"Philip Jose' Farmer. The Green Odyssey (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

with Amra began and her jealousy had forced him to get rid of Amra. Back
to the Pens she had gone; perhaps the Duke had not been too sad to 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 businesses-slaves were
allowed to hold property and even have slaves of their own-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 club-ankled 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 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 nose-ring. 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