"Kerr,.Katharine.-.Westlands.04.-.A.Time.Of.Justice" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragon Stories)

This was true enough to make Babryan lay aside her mood and sit up, but she chewed on her lower lip as if she were thinking something over.
'Now, we saw Jill there at Gram's, getting a charm. I'll wager he's unfaithful to her all the time.'
'Baba!' Sevinna said. Tin not being catty, truly, I'm not, just worried. What are you thinking about?'
'Naught.' It was Babryan's turn for the dignified hauteur. 'What did you think I was thinking about?'
'Oh, you know!'
They were well into a fit of giggles when the door opened and Lady Caffa came in with Jill right behind her. Babryan blushed scarlet, then rose with the other girls and curtsied to her mother. Sevinna surreptitiously studied fill. She seemed some years older than herself, and her obvious physical strength placed her as a dweller in some utterly different world.
'Now, darlings,' Caffa said. 'Your father's offered poor Rhodry his shelter for a while, so Jill is going to be spending lots of time with us. I shall want you to be hospitable to our guest, and I'm sure we'll have lots of lovely chats. You must have seen so many interesting things on the road, fill.'
'I have, my lady. Riding with my Rhodry has been awfully exciting.'
'What a brave way to put it. I know it must have been terribly hard on you.'
Jill gave her a meek smile, as if agreeing, but Sevinna found the smile suspicious, as if she were a wolf pretending to be a lapdog.
Yet on the morrow, Jill settled so easily into the life of the women's hall that Sevinna wondered if she'd been wrong. Although the gwerbret gave these odd guests a chamber of their own, fill turned up in a borrowed dress in the women's quarters after breakfast, when Caffa held a kind of court. Her daughters, guests, and serving women sat round on cushions as she went over the accounts with the chamberlain, discussed menus with the head cook, and generally kept her fingers on the pulse of the life of the dun. During the session, Jill sat next to Sevinna and watched the proceedings narrow-eyed, as if she were memorizing everything she heard. In whispers, Sevinna pointed out this person or that to her and explained why they were there.
‘This is awfully exciting,' Jill said at one point. 'Your aunt seems to know everything worth knowing about the whole town.'
'She does. Whenever my uncle's away somewhere, she rules pretty much as his regent.'
Later that afternoon, when the cousins were busy with their mother, Sevinna as a substitute hostess took Jill out to show her the garden -a rare thing in those days, even though it was just a square of lawn with floral borders and a stone sundial in the middle. Since Jill had never seen a sundial before, Sevinna explained how it worked and read off the legend engraved around the edge: time flies fast, so catch it while you can.
'Sevvi, you know how to read!'
'I do. I wheedled my father's scribe into teaching me the letters and suchlike when I was little. I was so afraid of what my father would do when he found out, but he just laughed and said I could waste my time if I wanted to.'
'He sounds like a kind man, truly.'
'He is, and I honour him, but of course, we're not rich or suchlike.'
'Your uncle certainly is. I've never been inside a dun like this one before.'
'Indeed? Does your clan live in one of the northern provinces?'
'Well, my father lives in Eldidd, but I'm not noble-born or suchlike. He was the captain of Rhodry's warband before Rhodry got exiled. I went with him when he rode away.'
Jill's tale led to Sevinna telling about her mother, and from there to the life of her whole clan, and the noble clans in the neighbour hood, and the local gossip. Sevinna found herself rattling on and on while Jill listened with a flattering attention, speaking only to ask questions.
'Now, I'm just dying of curiosity,' Jill said finally. 'I'll tell you why I was at Gram's house if you'll tell me why you were there.'
'Fair enough. We wondered if you were buying a love charm or suchlike. Rhodry's awfully good-looking.'
'He is. It seems that every lass in the kingdom thinks so, too. He's all I have in the world, after all, and I'd just die if he left me someday. After all, a woman's got to fight with what poor weapons she can, doesn't she?'
'We do. You sec, I'm here because my uncle's going to make my marriage for me. I don't want to have to marry some man I don't like just because he's got the right kin. So I'm learning how to make charms and suchlike.'
'Oooh!' Jill's eyes grew wide. 'You actually know how?'
'Just a little bit right now. We all - oh here, I can't tell you more than that unless you've sworn the oath to Aranrhodda.'
'Of course I have. Why do you think Gram was helping me?'
'Oh, splendid! Well, look, tonight you'll have to come up to Baba and Bry's hall. We can talk about it then, because Lady Caffa doesn't know, you see. Baba's sure that her mother would be furious.'
‘I’ll hold my tongue, I swear it. Oh, this is going to be splendid fun.'
'Ye gods,’ Jill said. These noble ladies are always eating! It seems like they just finish one plate of sweetmeats when a servant brings another. It would be awfully easy to poison someone if you wanted to.’
'And why are you thinking of poisons?' Rhodry said.
'Because of Mallona. Why else?'
They were sitting in their chamber in Tudvulc's broch, a little room and poorly furnished. Tudvulc's chamberlain was terrified of offending Rhodry's powerful brother by being too hospitable to a man he'd exiled, and Rhodry saw no reason to argue about it. Besides, the room was tucked into an obscure segment of one of the half-brochs, where they weren't likely to be overheard, compensation enough for the lack of embroidered coverlets.
‘The gwerbret tells me that the ladies are going a-visiting soon,' Rhodry said. 'Have you heard that?'
'I have. They're going to show Sevinna off to possible suitors in another demesne. Lady Caffa takes her responsibility to her niece very seriously. They'll be staying with someone called Lady Davylla. As far as I can tell, she's the one who taught Babryan and Wbridda about all these love charms and things. Ych! It's all such silly stuff!'
'How do you know?'
‘I’m not sure.' Jill shrugged uneasily. 'But I do know it, just somehow. There's no dweomer in it at all. But that doesn't matter. What does matter is I overheard Caffa talking to Babryan about some other guest Davylla had.'
'A guest? So? Women of their rank visit back and forth all the time.'
'This guest seems to have just been put aside by her husband, and she's supposed to be ill, but no one's ever heard of her before. The wife of some very obscure lord, Caffa said. And very obscure cousin of Davylla's, someone Caffa's never met. But Caffa knows just everything about everybody.'
'Oh. Ye gods! Do you think it could be?'
'Do we have any other trail to follow?'
'None, truly. It's off to Lady Davylla's town we go.'
'I do think we'd best get there ahead of them, too, just to look round, like, Can't you tell Tudvulc that you feel unworthy of the honour he's paying you, and that we'd best ride on, undeserving wretches that we are?'
'Naught easier, since that's the way I feel.'
On the morrow, Rhodry sought the gwerbret out and found him in a private council chamber, where he was talking over a matter of bridge taxes with the head of the merchant guild. Rhodry knelt at the gwerbret's side and waited until the merchant took his leave, all bows and smiles.
‘Your Grace,' Rhodry said. 'I've come to beg your permission to leave your broch. You've already done far too much for a dishonoured man like me.'
'Horseshit! Twas naught, naught. Get up, lad, and take a proper chair. You're welcome here as long as you want to stay.’
'My humble thanks.' Rhodry got up and sat. 'But truly, it's time I did take leave of Your Grace.'