"Robin McKinley - Rose Daughter" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinley Robin)

driven out of the city.
The sisters were forbidden to have anything to do with magic; the two elder girls still bought small
street charms occasionally, and Beauty was good friends with the elderly salamander belonging to the
retired sorcerer who lived near them; but none of them would ever hire any practitioner to do a personal
spell.
It was no surprise to anyone who paid attention to such matters when Lionheart contracted an
engagement with the Duke of Dauntless, who owned six thousand of the finest hunting acres in the entire
country, and much else besides. Jeweltongue affianced herself to the Baron of Grandiloquence, who was
even wealthier than the Duke, and had a bigger town house. They planned a double wedding; Beauty and
the three sisters of the Duke and the four sisters of the Baron should be bridesmaids. It would be the
finest wedding of the season, if not the century. Everyone would be there. admiring, envious, and
beautifully dressed.
In all the bustle of preparations, no one, not even Beauty, noticed that the old merchant seemed
unusually preoccupied.
He had hoped he could put off his businessтАЩs ruin till after the wedding. He loved his daughters, but
he felt his life had ended with his wifeтАЩs death; he had been increasingly unable to concentrate on his
business affairs in the years since. His greatest pain as he watched the impending storm approach was the
thought that be had not been able to provide a husband for Beauty. It was true that she was not very
noticeable in the company of her sisters, hut she should have been able to find a suitable husband among
all the young men who flocked to their house to court Lionheart and Jeweltongue.
He thought of hiring a good magician or a sorcerer to throw a few daysтАЩ hold over the worst of the
wreck, but his antipathy to all things magical since his wifeтАЩs death meant not only had he lost all his
contacts in the magical professions, but a sudden search now for a powerful practitioner was sure to raise
gossipтАФand suspicion. He was not at all certain he would have been able to find one who would accept
such a commission from him anyway. It had occurred to him, as the worst of the dull oppression of grief
had lifted from his mind, to be surprised no magical practitioner had tried to win revenge for his turning
half a dozen of them out of the city; perhaps they had known it was not necessary, The unnatural strength
that had enabled him to perform that feat had taken most of his remaining vitalityтАФand business
acumenтАФwith it.
The bills for the wedding itself he paid for in his last days as the wealthiest merchant in the city. He
would not be able to fulfill the contracts for his daughtersтАЩ dowries, but his two elder daughters were in
themselves reward enough for any man. And her sisters would do something for Beauty.
It was ten days before the wedding when the news broke. People were stunned. It was all anyone
talked about for three daysтАФand then the next news came: The Duke of Dauntless and the Baron of
Grandiloquence had broken off the wedding.
The messengers from their fianc├йs brought the sistersтАЩ fate to them on small squares of thick
cream-laid paper, folded and sealed with the heavy heirloom seals of their fianc├йsтАЩ houses. Lionheart and
Jeweltongue each replied with one cold line written in her own firm hand; neither kept her messenger
waiting,
By the end of that day Lionheart and Jeweltongue and Beauty and their father were alone in their
great house; not a servant remained to them, and many had stolen valuable fittings and furniture as well,
guessing correctly that their ruined masters would not be able to order them returned, nor punish them for
theft.
As the twilight lengthened in their silent sitting-room, Jeweltongue at last stood up from her chair and
began to light the lamps; Lionheart stirred in her comer and went downstairs to the kitchens. Beauty
remained where she was, charring her fatherтАЩs cold hands and fearing what the expression on his face
might mean. Later she ate what Lion-heart put in front of her, without noticing what it was, and fed their
father with a spoon, as if he were a child. Jeweltongue settled down with the housekeeperтАЩs book and
began to study it, making the occasional note.
For the first few days they did only small, immediate things. Lionheart took over the kitchens and