"Child Of The Stones" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mcauley Paul J)

УYou wanted to help your friend last night. I believe that you have tried to help others. And you want to help me.Ф

УI want to find out what you were about. IТve never met anyone like you before.Ф

УNo, I donТt suppose you have.Ф

УAnd now IТve seen where you live, I know youТre the kind of man who likes to keep himself to himself. You were looking for me because you were curious about me. You wanted to find out about me because you were worried about me - about what I was doing, about what I could do. But itТs not like you want to be friends or anything like that, is it? YouТre not the kind of man who has friends.Ф

I was startled by how clearly she saw me.

УOn the contrary. I have many friends.Ф

УYou let Сem come here? You hang out with them, chat with them about this and that over a drink? No, I thought not. You know people, but you donТt have what youТd call real friends. What were you planning to do, if you found me? Give me some advice about how to live my life, like you did at that cafe last night?Ф

УI can help you, Miranda, if youТll let me.Ф

УI can look after myself. DonТt need no man telling me what to do. I was going to break into your house myself,Ф she said, with a look that dared me to contradict her. УI wouldТve, too, if that guy hadnТt come along.Ф

УForgive me, Miranda, but I donТt believe you. You were able to follow me without my knowledge, and that is no small achievement. But I donТt think you could have overcome the wards I left in place.Ф

УHe managed it,Ф Miranda said.

Someone had, at any rate. I doubted that it had been Mr Donny Halliwell, of the glazed expression, the expensive, slept-in clothes, the sleepwalking menace. УIf he did,Ф I said, Уthen I am guilty of having grievously underestimated him.Ф

УThe way you talk. ItТs like the way you dress.Ф

УYou think that my clothes and my locution are affectations. I can assure you that they are not.Ф

УLocution? WhatТs that when itТs at home?Ф

УItТs the way I talk.Ф

УItТs a funny old word, is what it is. Old-fashioned. Like your clothes. Like this place. All this old furniture, and candles and such instead of proper lights.Ф Miranda lit her fourth cigarette with a quick snap of flame. УYou donТt have a proper cooker, or a fridge ... I bet you donТt even have a telly.Ф

УWhen you are a little older, Miranda, youТll find that many people prefer the time in which they grew up to the time in which they find themselves.Ф

УMaybe. But you didnТt grow up in, like, Victorian times.Ф

УThatТs quite true. When I first came to London, Queen Victoria had yet to ascend to the throne.Ф

She looked at me. She wanted to sneer, but in her heart she was beginning to believe me. I took it as a hopeful sign: a sign that she could yet be saved. And even if I could not save her, I thought, it was always best to keep your enemy close.

УThose of us who know something of the matter of the dead can be quite long-lived,Ф I said. УIf you are more careful in how you use your talent, Miranda, you might discover the trick.Ф

УI could live a hundred years, could I? And not grow old?Ф

УOr you could step into the road tomorrow, and be run over by a bus.Ф

Her smile was more like a grimace, there and gone. УI followed you, and you didnТt have any idea, did you? Man like you, hiding away in this old place, youТre not streetwise. I bet thereТs all sorts of things I can help you with. Maybe we can come to an arrangement.Ф