At five o'clock the ladies retired to dress, and at half-past six Rey was summoned to dinner. The afternoon had been devoted almost entirely to matters of war and state, and both Rey and Finn dreaded the prospect of the much more sociable event of dinner. To the civil inquiries when then poured in, and amongst which Rey had the pleasure of distinguishing the much superior solicitude of Captain Dameron's, neither she nor Finn could make honestly favourable answers. The First Order party, on detecting their hints at wanting to be gone, repeated three or four times how they were honoured by their presence, and how excessively they disliked public meetings on Merytonia; and then thought no more of the matter: and their indifference towards Finn when it did not immediately benefit them to respect him restored Rey to the enjoyment of all her former loathing.

Captain Dameron, indeed, was the only one of the party whom she could regard with any complacency. However, their close confinement made her worry that suspicions of the friendship and affection which subsisted between them would arise in the minds of General Hux and Mr. Ren. But despite this, the captain could not resist meeting his friends secretly.

"Good evening, Miss Kenobi, Officer Bennet," he said smilingly to them as they passed each other in a hallway of the main First Order base a little while after dinner was over. Rey and Finn nodded politely, keenly aware of the orderly group of Stormtroopers going about their business behind them. Rey made to turn away, but he put a hand gently on her arm to stop her leaving. "I would speak to you in private, if I may," he said in an undertone.

"Of course, Captain Dameron," said she in an equally low tone. Finn silently nodded his assent.

Once the group of Stormtroopers had passed, he quickly pulled them into a side room on one side of the corridor, and shut the door behind them.

"How glad I am to see you!" Poe cried as soon as the door was shut, and clasped her hands in his own. He then appeared as though he would embrace Finn, but seemed to think better of it, and settled for shaking his hand with great warmth.

"And I you!" Rey smiled. "But – is your mission not in danger by our being here?"

"It may be. But, my dear friend, you and Finn can solve the problem which I have been struggling with for some time now, and in doing so you can aid my mission."

"What do you mean?" Finn asked, unable to keep from grinning at his friend now that they were beyond the discrimination of the First Order.

"I am not posing as a member of the First Order for enjoyment, my dear friend. I have been collecting vital information from within, and until now I have not had a chance to convey it to Lady Leia without arousing suspicion." He reached into his double-breasted coat and pulled out a locket on a delicate golden chain. "I have put all that I have found in a data chip within this locket. You must bring this back to Lady Leia," he told her seriously.

"Of course," Rey replied, clasping the locket around her neck. "But," she added, a thought coming to her, "have not you then completed your mission, by acquiring this information?"

"No, my mission is not yet finished," he said thoughtfully. Rey gave him a questioning look, but he did not elaborate.

"We ought to leave soon," Finn said anxiously after a moment. "We would not want to be missed."

"No, indeed!" Poe exclaimed. "I do not know how long Hux is planning to keep you here – "

"So they are purposely keeping Finn here!" Rey cried.

"Yes, so it would seem. They fear your past adventures may inspire more Stormtroopers to rebel, and hope to bring you back to the cause of the First Order. Failing that, I imagine a diplomatic kidnapping is not beneath them," Poe said.

"They shall not have me back in their service," Finn declared.

"I know that, my dear friend. But they do not. And indeed they do not know that I have not even been brought to their cause, and they cannot know. It is essential that they do not know."

The three friends exchanged grave looks.

"Now we must part, my friends. The General, Phasma, and Ren shall expect me soon. It is their custom to meet and talk after dinner," Poe said.

They bade their farewells, and parted ways; Finn and Rey went to their guest chambers, Poe back to the formal dining-parlour.

When dinner had finished, as soon as Rey and Finn were out of the room, General Hux had begun abusing them, particularly Rey. He was still continuing on in this manner when Captain Dameron rejoined the First Order party.

Rey's manners were pronounced by Hux to be very bad indeed, a mixture of pride and impertinence; she had no conversation, no style, no beauty. Captain Phasma had thought the same, and added:

"She has nothing, in short, to recommend her, but being an excellent flier. I shall never forget her appearance this morning. She really looked almost wild."

