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

well-dressed elbow jostled her back from the counter.
"Just a moment!" Lettie screamed back. She turned to the girl next to her and whispered.
The girl nodded, grinned, and came to take Lettie's place.
"You'll have to have me instead," she said to the crowd. "Who's next?"
"But I want to talk to you, Lettie!" one of the farmers' sons yelled.
"Talk to Carrie," Lettie said. "I want to talk to my sister." Nobody really seemed to mind.
They jostled Sophie along to the end of the counter where Lettie held up a flap and beckoned, and told
her not to keep Lettie all day. When Sophie had edged through the flap, Lettie seized her wrist and
dragged her into the back of the shop, to a room surrounded by rack upon wooden rack, each one filled
with rows of cakes. Lettie pulled forward two stools. "Sit down," she said. She looked in the nearest
rack, in an absent-minded way, and handed Sophie a cream cake out of it. "You may need this," she
said.
Sophie sank onto the stool, breathing the rich smell of cake and feeling a little tearful. "Oh,
Lettie!" she said. "I am so glad to see you!"
"Yes, and I'm glad you're sitting down," said Lettie. "You see, I'm not Lettie, I'm Martha."



2:in which Sophie is compelled to seek her fortune.
"What?" Sophie stared at the girl on the stool opposite her. She looked just like Lettie. She was wearing
Lettie's second-best blue dress, a wonderful blue that suited her perfectly. She had Lettie's dark hair and
blue eyes.
"I am Martha," said her sister. "Who did you catch cutting up Lettie's silk drawers? I never told Lettie
that. Did you?"
"No," said Sophie, quite stunned. She could see it was Martha now. There was Martha's tilt
to Lettie's head, and Martha's way of clasping her hands round her knees with her thumbs twiddling.
"Why?"
"I've been dreading you coming to see me," Martha said, "because I knew I'd have to tell you. It's a
relief now I have. Promise you won't tell anyone. I know you won't tell if you promise. You're so
honorable."
"I promise," Sophie said. "But why? How?"
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"Lettie and I arranged it," Martha said, twiddling her thumbs, "because Lettie wanted to learn witchcraft
and I didn't. Lettie's got brains, and she wants a future where she can use them-only try telling that to
Mother! Mother's too jealous of Lettie even to admit she has brains!"
Sophie could not believe Fanny was like that, but she let it pass. "But what about you?"
"Eat your cake," said Martha. "It's good. Oh, yes, I can be clever too. It only took me two weeks at Mrs.
Fairfax's to find the spell we're using. I got up at night and read her books secretly, and it was easy
really. Then I asked if I could visit my family and Mrs. Fairfax said yes. She's a dear. She thought I was
homesick. So I took the spell and came here, and Lettie went back to Mrs. Fairfax pretending to be me.
The difficult part was the first week, when I didn't know all the things I was supposed to know. It was
awful. But I discovered that people like me-they do, you know, if you like them-and then it was all
right. And Mrs. Fairfax hasn't kicked Lettie out, so I suppose she managed too."
Sophie chomped at cake she was not really tasting. "But what made you want to do this?"
Martha rocked on her stool, grinning all over Lettie's face, twirling her thumbs in a happy pink whirl. "I
want to get married and have ten children."
"You're not quite old enough!" said Sophie.
"Not quite," Martha agreed. "But you can see I've got to start quite soon in order to fit ten children in.
And this way gives me time to wait and see if the person I want likes me for being me. The spell's going