"Eric Flint - 1633" - читать интересную книгу автора (Flint Eric)

likely to screw up with their mouth open than closed."
 The cardinal, of course, was quite familiar with the ploy himself. Silence lengthened in the room.
For an intellectual, silence is the ultimate sin. So, again, Rebecca found herself forced to keep it
zipped!
She took refuge in memories of her husband. Mike, standing in the doorway to their house in
Grantville, his face somewhat drawn and unhappy, as he bid her farewell on her diplomatic journey to
France and Holland. The same faceтАФshe found this memory far more comfortingтАФthe night before, in
their bed.
Something in the smile which came to her face at that memory defeated the cardinal. Richelieu's
smile never wavered, true. But he did take a deep breath and, gently but firmly, set the kitten down on
the floor and left off his idle playing.
"The 'Ring of Fire,' as you call itтАФwhich brought your 'Americans' and their bizarre technology
into our worldтАФwas enough to confuse anyone, madame. But further reflection, especially with further
evidence to base it upon, has led me to the conclusion that I was quite in error to label your . . . ah, if
you will forgive the term, bizarre new country the product of 'witchcraft.' "
Richelieu paused for a moment, running his fingers down his rich robes. "Quite inexcusable on my
part, really. Once I had time to ponder the matter, I realized that I had veered perilously close to
Manicheanism." With a little chuckle: "And how long has it been since that heresy was condemned? A
millennium and a half, ha! And here I claim to be a cardinal!"
Rebecca decided it was safe enough to respond to the witticism with a little chuckle of her own.
Nothing more than that, though. She could practically feel the cardinal's magnetic personality drawing
her in, and didn't doubt for a moment that Richelieu understood the power of his own charm quite well.
By all accounts, the cardinal was a chaste man. But 'seduction' was a term which had more than one
application. Time after time, Richelieu's rise to power and influence had been eased by that personal
grace and charmтАФand, with other intellectuals, the suppleness of his mind. Were she not, for all
practical purposes, the envoy of a nation at war with Richelieu, she would have enjoyed immensely
spending a few hours with one of Christendom's most prodigious intellects discussing the theological
implications of the strange event which had brought an entire town of people into 17th-century Europe
from a place centuries in the future called "the United States of America."
Silence, woman! Obey your husband!
And that thought, too, reinforced her own serene smile. In truth, Mike Stearns was very far
removed from a "patriarch." He would be amused, Rebecca knew, when she told him of her self-
admonition. ("I will be good God-damned. You mean that for once you listened to me?")
It was another little defeat for Richelieu. Something in the set of his smileтАФa trace of stiffnessтАФ
told her so. Again, the cardinal ran fingers down his robe, and resumed speaking.
"No, only God could have caused such an incredible transposition of Time and Space. And your
term 'the Ring of Fire' seems appropriate." Very serene, now, his smile. "As I'm sure you are aware, I
have long had my agents investigating your 'United States' in Thuringia. Several of them have
interviewed local inhabitants who witnessed the event. And, indeed, they tooтАФsimple peasantsтАФsaw
the heavens open up and a halo of heatless flame create a new little world in a small part of central
Germany.
"StillтАФ" he said, abruptly, holding up a hand as if to forestall Rebecca's next words. (Which, in
fact, she'd had no intention of speaking.) "Still, the fact that the event was of divine origin does not lead
to any certain conclusion as to its purpose."
And here it comes, thought Rebecca. The new and official party line.
 She was privileged, she realized. Her conversations with the courtiers at the royal audience the
night before had made clear to her that France's elite was still groping for a coherent ideological
explanation for the appearance of Grantville in the German province of Thuringia. Having now
survived for two yearsтАФnot to mention defeating several attacking armies in the process, at least one of
them funded and instigated by FranceтАФthe Americans and the new society they were forging could no