"Stephen Lawhead - Celtic Crusades 02 - The Black Rood" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lawhead Stephen)

handful of grizzled wisps, his eyes were held in a permanent squint and his
limbs were so scarred from wounds that they seemed like gnarled stumps.
In all, the once-handsome lord looked like a shank bone that had been
gnawed close and tossed onto the dungheap.
We brought him into the fortress and laid him in the hall. Murdo arranged
for a pallet to be made up and placed in a corner near the hearth; a screen
was erected around the pallet to give Torf a little peace from the comings
and goings in the hall, but also to shield others from the ragged sight of
him, to be sure.
The women scurried around and found food and drink for him, and better
clothes - although the latter was not difficult, for the meanest dog mat
would have been better than his own foul feathers. My lady mother would
have preferred he had a bath before being allowed beneath her roof, but he
would have none of it.
When the serving-maid came near with hot water and a little Scottish
soap, he cursed her so cruelly she ran away in tears. He called upon
heaven to witness his oath, saying that the next time he bathed would be
when they put him under the turf. In the end, Murdo declared that he
should be left alone, and Ragna had to abide. She would not allow any of
the maidens to serve him, however, and said that as he was manifestly
unable to make himself agreeable to simple human courtesy, he could
receive his care from the stableboy's hands. Even so, I noticed she most
often served him herself.
That Torf-Einar had come home to die soon became apparent. His sores
oozed constantly, bleeding his small strength away. That first night I
happened to pass by the place where he lay on the pallet my father had had
prepared for him, and heard what I took to be an animal whimpering.
Creeping close, I looked on him to see that he had fallen asleep and one of
the hounds was licking the lesions on his exposed leg. The pain made poor
Torf moan in his sleep.
Jesu forgive me, I did not have it in me to stay by. I turned away and left
him to his wretched dreams.
Over the next few days, I learned much of life in the East. Sick as he was,
he did not mind talking to anyone who would listen to his fevered
ramblings. Out of pity, I undertook to bring him his evening meal, to give
my mother a respite from the tedium of the chore, and sat with him while
he ate. Thus, I heard more than most about his life in the County of
Edessa. In this way, I also discovered what had befallen poor Skuli.
True to his word, Lord Baldwin had given Torf and Skuli land in return
for service. Nor was he ungenerous in his giving. The two brothers had
taken adjoining lands so as to form one realm which they then shared
between them. 'Our fortress at Khemil was crowned with a palace that had
fifty rooms,' he boasted one night as I fed him his pork broth and black
bread. His teeth were rotten and pained him, so I had to break the bread
into the broth to soften it, and then feed it to him in gobbets he could gum
awhile and swallow. 'Fifty rooms, you hear?'
'That is a great many rooms,' I allowed. He was obviously ill and
somewhat addled in his thoughts.
'We had sixty-eight menservants and forty serving-maids. Our treasure
house had a door as thick as a man's trunk and bound in iron - it took two