"Paul J. McAuley - Inheritance" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mcauley Paul J)

worried.
"Be careful now," she said. "Do be careful."
"Stuff and nonsense," Gerald Beaumont told her amiably. He said to
Tolley,
"She had quite a shock last night, I'm afraid."
"I'm sorry if it had anything to do with me," Tolley said
disingenuously.
Marjory Beaumont touched her throat and smiled; Tolley saw for an
instant
the vivacious girl she had once been. "I know it was nothing conscious
on
your part, and we invited you here, after all. So you believe it now,
Professor?"
"I admit to being kind of sceptical before," Tolley said tactfully. He
was
wondering if she was trying to con out of him. Maybe something to do
with
her son.
She followed them out to the car, watched as Gerald Beaumont fussily
settled his equipment on the backseat. "Take care," she said, then
turned
and hurried into the cottage.
As Tolley shifted into first gear, he said, "I hope I haven't upset
your
wife."
Gerald Beaumont was fiddling with the seat belt. "She doesn't mean
anything by it. High-strung, you see, and after last night. . . . I'm
not
what you'd call a spiritualist, Professor. I've always believed that
there's an explanation behind everything, if you look hard enough.
Being
an engineer, you see. But last time we went to Steeple Heyston, you
know,
a couple of years ago now, she fainted. Sensitive to atmospheres. D'you
think there's something to the idea that places might be printed by
things
that happen there, if you follow me? That would be your ghosts, you
see.
Perhaps you acted like a catalyst, your family being from there."
"That was a long time ago." Tolley was tempted to tell Beaumont about
his
ransacked hotel room, the stench of burning, the initials in the carpet
pile. But that might blow the whole thing; instead, he pretended to be
intent on driving. Soon, the car was bumping down the track, and he
pulled
up in the same place as the previous afternoon.
The air was cold and sharp. Frost still lay in hollows, and a light
mist
floated above the water of the divided river. Tolley felt a little
frisson, pure anticipation, when he saw the ruined stub of wall amongst