"Brown,.Mary.-.Unicorn's.Ring.2.-.1994.-.Pigs.Don't.Fly" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brown Mary)

Now the butcher was on his feet. He was the man I had always liked least of
Mama's clients, not only because he sometimes tried to put his hands down my
front.
"Comrades ... Quiet! I know what we all have at stake here, but we cannot leave
the new whore entirely without."
Surely they couldn't mean that IЧ
But the mayor took over, with an uneasy glance in my direction.
"Normally, of course, we could have left all this for a day or two until
everything settled down," he said. "But under the circumstancesЧ"
"With her losing her job and allЧ" said the butcher.
"Чwe shall have to make a quick decision," continued the mayor.
My heart gave a sudden lurch of thankfulness. They hadn't been thinking of me as
a replacement after all.
PIGS DON'T FLY
31
But the mayor's next words hurt. "Normally we might have offered young
Summer-Solstice here the job, as her mother's daughter, but under the
circumstances I don't believe she would attract the same sort of custom...."
"Oh, come on!" said the miller, always ready with a kind word. "She's not that
bad! A nice smile, all her teeth, small hands and feet, a fine head of hair . .
." Even he couldn't think of anything else.
"Mama wished me to become a wife, not a whore," I said stiffly. Whores were
special, but wives came in all shapes and sizes, so I had a better chance as the
latter, especially with my learning and dowryЧcome to that, wnere was it? Mama
had never said. And when I found the coins, how did I set about finding this
elusive husband I had been promised? With winter coming on, it would be better
to leave it until New Year. If what they had said about the furniture going to
the next whore was true, the cottage would seem very bare. I had a few coins
left of Mama's, and perhaps if they let me keep a couple of the hens and I could
persuade the carpenter to knock me up a truckle bed, I could manage with what
was laid aside. But I should have to buy some salted porkЧ
". . . so, if it is convenient, shall we say noon tomorrow?" asked the mayor.
"Although your brothers are not here now, they will attend the interment in the
morning, and your eldest brother let it be known his wife would not be averse to
the dresses...."
I had lost something in his speechifying, but that pinched-nosed sister-in-law
of mine was not going to wear my mother's dresses, and I told him so.
"Why not? They're of no use to you. Your ma was tall and thin."
"I still would not like to see another in her dressesЧ"
"Nonsense! Why waste them? The new whore, Agnes-from-the-Inn, would fit into
them nicely, too. No point in wasting them."
So that sandy-haired, big-bosomed wench was to be the next village whore! "No,"
I said.
"As she's getting everything else," said the butcher,
32 Mary Brown
"including this cottage, why not chuck the dresses in as well? Not yours to
dispose of, anyway." "This place? But it's oursЧmine, surely?" The mayor shook
his head. "Goes with the job. So, as I said a moment or two back, I can expect
you out by midday tomorrow?"
"I can't! I've nowhere to go!" This just couldn't be happening! All in one day