"Robin McKinley - The Outlaws of Sherwood" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinley Robin)

bear him less as a master even than the Chief Forester.тАЭ
 тАЬIt is not Will who would have brooked no rivals,тАЭ said Much, тАЬbut the sheriff,
who might have found you a little less willing to pay his tax.тАЭ
Robin shrugged. тАЬIt matters not. What is done isтАФdone.тАЭ And then the sight of
Tom Moody clutching at the feathered shaft rising from his red-stained tunic was
before him, and the shrug turned to a shudder and he closed his eyes.
MarianтАЩs hands shifted and tightened on his shoulders, and she said softly, тАЬWhat
happened, then? We know you met with trouble, dark trouble, but we do not know
its name.тАЭ
Robin looked at her in surprise. тАЬYou donтАЩt know? YouтАФтАЭ But he could not get
the words out.
Much said, тАЬMy fatherтАЩs friend thought they might accuse you of killing the
kingтАЩs deer; someone was bragging that he had stolen one of the arrows youтАЩve
made from Sir RichardтАЩs son, who was too drunk to notice.тАЭ
Marian whispered, тАЬThatтАЩs a hanging offenseтАФif they could do it.тАЭ
тАЬThey could do it,тАЭ Much said briefly, and a little silence fell.
Robin could hear his friends trying not to make the silence too hectic with
expectation. He shook himself free of MarianтАЩs hands and took two steps back,
carefully not looking at his friendsтАЩ faces. тАЬIтАФI killed Tom Moody. I killed him.тАЭ
Then he turned and knelt stiffly by the stream, and bent over for another drink; not
because he was thirsty, but because it gave him something to do. He had said aloud
the awful thing that he had done, and the saying, in some way, made it irrevocable,
as it had as yet not been. Or, no, he thought, dipping his hand into the freezing water
again. It is not that I have doubted the thing I did; it is that I have acknowledged the
burden of it now, by telling my friends of it.
Marian sat down beside him, heavily, as if the spring had gone out of her muscles;
as if she, too, had run for hours. Much said, over their heads, тАЬHow did it happen?тАЭ
Robin told them, haltingly, but he told them, and he tried to tell everything, leaving
nothing out but that this was only the latest, last, and worst of his trials under the
Chief Forester who had hated his father. Last. His heart even tried to lift a little at that
thought: whatever came next, he would never have to take orders from the Chief
Forester again. тАЬIt is, at best, a very stupid thing I did.тАЭ
тАЬIt is stupid only because you lived and he did not,тАЭ Marian burst out. тАЬHe meant
to kill youтАФhe would have killed you if you had not stumbled.тАЭ
Robin rubbed the back of his neck thoughtfully. The arrow-crease burned with
the salt of his sweat. Marian began plucking up the small weeds and grasses that
grew on the bank of the stream, and casting them angrily into the water.
Much said, тАЬMy father came out of the mill and called me just before I was to set
off; there had been several folk there who had just left. He said, тАШYou are meeting
your friend young Robin at the fair today, are you not?тАЩ and I said I was. тАШTell him
then to have a care; for I have heard that the friends of the Chief Forester have a
mind to remove him from their masterтАЩs sight, and beyond any manтАЩs care. тАЩтАЭ
 тАЬI wonder he did not kill you outright, at the very beginning,тАЭ Marian said, tearing
a particularly long weed into bits before she flung it into the water.
Another faint smile crossed RobinтАЩs face. тАЬThat would not have been nearly so
enjoyable,тАЭ he said.
MarianтАЩs fingers paused. тАЬWhat should we do now?тАЭ
Robin gingerly stretched one arm and then the other; they felt like blocks of
wood, and creaked like badly hinged blocks of wood, although wood, presumably,
did not ache like this. He thought that perhaps he felt as he would if Tom had held to