“Why?”I stopped and looked at him over my shoulder. “Why ... what?”“Why help me? Why not tell everyone? You could have humiliated me in fron... of my own people and the Prince of Ferelden, but you didn’t. I haven’t given you much reason to show compassion.”“So you just assumed I’d be vindictive, and what - leave you to freeze to death? Destroy your reputation? I guess I should be proud to disprove your opinion of me.” I turned away again and took another step.“I’m sorry.”I stopped, mouth dropping. Or take them to a rout, or out riding in a carriage. You understand?"The girls both nodded and both sniffed, looking at me from the corner of their eyes. They were, judging by their dimples, suppressing smiles. Despite their work clothes, they looked and smelled wonderful, soft and rounded, young and more than ready."How can I help you?" I asked innocently.Harriet, the girl on my right, guffawed and put her hands over her mouth. Her sister, a year or two younger, blushed. Their mother took a. “Well, whatever. By the way, you kids did use a condom, right?” Linda asked.“Of course not, why would we need one of those?” I retorted.“Paula’s not on any form of birth control, and she is in the middle of her fertile period!” Linda exclaimed with some panic in her voice.“We are aware of that. Producing offspring is one of the essentially reasons the Consensus allows us to have companions,” I countered.“But Paula is your cousin!” Mom declared in horror.“We’ve been all through this,” I said, my. The county officials started making appearances for the free publicity, along with a couple more news organizations.Duke Justice, the county commissioner whose son had tried to kill me, came in and made a beeline straight to me."How can the county help? What do you need?" he asked."I could use three or four county ride buses to move these people around. I would like to get them where they need to go before dark," I replied."I don't know if we can find any drivers, but I will try. The plows are.