"Sara Douglass - The Troy Game 2 - God's Concubine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Douglass Sara)

His eyes were of the palest blue, flinty enough to make any miscreant appearing before
him blurt out a confession without thought, cold enough to make any woman think twice
before attempting to use the arts of Eve upon him. Currently his eyes flitted about the
hall, marking every crude remark, every groping hand, every mouth stained red with
wine.
And with every movement of his eyes, every sin noted, his mouth crimped just that
little bit more until it appeared that he had eaten something so foul his body would insist
on spewing it forth at any moment.
On his head rested a golden crown, as thickly encrusted with jewels as his fingers.

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 Sarah Douglass - God's Concubin


He was Edward, king of England, and he was sitting in the hall of the man he regarded
as his greatest enemy: Godwine, the earl of Wessex.
Godwine sat on Edward's left hand, booming with cheer and laughter where Edward
sat quiet and still. The earl was a large man, thickly muscled after almost forty-five years
spent on the battlefield, his begemmed hands when they lifted his wine cup to his mouth,
sinewy and tanned, his eyes as watchful as Edward's, but without the judgment.
The reason for Godwine's cheer and Edward's bilious silence, as for the entire
tumultuous celebration, sat on Edward's right, her eyes downcast to her hands folded
demurely in her lap, her food sitting largely untouched on the platter before her.
She was Eadyth, commonly called Caela, Godwine's cherished thirteen-year-old
daughter, and now Edward's wife and queen of England.
The marriage had been a compromise, hateful to Edward, triumphant for Godwine. If
Edward married the earl's daughter, then Godwine would continue to support his throne.
If notтАж well, then Godwine would ensure that Edward would spend the last half of his
life in exile as he'd spent the first half (staying as far away from his murderous stepfather,
King Cnut, as possible). If Edward wanted to keep the throne, then he needed Godwine's
support, and Godwine's support came only at the price of wedding his daughter.
She was a pretty girl, her attractiveness resting more in her extraordinary stillness than
in any extravagant feature. Her glossy brown hair, currently tightly braided and hidden
under her silken ivory veil (which itself was held in place by a golden circlet of some
weight, which may have partly explained why Caela kept her face downward facing for
so much of the feast), was one of her best features, as were also her sooty-lashed, deep
blue eyes and her flawlessly smooth white skin. Otherwise her features were regular, her
teeth small and evenly spaced, her hands dainty, their every movement considered. Caela
was dressed almost as richly as her new husband: a heavily embroidered blue surcoat, or
outer tunic, over a long, crisp, snowy linen under tunic embroidered with silver threads
about its hem and the cuffs of its slim-fitted sleeves. Unlike her husband and her father,
however, Caela wore little in the way of jeweled adornment, save for the gold circlet of
rank on her brow and a sparkling emerald ring on the heart finger of her left hand.
Edward had shoved it there not four hours earlier during the nuptial mass held in her
father's chapel. Now that nuptial ring's large square-cut stone hid a painful bruise on
Caela's finger.
Caela's eyes rarely moved from the hands in her lapтАФsomeone who did not know her
well might have thought she sat admiring that great cold emeraldтАФ and she spoke only
monosyllabic replies to any who addressed her.
That was rare enough. Edward had not said a word to her, and the only other person