"Friesner, Esther M - ss - A Beltaine and Suspenders" - читать интересную книгу автора (Friesner Esther M)

sixth century!"

"So we are." Olivia thrust her hands into the pockets of her Norfolk jacket. "I
still don't see that we're speaking of survivals of antique fertility rites in
the Sussex mountains!"

Telemachus looked up from where he had been frantically retouching the results
of the vicar's too-emphatic nature. "But -- but that's what we might discover if
we make the journey. I'm certain Mummy wouldn't mind us popping by for a visit.
If I wire her first. Short notice, but-- but I don't think she'd -- I'll do it
as soon as I may. She ought to be expecting me, it being so close to Christmas,
and the festive season should -- should smooth the way clear for you two to join
me. It --"here he crept back toward the abandoned pew and brought his own finger
perilously close to the monograph -- it does say that the author spent a night
in Kingsfield before proceeding to Greater Ambrose."

"It doesn't say how much he drank that night," Olivia jibed. "If we err and
under-imbibe I'm afraid we won't be able to see Greater Ambrose at all. But
never mind, I'm game. I did say I'd like to meet your mum, Tilly. And if this is
a joke on your part, Vicar, at least you've the decency to get caught up in it
yourself."

"I do not consider the investigation of such practices as Stilby-Nash hints at
to be any sort of joking matter." Father Herrick produced a primed and loaded
Meerschaum and sucked doggedly on the stem. "I have done some preliminary
research and learned that his lordship was a well-respected amateur ethnologist
in his day. A bachelor by choice after the death of his intended bride, he sunk
himself alternately in the study of English folklore and the doing of good works
for his parish. Therefore his unexpected and complete vanishment from all public
ken shortly after the first of May, 1848, was remarked and lamented in the local
press and church records."

"What-- what happened to him?" Telemachus bit his thumb and made small,
inarticulate sounds of agitation that crescendoed in a bleat of dismay when
Father Herrick replied:

"He was last heard of in a village inn in Sussex which marked the last leg of
his walking tour. The innkeeper claimed that his lordship told various people in
the common room that he was heading homeward from Greater Ambrose. He then went
upstairs to his room. In the morning he was gone and all that was found was the
manuscript from which this monograph was later published as a memorial by Lord
Stilby-Nash's friends and associates."

"He . . . vanished?" Telemachus' voice shrilled out of control and he lost all
mastery of his sweat glands.

"Oh, now see what you've done!" Olivia exclaimed impatiently. "You've sent poor
Tilly all rabbity. There, there, Tilly. No offense, but it wasn't the first time
one of the gentry skipped out on his host without paying the bill. He probably
shinnied down the ivy -- these rural inns are positively swarming with ivy --