Tarashana Rachel Neumeier (top 10 motivational books TXT) 📖

“Would you think of marrying someone else? One man?”

She was silent for a little while. But finally she said, “Yes, I would. Probably. Suyet … I would have wished … but I would marry someone else, probably, if the right kind of man offered. I wouldn't want to marry a merchant or a builder or tradesman, certainly not a farmer! A commander would have been perfect. A commander’s wife has almost as much freedom as a talon wife—at least, if he’s the right kind of man. Best of all if he’ll be a talon commander someday. Suyet might have … I think he might have gone that far. Especially with me to help him.”

She did not sigh again, but she was unhappy. I was unhappy too, but I said, “I think you would be a very good wife for a talon commander.”

She smiled again at that. “Of course I would, Ryo. For the right man, I’d be an extraordinarily good wife.” We had been speaking mostly taksu, but now she added rapidly in darau, to tease me, “Extremely, amazingly, remarkably, wonderfully, astoundingly.” Darau has many more words of that kind than taksu, as darau has more words overall than taksu. I smiled, but before I could answer, her mood had changed again and she went on in a much more serious tone. “Besides, a woman will come to her age better if she’s respected when she’s young. A talon wife won’t ever be a magistra or a headwoman or a memory-keeper or anything important, except if she were married properly for fifty years, the wife of a respected man, well, the years wear away the stone, as they say. People would forget, or at least forget to mind, and then when I was widowed, I might hope to gain an important place like that.” She sighed again, leaning her head against my chest. She had to curl herself down to do that, but she was so limber she made the position look comfortable.

I stroked her back and side. “Do all Lau women look to the time when they will be widowed?”

“Oh ... well, in a way? A good marriage is a fine thing. But a woman usually lives longer than a man, unless she dies bearing a child. A woman is a wife while her husband lives, no matter how many summers she might have, but a widow of the proper age can go out in public and speak to men directly and no one thinks she is wrong or disrespectful or has bad character. I think most women look forward to that, even if they will grieve over the pyre of their husband. I think I would be a good magistra of the women’s court. It’s best if a magistra understands both men and women, and I think I understand men better than a woman who was only ever one man’s wife.”

I had no doubt that if Lalani were a magistra, especially once she came to have so many summers, she would be wise and clever. Her decisions would be just and she would know how to make both men and women see that this was so.

She was silent for a little while, relaxing against me. After some time, she said, “Do you really, honestly think there’s a chance ...?”

“Yes. Aras thinks so. He would judge that better than either of us.” I had to add, “I do not know how strong a chance.”

“May the gods be generous,” she murmured. She added, in almost the same tone, “I have wondered what you might be like as a lover, Ryo. You Ugaro men are so different from Lau men. But even if you didn’t have sixty-three stitches in your stomach, I know you don’t think Lau women are very womanly.”

I had not expected that at all. I looked down at her head, resting against my chest. Then I moved my hand. My hand covered the whole of her breast. That was different from how it would be with an Ugaro woman, but for her it did not seem wrong. I could easily have changed my mind about Lau women. I stroked her side, from her breast to her hip.

She stretched under that caress, but then I made myself move my hand to her back again. Stopping had been harder than I expected, but I said, “You are beautiful, Lalani. You have sometimes made me curious to see how womanly a Lau woman might be when she invites a man to her own tent. But when I am in the summer country, I put such thoughts aside. Here ... even if I did not have sixty and three stitches in my stomach, I would think perhaps this might not be wise. What if you took a child of me? I would not want that.”

Lalani turned her head to look up at me. “It’s true I don’t have the herbs here that would stop me getting a child. But it wouldn’t be so bad if I caught. I mean, for most girls, catching a child from an Ugaro man would be a complete disaster. But for me, well, Talon Commander Sharet would have something to say about carelessness—in fact, quite a few people would have a lot to say about carelessness—but you know, my men would look out for any child of mine. They wouldn’t mind if it were your child. A girl could be a talon wife, but if the gods were kind, the child would be a boy. A boy could be a soldier. He’d be fine.” She met my eyes. “That’s probably not what you’d want for a child of yours, though.”

“No,” I agreed, with restraint.

“No,” she said regretfully. “I didn’t think so. You want to give children to an Ugaro woman everyone respects. You want to marry Darra inKarano. You want your daughters to be singers and your sons to be