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

in a wobbly trajectory.

He jumped to intercept her. "Let me help you, ma'am,
nooffense."

"You're afraid I'll break the axe!" she accused him.

"No ma'am! I'm afraid you'll chop off a toe, and I'd
sure hate to have anything like that happen to a foot as
dainty as that."

She relaxed. His diplomacy was effective because it
was unschooled. "So would I! I did come close, didn't




6 With a Tangled Skein

I? All my incidental studies about trees, and I never split
a single blivet ofЧ"

"Billet, ma'am," he said quickly.

She had to laugh. "Of course! I don't use the language
as well as I supposed!"

"Oh, no, you talk real fine, ma'am," he said. "Now
you take the handle like this, see, andЧ" He reached
around her to put his hands over hers, setting hers prop-
erly on the handle. His hands were larger than hers, cal-
lused and strong, seeming too big for his body. She won-
dered whether boys, like puppies, had outsized paws if
they were still growing into them. If so, Cedric would in
due course be a young giant.

"How is it your hands are so rough, when your family
is scholarly?" she asked thoughtlessly.

He snatched his hands away. "Oh, you know, fight-
ing," he said, embarrassed.

Fighting. Well, boys would be boys. "There shouldn't
be cause for that here," she informed him gently.

"No, 'course not," he muttered, scuffling his feet.

"You were showing me how to chop," she said, taking

pity on him.