"Robin McKinley - A Knot in the Grain" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinley Robin)

in LilyтАЩs presence that the fevers broke, and the way back to health began.
When she was twelve, she was apprenticed to the midwife who had birthed her.
Jolin by then was a strong handsome woman of forty-five or so. Her husband had died when they
had had only two years together, and no children; and she had decided that she preferred to live alone as
a healer after that. But it was as the midwife she was best known, for her village was a healthy one;
hardly anyone ever fell from a horse and broke a leg or caught a fever that her odd-smelling draughts
could not bring down.
тАЬIтАЩll tell you, young one,тАЭ she said to Lily, тАЬIтАЩll teach you everything I know, but if you stay here you
wonтАЩt be needing it; youтАЩll spend the time youтАЩre not birthing babies sewing little sacks of herbs for the
women to hang in the wardrobes and tuck among the linens. Can you sew properly?тАЭ Lily nodded,
smiling; but Jolin looked into her black eyes and saw the same sorrow there that she had first seen twelve
years ago. She said abruptly, тАЬIтАЩve heard you whistling. You can whistle more like the birds than the
birds do. ThereтАЩs no reason you canтАЩt talk with those calls; weтАЩll put meanings to the different ones, and
weтАЩll both learn тАЩem. Will you do that with me?тАЭ
Lily nodded eagerly, but her smile broke, and Jolin looked away.
Five years passed; Jolin had bought her apprentice a horse the year before, because LilyтАЩs fame had
begun to spread to neighboring towns, and she often rode a long way to tend the sick. Jolin still birthed
babies, but she was happy not to have to tend stomachaches at midnight anymore, and Lily was nearly a
woman grown, and had surpassed her old teacher in almost all Jolin had to offer her. Jolin was glad of it,
for it still worried her that the sadness stayed deep in LilyтАЩs eyes and would not be lost or buried. The
work meant much to each of them; for Jolin it had eased the loss of a husband she loved, and had had for
so little time she could not quite let go of his memory; and for Lily, now, she thought it meant that which
she had never had.
Of the two of them, Jolin thought, Lily was the more to be pitied. Their village was one of a number
of small villages, going about their small concerns, uninterested in anything but the weather and the crops,
marriages, births, and deaths. There was no one within three daysтАЩ ride who could read or write, for Jolin
knew everyone; and the birdcall-speech that she and her apprentice had made was enough for crops and
weather, births and deaths, but Jolin saw other things pass-ing swiftly over LilyтАЩs clear face, and wished
there were a way to let them free.
At first Jolin had always accompanied Lily on her rounds, but as Lily grew surer of her craft,
somehow she also grew able to draw what she needed to know or to borrow from whomever she
tended; and Jolin could sit at home and sew her little sacks of herbs and prepare the infusions Lily would
need, and tend the several cats that always lived with them, and the goats in the shed and the few
chickens in the coop that survived the local foxes.
When Lily was seventeen, Jolin said, тАЬYou should be thinking of marrying.тАЭ She knew at least two
lads who fol-lowed Lily with their eyes and were clumsy at their work when she was near, though Lily
seemed unaware of them.
Lily frowned and shook her head.
тАЬWhy not?тАЭ Jolin said. тАЬYou can be a healer as well. I was. It takes a certain kind of manтАЭтАФshe
sighedтАФтАЬbut there are a few. What about young Armar? HeтАЩs a quiet, even-handed sort, whoтАЩd be
proud to have a wife that was needed by half the countryside. IтАЩve seen him watching you.тАЭ She
chuckled. тАЬAnd I have my heart set on birthing your first baby.тАЭ
Lily shook her head more violently, and raised her hands to her throat.
тАЬYou can learn to whistle at him as you have me,тАЭ Jolin said gently, for she saw how the girlтАЩs hands
shook. тАЬTruly, child, itтАЩs not that great a matter; five villages love you and not a person in тАЩem cares you
canтАЩt talk.тАЭ
 Lily stood up, her eyes full of the bitter fire in her heart, and struck herself on the breast with her fist,
and Jolin winced at the weight of the blow; she did not need to hear the words to know that Lily was
shouting at her: I do!
Lily reached her twentieth year unmarried, although she had had three offers, Armar among them.