"She did indeed, Phasma. I could hardly keep my countenance. Very nonsensical to come at all! Why must she be scampering about the galaxy, because her friend stayed here a touch longer than she had expected? Her hair, so untidy, so blowsy! I expect she made a stop on that dreadful Merytonia, and did not bother to make the effort to make herself presentable after the windy landing platforms there."

"Yes, and her gown; I hope you saw her gown, more wrinkled than anything I have ever seen, I am absolutely certain; she looked wondrously unprofessional, and, what is more, quite uncivilized!"

"Your picture may be very exact, Phasma," said Dameron; "but this was all lost upon me. I thought Miss Rey Kenobi looked remarkably well when she came into the room this morning. Her wrinkled gown quite escaped my notice."

"You observed it, Mr. Ren, I am sure," said General Hux; "and I am inclined to think that you would not wish to see your friends make such an exhibition."

"Certainly not."

"To fly three parsecs, or four parsecs, or five parsecs, or whatever it is, in a little X-Wing, and alone, quite alone! What could she mean by it? It seems to me to show an abominable sort of conceited independence, a most Outer-Rim indifference to decorum."

"It shows an affection and concern for her friend that is very pleasing," said Dameron.

"I am afraid, Mr. Ren," observed General Hux in a half whisper, "that this adventure has rather affected your admiration of her fine eyes."

"Not at all," he replied; "they were brightened by her emotion." A short pause followed this speech, and Captain Phasma began again:

"I have an excessive regard for Officer Bennet, he really is a very respectable man, and I wish with all my heart that he were back in the First Order, or at least allied with us and well settled. But with such a lack of family, and such low connections and associations with a radical organization such as the Resistance, I am afraid there is no chance of it. Nor, indeed, for Miss Kenobi's being well settled."

"If they had low connections enough to fill all of Merytonia," cried Dameron unthinkingly, "it would not make them one jot less respectable."

"But it must very materially lessen their chance of marrying people of any consideration in the galaxy," replied Ren.

To this speech Dameron made no answer; but Hux and Phasma gave it their hearty assent, and indulged their mirth for some time at the expense of their dear guests' social status.

With a renewal of politic composure, however, they went to Rey and Finn's chambers on leaving the dining-parlour, and invited them to join them in the formal drawing-room in Hux's private chambers. Not being very eager to once more be in the company of their enemies, Rey and Finn delayed going as long as they felt secure. However, it could not be put off indefinitely, and so they set off late in the evening. On entering the drawing-room they found the whole party at Dejarik, and were immediately invited to join them; but suspecting the invitation was only due to proper manners, they declined, and Rey, making fatigue due to intergalactic time changes her excuse, said she would amuse herself with a book. Miss Phasma looked at her with astonishment.

"Do you prefer reading to games?" said she; "that is rather singular."

"Miss Rey Kenobi," said General Hux, "despises games. She is a great reader, and has no pleasure in anything else."

"I deserve neither such praise nor such censure," cried Rey, "I am not a great reader, and I have pleasure in many things."

"In training with the Force I am sure you have pleasure," said Dameron, "and I hope it will be soon increased by acquiring a great teacher."

Rey thanked him from her heart, and then walked towards the table where a few books were lying. He immediately offered to fetch her others – any books of pleasure that the First Order's library afforded.

"And I wish the collection were larger for your benefit and our own credit, as one can never read too many fine stories from across the galaxy; but it would seem that my superiors do not believe storybooks to be of great importance, and we have not many."

Rey assured him that she could suit herself perfectly with those in the room.

"I am astonished," said General Hux, "that you, Dameron, have such an affinity for frivolous fairy-tales. What a delightful library of historical and informative texts you have at Pemberley, Mr. Ren!"

"It ought to be good," he replied, "it has been the work of many years."

"And indeed, you are always adding to it; you are always buying books."

"I cannot comprehend the neglect of a personal library in such days as these."

