"Elizabeth Moon - And Ladies of the Club" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moon Elizabeth)

AND LADIES OF THE CLUB
Elizabeth Moon


"But you don't tax jockstraps!" Mirabel Stonefist glared.

"No," said the king. "They're a necessity."

"For you, maybe. How do you expect me to fight without my bronze bra?"

"Men can fight without them," the king said "It's far more economical to hire men, anywa
Do you have any idea what the extra armor for the women in my army costs? I commissione
military cost-containment study, and my advisors said women's uniforms were always runn
over budget." The king smirked at the queen, on her throne a few feet away, and she smirke
back. "I've always said the costs to society are too high if women leave their family
responsibilities-"

"We'll see about this," said Mirabel. She would like to have seen about it then and there
the king's personal guards-all male this morning, she noticed-looked too alert. No sense get
her nose broken again for nothing. Probably it was the queen's fault anyway. Just because s
been dumped on her backside at the Harvest Tourney, when she tried to go up against Seren
the Savage, expecting that uncompromising warrior to pull her strokes… the queen gave
Mirabel a curled lip, and Mirabel imagined giving the queen a fat one. As the elected
representative of the Ladies' Aid & Armor Society, she must maintain her dignity, but she d
have to control her imagination.

"Six silver pence per annum," said the king. "Payable by the Vernal Equinox."

Mirabel growled and stalked out, knocking over several minor barons on the way. In the
courtyard, other women in the royal army clustered around her.

"Well?"

"It's true," said Mirabel grimly. "He's taxing bronze bras." A perky blonde with an
intolerably cute nose (still unbroken) piped up.

"Just bronze? What about brass? Or iron? Or-"

"Shut up, Kristal! Bronze, brass, gold, silver… 'all such metal ornaments as ye female
warrioresses are wont to use-'"

"Warrioress!" A vast bosomy shape heaved upward, dark brows lowered. Bertha Broad
had strong opinions on the dignity due women warriors.
 "Shut up, Bertha!" Kristal squeaked, slapping Bertha on the arm with all the effect of a k
swatting a sabertooth.

"Warrioress is what the law says," Mirabel snapped. "I don't like it either. But there it is

"What about leather?" Kristal asked. "Chain mail? Linen with seashell embroidery?"