"Roberta Gellis - Fires of Winter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gellis Roberta)

This Jove book contains the complete text of the original trade paperback edition.It
has been completely reset in a typeface designed for easy reading, and was printed
from new film.
FIRES OF WINTER
A Jove Book / published by arrangement with the author
PRINTING HISTORY
Jove trade paperback edition / September 1987 Jove edition / June 1990
All rights reserved.
Copyright ┬й 1987 by Roberta Gellis.
This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part,
by mimeograph or any other means, without permission.
For information address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016.
ISBN: 0-515-10030-7
Jove Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group, 200 Madison Avenue,
New York, New York 10016.
The name "JOVE" and the "J" logo are trademarks belonging to Jove Publications,
Inc.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA



In memoriam
To Lyle Kenyon Engel,
book packager extraordinaire,
agent, and friend



CHAPTER 1


Bruno
My mother was a castle whore. My father, Sir William Fermain, holder of
Jernaeve keep, took the whore Berta to his bed in spite of his wife. That poor lady
had borne my father a third daughter who survived only a few hours, like the other
babes before her. Once her lord had taken her, my mother touched no other man,
and in the third month of her master's keeping she conceived me. Moreover, even
after the lord called her to him no more, she remained chaste, and for the whole time
she suckled me also.
My mother, like most of the people of Jernaeve and the lands beholden to it, was
fair of hair and light of eye, but I am darkтАФlike my father. Yet, because my mother
was what she was, he would not acknowledge me even as a bastard of his get.
I only learned these things later. When I was very young, three or four years old, I
only knew that the dark man in fine clothing hated me, and that if I ran or hid or
wept, I would be beaten, but if I defied him or fought him, he would only cuff me
once or twice and then let me be. I am accounted a brave man. I learned that from
my father's handlingтАФbut there are better ways to learn.
In those early years, before I understood what rank meant, I often begged my