Blazing Bodices Read Online Free PDF Page B

shall possess the power to remove the agony from the childbirth process.
    "We will still feign it for the benefit of your kind, of course." A look of disdain flickered across her face. "Mustn't let the men know our suffering has diminished. Not that keeping you in the dark is much of a challenge , is it?" Her laughter was cruel. "For all your vaunted skill as a wanderer and puzzleventurer, have you ever guessed that the members of the 'fair sex' are the true masters of the world?"
    More of her cruel laughter rained down upon me. As I stared at her, I wondered if she'd been like this the whole time I'd been with her. If she'd always nursed this secret loathing even as the two of us had nurtured our covert romance. Had she ever felt love toward me?
    Perhaps I could still appeal to her sense of reason. "Bonding yourself to these creatures from beyond . What's to stop them from assuming complete control of you?"
    "We have a deal." Lady Crenshaw nodded smugly.
    "What if this foothold is the precursor to a full invasion? What if you're opening the door to the end of the world?"
    Lady Crenshaw's eyes narrowed. "It will be worth it."
    The shrieking of the god-thing and the women continued to grow louder. The strobing of the red light picked up speed. If the deal were about to be consummated, I had a sense my time to thwart it was swiftly expiring.
    I decided to try one last appeal. Pulling my head free of Lady Crenshaw's hands, I grabbed her wrists and locked them in an iron grip. "What about the children , damn you? Have you stopped to think how this will affect them? "
    Lady Crenshaw shrugged. "There may be added...permutations. A darkness , I'm told. A slight shadow on the souls of future generations.
    "But honestly, what can it hurt ? If anything, it may strengthen our descendants for the challenges of the 20 th Century. We can hardly do worse than the 19 th , can we?"
    I felt a sudden surge of clarity and self-righteous rage. "What you're proposing is unnatural. " I shook her by the wrists in the strobing light, giving rein to my indignation and horror. "We must call a halt to this wicked transaction!"
    Just then, a single hand fluttered down like an autumn leaf and landed on my forearm. Shooting a glance in the direction from whence it had come, I saw my wife looking back at me.
    The expression on her face was one I had not seen there before: deep sadness entwined with unyielding firmness like ivy on a wall. The aspect that made the strongest impression, however, was what was missing. Perhaps it was the flickering of the red light distorting her features, concealing what I thought should be there...but I could see no trace of it.
    No trace of affection in her gaze when she looked at me. Had it ever been there at all, in all the days and nights I'd known her? Thinking back, I couldn't be sure.
    Or had I willed it there, as I'd willed all good things in my life into being? As she and these thousands upon thousands of women had willed a new destiny for their sex?
    Bess gazed at me in my wig and makeup, my dress and corset and bloomers, and squeezed my arm. I would have liked to have seen a smile on her face, but she gave me none of that. Recognition only, and resignation, and resolution.
    And when she spoke, the words were all the more terrible for the absolute lack of regret in her voice.
    "It's already done, my Algernon," said Bess as the shrieking and strobing and dancing reached a frantic crescendo around us. "Your own child in my womb is among the first fruits of this new arrangement."
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    *****
    For the first time since he'd started his story, Sir Hogshead raised the bottle of whisky and downed a great swallow. I watched in amazement as he stood there in his smudged makeup and blue dress, guzzling whisky after relating a tale that was disturbing on so many levels.
    Those of us who were gathered around him in the billiard room of the Wanderers' Club remained silent for a long moment. We were weighed down by the gravity of