Venus of Dreams Read Online Free PDF

evaded, but a foolish accident had taken Gwen's life.
    Wenda passed the bottle to Sheryl; the slender, dark-haired woman poured her whiskey daintily, as if measuring how much she could swallow without getting drunk. Angharad whispered to LaDonna, who giggled and then murmured to Constance. The three young women had always been close, more like sisters than friends; LaDonna had left her old commune in Lincoln to live here.
    Sheryl handed the whiskey to Lilia, who took only enough for a swallow. At fourteen, Lilia was old enough to sit up with the women, though she rarely had much to say; she had the large brown eyes and tentative manner of her mother Elisabeth, who was absent from the gathering. Iris had seen Durell, the man who was repairing their homeostat, enter Elisabeth's room after dinner.
    Iris didn't like Durell, who had stood aside with a grin on his face while Eric taunted her about her lessons. Iris didn't usually care for the presence of men in the house. The women would begin to act silly, batting their eyes and whispering invitations to their beds, and the handsome Durell was worse than most men. He strutted around the house, using any excuse ro remove his shirt and reveal his muscular, dark brown chest. He joked with Eric, called the boy a "little man," and laughed and clapped whenever Eric wrestled with LaDonna's son Tyree, even though Tyree was younger and smaller.
    Sheryl looked up at the north wing of the house. "Elisabeth's light just went on," she said.
    Constance craned her neck. "Do you think they're getting up?" She jumped to her feet, shaking back her long, blond hair. "Maybe a man like that's ready for more than one woman." She rolled her slim hips. Angharad, giggling, tugged at her friend's trouser leg as Constance sat down again.
    "I wish I didn't have this belly," LaDonna said. She rested her back against a slender tree trunk, rubbing a hand over her abdomen; she was pregnant, and her second child would be a girl. "He wouldn't be with Elisabeth now." LaDonna was telling the truth; with her feathery black hair, blue eyes, and rosy, clear skin, she was the most beautiful of them all.
    "If I were twenty years younger," Wenda said, "and not repenting of my sins, he wouldn't be with any of you." She rolled her eyes. "Maybe I should try my luck anyway. He might like a woman who knows a few things."
    "She just turned out the light," Constance said, heaving a sigh. "I know Elisabeth. She'll keep him there all night." The blond woman grinned. "She could at least have given Lilia a crack at him." Constance poked the girl while Lilia blushed and covered her mouth. "You can't fool me—I've seen you looking at him when you think no one's around."
    Lilia shook her head.
    "Come on. Now that Jacob's left town, you're looking, aren't you?"
    Iris tried not to laugh. Lilia had talked of nothing except Jacob when the boy had been living next door; he had been her first love before he had taken up a man's life of traveling from town to town. Most men wandered, finding work as mechanics or repairmen in other Plains towns; some even left the Plains or Earth itself. Jacob had promised to come back in the spring; Lilia had told Iris that. Now she was ogling Durell, who wasn't nearly as kind and gentle as Jacob. Lilia was a fool.
    Lilia hung her head; her pale bangs hid her eyes. "Durell's all right," she said in soft, slurred tones, "but I'm too young for him. I haven't even had my ceremony yet."
    "A mere technicality," Wenda said, tripping a bit over the long word, "but it's probably best to respect custom." The old woman chortled. "Didn't see such modesty when Jacob was around, though."
    "Maybe I should try my luck with Durell," Angharad said. "I've been missing a man lately."
    "When don't you miss one?" Constance asked, to a chorus of laughter.
    "I've been thinking," Angharad continued. "There's no reason not to have another child now, as long as our Counselor has no objection. I was putting it off until Iris got older,