"Katherine Kurtz - Adept 01 - The Adept" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kurtz Katherine)

"You know you're welcome any time," she replied, turning her cheek for his kiss. "Thank you for coming,
Adam."
"The pleasure was all mine, dear lady."
He turned to Peregrine, sitting withdrawn and silent on the other side of the little table.
"And Mr. Lovat," he continued, "I'm very happy to have made your acquaintance." Then he reached into the
inside breast pocket of his coat for a monogrammed card case.
"Here's my card," he told Peregrine, handing one across. "Please feel free to call upon me in the near future.
After what I've seen today, I should like very much to discuss the possibility of your painting my portrait."

chapter three

THE next two days passed without hearing anything JL from Peregrine Lovat. On Wednesday afternoon,
Adam returned to Kintoul House for his promised visit. To his surprise, Peregrine Lovat was not there. After
satisfying himself that Lady Laura was in good spirits and reasonably comfortable, Adam inquired after the
young man.
"I can't really say, Adam," she said, sipping tea with him in the morning room. "He didn't show up yesterday;
and then he rang me this morning to say that something had come up with an agent from some gallery in
London. If I didn't know better, I would accuse you of having frightened him away."
"Well, he's certainly frightened," Adam agreed soberly. "Unfortunately, there isn't a great deal I can do to help
him until he becomes more afraid of himself than he is of me."
He turned the conversation to other subjects after that, for he did not want to reveal the reasons for his
interest in Peregrine Lovat - not to Lady Laura Kintoul, whose impending death Peregrine had seen. After
chatting for nearly an hour, and exacting her promise to call if she should feel the need of him either as a
physician or a friend, he took affectionate leave of her.
In the normal course of things, Adam would have called in to Lady Laura again on Friday, but on Thursday a
bleak autumnal tempest swept in off the North Sea, bringing blustery gales, torrential rains, and a spectacular
thunderstorm. Within the space of twenty-four hours, the trees on the northeast flanks of the hills had been
stripped bare of their leaves, the furrows in the fields turned into long ribbons of standing water. The storm left
the air charged, sending several of Adam's patients at Jordanburn into suicidal depressions. He was kept
busy far beyond his usual clinic hours, helping the staff cope, and consequently Peregrine Lovat was even
farther from his thoughts than Laura Kintoul.
Professional crises were under control by Saturday morning, however, in time to embark upon his weekend
social obligations as planned. The weather was still unsettled, but by ten, as Humphrey drove him out of the
car park at Jordanburn and headed west, the sky to the north hinted of a possible clearing later on. The
elegant old Bentley that was Adam's favorite vehicle, even above the Jaguar, lived up to its reputation as the
"silent sportscar" as they bowled along the M8 toward Glasgow and Ferniegair, to the south.
His lunchtime engagement was at Chatelherault, a magnificent hunting lodge built in the early eighteenth
century for the Duke of Hamilton, where Adam had promised to deliver a birthday tribute in honor of the
present duke. As the old man had been a close personal friend of Adam's father, Adam regarded his own
contribution to the festivities as a pleasure rather than a duty. Bringing the Bentley today was another way of
demonstrating his affection, for his father and the duke had been old car buffs together.
He would have preferred to take the wheel himself, but delegating that task to Humphrey allowed time to read
over the text of the speech he had prepared. During the drive he also reviewed his notes for a second address
he was to make later that evening in Edinburgh, at a charity performance of Die Zauberflote - which was
another good reason to have Humphrey drive. Adam hated having to park in the city. In addition, since the
day's tight scheduling precluded any return to Strathmourne between engagements, he had had Humphrey
bring along a complete set of dinner clothes, so he could change before setting out for the concert hall. It was
a fairly typical Saturday for Sir Adam Sinclair, Baronet.
The Hamilton affair went off without a hitch, despite the persistence of poor weather. During a lull in the rain,
Adam took the old duke out to the car park to kick the Bentley's tires and reminisce about the old days,