Venus Envy (40 page)
Authors: Rita Mae Brown
Venus wrapped her arms around Frazier. “Remember, there are no separate solutions. There are only community solutions. You fight for your place in the community. It doesn’t matter that not everyone will accept you for yourself. What makes you think other people get accepted for who they are? Go back and work and reach out to the people who truly love you and reach out to new people. Hold your head up. You’re as good as anybody. And you told the truth as best you know it. That in itself is a miracle. Hear me?”
“Yes.” Frazier bawled.
“There, there.” Venus hugged her tight. “Life is calling.” She opened the door. “Go on.”
Frazier hesitated, then boldly stepped through the open door.
F
RAZIER OPENED HER EYES. SHE WAS FLAT ON HER BACK ON
the gallery floor. Her right hand was in her pocket. She felt the seven-carat diamond.
“My God, you had a terrible shock.” Tears ran down Mandy’s cheeks. “Frazier, Frazier, are you all right?”
Frazier looked into Mandy’s tender eyes, into that kind and beautiful face. Venus had kept her word. “Mandy, life is calling.”
RITA MAE BROWN is the bestselling author of
Rubyfruit Jungle, In Her Day, Six of One, Southern Discomfort, Sudden Death, Bingo, High Hearts, Venus Envy, Dolley: A Novel of Dolley Madison in Love and War, Riding Shotgun, Loose Lips, Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers’ Manual
, and an autobiography,
Rita Will
. She is the coauthor with Sneaky Pie Brown of the Mrs. Murphy mystery series and Sneaky Pie’s
Cookbook for Mystery Lovers.
Rita Mae Brown is also an Emmy-winning screenwriter and a poet. She lives on a farm near Afton, Virginia.
Venus Envy
A Bantam Book
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Bantam hardcover edition / May 1993
Bantam paperback edition / February 1994
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1993 by American Artist, Inc.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 92-39378.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information address: Bantam Books.
eISBN: 978-0-307-57416-9
Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words “Bantam Books” and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Random House, New York, New York.
v3.0
