"P. N. Elrod - Jonathan Barrett 01 - Red Death" - читать интересную книгу автора (Elrod P N)

d bowed deeply to Elizabeth. She returned their salute gracefully. My turn
was next and I doffed my own hat to them. Rapelji said they'd done well and
clapped his hands twice. It was time to start the chores. The boys scatter
ed like stirred-up ants. Chores first, then breakfast,
then studies.
"Good morning, Miss Elizabeth, Mr. Jonathan. Come in, come in. It's the girl
s' baking day and the first loaves are just out of the oven." He gestured us
inside the house. We left the horses to the care of the boys and joined him
. Along with a varying number of students, he shared the big house with his
two housekeepers, Rachel and Sarah, two elderly siblings ihat he couldn't te
ll apart, so he called them "the girls." They weren't much for intellectual
conversation, but kindly toward
the students and doted on the teacher. Their cooking and herb lore were leg
endary.
The front room was where he taught. A long table lined with many chairs too
k up most of the floor. The walls boasted all kinds of books, papers, some
stuffed animals, and his prize, a mounted skeleton of some type of small ap
e. He used it to explain anatomy to us. On another shelf he kept his geolog
ical finds, including a rather large specimen of a spiral-shaped sea creatu
re, so old that it had turned to stone. He'd dug it up himself miles inland
and delighted in speculating about its origins. The thing had always fasci
nated me and had sparked many a talk and good-natured argument.
Elizabeth took off her cloak and hat, hanging them on the pegs next to the
door. This was a second home to us, Rapelji our eccentric uncle, but we had
n't been over together for some time, a point he commented upon.
"Things are a bit hectic at the house," said Elizabeth. "Two of Mother's frie
nds have come to stay with us for a while."
"Ah, that's good. Company always helps pass the time away." Rapelji, as ev
ident by his huge household, liked having people about him.
"Have you ever met Mother?" I asked. He'd never before mentioned her and I
was curious to have his side of the story.
He pursed his plump lips to think. "Oh, yes, but it was years ago and only
the one time when I answered her advertisement for a tutor. She interviewed
me and sent me on to here. I was the only one willing to make the journey,
it seemed. Your good father made the rest of the arrangements and that was
that. Perhaps since she is here I should stop over and pay my respects."
"No!" we said in unison.
"No?" he questioned, interested by our reluctance. Then he noticed Elizabet
h's face for the first time. Until now, she'd been keeping to the backgroun
d. "Good heavens, child, what has happened to you?"
Though his shock must have been in accordance with Elizabeth's hopes and p
lans, it was still difficult for her. She bit her lip and dropped her gaze
. "We've had some problems at home," she mumbled.
"Indeed?" Rapelji could see there was more to be learned. "Well, come sit he
re and rest yourself." He solicitously held a
chair out for her. He peered closely at me, now, and noted the swollen skin
that I'd seen in my shaving mirror earlier. I felt myself going red and no
t knowing why. As with Elizabeth, I had nothing of which to be ashamed.
One of the girls came in to set the table—I think it was Rachel—and her sh
arp eyes suddenly froze onto our faces in that way old women have.