"Carolyn Ives Gilman - The Wild Ships of Fairny" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gilman Carolyn Ives)

THE WILD SHIPS OF FAIRNY
By Carolyn Ives Gilman
****

MARRY ME!тАЭ JUMBER SHOUTED as soon as his boat was in earshot.

Larkin shook her head and turned to pound more caulking into a crevice in
KittiwakeтАЩs deck. She had come out to work on her boat when the uncles had
spotted a sail on the horizon. She had known it would have to be Jumber. No one
else would come to Fairny this early in the year, when the sea hadnтАЩt yet thrown off
its winter melancholy.

тАЬMarry me!тАЭ he yelled again, apparently thinking she hadnтАЩt heard. He was
practically standing on the bowsprit, clutching a forestay. A pink knit sweater
stretched across his rotund torso, and a visored cap hid the thinning patch in his
black hair. He had a bushy mustache and eyes crinkled from squinting into the sun.
Larkin noted enviously that his boat was in even better repair than last year; painted
green and red with shiny brass fittings, she was the brightest thing Fairny Bay had
seen all winter. Larkin resolved to ask lumber to bring some paint for Kittiwake next
time he came, even if it meant doing without new boots.

тАЬYou boat abuser!тАЭ she yelled back. тАЬYouтАЩre risking BobberтАЩs life, taking her
out this early.тАЭ

тАЬIt was love. So shoot me,тАЭ he said. Then, to his crew, тАЬCome about, you
rotting turds! WhereтАЩs the hawser? Do I have to do the whole blistering thing
myself?тАЭ

Bobber nosed neatly in to the tumbledown dock where the great Fairny fleet
had once moored. Jumber had two crewmen this year, Larkin saw. He had
prospered. Back in Soris, the women were probably lined up to catch his eye. Inland
women were like that.

The trader would have jumped onto the sagging gray dock, but stopped when
another person emerged from BobberтАЩs hatch. He was a strange sight, swathed in a
furry greatcoat. His long black hair fell about his shoulders; his close-cropped black
beard was shaved away in comma-shaped sworls down his cheeks. He looked
around at the empty bay, the bare hills, then the line of gray, leaning shacks that was
the village. His brows contracted. тАЬYou have cheat me!тАЭ he cried shrilly.

тАЬNo, your honor, this is Fairny,тАЭ Jumber said.

тАЬYou gregious Torna, this is lie!тАЭ the man insisted. тАЬWhere are sheeps?тАЭ

тАЬOh, not again,тАЭ Jumber said with overtaxed patience. тАЬListen, I told you
there wasnтАЩt much here. You could have gotten your sheep much closer to Softs тАФ
didnтАЩt I say that?тАЭ

The foreigner looked around. тАЬThere are no sheep!тАЭ