"Diana Wynne Jones - The Game" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jones Diana Wynne)

all Grandad’s work. She said Uncle Jolyon wouldn’t forgive me for
it.”
“So she dumps the problem on us,” Aunt May said in a harsh, dry
voice. “How typical of my mother! As if we could stand up to Jolyon
any more than she can! Didn’t your grandfather object at all?”
“Yes, but he was upset too,” Hayley said. “He said I might grow
out of it, but Grandma said I wasn’t going to get the chance. She
phoned for Cousin Mercer to come and fetch me. She said you’d
know what to do.”
“Blowed if I do!” Aunt May replied. “I’d better ask Geta how she
manages, I suppose—or Ellie would be more help. Harmony must
have been the same kind of handful when she was younger.
Anyway, you run off downstairs and play with the others, and don’t
bother about it any more.”
 Hayley would have liked to stay in the small room. It felt safe,
even with its creepily billowing curtains. But she had been brought
up by Grandma to do as she was told. So she went obediently
downstairs and found the big drawing room in the centre of the
house. There were at least five doors to this room. Hayley arrived
to find cousins rushing in and out, shrieking, while Troy stood in
the middle of it with his hands over his eyes, counting to a hundred,
and Harmony shouting, “Don’t forget! Kitchen’s out of bounds and
so is the office!”
After that everyone thundered away. Shortly Troy bellowed, “
One hundred ! Coming, ready or not!” and raced away too.
Hayley stood where she was, bewildered again. She had never
played this kind of game with lots of people in it and she had no
idea what the rules were. She stayed standing there until Tollie
rolled out from under a sofa and looked at her jeeringly.
“You’re a wimp,” he said, “even for an outcast. And a wuss. And
you’re not to tell anyone you saw me.” And before Hayley could
think of anything to say in reply, Tollie climbed to his feet and
hurried out of the nearest door.
Hayley went to sit on a different sofa, beside a very realistic
stuffed cat, where she stayed, sadly trying to decide if the stuffed
cat was a cushion, or a toy, or just an ornament.
Being brought up by Grandma and Grandad simply did not
prepare a person for life, she thought.
From time to time, cousins tiptoed through the room, giggling,
but none of them took the slightest notice of Hayley. They all know
I’m a wimp and an outcast, she thought.



2
«^»
Hayley was an orphan. All she knew of her parents was the
wedding photograph in a silver frame that Grandma propped in the
middle of Hayley’s bedroom mantelpiece and warned Hayley not to
touch. Hayley naturally spent long hours standing on a chair