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

had grey in it aplenty, and her skin was wrinkled like skin too long in water.
But she had no mirror but me and her clients, and who were the latter to notice
in the flattery of candles or behind drawn bed-curtains? Besides, those she
entertained were mostly well into middle age themselves and in no position to
criticize.
"So by the time the meeting of the Council came round it was a foregone
conclusion that I would stay. It was decided to offer me this cottage and food
and supplies in return for my services," continued Mama. "Of course I laid down
certain conditions. This place was to be renovated, extended, re-roofed and
furnished. I was also to entertain six days a week only: Sunday was to be my day
of rest.
"At first, of course, I was at it morning, noon and night, but eventually the
novelty-value wore off and my friends and I settled to a comfortable routine.
Your elder half-brother, Erik, was born here and three years later your other
half-brother, Luke...."
Erik now was a man grown with a shrewish and complaining wife. Dark, long-faced,
with tight lips, he had teased me unmercifully as a child. Luke I remembered
more kindly. He was apprenticed to the miller and had the same sandy hair, snub
nose and sap-toothed smile. It was obvious who his father was and Re even
resembled him in temperament: kind and a little dim.
8
Mary Brown
And now came the part of Mama's story of which I never wearied.
"Some dozen or more years ago," she would begin, "your half-brothers were fast
asleep and I was all alone, restless with the spirit of autumn that was sending
the swallows one way, bringing the geese the other. It was twilight, and all at
once there came a knocking at the door. It had to be a stranger, for there was
fever in the village and I had forsworn my regulars until it had passed...."
"And so there you were, Mama," I would prompt, "all alone in the growing
dusk...." Just in case she had forgotten, or didn't feel like going on. So vivid
was my imagination that I felt the shivers of her long-ago apprehension,
imagining myself alone and unprotected as she had been with the October mist
curling around the cottage like a tangle of great grey eels, slither-slide,
slither-creep....
"And so there I was," continued Mama, "determined to ignore whoever, whatever it
was. But again came that dreadful knocking! I grasped the poker tight in my
hand, for I had forgotten to bolt the doorЧ"
"And then?" I could scarcely breathe for excitement.
"And menЧand then the door was pulled open and a man, a tall, thin man, stood in
the shadows, the hood of his cloak pulled down so I could not see his face. You
can imagine how terrified I felt! "WhatЧwhat do you want?" I quavered, grasping
the poker still tighter. He took one step forward, ana now I could see nis cloak
was forest-green, and the hand that held it was brown and sinewy but still he
said nothing. Then was I truly afraid, for specters do not speak, and of what
use was a poker against the supernatural?"
I gasped in sympathy, crossing myself in superstitious fear.
"I think that my bowels would have turned to water had he stood there silent one
moment longer," she said, "but of a sudden he thrust one hand against his side
and held the other out towards me, saying in a low and throbbing tone: 'A vision
of loveliness indeed! Do I wake