"Neglect! I am sure you neglect nothing that can add to the beauties of that noble place. Dameron, when you settle, I wish your home may be half as delightful as Mr. Ren's home on Corellia."

"I wish it may."

"But I would really advise you to make your purchase or conquest in that region, and take Pemberley for a kind of model. There is not a finer planet in the galaxy than Corellia."

"With all my heart; I will buy Pemberley itself if Ren will sell it."

"I am talking of possibilities, Dameron."

"Upon my word, Hux, I should think it more possible to get Pemberley by purchase than by imitation."

Rey was so much caught with what passed, as to leave her very little attention for her book; and soon laying it wholly aside, she handed it to Finn, drew near the card-table, and stationed herself between Captain Dameron and General Hux, to observe the game.

The discussion of Ren's home, and indeed the very idea of Ren having a home, were excessively strange to Rey. Even more strange, and rather infuriating, to Rey, was the notion that Ren had made his dwelling on the home planet of General Han Solo.

"Is that dear little friend of yours, that Miss Darcy, is she much grown since the past season?" said General Hux; "will she be as tall as Phasma?"

"No, indeed. She is now about Miss Rey Kenobi's height, or rather taller." If Rey was not much mistaken, Ren grew visibly uncomfortable at the mention of this Miss Darcy, whoever she might be.

"How I long to see her again! I never met with anybody who delighted me so much. Such a countenance, such intelligence! And so extremely accomplished for her age! Her flying technique is exquisite."

"It is amazing to me," said Dameron, "how young ladies can have patience to be so very accomplished as they all are."

"All young ladies accomplished! My dear Dameron, what do you mean?"

"Yes, all of them, I think. They are all excellent pilots, are trained in all sorts of weaponry, and speak binary exceedingly well. I scarcely know anyone who does not follow this description, and I am sure I never heard a young lady spoken of for the first time, without being informed that she was very accomplished."

"Your list of the common extent of accomplishments," said Ren, "has too much truth. The word is applied to many a woman who deserves it no otherwise than by flying a fighter or shooting a blaster gun. But I am very far from agreeing with you in your estimation of ladies in general. I cannot boast of knowing more than half-a-dozen, in the whole range of my acquaintance, that are really accomplished."

"Nor I, I am sure," said General Hux.

Rey could no longer keep her determined silence. "Then," observed she, "you must comprehend a great deal in your idea of an accomplished woman."

"Yes, I do comprehend a great deal in it."

"Oh! certainly," cried his faithful assistant, "no one can be really esteemed accomplished who does not greatly surpass what is usually met with. A woman must have a thorough knowledge of politics, history, economics, and the modern galactic languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, in the style of her flying, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half-deserved."

"All this she must possess," added Ren, "and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading."

"I am no longer surprised at your knowing only six accomplished women. I rather wonder now at your knowing any."

"Are you so severe upon your own sex as to doubt the possibility of all this?"

"I never saw such a woman. I never saw such capacity, and skill, and application, and eloquence, as you describe united." Never, perhaps, except by Lady Leia, she thought, though she did not believe it wise to mention her at that moment.

Miss Phasma and General Hux both cried out against the injustice of her implied doubt, and were both protesting that they knew many women who answered this description, when Dameron called them to order, with good-natured reminders of the games at hand. As the conversation was thereby at an end, Rey and Finn soon afterwards left the room.

"Rey Kenobi," said General Hux when the door was closed on them, "is one of those young ladies who seek to recommend themselves to the other sex by undervaluing their own; and with many men, I dare say, it succeeds. But, in my opinion, it is a paltry device, a very mean art."

"Undoubtedly," replied Ren, to whom this remark was chiefly addressed, "there is a meanness in all the arts which people sometimes condescend to employ for captivation. Whatever bears affinity to cunning is despicable."

General Hux was not so entirely satisfied with this reply as to continue the subject.

Rey and Finn joined them again once more only to bid them good-night. The First Order party would not hear of them leaving so late at night, and it was settled that they would at least stay until the morning.