"Ardath Mayhar - The Clarrington Heritage" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mayhar Ardath)

 He was waiting for her in the sittingroom. The way his eyes lit up as
she floated down the six steps to join him told her that she had done her work
well.
"Never let anybody tell you that you're not gorgeous!" he said, taking
her hands and squeezing them lightly. "I'd hug the stuffing out of you, but
I'm afraid I'd mess you up, and you look wonderful."
"Is my hair all right at the back? It's hard to tell, even with the
triple mirrors. I want it smooth but not glued-looking." She turned so he
could see.
She felt his fingers touch the elaborate knot of curls that she had
labored to erect and stabilize.
"Just ... exactly ... elegant!" he breathed into her ear. "I can hardly
wait to mess it all up, tonight."
She giggled. "We'd better go down right now, or you'll mess it up
anyway, and it took me hours to get it just right."
They went down the broad staircase, hand in hand. Hildy, peeping
through the curtain covering the open doors to the dining room, beamed at them
and threw Ben a kiss from her wrinkled hand. Marise felt warmed by the old
cook's friendliness. She had done her best to fill the gap until the family
arrived, and her good will had helped to ease any distress the newcomer had
felt.
They paused at the parlor door. "I love you," Ben whispered in her ear.
"They will love you, too. Don't be nervous. They're great people."
But she had been terribly, frantically nervous, as the heavy doors
opened wide.
She knew at once that the big man who pushed back the wooden panels had
to be Hannibal. Though he was older, heavier, somehow tougher-looking than
Ben, he was so like him that she felt an immediate kinship. He was beaming
down at her with such honest delight that she felt her tension ease and the
beginning of warmth steal into her cold hands.
"So you are the young lady who saved my brother's life," he boomed. Her
hand was swallowed in his immense paw, which seemed to radiate confidence and
warmth. "You're such a frail-looking child -- it seems strange, your rescuing
someone from death. But Ben says you just refused to give up and made him pull
himself through, even when the doctors couldn't decide what to do next. We owe
you a big one, Marise. Welcome to the family!"
Her stiff smile softened and became real as she looked up at her
brother-in-law. "Don't be fooled by appearances, Brother Hannibal. I'm really
a good, tough peasant to my toenails. I helped my brother and my father farm
until they died and left the farm to me. I tried going it alone, but it was
too much, so I sold the place and went into nursing.
"I do miss having good dirt to grub around in sometimes, but nursing is
almost as good. If you can't grow things, why making people well is a fine
substitute."
He laughed and pulled her into the room, where she could see several
people waiting. "This is your new father, Emanuel. All of the hardest heads in
the family can be blamed on him, I'm afraid. But he's a sweetheart, just the
same."
The nearest of the family, a tall, slender old man, rose to meet her.
Though his face was pale and ascetic looking, his eyes were Ben's own black