"Eric Flint & Ryk E. Spoor - Diamonds are Forever" - читать интересную книгу автора (Flint Eric)

worry like my grandmother." She emerged from the forest and got back into the car. "Well, so much for
my perfect grooming."
"Don't worry none about that." I dropped the crowbar back into the bag and put the car in gear. "It's their
fault for not watching for the slide and preventing it." That wasn't true, of course, if it was really what I
suspected, but either way the family wouldn't blame Jodi for not looking her best. And as far as I was
concerned, she'd look as good in jeans and a dirty T-shirt as in a formal gown.
There were no more incidents on the way up. We crested the last hill, came around the much smoother
bend that led to Slade's Hollow, and came down through the woods into the open. "Whoa!" said Jodi
involuntarily.
I couldn't repress a grin. "Yeah, y'all expected a couple log cabins and an outhouse, didn't you? Admit it,
the Slades don't have a half-bad spread."
The Slade House really is something of a mansion, even if it is more spread out than up. Every
generation adds a room or two somewhere, sorta like Lord Valentine's Castle. We try to keep a sort of
style to it, but you can still tell where one generation left off and another started. The main part used for
living these days was a massive mansion whose architecture was natural-looking logs and hewn
stoneтАФsort of a magnified version of what the earlier stuff had been, but if you knew anything about
building you could tell that this thing hadn't been raised up by two farmers and their families; serious
construction work had gone into the three-story, semicircular building.
"The original house is that small squarish part, off-center," I told Jodi, pointing. "That's where Winston
Slade put his house back in 1802. It's used mostly for storage now. The funny addition over there is our
generator shed, and on the other side's storage for tools, stuff like that. Got farm equipment in the barn
there, even though we don't use it all that muchтАФdon't have to do much farming, so it's mostly just for
the family."

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 - Chapter 2

"It's a mishmash all right, but pretty, you know? And this valley!"
"Yeah, the Hollow's pretty. One reason old Winston chose it was because it was already clear for
building; figured it was a sign and built his house smack in the middle of the Hollow, on this little rise.
And here we are."
I killed the engine and got out, Jodi doing the same on the other side. Our feet barely touched the ground
before the front doors burst open and the Slade clan came running out, Mamma in the lead as usual. She
was wearing her best dress, which was a pretty lace-embroidered blue and white affair that she'd only
had to let out a size or two since she got married to Father and which set off her complexion and dark
brown hair. There still wasn't a trace of gray in that thick hair. Either she just aged well or used dye that
no one caught her at, but no one would have the guts to ask her.
"CLINT! Clinton! Welcome home, boy!" She gave me the usual huge hug and a kiss on the cheek, and
turned to Jodi. "And this must be your Jodi! Welcome t' the Hollow, dear. Come on in, come on in,
you're just in time for dinner!"
Adam clapped me on the back. "Quite a looker!" he murmured in my ear. "What's she see in you, Clint?"
I stuck my tongue out at him and crossed my eyes the way we used to when we were kids. "Maybe
someday I'll tell you my secret. After I've got her safely tied down with a ring!"
Adam chuckled at that. The girls have always loved Adam. Standing six foot four and built like Conan
the Barbarian, with the best of Mamma's softer rounded features tempering the edges and planes of the
typical Slade face, he practically had to beat the girls off with a stick. I glanced towards my fianc├йe, to
find that Mamma had taken charge of JodiтАФwell, as much as anyone can take charge of JodiтАФand had
her inside already.
I noticed that the gate had now rolled across the entrance to the Hollow, and heard the faint change in
sound from the generators. SomeoneтАФprobably FatherтАФhad engaged the electric fence.