"Robin Hobb - The Inheritance" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hobb Robin)

hearth, I heard the scuff of his big bare feet as he came into the room.
His children slept in the loft, and Hetta in their small bedchamber. In
the past, he had done no more than stroke my buttock as I passed him,
or casually brush my breast with the back of his hand as he reached
past me, as if it were an accident. But I had never slept the night in his
cottage. I smelled his sweat as he hunkered down beside me. тАШCerise?тАЩ
he whispered in the darkness. I kept my eyes shut and pretended to be
asleep. My heart was hammering as I felt him lift the corner of the
blanket Hetta had given me. His big hand came to rest on the angle of
my neck. I gritted my teeth but could do no more than that. Useless to
resist. Hetta and the children might wake, and then what would I say? I
tried to be as stoic as my long-enduring grandmother. Let him touch
me. If I refused to wake, surely he would leave me alone.
тАШCerise, honey;тАЩ he whispered again, inching his fingers along my
flesh.
тАШFaithless man!тАЩ a whisper answered him. Every muscle in my
body tightened, for it seemed to come from my own throat. тАШTouch me,
and IтАЩll rake your face with scratches that Hetta wonтАЩt ignore.тАЩ
He jerked his hand back from me as if scalded, so startled that
he sat down hard on the floor behind me. I lay still, frozen in silent
terror.


5
 тАШAnd thatтАЩs how youтАЩd pay back my hospitality, is it? Go to
Bingtown, then, you little baggage. There the men will take what they
want of you, and not offer you a roof nor a bed in exchange for it.тАЩ
I said nothing, fearing his words were true. I heard him get to his
feet and then shuffle back to his marriage bed. I lay still and sleepless
the rest of the night, trying to pretend that I had said those words. The
pendant lay against my skin like cold toad; I feared to touch it to
remove it.
I left the next morning, though Hetta near wept as she urged me
to stay. All my possessions still made a light load. Bingtown was only
two days away by foot, but even so, IтАЩd only been there twice in my life.
Both times, I had gone with my parents. My father had carried me
sometimes on his shoulder, and my mother had cooked food for us at
night. But they were both long gone. Now I walked the road alone, and
my heart pounded fearfully at the sight of every passing traveller. Even
when I was alone, fear rode with me, dangling from the necklace about
my neck.
That night I left the road, to unroll my blanket in the lee of some
rocks. There were no trees for shelter, no friendly nearby stream, only a
hillside of lichen-sided boulders and scrubby brush. Hetta had given me
a little sack of meal-cakes to last me on my way. I was too frightened of
thieves to build a fire that might draw them, so as the westering sun
stole the colours from the day, I huddled in my blanket and nibbled on
one of my meal-cakes.
тАШA fine beginning to my new life,тАЩ I muttered when the last dry
crumbs of the cake were gone.