"Clayton Emery - Robin & Marian - Floating Bread and Quicksilver" - читать интересную книгу автора (Emery Clayton)chins to confound the wind. Amidst the fisherfolk
slumped two new widows, teary but resigned, as if they'd expected this day. Children clung to their skirts and stared at an empty dory. As the fishing family and their guests straggled down the shingle, Sidony muttered. "It's their own fault. `If two relatives go out in a boat, one will drown.' And sneaking out in the middle of the night." "Sneaking out?" Marian listened close, for the local accent was guttural and garbled. The last phrase resembled "sneegin' gout". "Aye. Gettin' a jump on the herrin'. You're not supposed to go ahead of the rest, t'ain't fair. You wait, pass your boat through the rope circle, get the blessing of the deacon. It's custom goes back forever. And they sailed under a full moon, too!" The party squeezed in to examine the dory, floated in on the tide and hauled up from the surf, but there was little to see. The boat was a dozen feet long with a tombstone stern and flat bottom, broad-beamed and high-walled to ride blue water. Around the mast was a lateen sail of coarse yellowed linen. Nets were folded in heaps across the waist. A large rock in the bow served as anchor. The behind. Many villagers echoed Sidony's admonitions about tempting fate and taking advantage. Robin Hood's keen eyes were busy. Peering, he handed Marian his bow and clambered over the gunwale, careful to tread on ribs and not the bottom planks. Still someone warned, "Not supposed to step in a boat ashore. S'bad luck." Robin rubbed his hand along the ribs, swirled his hand in the bilge slopping in the bottom. It might have been tinged red, but his calloused hand came away clean. A toothless elder sighed and let go the gunwale, then did the others, as if letting go the lost fishermen. "Enough grievin'. Tide's makin'. Time to get the fish in." Instinctively people scanned the wind and waves and sky, turned to breakfast and ready their own boats lined along the strand. Robin and Marian lingered, as did their hosts. The outlaw scanned the dory from stem to stern as if he'd buy it. He used his Irish knife to poke the outer hull, felt the sea moss and barnacles. Then he stood back stroking his beard. Marian knew that sign: his curiousity was piqued. They walked with Peter's family back to the cottage for chowder and ale. Sidony muttered, "Knew it |
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