"Anthony Piers - Incarnations 3 - With a Tangled Skien" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anthony Piers)

THEBONNEEBOY

Niobe was the most beautiful young woman of her gen-
eration, with hair like buckwheat honey and eyes like the
sky on a misty summer morning and a figure that was
better imagined than described. But she had her trifling
faults, such as an imperious nature fostered by the ability
to use her beauty to get her own way, and she was of
only average intellect. Also, though she did not know it,
she had been marked for a more difficult destiny than she
had any right to dream of.

"But, Father!" Niobe protested prettily. "Cedric Kaf-
tan is but sixteen years old, while I am twenty-one! I
couldn't possibly marry him!"

Old Sean raised a pacifying hand. "Some rivers are
harder to cross than others, and some boats smaller.
These are not easy times, my daughter, for Ireland or the
world. He belongs to an excellent family, farmers and
scholars, and they take care of their own. His age is im-
material."

2 With a Tangled Skein

"Immaterial!" she snorted. "He is but a child! Father,
you do me wrong to marry me to one who is so young!"

The man's jaw tightened. He had the power of the pa-
triarch, but he preferred to have harmony. "Daughter, I
did not do you wrong. It is true he is young, but he's
growing. He will be a match for you when I am dead and
gone."

"Let him be a match for some little snippet his own
age! I absolutely refuse to put up with this indignity!"
Her eyes seemed to brighten with her anger, becoming as
intense as the midday welkin.

Sean shook his head ruefully, not immune to the luster
of his child. "Niobe, you are the bonniest lass in the
county, and nicely talented on the loom, but perhaps the
most headstrong, too! Twice you have balked at excellent
matches, and I was weak enough to let you. Now you are
becoming embarrassingly old for a maiden."

That shook her, but she fought back. "Oh, pooh! A fat