"R. A. MacAvoy - Black Dragon 1 - Tea With The Black Dragon" - читать интересную книгу автора (MacAvoy R A)

Tea With the Black Dragon
R A MacAvoy

(v1.3 cleaned & proofed)




Chapter 1
Martha Macnamara stood at the Pacific, her toes digging into the froth.
She had come the length of the country in one day's flight, and she had
trouble believing that this was a different ocean.
тАЬOh go on, admit it,тАЭ she grumbled, kicking the ivory scum from a pile of
kelp. тАЬYou're all the same water.тАЭ
Perhaps not. She peered at the line where the iron blue of the sky hit the
soft-colored water. So bare a sky did not shine over Coney Island.
A gull plunged, kissed the water and veered right and away, all ten yards
from Mrs. Macnamara. Her head rose to follow its flight and her hands
lifted, echoing the bird's gesture. For a moment it seemed her prim figure,
gray suited and graying, would fly away into the westтАФor north along the
dirty beach toward the Bridge.
But that was just for a moment, and then the hands touched at the braids
that coiled around her head, braids that threatened to slip over her ears.
тАЬIf you would know the Way,тАЭ she recited to herself, тАЬobserve the
subtlety of water.тАЭ Martha considered these words as she watched the waves
fling themselves roaring onto the sand. What was subtle in such a display of
power?
With her round blue eyes very calm in her small round face Mrs.
Macnamara watched the ocean. Slowly she smiled.
Where was Liz nowтАФat work? Should Martha try to call again, or wait
for her daughter to make the move? After all, Elizabeth had set up the
reservation. Martha Macnamara would never have chosen to stay in a place
like the James Herald Hotel. Oh, it was comfortable, doubtless, and the only
person she had spoken to in the hotelтАФa bartenderтАФhad proven friendly;
she had bent his ear for forty minutes at lunchтАФher dinner, what with the
time changeтАФperched on a red leather stool amid black oak and brass,
rattling on about airplanes racing the sun, and how the violin had evolved
from the viola when Europeans were able to afford carpets and drapesтАж
But with the price of a night's lodging at the James Herald she could have
bought that bass bow she'd wanted since June.
Martha could just as well have slept on Liz's couch as spent so much of
her daughter's money. It was all very strange. The smile disappeared from
her lips as she considered how strange. She turned from the water and
ascended the sandy slope.
тАЬMysterious meetings in expensive places,тАЭ she mumbled as she climbed.
A wealth of sand was trapped in her open-toed shoes. тАЬIntrigue. SuspenseтАж
тАЬTune in tonight for shocking revelations!тАЭ The sole of her foot gritted
against concrete; she stood on the pavement above the beach, emptying her
shoes. Except for her gray form, unobtrusive as a rock, the beach was empty
on this workday afternoon. Empty and cool. Martha shivered deliciously in