"I'm not sure he would ever have occasion to rub you," she said, figuring even as she said it that it was clearly an expression. She'd already made a fool of herself several times over with Sam alone, so she decided to push past it as quickly as possible. "Don't worry about him."

Smooth recovery.

Which probably explained why she was very, very quick to hold up the basket, bumping it lightly against his chest. "I've started putting together an assortment for you. Varian and Fern seem to think that there's something special about the soil around the trees that's making them a little bit stronger than the native ones, but we haven't figured out what it is yet."

And 'we' was being generous. Ariadne knew when soil was good or bad. But for the life of her, she had no means to determine why.

"The fruit tastes normal, though. I don't think there's anything unusual about it."