"Jennifer Roberson - CotC 6 - Daughter of the Lion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Roberson Jennifer)

"Will ye throw that in my face? Will ye speak to me of
things ye cannot understand, being but half a тАв
womanтАФ" And abruptly, on a strangled cry of shock,
she clamped her hands over her mouth. "Oh, Keely ...
oh, Keely, I swear . .. I swearтАФ"
 "тАФyou did not mean it?" Emptily, I shrugged. "I
have heard it said before. To me and about me." I
pressed myself up from the floor, brushing off the
seat of my training leathers. "If I am considered half
a woman simply because I prefer to be myself, not an
appendage of a manтАФnor a mother to his childrenтАФ
then so be it. I am Keely . . . and that is all that
counts."
Some of the color had died out of her face. She
was pale again, too pale. "Will you be saying all this
to Sean?"
"As I have said it to you, I will say it to your
brother." I crossed the chamber to the door, which
Griffon had pointedly closed. "I am not a liar,
Aileen, nor one who admires deception. I was never
asked if I wanted to marry, but was betrothed before
my birth ... I was never asked if, being a woman, I
wanted to bear children. It was simply assumed . . .
and that, my lady princess, is what I hate most of
all." I paused, my hand on the latch, and turned to
face her fully. "But you would know." I spoke more
quietly now; it was not Aileen with whom I was
angry. "You should know, being made to wed the
oldest of Mall's sons when you would sooner have
the youngest. You would know how it feels to have
things arranged for you, simply because of your
gender."
Straight red brows were lowered over an equally
straight nose. She is not a beauty, Aileen, but anyone
with half a mind sees past that to her fire. "I am not
a slave," she said darkly, "and neither am I a fool.
There are things in life we're made to do through no
fault of our own, but because of necessity, regardless
of gender . . . and that you should know, being a
Cheysuli." She paused, assessing me; I wondered, as
I so often did, if the brother was anything like the
sister. "Or are you Homanan today? Ah, noтАФperhaps
Atvian, instead." Aileen stood straight and tall be-
fore me, her pride a tangible thing. "It strikes me,
my lady princess, that you are whatever you want to
be whenever it takes your fancy. Whenever 'tis
convenient."
She meant it, I think, to sting. Instead, it made me
laugh. "Aye," I agreed, "whatever I want to be.
Woman, warrior, animal . . . and I thank the gods