It was not that their invitation had been refused, though it had. It was not that they had never before encountered a Haven patriot, though they had not. It was the manner of the refusal that took the edge off the bright happiness of their departure and provoked random attacks of irritability during the year-long trip home; the words themselves.
When asked if she wanted to return with them to Terra, Nanny Kinaston stared at them with what could only be described as horror.
"You want to take me to Terra," she cried, clutching her throat, "where all the criminals come from?"