"Clayton Emery - Robin & Marian - Floating Bread and Quicksilver" - читать интересную книгу автора (Emery Clayton)

crashing into the water after fish offal. "As many as
God gives us. While the herring are here, we work,
for they'll be gone soon enough."
"Oh? Why so?"
But the fisherman just shrugged and wouldn't
answer.
Robin sought another topic. Examining the fish he
cut, he found them not all the same. "Why are they
different?" He tried to hide the chattering of his
teeth. Though both were just as wet, the fishermen
and his daughter gave no sign of being chilled. They
ate slices of raw fish to keep their body heat up.
The man flipped a butterfly fillet into a wicker
basket. "They ain't. They'll all herrin'." At the stern,
Madge laughed quietly.
Robin held up a fish in either hand, solid writhing
muscles coated with scales and slime. Both were the
same length, but one was slim as a snake while the
other was fat-bellied. "But they ain't the same.
These are --"
Clearly galled by his free help, the fisherman
stopped cleaning to point with his knife. "The skinny
one's a pilchard. The fat one is an allice shad. The
round ones is round herrin'. The snouty ones is
anchovies. That's a mayfish, comes up the rivers in
May. Here." He pinched a fish by its dorsal fin. "If't
hangs straight, it's a herrin'. If't hangs tail down, it's
a pilchard. Nose down is a sprat -- little and spratty,
see? Shads is different. But hell, man, if they come
to shore in herrin' season, they're herrin'. Like
women -- they all taste the same in the dark."
Robin chuckled at his ignorance and flayed with
slimy hands, one fish to every five of Peter's. He
kept the man talking. "Why did you say the fish
would be gone soon? I thought herring season
lasted a full moon."
"Not now it won't. `Herrin' dislike a quarrel', they
say. Now that blood's been spilt, they'll vanish." He
nodded grimly over side where the wind ripped
whitecaps and sent spume flying. "This be all we'll
see this year. It's a hungry winter we'll've."
Robin didn't disagree, but the gray waves shone
with fish deep as he could see. He failed to
understand how they could disappear overnight.
Shaking his head, he grabbed another fish. It
squirted through numb hands and kissed him in the
mouth.
&&&&&-----&&&&&
While her husband toiled at sea, Marian helped on
the strand. Women and girls rolled out barrels of