"Elgin,.Suzette.Haden.-.Ozark.-.01.-.Twelve.Fair.Kingdoms" - читать интересную книгу автора (Elgin Suzette Haden)

Housekeeping Spell or twoЧwhich would of been most
unbecoming, but I never could abide dirt, eveh loose dirtЧand
I waved everybody to their chairs. Which they took after
brushing more dust with great ostentation off the chair seats,
drat them all for their eagerness to dot every "i" and cross
every *'t" when it was my competence in question, and I called
the roll,

My mother was there, Thom of Guthrie, forty-four years old
and not looking more than thirty of those, which wasn't even
decent; I do not approve of my mother I said "Thom of
Guthrie" and she said "Here" and we left it at that. My uncles,
Donald Patrick Brightwater the 133rdЧtime we dropped that
name awhile, we'd wear it outЧand Jubal Brooks Brightwater
the 31st. Jubal's wife, Emmalyn of Clark, poor puny thing, she
was there; and Donald's wife. Patience of dark, Emmalyn's
sistec And my grandmother, Ruth of Motley, not yet a Granny,
since Jonathan Cardwell Brightwater the 12th showed no signs

Twelve Fair Kingdoms 5

of leaving this worid for all he was 109 years old . . . and it
was said that he still troubled Ruth of Motley in the nights and
scandalized the servingmaids in the chamber next to theirs.
And I could believe it. We could of used him that day, since his
head was as clear as his body was said to be hearty, but he was
off somewhere trying to trade a set of Charms he'd worked out
for a single Spell he'd been wanting to get hold of at least the
last five years . . . and the lady that Spell belonged to not
about to pass it on to him, if he spent five more.

As it was, that meant only seven of us in Meeting, not nearly
enough for proper discussion or voting, and you would of
thought that on a Solemn Day, and with guests in the Castle,
tbere'd of been more of us in our proper places. I was put out
about the whole thing, and my mother did not scruple to point
that out.

"Mighty nervy of you. Responsible," she said, in that voice
of hers, "being cross with everybody else for what is plainly
your own fault." I could of said Yes-Motnei; since she despises
that, but I had more pressing matters to think of than annoying
my motheE She'd never make a Granny; she was too quick
with mat tongue and not able to put it under rein when the
circumstances called for it, and at her age she had no excuse.
She'd be a flippant wench at eighty-five, still stuck in her
magic at Common Sense Level, like a child. Lucky she was
that she was beautiful, since men have no more sense than to
be distracted by such things, and Thorn was that. She had the
Guthrie hah; masses of it, exactly the color of bittersweet