"Diana Wynne Jones - Howl's Moving Castle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jones Diana Wynne)

to happen, but always to somebody else. Still, it would be nice to see Lettie.
May Day came. Merrymaking filled the streets from dawn onward. Fanny went out early,
but Sophie had a couple of hats to finish first. Sophie sang as she worked. After all, Lettie was working
too. Cesari's was open till midnight on holidays. "I shall buy one of their cream cakes," Sophie decided.
"I haven't had one for ages." She watched people crowding past the window in all kinds of bright
clothes, people selling souvenirs, people walking on stilts, and felt really excited.
But when she at last put a gray shawl over her gray dress and went out into the street, Sophie
did not feel excited. She felt overwhelmed. There were too many people rushing past, laughing and
shouting, far too much noise and jostling. Sophie felt as if the past months of sitting and sewing had
turned her into an old woman or a semi-invalid. She gathered her shawl around her and crept along
close to the houses, trying to avoid being trodden on my people's best shoes or being jabbed by elbows
in trailing silk sleeves. When there came a sudden volley of bangs from overhead somewhere, Sophie
thought she was going to faint. She looked up and saw Wizard Howl's castle right down on the hillside
above the town, so near it seemed to be sitting on the chimneys. Blue flames were shooting out of all
four of the castle's turrets, bringing balls of blue fire with them that exploded high in the sky, quite
horrendously. Wizard Howl seemed to be offended by May Day. Or maybe he was trying to join in, in
his own fashion. Sophie was too terrified to care. She would have gone home, except that she was
halfway to Cesari's by then. So she ran.
"What made me think I wanted life to be interesting?" she asked as she ran. "I'd be far too
scared. It comes of being the eldest of three."
When she reached Market Square, it was worse, if possible. most of the inns were in the
Square. Crowds of young men swaggered beerily to and fro, trailing cloaks and long sleeves and
stamping buckled boots they would never have dreamed of wearing on a working day, calling loud
remarks and accosting girls. The girls strolled in fine pairs, ready to be accosted. It was perfectly
normal for May Day, but Sophie was scared of that too. And when a young man in a fantastical
blue-and-silver costume spotted Sophie and decided to accost her as well, Sophie shrank into a shop
doorway and tried to hide.
The young man looked at her in surprise. "It's all right, you little gray mouse," he said,
laughing rather pityingly. "I only want to buy you a drink. Don't look so scared."
The pitying look made Sophie utterly ashamed. He was such a dashing specimen too, with a
bony, sophisticated face-really quite old, well into his twenties- and elaborate blonde hair. His sleeves
trailed longer than any in the Square, all scalloped edges and silver insets. "Oh, no thank you, if you
please, sir," Sophie stammered. "I- I'm on my way to see my sister."
"Then by all means do so," laughed this advanced young man. "Who am I to keep a pretty
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lady from her sister? Would you like me to go with you, since you seem so scared?"
He meant it kindly, which made Sophie more ashamed than ever. "No. No thank you, sir!"
she gasped and fled away past him. He wore perfume too. The smell of hyacinths followed her as she
ran. What a courtly person! Sophie thought, as she pushed her way between the little tables outside
Cesari's.
The tables were packed. Inside was packed and as noisy as the Square. Sophie located Lettie
among the line of assistants at the counter because of the group of evident farmer' sons leaning their
elbows on it to shout remarks to her. Lettie, prettier than ever and perhaps a little thinner, was putting
cakes into bags as fast as she could go, giving each bag a deft little twist and looking back under her
own elbow with a smile and an answer for each bag she twisted. There was a great deal of laughter.
Sophie had to fight her way through to the counter.
Lettie saw her. She looked shaken for a moment. Then her eyes and her smile widened and
she shouted, "Sophie!"
"Can I talk to you?" Sophie yelled. "Somewhere," she shouted, a little helplessly, as a large