“Inara, why aren’t you at your study?”

She looked up guiltily from the book she was reading. “I’m ... I'm sorry,” she stammered. “I didn’t realise the time.”

Medori Donato smiled down at her. “And you couldn’t pull yourself away from that?” She pointed at the book.

“No, I …”

“Let me see it.”

Inara handed it over unwillingly. “It’s just something I found.”

“Hmmn.” Medori studied the lurid cover showing two people locked in each other’s arms, kissing passionately as they lay, rather improbably, in a hammock strung between two palm trees. “High literature.”

Inara blushed, something the rest of her teachers at the Training House had been trying unsuccessfully to stop. “I wanted to read something romantic,” she explained, dropping her head. “One of the maids got it for me.”

“You know you could be disciplined for this?” Medori sat down next to the young girl on the green satin sofa.

“I know.” Inara’s voice was small.

“You know why it isn’t allowed?”

Inara nodded. “It isn’t real.”

“No. It isn’t. There has never been a time when a man would come along on his white horse and sweep you off your feet, carrying you into the sunset.” Medori put her arm around her shoulders. “And if there were, you can be sure there would be horse shit somewhere along the line.”

Inara looked up in surprise, and just a little shock, her lips lifting just a little. No-one said words like that here. “It wasn’t … I didn’t mean …”

Medori sighed. “How old are you, Inara?”

“Fifteen.”

So very young. “And when will you be sixteen?”

“In three months.” Her eyes plunged to her hands again.

“And you’re not looking forward to it?”

“I am!” the girl insisted. “But …”

“It’s passage into something else, isn’t it? No matter how painless or easy we make it, losing your virginity can be traumatic.”

“Was it for you?” Inara asked, the words spilling from her mouth.

Medori laughed. “It was terrible!” She shook her head. “Not just for me, either. The young man didn’t know wh