"Doranna Durgin - Seer's Blood" - читать интересную книгу автора (Durgin Doranna)

Besides, Lenie, with her rounded curves and eye-catching blonde hair, was a pretty sight and there was
no arguing that.

Lenie sat next to her, uninvited. "Never thought I'd see the day you were makin' eyes at someone."

Blaine's smile disappeared. "Not hardly. I'm watching he doesn't hurt ole Prince's mouth. And you
mought not primp. He's from the south and he aims to get back as soon as he can."South. The seers had
gone south after the Takers were killed. Everyone knew that.

"There ain't no harm to it. You could use the practice. Get your hair out of those silly braids and put it up
like a woman, or you'll be Daddy's despair when it comes to matchin' you." Lenie plucked at the wrap
that kept Blaine's braids together for the plow work.

Blaine snorted, easily drawn into the same argument she'd argued uncountable times before. "I ain't in no
hurry to have a brood like ours. Mommy's not hardly got the time to sit an' draw a breath for herself.
Don't seem right a body shouldhave to live that way, if you ask me."Besides , she didn't say,my face is
too thin to wear my hair your way . Two braids, weak brown in the winter and sun-kissed in summer,
did best by her.

Lenie frowned. "Daddy keeps us safe here. It's only right he should have us carin' for him."

"That's not what I meant. Don't you everтАФ" she broke off and looked at her sister, then shook her head.
"No, I don't guess you do. Get a man to keep you home, and you'll be happy enough."

"I should say so. And you'll be sayin' the same, ten year from now, an' you still a maid."

"I can take care of myself," Blaine mumbled, knowing that wasn't a complete truth, knowing that at
seventeen, she alone among her peers was unspoken forтАФa prospect that horrified her but did not yet
worry her. Lenie had to be paired again, and she would go first. Besides, no man was wont to cast a
longing eye on herтАФshe'd been toldthat often enough. The men of these hills liked some substance to
their womenтАФvisible proof of ability to withstand the rigors of mountain life.

Lenie snorted, unaware of Blaine's musings. "Wise up, Blaine. This one's family may be too far off for
Daddy's likin', but it wouldn't hurt none to practice giving a man a kindly eye."

For once Lenie's advice was meant to be helpful, but Blaine was having none of itтАФeven if her gaze did
wander to Dacey again, to the way he'd shed his jacket to take up the plow, and to remember how his
eyes, intense blue and green and brown mixed up into a bright kind of hazel, had been so thoughtful. Not
dismissive or pitying of her. And his hair, a dark mix of ashy blonds, reminded her of the heartwood of
white oak. He wore it longer than the short, bristly cuts of her family's men; she liked that.

But he was going back home, far from here, and something made her glad of it.

"Blaine, Lenie!" Her mother's call, with a pleased note in her voice telling that the meal had turned out
well. "Come help put the food out. And give those men a holler to wash up for dinner."

Blaine pushed out of the swing with vigor, setting Lenie to swinging harder than she liked, and leaving her
to speak to the men. Let Leniepractice .
***