"House On Parchment Street" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKillip Patricia A)

"WhatЧwhat's the matter with him?"
"Nothing too seriousЧcracked ribs and a twisted ankle and a large assortment of bruises. They're keeping him overnight, but he'll probably be home tomorrow." He paused a moment, looking at her. He rubbed his eyes wearily. "You could both have so easily been seriously hurtЕ . Why in heaven's name didn't Bruce tell me what you were doing? Or you, Alexander? You have some sense. I think it's a marvelous thing to have found; I want to know how you found it, but I wish you had not been so secretive. A man has a right to know when people are digging tunnels directly beneath him."
"Come into the kitchen," Aunt Catherine said. "I'll fix you some supper. Alexander, does your mother know where you are?"
"Yes," Alexander said. His face was flushed slightly. He looked at Uncle Harold. "Sometimes, there are words that are hard to say."
"What is so difficult about saying you have discovered a tunnel?"
"That's easy to say. Most people go through life not knowing what a priest tunnel is. It's natural. They don't need one. But a priest tunnel is the sort of thing that you can show to people and they'll say 'I never
knew they existed, but now I'm seeing one, so they must exist.' But other things aren't so easy."
"Alexander," Uncle Harold said. "The easiest thing to do would be just to say it."
"No, it wouldn't," Carol said. "Uncle Harold, do you remember the ghost I saw in the cellar?"
"GhostЧoh. Yes."
"Well, it was a ghost."
Uncle Harold opened his mouth to say something. Then he stopped and closed it. Aunt Catherine stared at Carol. She blinked and gave her head a little shake, as though she were waking herself up.
"I think," she said, "we should all sit down and talk."
They sat at the kitchen table. Uncle Harold lit his pipe, looking at them between puffs of smoke. Aunt Catherine peeled potatoes at the sink behind them as she listened.
"There are no such things as ghosts," Uncle Harold said.
"There," Alexander said. "You see? Ghosts are like priest tunnelsЧyou don't expect them to exist until you see them."
"But what have ghosts got to do with the priest tunnel?"
"They walked through it," Carol said. "That's how we knew it was there."
Uncle Harold was silent. The rhythmic scrape of the potato-peeler was the only sound in the kitchen. Carol
felt the blood welling to her face beneath the mortar dust. Alexander was still beside her, watching Uncle Harold. He said finally, "They weren't green and hairy."
"What?" Uncle Harold said, startled. "The ghosts. One of them was the girl in the painting in your study. That's the arch, you know, behind herЧthe priest tunnel. The other one wasn't so nice. He nearly walked through me with a sword."
"He was a Puritan," Carol said. "Like the one in Madame Tussaud's statues of 'When Did You Last See Your Father?'"
"Wait," Uncle Harold said. "You saw a ghost in the cellar who looked like a Puritan in Madame Tussaud's museum, and you assumed that where he walked through the wall, the priest tunnel was there?"
"People usually don't walk through walls for no reason," Carol said.
"I-know, but what made you decide specifically a priest tunnel was there?"
"Bruce said there was," Alexander said. "I've always wanted a tunnel. To go through, you know. That's what the girl was doingЧgoing in the tunnel."
"She would come," Carol said, "and she'd say 'Edward. Come.' Only we never saw Edward, and that confused us, because we could see the Puritan who was waiting to kill Edward, andЧ"
"Wait," Uncle Harold said again. Aunt Catherine had turned.
"How did you know the Puritan wanted to kill Edward?" she asked curiously. Uncle Harold looked at her helplessly.
"We didn't," Carol said, "until today. Then we got the tunnel open and we went in, and when the girl said, 'Edward. Come/ he came. The Puritan was waiting for him ahead, and we followed Edward and the girl, and then soldiers started coming from behind us, and then the girl screamed ahead of us in the darkness Чand the tunnel fell in on Bruce."
Uncle Harold gazed at her, his pipe motionless in one hand. "You've been seeing ghosts in this house all the while you've been here? Why didn't you tell Catherine or me?"
"I tried. And Bruce tried." Her voice stuck; she paused, clearing her throat. "He saidЧhe said one day he took you down to the cellar to see one, and you couldn't see it. And weЧwe told Father Malory, because priests are interested in dead people, and he came to see them andЧhe couldn't."
"Oh." Uncle Harold leaned back in his chair, his face easing.
"But I saw them," Alexander said.
"You did. Why couldn't I see them?"
"I think," Carol said, "that if she had to watch those men kill Edward, she probably didn't want to see anyone old enough to do that again."
Aunt Catherine turned back to the sink. "That seems reasonable."
"Catherine," Uncle Harold said. "There are no such things as ghosts."
"So my niece with my red hair is barmy. And so is your son. Or are you suggesting they bothered to do such a childish thing as to invent a tale like this? I would rather believe in ghosts."
"But it's incredible."
Alexander looked at Carol. "That means it's unbelievable. I wouldn't invent anything so unbelievable. People invent things to have them believed. Incredible things just happen on their own."
"I didn't want it to happen," Carol said. "I didn't want to see ghosts in your cellar."
Uncle Harold sighed. "Tell me about it from the beginning."
He was silent while she told him what had happened since she had first seen the ghosts. Aunt Catherine made their supper quietly, a frown between her brows as she listened. When Carol was finished, Uncle Harold sat for a long time without speaking. Aunt Catherine set a plate of food in front of him, and he said finally, "There must be some logical explanation."
"There isn't," Alexander said. "I tried to think up one, but I couldn't."
"Was there a crack in the stones or a change of
coloring in the mortar that outlined the priest tunnel?"
"I didn't see one," Carol said. "Emily Raison said
Mrs. Brewster looked for the tunnel and she couldn't
find it."