Carnal Rites by Ines Johnson (learn to read books .TXT) 📕

caught her sister in an embrace with both of her husbands at the same time. The same time!

Intercourse was an experience Alyss was never likely to have. Not one she had ever been interested in having. But she was certain Lady Milysa's husbands were doing it wrong if their bride was happy to wait a year before engaging in the activity again.

"Hello Alyss."

Alyss turned to the young lady who'd appeared at the entrance of the door she stood before. Lady Eryka greeted her with half a smile, her body half hidden behind the doorway of the Chamber of Arts and Culture. From behind her, Alyss got a peek into the large room. A rainbow of color washed over her senses. Multicolored lights hung from the ceilings. Metallic sculptures of silver and gold winked in the sunlight. The smell of dried paint wafted to her nose like a rare perfume.

"We're you coming in?" Lady Eryka asked.

Alyss shook her head left to right while her eyes held fast to the scenery behind LadyEryka. Inside the door, the young novices pulled a sheet covering off a new painting. Alyss tilted her head to the right for a better look.

Eryka opened the door wider, as though she knew Alyss's eyes yearned for more access to the room. "Did you have documents for Sister Mychelle?"

"Hmm?" Alyss blinked and focused on Lady Eryka.

Eryka's eyes sang with mischief as she played with the door, swinging it to and fro.

Alyss focused on her friend. "I was just passing by and..."

Eryka opened the door wide and leaned against the door frame, giving Alyss an unobstructed view of the treasures within. "We're preparing a new bill. Its to mandate the teaching of the arts to discards. Namely music and painting."

"Why would you teach discards?" Alyss' eyes caught a sculpture of the Goddess holding the world on her shoulders. "Little boys have to be told what to do, they can't come up with thoughts on their own. Men have no artistic merits."

Most men. Alyss had seen the merits of one man. The lines of his artwork, his color choices still haunted her dreams. He was the reason she'd visited her cousin, Chanyn, on more than one occasion in the past few months. He was never there and Alyss never asked after the dark-haired artist. But she'd had to see his painting again, to be sure it wasn't her imagination. Each time she saw it, it took her breath away over and again.

"Unfortunately most of the other Chambers see it the same way."

Alyss shook herself from her memories and focused on Lady Eryka. "You're such an idealist Eryka."

"She has to be with a face like that." Lady Milysa approached, her entourage in tow.

Eryka ducked her head halfway behind the door once more. It swung on its hinge as though she wanted to close it, but she didn't. Her eyes held fast on Alyss, as though she feared Alyss was about to be abandoned at sea, and the door was her life boat.

Alyss turned to her friend. She’d known Eryka’s misfortunes were in plain view. But in all the years they’d known each other, and all of the beauty she’d seen Eryka create through her pottery and painting, Alyss ceased seeing her friend’s imperfections. Lady Eryka had been born with a cleft lip, which she hid on the other side of the door. Down by her side was her left hand where her fingers were set in a permanent curl. When Eryka walked, it was with a slight limp. Each of these misfortunes had come with her into this world. But she was a girl. A girl birth, every girl birth, was a miracle. What Eryka lacked in physical beauty she'd been gifted in artistic ingenuity. Her sculptures and clay pottery were heralded in their society. Though she rarely made public appearances, she’d received many accolades in the press.

"Felicitations of your bonding, LadyMilysa." Eryka said, eyes cast down to the ground.

"You must think it cruel of me to flaunt my happiness, a happiness that is so evidently out of your grasp." LadyMilysa waved her manicured nails in the direction of the curled fingers resting by Erykah's side. The girls behind Milysa giggled.

Alyss stepped in front of the door, blocking Eryka from their sight. "LadyMilysa, I'm so shocked to see you at work today. Most newlyweds don't emerge from bed sport for days after the bonding ceremony."

LadyMilysa turned beet red. The pop of color on her face was an improvement to her ensemble. "Well, you would know. The women of your family are all sex-crazed harlots."

The girls behind LadyMilysa began to whisper and murmur. It was widely known that Alyss' cousin, Lady Chanyn, who had been born outside of society, had bonded with a Pleasure Hound, a male who was a glorified sex worker. Her second bondmate, although a prince, had a history of mental illness running through his family tree. And then there was Alyss' own sister, Merlyn, who had run off with a bona fide sex worker and her lab partner. Suffice it to say that her family reputation had taken a few hits over the last year.

"Besides," sneered Lady Milysa, "you're just jealous because now that your family's reputation is tarnished, no male will have you."

Alyss raised an eyebrow at that. She turned her focus down the hall until she found a victim coming her way. "Good morning, Lord Jaimes."

Lord Jaimes tripped over his feet at the sound of his name on Alyss' lips. "Greetings, my lady."

"You know, Lord Jaimes, it's such a lovely morning. I had a hankering for cherry juice."

"But cherries aren't in season, my lady."

"Oh, isn't that a pity," Alyss pouted. Then she batted her eyelashes as she'd seen ladies do in old movie reels. It still floundered her when the ridiculous ploy worked.

"They may have some on the outskirts of town."

The outskirts of town were over an hour away if he drove above the speeding limit.

"I'll go and get some for you straight away, my lady." Lord