Mal stared. “Is this …” He couldn’t form the words for a moment. “They took her child?”

“It’s Guild law, Mal.”

“It’s slavery!”

“She signed the contract, as we all did.”

“So you thought they were right? You heard all that and you thought they were right?” He couldn’t believe it of the woman sitting next to him.

“I was seventeen, Mal. Still training, still being formed to be a Companion.” She stood up, needing to move. “Ever since I started the preparation, it was drilled into me to follow their rules. To believe that the Guild Law was right.”

“And you still do?”

“Things … changed.” She turned from him, staring into the hangings on the wall over her bed.

“What? What changed, Inara?”

She turned to face him, her skirt swirling out. “I came on board this ship!” Her voice was loud, less the Companion and more the woman. “I fell in love, Mal. With you!”

“And that would have … they’d have done this to you?” He was appalled.

“No,” she admitted, moderating her tone. “Not at first. But if we’d … if I had taken you into my bed, and they found out, I would have been called before the Guild Triumvirate, invited to explain myself.”

“What, leave me or else?”

Inara sighed and fell onto the sofa. “More or less. I would have been recalled to Sihnon, my travelling privileges revoked, put to work in some menial capacity for a while until I had learned my lesson.”

“And if you’d said no?”

“Mal …” She looked across at him. “I know you don’t understand, and perhaps that’s my fault. I’ve never explained these things to you.”

“Then it’s time.”

“I can’t.” She shook her head. “Not that I won’t, but I can’t. So much of it is woven into being a Companion that it is difficult to pull that thread loose.”

“You’re talkin’ in riddles, Inara.”

“I can’t be any clearer.” She looked down. “That’s what happened to Medori. Someone found out and reported her to the Guild. They gave her a second chance.”

“And she took it. Stayed a Companion.”

“It’s all she’d known,