"Theodora Goss - The Rose in Twelve Petals" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goss Theodora)

display a rose of the variety called Britannia, with its twelve
petals half-open, still fresh and moist with dew. His
granddaughter will say, тАЬOh, grandpa, you picked that in the
garden just this morning!тАЭ His grandson, who is practical and
wants to be an engineer, will say, тАЬGrandpa, people can't
sleep for a hundred years.тАЭ
20 The Rose in Twelve Petals
by Theodora Goss
IX. The Tower
Let us get a historical perspective. When the tower was
quite young, only a hovel really, a child knocked a stone out
of its wall, and it gained an eye. With that eye it watched as
the child's father, a chieftain, led his tribe against soldiers
with metal breastplates and plumed helmets. Two lines met
on the plain below: one regular, gleaming in the morning sun
like the edge of a sword, the other ragged and blue like the
crest of a wave. The wave washed over the sword, which
splintered into a hundred pieces.
Time passed, and the tower gained a second story with a
vertical eye as narrow as a staff. It watched a wooden
structure grow beside it, in which men and cattle mingled
indiscriminately. One morning it felt a prick, the point of an
arrow. A bright flame blossomed from the beams of the
wooden structure, men scattered, cattle screamed. One of its
walls was singed, and it felt the wound as a distant heat. A
castle rose, commanded by a man with eyebrows so blond
that they were almost white, who caused the name Aelfric to
be carved on the lintel of the tower. The castle's stone walls,
pummelled with catapults, battered by rams, fell into
fragments. From the hilltop a man watched, whose nose had
been broken in childhood and remained perpetually crooked.
When a palace rose from the broken rock, he caused the
name D'Arblay to be carved on the lintel of the tower, beside
a boar rampant.
21 The Rose in Twelve Petals
by Theodora Goss
Time passed, and a woman on a white horse rode through
the village that had grown around the palace walls, followed
by a retinue that stretched behind her like a scarf. At the
palace gates, a Darbley grown rich on tobacco plantations in
the New World presented her with the palace, in honor of her
marriage to the Earl of Essex. The lintel of the tower was
carved with the name Elizabeth I, and it gained a third story
with a lead-paned window, through which it saw in facets like
a fly. One morning it watched the Queen's son, who had been
playing ball in the courtyard, fall to the ground with blood
dripping from his nostrils. The windows of the palace were
draped in black velvet, the Queen and her consort rode away
with their retinue, and the village was deserted.
Time passed. Leaves turned red or gold, snow fell and