The Forbidden Circle by Marion Zimmer Bradley

approach from him, Andrew had gone hot and cold all over, as if by his own clumsy reactions he might have spoiled something very sweet and precious, very perfect. Even now, when he remembered the brave little joke she had made (“Ah, this is sad! The very first time, the very first, that I lie down with any man, and I am not able to enjoy it!”), he felt a lump in his throat, an immense and completely unfamiliar tenderness.
    For this girl, this Ellemir, he felt nothing of that sort at all. If he had waked up and found her asleep in his bed, he would have treated her like any other pretty girl he found there, unless she had some strenuous objection—in which case she probably wouldn’t have been there at all. But it would have meant no more than that to him, and when it was over, she would have meant no more to him than any of the various other women he had known and enjoyed for a little while. How could twins have such a subtle difference? Was it simply that intangible known as personality? But he hardly knew anything at all of Ellemir’s.
    So how could Callista rouse in him that enormous and unqualified yes , that absolute self-surrender, and Ellemir simply a shrug?
    Ellemir put down her spoon. She said uneasily, “Why are you staring at me, stranger?”
    Andrew dropped his eyes. “Didn’t realize I was.”
    She flushed to the roots of her hair. “Oh, don’t apologize. I was staring too. I suppose, when first I heard of men who had come here from other planets, I halfway expected them to be strange, weird, like the strange creatures of horror stories, things with horns and tails. And here you are, quite like any man from the next valley. But I am only a country girl, and not as accustomed to new things as people who live in the cities. So I am staring like any peasant who never sees anything but his own cows and sheep.”
    For the first time Andrew sensed a faint, a very faint likeness to Callista: the gentle directness, the straightforward honesty, without coquetry or wariness. It warmed him to her, somehow, for all the hostility she had shown before.
    Damon leaned forward, laying his hand over Ellemir’s, and said, “Child, he does not know our customs. He meant no offense. . . . Stranger, among our people it is offensive to stare at young girls. If you were one of us, I would be in honor bound to call challenge on you. Ignorance can be forgiven in a child or a stranger, but I can tell you are not a man who would deliberately offend women; so I instruct you without offense.” He smiled, as if anxious to reassure Carr that he really meant none.
    Uneasily, Carr looked away from Ellemir. That was a hell of a custom; it would take some getting used to.
    “I hope it’s polite to ask questions,” Andrew said. “I could use some answers. You people live here—”
    “It is Ellemir’s home,” Damon said. “Her father and brothers are at Comyn Council at this season.”
    “You are her brother? Her husband?”
    Damon shook his head. “A kinsman; when Callista was taken, she sent for me. And we, too, would like to ask some questions. You are a Terran from the Trade City; what were you doing in our mountains?”
    Andrew told them a little about the Mapping and Exploring expedition. “My name’s Andrew Carr.”
    “Ann’dra,” Ellemir repeated slowly, with a light inflection. “Why, that is not so outlandish; there are Ann dras and MacAnndras back in the Kilghard Hills, MacAnndras and MacArans—”
    And that was another thing , Andrew thought, the names on this planet. They were a lot like Terran names. Yet, as far as he had ever heard, this wasn’t one of the colonies settled by Terran Empire ships and societies. Well, that wasn’t important now.
    “Have you had quite enough to eat?” Damon asked. “You are sure? The cold here can deplete your reserves very fast; you must eat well to recuperate.”
    Ellemir, nibbling at a plate of dried fruit resembling raisins, said, “Damon, you eat as if you had