"Gordon R. Dickson - Dragon Knight 06 - The Dragon and the Djinn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

The table servants were already readying a place for him at one end of the table, so he and Angie could
half face each other; for she sat behind the length of the table, itself, close to that end. Even as he sat
down, another servant ran in from the serving room with a steaming pitcher, from which he poured hot
wine into a mazer-a large, square metal goblet placed before Brian.

тАЬMulled wine, by God!тАЭ said Brian happily.

He took several hearty swallows from the mazer, to check on what his nose had already told him.
Putting the mazer back down, he beamed at Angie with affectionate goodwill. Another of the table
servants put a meat pie in front of him and spooned a large serving from it on to his trencher, the large,
thick slice of coarse bread which served as his plate. He nodded approvingly, neatly picked out the
largest piece of meat and wiped his fingers afterwards neatly on his napkin by the trencher.
тАЬI thought to find you dining in your solar when you were alone, Angela,тАЭ he said, as soon as his mouth
was empty.

тАЬI have done that,тАЭ said Angie. тАЬBut itтАЩs more convenient here.тАЭ

Her eyes met BrianтАЩs and a look of complete understanding passed between them, twentieth century and
fourteenth century for once in complete agreement.

Servants. Angie would by far have preferred to eat in the solar-which was the bed-sitting chamber at the
top of MalencontriтАЩs tower and the private chamber of the Lord and Lady of the castle.

The solar was a warm, comfortable place, with its windows tightly glazed against the weather with actual
glass, and the floor heated under foot by a reconstruction by her husband of the type of hypocaust that
the earlier Roman conquerors of Britain had used to heat their homes, but which the Middle Ages had
forgotten. It was simply a space between two stone floors where air could circulate that had been
warmed by continuous fires burning in fireplaces outside the room.

There also was an actual large fireplace in the solar itself-ornamental as well as useful in weather like this.

The Great Hall, of course, had fireplaces of its own. Three, in fact, huge ones. One behind the high table
where Angie sat right now, and two others; one each halfway down the long walls of the hall. At the
moment all three were burning brightly with fires in them, because Angie was there; but the hall was still
cold for all that.

Still, against their real preferences, Jim and Angie had taken to eating at least their mid-day meals here.
No servant had come to them on bended knee and pleaded with them to eat in state in the Hall; though
there had been veiled references made to the convenience of the serving room-so close to the high
table-so that food could be brought in hot. But no one had officially protested.

But there were still invisible limits to what a Lord and Lady could do- even if the Lord was a famous
knight and magician. Those who served the gentry would obey any order. Men-at-arms would go forth
and die for their feudal superiors. But neither servants nor men-at-arms, nor tenants, nor serfs, nor
anyone else on the estate, would go against custom. When custom spoke, everybody obeyed; right up to
the throne of the King himself.

And at Malencontri, a general attitude, unspoken but very clearly felt, had finally had its way with Angie
and Jim. A Lord and Lady of a castle like this were supposed to eat their mid-day meal in proper