"Zach Hughes - Mother Lode" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hughes Zach)

probing aboard Rimfire, but a fleet lieutenant didn't earn enough, even in
six years, to become rich. She might be able to unload the Mother, redeem
the old homestead, and squeak by for a few years on what she had saved.

"The question is, Mr. Mop, do I want to? What about you? Would you
rather stay at home or go—" One ear came to attention, for "go" was one
of his favorite words. "—Blinking and creaking off into the unknown?"

"Wurf," Mop said, waiting for her to say "go" again.

Two days later Denton Gale came to the house with an offer on the
Mother. "I hate to tell you how much they said they'd pay," he said.

"In that case I don't want to hear," she said.

"It's less than your dad put into her."

"Mother jumping—" She caught herself. "How much less?"

He named a figure thousands of credits below the amount owed on the
mortgage.

"Tell them eff them and the horse they rode in on," she said.

Inheritance laws were simple on New Earth. Racial guilt for the
spoliation of the planet settled by the only people to escape the
Destruction sent U.P. money in great sums to the government. Tax loads
were light on New Earth's citizens. There was no governmental bite into
John Kenner's estate. The Mother Lode and the mortgage encumbered
family home were transferred to Erin's name without undue red tape and
an offer to buy came not for the Mule but for the Kenner house and lands.

The snow had melted quickly, leaving the clay-rich earth puddled and
muddy. Until she'd had to visit her father's attorney's office, Erin had not
been out of the house since the first day she'd gone aboard what she was
coming to think of as that Mother, John Kenner's Folly.

"So you see, Miss Kenner," the attorney who had settled her father's
estate said smoothly, "it is quite a generous offer. You would realize some
five thousand credits over and above the payoff of the mortgage and legal
fees."
 "Legal fees, if any, will be paid by the buyer, if any," Erin said in a steely
tone, her sea green eyes squinting.

"Perhaps that could be arranged," the attorney said doubtfully. "I must
tell you, however, that my client is quite eager to settle on New Earth and
is examining other properties."

"Bless his little heart," Erin said.