"Robin McKinley - Water" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinley Robin)

away. They then questioned Probity.
Probity did not know how to lie. He said what he had seen, and insisted that Pitiable had seen the
sea-child too. Pitiable, still dazed, unable to think of anything except how he would beat her when he had
her home, stuck despairingly to her story. She said that she had been looking at the pool when Probity
had climbed up beside her and looked too and become very excited and told her to wait down on the
shore and let no one else near while he went for help.
At this Probity started to shout and his face went purple again and he tried to rush at Pitiable, but the
elders restrained him, and then a spasm shook him and he had to clutch at a chair and sit down. Even so,
but for his story about the sea-child, the elders might have sent Pitiable home with him. She was, after all,
his granddaughter. But a man who says he has seen a creature with a human body and a shining fish tail
cannot be of sound mind, so they decided that in case there should be worse scandal among the People
than there already was, Pitiable had best be kept out of his way, at least until a doctor had examined him.
Pitiable spent the night at the MinisterтАЩs house, not with his own children but sleeping in the attic with
the two servants. First, though, the MinisterтАЩs wife, for whom cleanliness was very close indeed to
godliness, insisted that the child must be bathed. That was how the servants came to see the welts on
PitiableтАЩs back and sides. Her torn knees they put down to her fall on the beach when Probity had struck
her. The elder servant, a kind, sensible woman, told the Minister. She told him too that if the child
received much more such handling, she would die, and her blood would be not only on her grandfatherтАЩs
hands.
The elders did not like it, but were forced to agree. A home would have to be found for the child. As
a servant, naturallyтАФshe was young, but Mercy Hooke had trained her well. So on the second day after
the business on the Scaurs, a Miss Lyall, a very respectable spinster with money of her own, came to
inspect Pitiable Nasmith. She asked for a private room and the Minister lent her his study.
Pitiable was brought in and Miss Lyall looked her up and down. Not until they door closed and they
were alone did she smile. She was short and fat with bulgy eyes and two large hairy moles on the side of
her chin, but her smile was pleasant. She put her head to one side and pursed her lips and, almost too
quietly to hear, started to hum. PitiableтАЩs mouth fell open. With an effort she closed it and joined the
music. At once Miss Lyall nodded and cut her short
тАЬI thought it must be so,тАЭ she said softly. тАЬAs soon as I heard that story about the sea-child.тАЭ
тАЬBut you know the song too!тАЭ whispered Pitiable, still amazed.
тАЬYou are not the only descendant of Charity Goodrich, my dear. My mother taught me her story, and
the song, and said I must pass them on to my own daughters, but I was too plain for any sensible man to
marry for myself, and too sensible to let any man marry me for my money, so I have no daughters to
teach them to. Not even you, since you already know them. All the same, you shall be my daughter from
now on and we shall sing the song together and tell each other the story. It will be amusing, after all these
years, to see how well the accounts tally.тАЭ
She smiled, and Pitiable, for the first time for many, many days, smiled too.

The Sea-kingтАЩs Son
by Robin McKinley


There was a young woman named Jenny who was the only child of her parents. Her parents were
not wealthy as the world counts wealth, but they had a good farm and were mindful and thorough
farmers; and since they had but the one child, they could afford to give her a good deal. So she had
pretty clothes and kind but clever governesses and as many dogs and cats and ponies and songbirds as
she wanted. She grew up knowing that she was much loved, and so she had a happy childhood; but the
self-consciousness of adolescence made her shy and solemn. And she found, as some adolescents do,
that she was less and less interested in the kinds of things her old friends were now most interested in,
and so they drifted apart. Now she preferred to go for long solitary walks with her dogs, or riding on the