"Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - The Spider Glass" - читать интересную книгу автора (Yarbro Chelsea Quinn)

“Charles,” Twilford protested, “you can’t be serious. Nine times great-grandmother!”
“Of course I am,” Whittenfield said, astounded at being questioned. “Serena was born in 1817. Her
mother, Eugenia, was born in 1792. Her mother, Sophia, was born in 1774. Sophia’s mother, Elizabeth,
was born in 1742. Her mother, Cassandra, was born in 1726. Cassandra’s mother was Amelia Joanna,
and she was born in 1704 or 05; there’s some doubt about the actual date. There was flooding and fever
that winter and they were not very careful about recording births. Amelia Joanna’s mother, Margaret,
was born in 1688. Her mother, Sophronia, was born in 1664—”

“Just in time for the Plague and the Fire,” Dominick put in.

“Yes, and only three of the family survived it: Sophronia, her mother, Hannah, and one son, William.
Terrible names they gave females in those days. Anyway, William had four wives and eighteen children in
his lifetime and Sophronia had six children and even Hannah remarried and had three more. Hannah’s
mother was Lucretia and she was born in 1629. Her mother, Cesily, was born in 1607, and it was her
mother, Sabrina, that the story concerns. So you see, nine times great-grandmother of my Great-aunt
Sabrina.” He gave a grin that managed to be smug and sheepish at once. “That Lucretia, now, she was a
sad one— married off at thirteen to an old reprobate in his fifties who kept two mistresses in separate
wings at his principal seat as well as having who knows how many doxies over the years. Lucretia turned
nasty in her later life, they say, and there was an investigation over the death of her tirewoman, who
apparently was beaten to death under mysterious circumstances. The judge in the case was Sir Egmont
Hardie, and he—”

“Charles!”‘ thundered his cousin.

Whittenfield coughed and turned his eyes toward the ceiling. “About Sabrina. Let me see. She was
twenty in 1610, married to Captain Sir James Grossiter. Cesily was three and her boy, Herbert, was
one. It is a little hard to tell about these things after so long, but apparently certain difficulties had arisen
between Sabrina and her husband. Sir James had quarreled with his father when he got into trouble with
his commanding general, and ran off to the Continent, which was a damned silly thing to do, considering
the times. He tried a little soldiering, which was the only thing he knew, and then got caught for some
petty offense and was flung into gaol, leaving his wife with two children to feed and no one to help her,
and in a foreign country, to boot.”

“Well, she’s not the first woman to earn her bread on her back, but I shouldn’t think you’d bring it up…”
one of the guests was heard to remark.

Whittenfield shook his head. “Most men prefer whores who can speak to them, which Sabrina could not.
And her children were inconvenient for such a profession. She knew some French and had been taught a
few Italian songs as a child, but for the most part she was as good as mute.” He drained his glass again.
“She was greatly distraught, as you might suspect, and did not know which way to turn.”

“That’s a female for you,” the same guest said, and the sixth guest turned to him.

“What makes you believe that a man, in those circumstances, would fare any better?” The sixth guest
clearly did not expect an answer, and the man who had spoken glared at him.

Charles went on as if he had not heard. “She sold all that she and Sir James possessed, which was not
much, and then she began to sell their clothes, so that they had only what they wore on their backs, and
that quickly became rags. However, she was able to afford a few bits of food and to hire mean lodgings
in a back street of Antwerp. By doing scullery work at a nearby inn she got scraps to eat and enough to