Worlds Apart by J. T. McIntosh Read Free Book Online Page B

so that there would be no misunderstanding when the time came.
    As it happened, the law was directed personally against John Pertwee, and applied to no one else. For by the time the first children had grown up, the only woman they were at all likely to be interested in from the point of view of marriage was Mary Bentley, and the only man, John Pertwee. Mary didn't come into the reckoning. That left Pertwee. No doubt there were other men among the founder colonists who might have trespassed had the opportunity to trespass been offered them. But Pertwee was the only one who at fifty-four was still tall and straight and strong and handsome enough.
    Marjory died early -- as most women died, in childbirth. Pertwee married Jean. In the tenth year of the colony, she died. There was no one else for Pertwee to marry. There weren't many deaths on friendly Mundis, but more women were dying than men.
    He became Pertwee the lover, the terror of every jealous husband. Nobody turned him off the Council for that; it was inevitable that if the handsomest man in the community was single, something of the sort must happen.
    But the case of Helen Hulton was different. She was fifteen. It was against the Constitution. Pertwee had taken advantage of her youth. He was entirely to blame, a libertine, almost a pervert. He was deposed from the presidency, though not turned off the Council.
    Frances Bendall was next. That was the end, He was banished from the Council, never to hold office of any kind, removed from the fine house he had built himself and given a small hut on the outskirts of the village and told grimly that the next time the only possible punishment was death for himself and for the girl concerned.
    Curiously, it was only the founder colonists who objected. The young people didn't care, The women could understand why a girl should want a man of maturity and experience, particulary such a man as Pertwee; and the men shrugged their shoulders and said if a girl wanted an old guy of fifty-four she was welcome to him.
    Pertwee believed the Council meant what they said about the death penalty -- for him, at any rate. On the other hand, there was no question, surely, of executing a girl of twenty who could produce six or seven children. That was only meant to scare girls away from him.
    Apparently it had failed to scare Toni. She was not only prepared to fall in love with him, she came to him prepared to run away with him. It was a wild scheme at first sight, but Pertwee usually looked into things a little more closely than that.
    If they went away, no one would look for them, There might be a token search close to Lemon, but the people who made it wouldn't expect to find them. Any part of the planet was as safe as any other, as far as the colonists knew. They hadn't explored much of it, because there was very little to explore -- no seas to chart, no animals, the same kind of vegetation everywhere. The only thing that varied was temperature. One could find places where it was hotter, but few places where it was cooler.
    It would only be necessary to stay well out of sight for a month or two, and then come back alone -- without Toni. It would be quite a strong bargaining position. . . .
    Pertwee started to his feet. Toni was there beside him in the dusk.
    She came up silently, effortlessly. She was the right partner to have in an elopement like this. She knew what she could do. She had a sack on her back, and he could trust her to have packed what was necessary.
    They melted into the darkness without a word. It was not until they were clear of the bounds of Lemon that Toni remarked: "I still think we should have taken horses."
    "Apart from the fact that they would have left a track that could be followed," said Pertwee, "it would have made it more important for us to be discovered. They would have cared more about the horses than about us."
    Toni laughed. She laughed easily. She was a happy girl, and Pertwee felt his blood coursing through his