"Zach Hughes - For Texas and Zed" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hughes Zach)

causing her to spill a drop of goodRio Grandewine on the tiny skirt of her costume. She frowned,
reached for a napkin. She paused in mid-motion, the spilled wine forgotten, as a tall, young man
appeared in the doorway, tray in hand. He, too, was dressed in space blue. However, it was not his
attire which froze the Lady Gwyn into admiring immobility for a second, and then sent her long lashes
fluttering.

"My son," Murichon said. "He's called Lex."

"Lex," the Lady Gwyn breathed.

Lex himself had not recovered as quickly as Gwyn. His face, already showing the character lines, the
weathering, was flushed, his eyes locked on the area of brown skin showing above the low neckline of
Gwyn's costume.

"Won't you join us?" Jum Anguls said.

Lex looked down from his six foot seven inch height and raised his eyebrows in question toward
Murichon, waiting. When Murichon nodded he moved, saying, "Sure," to place the tray and its steaming
contents at table center and then to swing one long blue-clad leg over a chair and ease his weight down
with a soft thump.

"Your manners, boy," Murichon said.

" 'Scuse me, ma'am," Lex said, not sure what he'd done wrong.

"Now this," Murichon said, "is meacr steak which was frozen sixty days before lift-off. That ages it to
over ninety days."

"My dear fellow," Anguls said, rubbing his distended belly, "I don't know about the appetite of you, what
do you call yourselves?Texasmen?"

"Texicans," Lex said, speaking as he speared a steak on a fork and flopped it onto his plate.

"But the ample size of our previous repast," Anguls said.

"Just a taste," Murichon said.

"Ah, well." Anguls sighed, cut a dainty portion with delicate, long-nailed hands. He lifted the bite to his
lips, after sniffing it, chewed thoughtfully. "The preservation process seems to be quite effective."

Allowing for transshipment to other systems, using your warehouses as a distribution point, you'd have
six months to receive, sell and distribute before there would be any noticeable deterioration in quality,"
Murichon said.

"Sometimes out on the plains we keep it without cooling for a month," Lex said, talking around a
cheekful of meat. "Gets a little ripe—"

"Please," Gwyn said, frowning.

"Course, you can dry it in the sun," Lex said. "Makes it chewy. Keep it all winter that way."