"David Drake - The Way to Glory" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

"Do let me be your guide, Lieutenant," Mistress Jacopus said, taking his right arm in both hands; gently,
but in a proprietary fashion nonetheless. "I have so many questions to ask you about your medals!"

The Jacopus family was famous for wealth and a determined neutrality in the Republic's
rough-and-tumbleтАФsometimesvery roughтАФpolitics. Daniel had heard that one member of the family was
the most famous hostess in Xenos; he didn't doubt that he'd just met her.

The orchestra was playing a hornpipe, but it was a restrained thing compared to what went by the same
name in the spacers' bars around Harbor ThreeтАФor any other RCN liberty port. Daniel had spent his
time in those bars when he was a midshipman, an officer by courtesy but not yet commissioned. Since
fame had brought him invitations to dos like this one, he'd found little to regret about no longer being poor
and obscure. The liquor was better and the women were much prettier. He'd never had much interest in
dancing anyway.

Mistress Jacopus led him toward the refreshment table which was set in a corner, in front of double
doors onto a parterre. Servants passed in and out, exchanging full trays and bottles to replace the those
that had been browsed and drunk empty.

Jacopus was taking him by the long route, however, and at each step she nodded graciously and smiled
to another guest. Occasionally she murmured a first nameтАФ"Dear Janni . . . "тАФor titleтАФ"Senator, how
nice,"тАФas they passed, savoring the looks of respect andтАФfrom some of the womenтАФfury.

"I hope you don't mind me showing off my trophy, Lieutenant," she said in his ear as though murmuring
endearments. "Because you are quite a trophy, you know."

"Ah, mistressтАФ" Daniel said.

"Christine, please," she said. "And you needn't worry that I'll embarrass you later. I know quite a lot
about your tastes, including the sort ofyoung friends you prefer for recreation. I'd offer to help you there,
but I'm sure a handsome hero like yourself is capable of making his own arrangements."

"That's generally been the case in the past, ah, Christine," Daniel said. "And I do appreciate you, ah,
helping me out of an awkwardness."

Daniel didn't like to talk about his father for a number of reasons, not least that he didn't have anything to
say about Corder Leary. They'd had little contact even before the breakтАФwhich was over Corder's
remarriage, not Daniel's career. He'd joined the RCN in reaction to that blazing row, not as the cause of
it.

Daniel had spent his childhood on the family estate of Bantry, learning a little about decorum from his
motherтАФa saint, as everybody agreedтАФand a great deal about hunting, fishing and manhood from Hogg,
a family retainer. There'd been Hoggs poaching on Bantry from the days of the first human settlement,
long before the Hiatus in star travel drew a thousand-year line through history.

In the eight years since the row, Daniel and Corder Leary'd had no contact whatever. Words had been
said that would've meant pistols at dawn if those speaking hadn't been father and son, but even beyond
that . . .

Corder Leary was a stiff-necked, stubborn man who'd never backed down in a fight. Daniel wasn't his
father and wouldn't have wanted to be him; but much as Daniel revered his late mother, he knew very