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

by Theodora Goss
V. The Queen Dowager
What is the girl doing? Playing at tug-of-war, evidently,
and far too close to the stream. She'll tear her dress on the
rosebushes. Careless, these young people, thinks the Queen
Dowager. And who is she playing with? Young Lord Harry,
who will one day be Count of Edinburgh. The Queen Dowager
is proud of her keen eyesight and will not wear spectacles,
although she is almost sixty-three.
What a pity the girl is so plain. The Queen Dowager jabs
her needle into a black velvet slipper. Eyes like boiled
gooseberries that always seem to be staring at you, and no
discipline. Now in her day, thinks the Queen Dowager,
remembering backboards and nuns who rapped your fingers
with canes, in her day girls had discipline. Just look at the
Queen: no discipline. Two miscarriages in ten years, and dead
before her thirtieth birthday. Of course linen is so much
cheaper now that the kingdoms are united. But if only her
Jims (which is how she thinks of the King) could have married
that nice German princess.
She jabs the needle again, pulls it out, jabs, knots. She
holds up the slipper and then its pair, comparing the roses
embroidered on each toe in stitches so even they seem to
have been made by a machine. Quite perfect for her Jims, to
keep his feet warm on the drafty palace floors.
A tearing sound, and a splash. The girl, of course, as the
Queen Dowager could have warned you. Just look at her, with
13 The Rose in Twelve Petals
by Theodora Goss
her skirt ripped up one side and her petticoat muddy to the
knees.
тАЬI do apologize, Madam. I assure you it's entirely my
fault,тАЭ says Lord Harry, bowing with the superfluous grace of
a dancing master.
тАЬIt is all your fault,тАЭ says the girl, trying to kick him.
тАЬAlice!тАЭ says the Queen Dowager. Imagine the Queen
wanting to name the girl Elaine. What a name, for a Princess
of Britannia.
тАЬBut he took my book of poems and said he was going to
throw it into the stream!тАЭ
тАЬI'm perfectly sure he did no such thing. Go to your room
at once. This is the sort of behavior I would expect from a
chimney sweep.тАЭ
тАЬThen tell him to give my book back!тАЭ
Lord Harry bows again and holds out the battered volume.
тАЬIt was always yours for the asking, your Highness.тАЭ
Alice turns away, and you see what the Queen Dowager
cannot, despite her keen vision: Alice's eyes, slightly
prominent, with irises that are indeed the color of
gooseberries, have turned red at the corners, and her nose