"Elgin,.Suzette.Haden.-.Ozark.-.01.-.Twelve.Fair.Kingdoms" - читать интересную книгу автора (Elgin Suzette Haden)

down. She was blessed with a plain name and plain speech
both, and I envied her the first at least.

"Look like a spectacle, don't I?" I acknowledged.

"My, yes," said Anne.

"I'm supposed to," I said. "You should see my underwear"

She agreed to forego that experience, and came and sat
down and stared at me, shaking her head and biting her lower
Hp so as not to laugh.

"Well, Anne?"

"Oh, I'm sure you've good reasons," she said, "and I have
sense enough not to want to know what they are. But I'll wager
not a single Granny saw you leave in that getup, or more than
your boots and your gloves would be rosy red."

I chuckled; I expected she was right.

29 Suzerrc HADEN ELGIN

"Welcome, Responsible of Brightwatel," said Anne then,
"and how long are we to have the misery of your company?"

Plainer and plainer speech.

"Can you put me up for twenty-four hours, sweet cousin?"

"In the style you're decked out for?"

"If you mean must there be dancing in the streets, Anne, no,
I'll spare you that."

"What, then? You didn't Just 'drop in' on your way to buy a
spool of thread somewhere."

Anne pulled her chair near the fire, folded her arms across
her chest, fixed her attention on me, and waited.

"I, Responsible of Brightwatel," I recited, "am touring the
Twelve Castles of Ozark, Castle by Castle, in preparation for
the Grand Jubilee of the Confederation. Which is—as you'll
remember—to be convened at Castle Brightwater on the eighth
day of this May. And I begin here, dear cousin, to do you
honoc"

"And because Castle McDaniels is closest."