"Anthony Piers - Incarnations 7 - And Eternity" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anthony Piers)

ORLENE

Jolie was in France when she felt the pain. Someone close
to her was dying!

She was conducting a routine observation, animating a
servant girl in the house of the man she was studying. She
had to extricate herself in a hurryЧbut not in such a way as
to alienate her host.

Please, MarieЧsomething pressing has come up. May I
leave you for a time?

The girl was startled. "You will return?" she asked in
French. She enjoyed their association, because she was dull
and Jolie was bright. When Jolie animated her, she carried
herself with greater flair and was more alert, and her
employer liked that. There was nothing untoward in this,
and the employer had no designs on Marie; he merely liked
to think that his relatively egalitarian household was good
for her.

When I can, Jolie reassured her, communicating mind to
mind because she did not want the girl to seem to be
muttering. I fear a friend is in trouble.

"Of course you must go to her!" Marie agreed.

She had spoken too loudly, and the employer looked up

2 Piers Anthony AND ETERNITY 3

from his book. "What was that?" he inquired, also in
French.

Jolie took over. "I beg your pardon, sir. My mind
garbled, and I misspoke myself."

He smiled indulgently. "It happens to the best of us,
and to me also. But if someone needs you, you may have
time off, of course."

He was a good and generous manЧwhich was why
Jolie was observing him. "Thank you, sir. But the need is
not pressing. I will finish here."

He nodded, and returned to his book. He was a portly
married man, and Marie was young and shapely and not
bright, but he treated her with perfect courtesy, much as he
would a visitor. That, too, counted in his favor.