have some method in place to prevent concubines from. " Nigel observed. "She shouldsound as if she was looking forward to inviting us into her home. Weneed a little more eagerness."Pam nodded, smiling. "I'll do my best, sir." Are you an experienced cook, Mrs. Merrywether?" Ida asked.Pam shrugged. "My first cooking days were when I used baking toys as akid. You know...the ones where you can actually create edible foods?I've been watching cooking shows and reading cookbooks ever since. Neverreally thought about promoting those skills like this,. Work was piling up on her desk with alarming regularity, yet her brain was refusing to process any of it. Maybe Sara had made a good point earlier. Maybe she had indeed fried her little grey cells. Or, more likely, simply pickled them. Whatever it was, she had had enough and wanted to go home. But since the day didn’t officially finish until half five, she took a meandering route to the water cooler for a drink. There was only so much coffee she could drink in one hour. She decanted a plastic.