Read Online The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper - Free Book Online

I’d still need to see her.”
    â€œIn there,” he said, pointing. The wagon looked cleaner than some of the others.
    â€œGet her out here.”
    â€œCan’t you go…?”
    â€œYou know the rules, Jik. Examination is done in public, with everybody knowing all about it. No secrets. No girly saying she didn’t know old Rosy had the plup. This way everybody knows who’s got what and whether they’re curable or not.”
    â€œShe’s only a kid.”
    â€œWeren’t they all kids once?”
    Jik had some trouble getting the girl out, and when Stavia saw who it was, her mouth dropped open and she felt her face turning bright red. It was one of Myra’s friends. Tally. Seventeen, just like Myra. From the wagon behind her came a muffled exclamation. Myra had seen her, too.
    â€œYou’re Tally,” Morgot said, as impersonally as if she’d never seen her before. “I’ll make up a page for you in my Gypsy book….”
    â€œI’m not….” the girl protested. “I didn’t….”
    â€œStand up straight and lift your skirts.”
    â€œI… Morgot, please.”
    â€œLift
—
your
—
skirts.”
    â€œMight as well, honey,” cried one of the Gypsies. “She’ll get that swab up your ass one way or another.”
    The girl started crying, her hands before her eyes and her mouth twisted up. “Do you want to go home?” Morgot asked. “You can come back to Women’s Country, you know. Or you can stay here. If you stay here too long, however, we won’t take you back. Once disease is chronic, we don’t take people back or allow them to stay near the city.”
    â€œBarten said he’d take me away….”
    Stavia heard the sound from behind her in the wagon, the intake of breath, the creaking of that breath, like aching wood, stressed in wind.
    â€œOh? Really! I think he probably told my daughter Myra the same thing. Where did you think he’d take you? Into the wilds? Did he plan to join the Gypsies with you? He’s already taken you as far as he intended to, girl.What’s the matter, couldn’t he wait two months until carnival? Or did he have other plans for carnival and want to get some fun out of you in the meantime?”
    The girl broke and ran toward the wagon, weeping.
    Stavia whispered, shocked, “You were mean.”
    â€œI was, wasn’t I?”
    â€œDid you know she was here?”
    â€œI’d heard rumors to that effect.”
    Stavia said nothing in a combination of furious embarrassment for Myra and anger for herself. Morgot had
planned
this!
    â€œIf you make it embarrassing enough, they usually don’t repeat,” Morgot said in a low voice. “I really don’t want to come out here next time and find Myra in that wagon. Barten has quite a history of getting girls from Women’s Country out here. Dishonoring them is part of the fun for him. I think Tally is his third or fourth. It’s as though the girls were some kind of spoils of battle. They keep score, you know—some of the warriors in the garrison. How many women they’ve taken. It’s a kind of game with them.”
    â€œI didn’t know,” Stavia mumbled, abashed. She still felt angry but she couldn’t be angry at Morgot. This wasn’t one of the things she had learned in women’s studies. It wasn’t one of the things Habby had talked about, or Byram.
    â€œNot all of them do it, Stavvy. I don’t think Habby would. Or Byram.”
    â€œHow did you know I was thinking about them?”
    â€œI think about them. All the time.”
    I N THE WAGON , Myra rode with her scarlet face straight forward, her mouth clamped in a grim, voiceless line. Tally lay in the back of the wagon, crying noisily, with many gulps and sniffles. The other woman, Vonella, chatted as though a week in quarantine was a treat for her.
    â€œIt