"Diana Wynne Jones - Howl's Moving Castle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jones Diana Wynne)

the bath where Howl's blue-and-silver suit was still soaking. She began to feel a little better. She
dragged herself to the door again and looked out, wit her hair flying in the wind. The ground was
streaking past underneath. The hills seemed to be spinning slowly as the castle sped across them. The
grinding and rumbling nearly deafened her, and smoke was puffing out behind in blasts. But the
scarecrow was a tiny black dot on a distant slope by then. Next time she looked, it was out of sight
entirely.
"Good. Then I shall stop for the night," said Calcifer. "That was quite a strain."
The rumbling died away. Things stopped jiggling. Calcifer went to sleep, in the way fires do, sinking
among the logs until they were rosy cylinders plated with white ash, with only a hint of blue and green
deep underneath.
Sophie felt quite spry again by then. She went and fished six packets and a bottle out of the slimy water
in the bath. The packets were soaked. She did not dare leave them that way after yesterday, so she laid
them on the floor and, very cautiously, sprinkled them with the stuff labeled DRYING POWER. They
were dried almost instantly. This was encouraging. Sophie let the water out of the bath and tried the
POWER on Howl's suit. That dried too. It was still stained green and rather smaller than it had been,
but it cheered Sophie up to find that she could put at least something right.
She felt cheerful enough to busy herself getting supper. She bundled everything on the bench into a
heap round the skull at one end and began chopping onions. "At least your eyes don't water, my friend,"
she told the skull. "Count your blessings."
The door sprang open.
Sophie nearly cut herself in her fright, thinking it was the scarecrow again. But it was Michael. He burst
jubilantly in. he dumped a loaf, a pie, and a pink-and-white-striped box on top of the onions. Then he
seized Sophie round her skinny waist and danced her round the room.
"It's all right! It's all right!" he shouted joyfully.
Sophie hopped and stumbled to keep out of the way of Michael's boots. "Steady, steady!" she gasped,
giddily trying to hold the knife where it would not cut either of them. "What is all right?"
"Lettie loves me!" Michael shouted, dancing her almost into the bathroom and then almost into the
hearth. "She's never even seen Howl! It was all a mistake!" H e spun them both round in the middle of
the room.
"Will you let me go before this knife cuts one of us!" Sophie squawked. "And perhaps explain a little."
"Wee-oop!" Michael shouted. He whirled Sophie to the chair and dumped her into it, where she sat
gasping. "Last night I wished you'd dyed his hair blue!" he said. "I don't mind now. When Howl said
'Lettie Hatter,' I even thought of dying him blue myself. You can see the way he talks. I knew he was
going to drop this girl, just like all the others, as soon as he'd got her to love him. And when I thought it
was my Lettie, I-Anyway, you know he said there was another fellow, and I thought that was me! So I
tore down to Market Chipping today. And it was all right! Howl must be after some other girl with the
same name. Lettie's never seen him."
"Let's get this straight," Sophie said dizzily. "We are talking about the Lettie Hatter who works in
Cesari's pastry shop, are we?"
"Of course we are!" Michael said jubilantly. "I've loved her ever since she started work there, and I
almost couldn't believe when she said she loved me. She had hundreds of admirers. I wouldn't have
been surprised if Howl was one of them. I'm so relieved! I got you a cake from Cesari's to celebrate.
Where did I put it? Oh, here it is."
He thrust the pink-and-white box at Sophie. Onion fell off it into her lap.
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"How old are you, my child?" Sophie asked.
"Fifteen last May Day," said Michael. "Calcifer sent fireworks up from the castle. Didn't you, Calcifer?
Oh, he's asleep. You're probably thinking I'm too young to be engaged-I've still got three years of my
apprenticeship to run, and Lettie's got even longer-but we promised one another, and we don't mind