Amelia was suddenly very glad she was sitting. Even her perfected manners could not hide her astonishment. Mr. Watson had not told her just how expansive the City's influence was, and that she might encounter beings from other planets, and one she'd never heard of at that. She had never imagined such a thing would occur in her lifetime, nor had she really given it all that much thought. Her interests lay in the past, not fanciful imaginings into the future and beyond the stars.
She could imagine Emerson's reaction. He'd doubt her word at first, but knowing his wife as he did, would know she would not make up such a thing. Then he would turn boyishly curious and exuberant over the idea, tempered with jealousy that it had been she, and not himself, to experience such an encounter.
It did explain the ears. Amelia felt relief in knowing that her thoughts of a child persecuted for being different was only an imagining of her own mind.
"But emotion is what makes us..." She was about to say human, realizing her error before the offensive word was uttered. He wasn't human. All this was so confusing to the English matron. She tried to continue, finding it all too difficult to find the right words. Everyone needed to control their emotions, but she knew he was speaking of far more than that. "...feel alive. Forgive me, the idea of having no emotions is a difficult concept."
She tried to imagine life without feeling. Unable able to love, to find joy in the birth of a child, to get angry or cry; the idea was as alien as the man beside her. And his father's people preferred this, willingly purging themselves of the simple ability to care?
"Were you raised on Earth, or on your father's planet? Surely their are priests," she waved her hand, indicating the interior of the little church, "or teachers, counselors, someone who is experienced in this and can offer guidance?"