"Esther M. Friesner - A Beltaine And Suspenders" - читать интересную книгу автора (Friesner Esther M)

that all beneath the manor roof freeze to death in their sleep. Ill-at-ease in

her new gown, which showed off a far more spectacular wealth of rose-petal bosom

than her quotidian tweeds ever dared imply, she was already feeling the first

frissons of impending frostbite in the most inconvenient places.



Perhaps it was the vicar's desire to stave off so chilly a demise that brought

him tiptoe to the door of Olivia's room just as thebuhl clock on the

mantelpiece struck one. The door did not creak as he gently pushed it open, then
drew it softly closed behind him. The bare parquet floor exhaled no more than a

whisper as hisstockinged feet glided over its polished surface. Even the great

canopied featherbed with its antique velvet curtains uttered not a groan of

protest as he insinuated himself beneath the eiderdown, putting an additional

strain on the roped underpinnings.



Olivia, however, hit him so hard that the sharp reverberation of open palm to

cheek reached all the way down the corridor toTelemachus ' room, leaving that

poor soul a quiver with the fear that the supposed thunderclap that had roused

him from sleep presaged an unseasonable storm.



"What's the matter with you?" Father Herrick demanded, cupping his smarting

face.



"Oh, I like that," Olivia sneered. "Come traipsing into my room uninvited, into

my bed, no less, and there's something wrong with me?"



"I should say there is," Father Herrick countered. "Or so the rumors run."