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

kind to me and Elizabeth, everything that Mother was not. Mother, thank God
, knew nothing about her, or life for all of us would truly become a living
hell.
It was a quietly acknowledged fact in our household that most of Father's bu
siness trips took him no more than three miles away so that he might visit M
atilda Montagu. Their relationship was hardly a secret, but not something to
bring up in open conversation. They had not asked for this privacy, but got
it,
anyway, for both were liked and respected hereabouts.
I'd pulled Roily to a stop and now almost urged him in their direction. No.
Not fair. Father had little enough happiness of his own since Mother's retur
n; I would not intrude upon him with my present troubles. We could talk late
r. Besides, I had no wish to embarrass him by bringing up the disagreeable d
etails of his wife's latest offenses before his mistress.
Father and Mrs. Montagu continued their leisurely walk, unaware of me, which
was just as well. It was interesting to watch them together, for this was a
side of Father that I'd never really seen. I was somewhat ashamed of my cur
iosity, but not so much that I was willing to move on. Not that I expected t
hem to suddenly seize each other and start rolling on the cold damp ground i
n a frenzy of passion. Nor would I have stayed to watch, my curiosity being
limited by the discretions of good taste. But between the demands of my prep
aratory education and all the other distractions of life, I'd had few opport
unities to observe the rules of courtship in the upper classes. So far it ha
rdly looked different from the servants', for I'd occasionally seen them str
olling about with one another making similar displays of affection.
He had one arm around her waist, one hand, rather. Her wide skirts kept him
from getting much closer. He also leaned his head down toward her so as to
miss nothing of whatever she was saying. And he was laughing. That was goo
d to see. He had not done much of that in the last month. What about his ot
her hand? Occupied with carrying a bundle or basket. Full of food, probably
. It was hardly the best weather for eating comfortably out of doors, but t
hey seemed content to ignore it as long as they were together.
Interesting. Now they paused to face each other. Father stooped slightly and
kissed her on the lips for a very long time. My own mouth went dry. Perhaps
it was time to leave. As I dithered with indecision their kiss ended and th
ey turned to walk into the shadow of the trees. They did not come out again.
Roily snorted impatiently and dropped his head to snatch a mouthful of new
grass just peeping through last year's dead layer. At some point my fleshly
cravings had also altered so that carnality had been supplanted with extre
me hunger. The sun was high and far over; I'd been out for hours and had lo
ng since digested my breakfast. And there was Elizabeth, who would be
wondering whether I'd been thrown. She loved horses too, but didn't trust Ro
ily to behave himself.
I turned him back up the rise leading around the kettle, heading home.
The horse being more valuable than its rider, I took care of Roily myself w
hen we reached the stables. As a menial job, I could have easily left it fo
r one of the lads to do and no one would have thought twice about it. Espec
ially Mother. I was raised to be a gentleman and could clearly imagine her
disapproval while going about my caretaking tasks. But where horses were co
ncerned, such work was no work at all for me. Defiance doubled, I thought,