THE POET'S LESBIA (Drabble)moemachinaMay 24 2007, 14:43:14 UTC
Before Zalbag found out, Alma spent several blissful weeks reading lewd poetry from her father's private library.
Her father thought she sought sermons. Dycedarg and Ramza knew she stole other volumes to read under the apple trees with Teta, but they never protested. Like all gentlemen, her brothers knew the scholar's code: everything naughty was left untranslated in old tongues.
Of her brothers, only Zalbag knew Alma was teaching herself Old Archadian.
And she taught Teta. Some things are easy to learn in obscure orchards in the late afternoons of high summer, even without a decent dictionary, even without words.
Her father thought she sought sermons. Dycedarg and Ramza knew she stole other volumes to read under the apple trees with Teta, but they never protested. Like all gentlemen, her brothers knew the scholar's code: everything naughty was left untranslated in old tongues.
Of her brothers, only Zalbag knew Alma was teaching herself Old Archadian.
And she taught Teta. Some things are easy to learn in obscure orchards in the late afternoons of high summer, even without a decent dictionary, even without words.
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