"Roberts, Nora - Irish Hearts 1 - Irish Thoroughbred" - читать интересную книгу автора (Roberts Nora)

flung her arms around his gleaming neck.

"I'll be a son of a gun!" Hank said in simple astonishment.

"What were you expecting?" Paddy questioned, feeling as proud as a
peacock with two tails. "She's a Cunnane." He held out the stopwatch for
Hank to see. "Not a bad time either." With a final smile, he strutted
over as Adelia slipped to the ground.

"Oh, Uncle Paddy!" Her eyes gleamed like emeralds against her flushed
face, and she pulled off her cap, flourishing it in excitement. "He's
the grandest horse in the world. It was like riding Pegasus himself!"

"That was nice riding, little lady." Hank extended his hand, shaking his
head in admiration both for her ability and for the gleaming hair that
now spilled over her shoulders.

"Thank you, Mr. Manners." She accepted his hand with a smile.

"Hank."

She grinned. "Hank."

"Well, Adelia Cunnane." Paddy slipped his arm around her shoulders.
"Royal Meadows just hired another exercise boy. You've got yourself a
job."

Lying in her bed that night, Adelia stared wide-eyed at the ceiling. So
many things had happened, in so short a time, that her mind refused to
relax and allow her body rest.

After her ride on the Thoroughbred, she had been taken through the
stables, introduced to more hands and more horses, shown into a tackroom
that contained more leather than she had ever seen in one place at one
time, and exposed to more people and more things than she believed she
had ever been exposed to in her life. And all in the course of one day.

Paddy had prepared their dinner, firmly refusing assistance, and she had
merely watched as he bustled around the kitchen. The stove, she decided,
had more to do with magic than technology. And a machine that washed and
dried the dishes at a touch of a button--marvels! Hearing abut such
things and reading about them was one matter, but seeing them with your
own eyes... it was easier to believe in the Pooka and the little people.
When, with a sigh, she said as much to her uncle, he threw back his head
and laughed until tears flowed down his cheeks, then enveloped her in a
hug as crushing as the one he had greeted her with at the airport.

They had eaten at the small dinette set by the kitchen window, and she
had answered all his questions about Skibbereen. The meal was full of
talking and laughing, and Paddy's eyes twinkled continually at her