"Philip Jose Farmer - The Green Odyssey" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

see her go, for living with her was like living with a hurricane, and he liked peace and quiet too well.

Then, in accordance with the custom, she had been recommended by the Duke to a visiting prince; the prince
had overstayed his leave from his native country because he hated to part with her, and the Duke had wanted
to give her as a present. But here he'd overstepped his legal authority. Slaves had certain rights. A woman
who had borne a citizen a child could not be shipped away or sold unless she gave her permission. Amra
didn't choose to go, so the sorrowing prince had gone home, though not without leaving a memento of his
visit behind him.

The captain of a ship had purchased her, but here again the law came to her rescue. He could not take her out
of the country, and she again refused to leave. By now she had purchased several businessesтИТтИТ slaves were
allowed to hold property and even have slaves of their ownтИТтИТ and she knew that her two boys by the Duke
would be valuable later on, when they'd go to live with him.

The temple sculptor had used her as his model for his great marble statue of the goddess of Fertility. Well he
might, for she was a magnificent creature, a tall woman with long, richly auburn hair, a flawless skin, large
russet brown eyes, a mouth as red and ripe as a plum, breasts with which neither child nor lover could find
fault, a waist amazingly slender considering the rest of her curved body and her fruitfulness. Her long legs
would have looked good on an Earthwoman and were even more outstanding among a population of
clubтИТankled females.

There was more to her than beauty. She radiated a something that struck every male at first sight; to Green
she sometimes seemed to be a violent physical event, perhaps even a principle of Nature herself.

There were times when Green felt proud because she had picked him as her mate, chosen him when he was a
newly imported slave who could say only a few words in the highly irregular agglutinative tongue. But there
were times when he felt that she was too much for him, and those times had been getting too frequent lately.
Besides, he felt a pang whenever he saw their child, because he loved it and dreaded the moment when he

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would have to leave it. As for deserting Amra, he wasn't sure how that would make him feel. Undeniably, she
did affect him, but then so did a blow in the teeth or wine in the blood.

He got down out of the rickshaw, told the boy to wait, said, "Hello, honey," and kissed her. He was glad she
was a slave, because she didn't wear a noseтИТring. When he kissed the Duchess he was always annoyed by
hers. She refused to take it off when with him because that would put her on his level, and he mustn't ever
forget he was a slave. It was perfectly moral for her to take a bondsman as a lover but not a freeman, and she
was nothing if not moral.

Amra's return kiss was passionate, part of which was the vigor of asperity. "You're not fooling me," she said.
"You meant to ride right by. Kiss the children! What's the matter, are you getting tired of me? You told me
you only accepted the Duchess's offer because it meant advancement, and you were afraid that if you turned
her down she'd find an excuse to kill you. Well, I believed youтИТтИТ halfтИТbelieved you, anyway. But I won't if
you try sneaking by without seeing me. What's the matter? Are you a man or not? Are you afraid to face a
woman? Don't shake your head. You're a liar! Don't forget to kiss Grizquetr; you know he's an affectionate
boy and worships you, and it's absurd to say that in your country grown men don't kiss boys that old. You're
not in your countryтИТтИТ what a strange, frigid, loveless race must live thereтИТтИТ and even if you were you might
overlook their customs to show some tenderness to the boy. Come on back to our house and I'll bring up