"Dickson, Gordon - Call Him Lord" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

the stubby holster it matched, and clipped the holster to his
belt at the left of the buckle, where the hang of his leather
jacket would hide it. Then he selected a dark-handled knife
with a six-inch blade and bent over to slip it into the sheath
inside his boot top. He dropped the cuff of his trouser leg
back over the boot top and stood up.
"He's got no right to be here," said Teena fiercely to the
breadboard. "Tourists are supposed to be kept to the museum
areas and the tourist lodges."
"He's not a tourist. You know that," answered Kyle,
patiently. "He's the Emperor's oldest son and his great-grand-
mother was from Earth. His wife will be, too. Every fourth
generation the Imperial line has to marry back into Earth
stock. That's the lawstill." He put 'on his leather jacket,
sealing it closed only at the bottom to hide the slug-gun
holster, half turned to the doorthen paused.
"Teena?" he asked.
She did not answer.
"Teena!" he repeated. He stepped to her, put his hands on
her shoulders and tried to turn her to face him. Again, she
resisted, but this time he was having none of it.
He was not a big man, being of middle height, round-faced,
with sloping and unremarkable-looking, if thick, shoulders.
But his strength was not ordinary. He could bring the white
stallion to its knees with one fist wound in its maneand no
other man had ever been able to do that. He turned her easily
to look at him.
"Now, listen to me" he began. But, before he could
finish, all the stiffness went out of her and she clung to him,
trembling.
"He'll get you into trouble1 know he will!" she choked,
muffledly into his chest. "Kyle, don't go! There's no law
making you go!"
He stroked the soft hair of her head, his throat stiff and
dry. There was nothing he could say to her. What she was
asking was impossible. Ever since the sun had first risen on
men and women together, wives had clung to their husbands
at times like this, begging for what could not be. And always
the men had held them, as Kyle was holding her nowas if
understanding could somehow be pressed from one body into
the otherand saying nothing, because there was nothing that
could be said.
So, Kyle held her for a few moments longer, and then
reached behind him to unlock her intertwined fingers at his
back, and loosen her arms around him. Then, he went.
Looking back through the kitchen window as he rode off on
the stallion, leading the gray horse, he saw her standing just
where he had left her. Not even crying, but standing with her
arms hanging down, her head down, not moving.
He rode away through the forest of the Kentucky hillside.