"Robin McKinley - Damar 1 - The Blue Sword" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinley Robin)

do: we have winter. It rains steadily for three months, and everything gets moldy, including you."
Mr. Peterson said: "I rather like it here. There are those of us who do." He then stood up and
wandered away. She had not spoken a word to him.
But she remembered what he said later as she realized that she too was becoming one of those who
liked it here. She pondered who else might belong to their select club. It was a game, and she amused
herself with it when she ran out of polite conversation. She took mental note of all those who did not
complain of the heat, the wind, the unequal rainfall; and then tried to separate those like herself who
actually enjoyed being scratchy with blown sand and headachy from glare, from those like Cassie and
Beth who were merely cheerfully adaptable.
Harry at last settled on Colonel Dedham as the most likely member of her club, and began to
consider if there was any way to broach the subject with him. She thought that perhaps there was a club
rule that read, Thou shalt not speak. But her chance came at last, less than a fortnight before Corlath's
messenger arrived at the Residency at four a.m.
It was at another small dinner party at the Greenoughs'. When the gentlemen brought themselves and
an appalling reek of Sir Charles' finest cigars into the drawing-room to join the ladies, Colonel Dedham
came across the room and tossed himself down on the window-seat beside Harry. She had been looking
out at the mysterious white pools the moon poured across the desert.
"Open the window a bit," he said, "and let some of this smoke out. I can see poor Amelia being
brave."
"Cigars should be like onions," she said, unfastening the catch and pushing back the pane. "Either the
whole company does, or the whole company does not."
Dedham laughed. "Poor Melly! She would spoil many a party, I fear. Have you ever smoked a
cigar?"
She smiled, with a glint in her pale eyes, and he reflected that some of the young men had labeled her
cold and humorless. "Yes, I have: that is how I know. My father was used to giving dinners for his
hunting friends, and I would be the only woman there. I was not going to eat in my room, like a punished
child, and I liked to stay and listen to the stories they told. They permitted themselves to become
accustomed to my presence, because I could ride and shoot respectably. But the smoke, after a few
hours, would become unbearable."
"So your father?" prompted Dedham.
"No, not my father; he taught me to shoot, against his better judgment, but he drew the line at teaching
me to smoke. It was one of his friendsRichard's godfather, in fact. He gave me a handful of cigars at the
end of one of these very thick evenings and told me to smoke them, slowly and carefully, somewhere that
I could be sick in private. And the next time the cigars went around the table, I was to take one for
myselfand he'd help me stand up to my father. It was the only way to survive. He was right."
"I shall have to tell Charles," said Dedham, grinning. "He is always delighted to find another
cigar-lover."
Her gaze had wandered again to the moonlight, but now she turned back. "No, thank you, Colonel. I
am not that. It was the stories that made it worth it. I only appreciate smoke when I'm seeing things in it."
"I know what you mean, but you must promise not to tell Charles that," he replied. "And for heaven's
sake call me Jack. Three months is quite long enough to be called Colonel more often than business
demands."
"Mmm," she said.
"Cassie and Beth do it very nicely. Say 'Jack.' "
"Jack," she said.
"There, you see? And for your next lesson I will walk across the room and ask you to say it again,
and you will see how quickly I turn around and say 'Yes?' "
She laughed. It was hard to remember that Dedham was a few years older than Sir Charles; the latter
was portly and dignified and white-haired. Dedham was lean and brown, and what hair he had left was
iron grey. Sir Charles was polite and kind; Dedham talked to one like a friend.