Valentine Michael Smith—Gillian Boardman

Valentine Michael Smith—Gillian Boardman is a bond built on trust, fear honestly acknowledged, and a willingness to learn from one another. Shared water makes Jill Boardman someone Smith can trust utterly; as their relationship develops, she becomes a partner in helping him understand and express his experience, and he offers to teach her in return.

Trust Through Shared Water

Smith’s trust follows a Martian principle that Jill explains to Jubal Harshaw: anyone with whom Smith has shared a drink of water becomes a water brother, and he trusts such a person completely. With a water brother he is docile; with anyone else he can be stubborn. Jill uses this distinction to explain why Smith would not have left with Ben Caxton, even though he later left with her: she already had the bond that Ben did not.

The explanation also makes the relationship practical, not merely ceremonial. Shared water changes how Smith responds to Jill, giving her access to his confidence and cooperation. But Jill qualifies her account as temporary: that had been Smith’s pattern the previous week, and he was changing rapidly. The relationship is founded on a real bond while unfolding alongside a person whose capacities and behavior are still in motion.

Fear, Care, and Understanding

When Jill describes the two men who disappeared, she distinguishes fear from anger. She had been frightened when one man vanished and the other pointed a gun at her before disappearing too, but she tells Smith that she has never been angry with him. She is no longer afraid, though she and Harshaw still want to understand what happened in the room and what Smith did to make both men disappear.

Smith, in turn, says that the large man struck Jill and that he was frightened too. He tries to explain, begins with a phrase in Martian, then admits that he does not know the words. His difficulty is not lack of concern: he connects his action to Jill’s danger and his own fear, but cannot yet translate the experience into terms she can understand. Their exchange makes care reciprocal—Jill offers reassurance rather than accusation, while Smith attempts to account for his response to the threat against her.

Teaching and Change

Smith’s offer to Jill, “Jill... I will teach,” turns their connection toward mutual learning. He reaches out timidly and touches her hand as he says it. Jill pats his hand, thanks him, and accepts the prospect of learning, adding that she will do so to spite Harshaw. Her answer meets Smith’s tentative gesture with warmth and gives the offer a lively, personal context rather than treating it as an abstract lesson.

Jill’s earlier explanation of Smith’s trust and her later acceptance of his teaching offer reveal the relationship’s movement: she first interprets his behavior to others, then becomes someone prepared to learn directly from him. At the same time, Smith’s rapid development unsettles any fixed account of who he is or what their bond will require. The available scenes show trust becoming a basis for explanation and instruction, with both characters responding to the changes taking place between them.