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

the winter she had constructed a mental image of what her life would be like.
lumber would prosper -- there was little doubt of that. He would soon buy a
bigger boat, and then a few more, and at last he would become a merchant with a
fleet, like the ones in Tornabay. He would grow stout and solid, and probably
she would too -- for there would be children, enough to fill a bright, noisy
houseful. It would be a good life, secure and happy. They would be leading
citizens of Soris someday. She would gradually forget what it was like to live
on haunted ground, always in the shadow of a lost past.

And she would never go to sea again.

She steered Kittiwake into the wind and went forward to raise the jib. When the
big sail billowed out the little boat heeled till the lee rail was scraping the
waves. Larkin leaned on the tiller with a whoop of exhilaration. As if sharing
her mood, Kittiwake leaped forward, her bow shooting free into air, then
crashing down again in spray.

It was getting on toward evening when Larkin came back into Fairny Bay. She was
in a quieter mood, but no more decided than when she had set out. Whatever
course she took, change was ahead.

"Where have you been?" Auntie Broil said when Larkin came into the small
cottage, boots and tackle slung over her shoulder.

"Out," Larkin said.

"In that boat of yours?"

"Mmm." Larkin went to the stove to see what was cooking, she was ravenously
hungry.

"Don't you touch anything you didn't fix," Auntie said. She was cooking sweet
roots, hoarded like jewels over the winter.

"Is Jumber coming?" Larkin asked. Auntie doted on Jumber; he always brought out
her rare moods of extravagance.

"Yes, if we can set a table that won't shame us."

"As if he didn't have enough to eat," Larkin said.

In the warm comer behind the stove sat Mother Keer, hunched and frail, in her
wide-armed chair. When Larkin came over a radiant smile lit her face and she
held out a bony, age-spotted hand.

"How are you today, Mother?" Larkin asked.

"She's had the trots all day long," Auntie Broil said: Mother pursed her lips
and shook her head at the way Auntie talked.