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

Christian charity or because it went with the image of lady of the manor."



"They were just so . . . unsanitary."Telemachus shuddered. He daubed at a badly

faded section of the mural with a camel's hair brush. "So precocious, too."



"Don't tell us again about how your mother caught a pair of them making the

beast with two backs in thepergol ." Olivia strolled up to the scaffolding and

rested an elbow on the wooden frame.Telemachus gave a small squawk to feel the

timbers shake ever so slightly and Olivia desisted.
"How could they?"Telemachus shook his head, patting his bedewed brow dry with a

folded pocket handkerchief. "They were only infants!" A hot flush overwhelmed

his sallow cheeks. "And I do not wish to discuss such--such carnal matters while

we are under this sacred roof!"



"Don't fret about Miss Drummond's choice of language for my sake,Telemachus ,"

the vicar replied with a superior chuckle. "I am quite understanding, even if

the Church is not. Back to the soft. It always proves to he too much for your

urbanized souls, no matter the age. The ancient fertility of the land. The Great

Mother's siren song. I'm not at all surprised. Your neck of the woods is rife

with nodes of chthonic power,Telemachus . Doesn't a day go by that some young

sprig of a folklorist isn't discovering a strangely isolated village in the

hinterlands whose inhabitants still cling stubbornly to the Old Religion, bound

to the earth by more than a tenant's agreement, serving arcane and ageless

deities, worshipping the fructifying forces in ways that aren't quite C. of E."

He lifted one corner of his perfect lips in a knowledgeable smile. "Don't look