Chapter OneChapter One June 21, 1895
Bombay, India
"Please tell me that's not going to be part of my birthday dinner this
evening."
I am staring into the hissing face of a cobra. A surpris ingly pink tongue slithers in and out of a cruel mouth while an Indian man whose eyes are the blue of blindness inclines his head toward my mother and explains in Hindi that cobras make very good eating.
My mother reaches out a white gloved finger to stroke the snake's back. "What do you think, Gemma? Now that you're sixteen, will you be dining on cobra?"
The slithery thing makes me shudder. "I think not, thank you."
The old, blind Indian man smiles toothlessly and brings the cobra closer. It's enough to send me reeling back where I bump into a wooden stand filled with little statues of Indian deities. One of the statues, a woman who is all arms w ...
read full excerpt from Great and Terrible Beauty ebook
