"David Drake - RCN 04 - Glory" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

along too well!" Bayard continued in glee. "Far too well!"

He broke into cackling laughter; it ended abruptly in a paroxysm of coughing. One of Bayard's

attendants held his shoulders while the other slipped a large handkerchief over his mouth.

Daniel smiled pleasantly. I hope you bring your lungs up, you nasty little bastard, he thought.

Aloud he said, "That would've been before my time, sir. And of course it's not the sort of thing a

gentleman talks about."

"Gentlemen!" Bayard sneered. "All a gentleman's good for is feeding the worms!"

"That's the common lot of mankind, my dear Tomas," said a woman suddenly standing at Daniel's

right elbow. Her voice was cultured and as smoothly cutting as a scalpel. "However the lieutenant here

has already accomplished things that will keep his name alive after the worms have devoured what the

doctors have left. Not so?"

"Faugh, glory!" Bayard said. "Women and fools set great store by it, I understand."

He started to turn away, but stiffness and the walker prevented him from doing so quickly

enough. The woman added sweetly, "I suppose women you've had to learn about second hand, haven't

you, you poor dear?"

Daniel allowed himself a satisfied smile toward the magnate's back. He wouldn't have responded

to Bayard directly, out of courtesy toward a sick old man--however nasty--and from the sense of

propriety ingrained by living within the rigid order of the RCN. He certainly wasn't displeased to watch

somebody else kick the old bastard in the balls, though--and then put the boot in as he writhed on the

floor.

He turned to the woman. She looked to be in her thirties, but that was probably as much a

medical marvel as the fact Tomas Bayard was alive at all. She was undeniably handsome, but even 'the
thirties' was far too old for Daniel's taste.

"Mistress Jacopus," said Mawhire to the lady, "allow me to present the Lieutenant Daniel Leary

of whom we've heard so much. I'd say Daniel was an old family friend, but in fact I can't claim to be any

closer to Speaker Leary today that Kearnes is--or you are yourself, boy, from what I hear? Had quite a