"Sheri S. Tepper - After Long Silence" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tepper Sherri)

perfectly adequate structure, even though I'll admit it does lack a certain ambience."

"You can say that again, brother. The acoustics in that place are dreadful. I'd forgotten."

"I just can't believe you're from Deepsoil Five," Celcy bubbled. "You don't look all that much like
Tasmin, either. Are you really full brothers? Same parents for both of you?"

There was a fleeting expression of pain behind Lim's eyes, gone in the instant. "Ah, well," Lim laughed. "I
got all the looks and Tasmin got all the good sense." His admiring and rather too searching glance made
this a compliment to her, which she was quick to appreciate.

"Oh, no." Celcy sparkled at him. "It takes good sense to be as successful as you've been, Lim."

"And you must think Tasmin's pretty good looking, or you wouldn't have married him."

They were posing for one another, advance and retreat, like a dance. Celcy was always like this with
new men. Not exactly flirtatious, Tasmin sometimes told himself, at least not meaning it that way. She
always told him when men made advances, not denying she liked it a little, but not too much, sometimes
claiming to resent it even after Tasmin had seen her egging some poor soul on. Well, Lim wouldn't be
around that long, and it would give her something to remember, something to talk about endlessly. "He
really liked me, didn't he, Tas. He thought I looked beautiful тАж "

"Speaking of success," Tasmin said mildly, raising a glass to attract Lim's attention. "Now that you're
very much a success, could you offer some help for Mother, Lim? She's not destitute, but I'd like to send
her to the coast. The doctors say her vision can be greatly improved there, but it costs more than I can
provide alone. And now with Celcy pregnant тАж "

She glared at him, and he caught his breath.

"Sorry, love. Lim is family, after all."

"I just don't want our private business discussed in public, Tas. If you don't mind."

"Sorry." Her anger was unreasonable but explainable. As ambivalent as she felt about having a baby, of
course, she would be equally ambivalent about being pregnant or having Lim know she was. Tas-min
decided to ignore it. "About Mother, Lim? You are going to see her while you're here, aren't you?"

Lim was evasive, his eyes darting away and then back. "I'd really like to, Tas. Maybe tomorrow. And
I'd like to help, too. Perhaps by the end of the season I'll be able to do something. Everyone thinks this
kind of work mints gold, but it's highly competitive and most of what I make goes into equipment. If you'll
help me out with a little request I have, though, things should break loose for me and I'll be able to put a
good-size chunk away for her." He was intent again, leaning forward, one hand extended in an attitude
Tasmin recognized all too well. The extended wrist was wrapped in a platinum chronocomp set with
seven firestones. Not the yellow orange ones, which were all Tasmin had been able to afford for Celcy,
but purple blue gems, which totaled in value about five times Tasmin's annual salary.

Tasmin felt the familiar wave of fury pour over him.Let it go, he told himself.For God's sake, let it go.

"What request?" Celcy, all sparkle-eyed, nudging Tasmin w├╗' one little elbow, eager. "What request,
Lim? What can we do for you?"