"Esther M. Friesner - Chicks 02 - Did You Say Chicks" - читать интересную книгу автора (Friesner Esther M)

The queens body looked, Mirabel had to admit, about half the age it had at Prince Nigel's wedding.
Trim waist, slender taut legs. Too bad nothing had improved her sour face. The other ladies twittered and
cooed as the dancing master appeared, leading the musicians.

He was a handsome fellow, in his way. He had broad manly shoulders, a deep chest, a light step, and
white teeth in a flashing smile. In fact, if not for his thick gray hair, he would have seemed the picture of
handsome, rugged, young manhood.

Gray hair? She looked again. Smooth-skinned, no wrinkles; hands of a man no more than thirty, if that.
Some people grayed early, but their hair usually came in white, and his was the plain gray of stone.
Wasn't there something about gray hair on a young face, some jingle? She was trying to remember it
when she noticed that the fronds of one potted palm were shaking as if in a windstorm, and strolled
casually over.

"Be still," she said as softly as possible. With the wailing of the dance music, she didn't think they'd hear.

"ThatтАФ!" Whatever Dorcas had been about to say, Eulalia smothered successfully with a scarf.

"Get her out of here," Mirabel said. "We'll sort this out later."

What Dorcas had seen, it transpired, was her bellyтАФunmistakeable not only for its singular beauty and
talents, but for its mole.

"But she's letting it go," Dorcas wailed. "It's been two weeks, and I can tell she hasn't done a full set of
ab crunches yet."

"I saw mine, too," Eulalia said. "And that woman must eat eight meals a day. The hipbones are already
covered."

"Youcoulduse a little more contouring, dear," Dorcas said to her, too sweetly.

"Youcould use a littleless," Eulalia said, not sweetly at all. They looked like two cats hissing; Mirabel
slapped the table between them.

"Ladies. This is more important. Can you identify your bellies well enough for a court?"

"I'm sure," Dorcas said, eyes narrowed.

"And I," Eulalia agreed.
 The judge, however, insisted that they had no proof. "A belly," he said firmly, "is just a belly. There is no
evidence that it can be moved from one person to another."

"But that'smybelly!" Dorcas said.

"Prove it," the judge said.

"That moleтАФ"

"According to expert testimony, that mole was so placed by plastic wizardry, and Lady Cholerine has a
receipt from a plastic wizard to show that she paid to have it put there. You, madam, do not have a