"Elizabeth Moon - Fool's Gold" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moon Elizabeth)

"Well, but surely there are other resourcesтАФ"


"In this city perhaps, but in the provincesтАФ" Before Mirabel could ask why the provinces
should concern the goodwives of Weeping Willow Street, her sister took a deep breath
and plunged on. "So when poor BiliousтАФobviously past any chance of earning a living
That WayтАФbegged us to find help for her poor virgin brother taken by a dragon, of
course I thought of you."


"Of course."


"Surely your organization does something to help womenтАФthat is its name, after all,
Ladies' Aid and Armor Society. . . ."


Mirabel had tried to explain, on previous occasions, what the LAAS had been founded
for, and why it would not help with a campaign to provide each orphaned girl with hand-
embroidered underclothes for her trousseau, or stand shoulder to shoulder with the
Weeping Willow Sewing Society's members when they marched on taverns that sold
liquor to single women. (Didn't her sister realize that all the women in the King's Guard
hung out in taverns? Or was that the point?)


Now, through clenched teeth, Mirabel tried once more. "MonicaтАФwe do help womenтАФ
each other. We were founded as a mutual-aid society for all women soldiers, though we
do what we canтАФ" The LAAS charity ball, for instance, supported the education of the
orphaned daughters of soldiers.


"Helping each other is just like helping yourself, and helping yourself is selfish. Here's
this poor woman, with no hope of getting her brother free if you don't do somethingтАФ"


Mirabel felt her resistance crumbling, as it usually did if her sister talked long enough.


"I don't see how he can be a virgin, if he's older than his sister," she said. A weak
argument, and she knew it. So did Monica.


"You can at least investigate, can't you? It can't hurt . . ."


It could get her killed, but that was a remote danger. Her sister was right here and now.
"No promises," Mirabel said.