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| - "In many places they would think you are too young to consent to sex or marriage." Aunt Violet said seriously, “Among Terrans adults who have sex with a youngster like you go to prison.” The boy stiffened a bit because he wouldn't accept for one moment that he was too young to marry the wonderful tramp. “I think it’s horribly awful when people keep reminding me about Terrans and prison!” he grumbled. “All right I won’t mention Terrans again,” Aunt Violet continued, "I married when I was your age and it wasn't nice at all." Aunt Violet felt the boy’s tentacles stiffen further as he felt sure the tramp was right for him. She went on sadly, “It looked so good before we married. There were all those rich things my husband had that my family hadn’t got. Later it was no good at all. Old Groovy Tentacles just wanted me for sex and nothing else. And it wasn’t even normal sex he wanted. Normal adults don’t choose youngsters like you and they don't choose youngsters like the child I was then. It was the sex he wanted when he wanted it and I just didn’t count.” The boy felt sorry for Aunt Violet, he was sure his tramp wasn’t like that at all. Aunt Violet worried about her nephew. Did he even know yet about the terrible marriage his father was planning? “Then I got older, I wanted more sex and other Centaurians would have thought I was attractive but old Groovy Tentacles stopped liking me. Instead he kept any number of adolescent servants and he liked them much better than he liked me. He went with me just often enough to have children and he was cold and uninterested then. My husband just wanted many children, very many children. Yes I know your family really looked down on me and called me Old Droopy Womb when you didn't suppose I could hear you. Do you think it was fun for me? And I don't like to think about what he was doing with the young servants. I can guess some of it. He did it to me when I was younger. I still don't like to think about it.” Aunt violet buried her head in her tentacle. The boy felt very uncomfortable. Blue Tentacles knew what Aunt Violet described shouldn’t happen but didn’t know how to react. His father always told him that servants didn’t count and was angry if he or any of his brothers and sisters showed respect or compassion for anyone from the manual workers’ class and below. At the same time his mother was really sad whenever Blue Tentacles or others didn’t respect her parents, their grandparents, together with the relatives and friends of their grandparents. “And when our children reached adolescence, what he wanted to do with his own flesh and blood?” she mumbled barely audibly. “What’s wrong, Aunt? What did you say?” Blue Tentacles asked concerned. “None of that matters now, Our Lord the Sun protected us, Groovy Tentacles is dead and there’s no more harm done.” Aunt Violet lifted her head out of her tentacles. “Let’s go into the mud together and enjoy ourselves a bit.” Aunt Violet suggested brightly, “Please don’t try to do too much, I’m old and all this is exhausting.” They played together in the mud as Aunt and Nephew do, Aunt Violet showed young Blue Tentacles how to catch creepy crawlies and find edible plants. It should have been fun, just Aunt couldn’t easily concentrate on teaching him, she was thinking too hard. How in the Sun’s name could she save her nephew from what had happened to her? Blue Tentacles was tense as well. He could see his Aunt’s cheerfulness was forced and realized something very bad was happening. From time to time Aunt Violet kept saying things like, “Remember Never let anyone force you into a marriage that you don’t want! Whatever they promise, whatever they threaten don’t let them.” “What’s the matter?” the boy asked Aunt Violet wasn’t sure how to answer. So he didn’t know yet what his father was planning. Should she tell him? That could upset things more. Surely his mother should be telling him, not his aunt. Aunt Violet called Blue Tentacles mother on a remote control device and asked if she could speak to her son, then she called up to find out what the chauffeur was doing. Blue Tentacles' Mother was still very busy in the secure communications room but she came and fetched her son. Blue Tentacles asked what was wrong and his tentacles shook with agitation, then his mother hurried him away.
* Chapter 19 Mistress and servant Footnotes
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