"Andre Norton & Rosemary Edghill - Carolus Rex 1 - The Shadow of Albion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

It is not fair! Though the side-curtains of the bed were closed, Lady Roxbury had
ordered the curtains at the foot drawn back so that she could see the portrait over
the fire. Within its frame of gilded plaster, the painted visage of Lady Roxbury's
grandmother Panthea, the first Marchioness, gazed mischievously down at her
descendent, magnificent in satin and lace. Panthea's bejeweled hands toyed with a
key, a dagger, and a rose, in sly allusion to the Roxbury arms and their motto: ,,I
open every door."
Oh, if there were only a door for this, away from the cruel weakness of her body
and the knowledge of duties unfulfilled н!
,,A visitor for you, my lady." Knoyle's voice trembled н as well it might, since
she was acting against her mistress's express orders to admit no one.
Lady Roxbury struggled upright against her pillows, anger deepening the hectic
color in her cheeks. ,,Who н " she began, before the inevitable spasm of coughing
took her. As she clutched her handkerchief to her lips, she felt strong cool hands,
against her back, supporting her and pressing the worst of the pain away.
 ,,Who dares?" she demanded at last, when the paroxysm passed.
,,I dare," a voice said calmly. ,,As Your Ladyship knows, there is little I do not."
Lady Roxbury's eyes widened fractionally as she caught sight of her visitor for
the first time.
Dame Alecto Kennet had been a great beauty in her day, and was still a woman of
commanding and formidable presence. In her time she had been actress and
confidential agent, mistress to two Kings, and more. In later life she had chosen
obscurity as the companion of the Dowager Duchess of Wessex, herself a woman
who shunned the limelight. Even so, only the veriest of green-heads would hold
Dame Alecto at naught.
,,I had thought you in Bath with Her Grace of Wessex,"
Lady Roxbury managed to say. She lay back against the mounded lace-trimmed
pillows, trembling with the effort of showing an untroubled countenance to her
visitor.
,,And so I might yet be, did you not need me more," Dame Alecto replied. She
unpinned her wide, plume-trimmed scarlet bonnet and set it upon the bench at the
foot of the bed next to a slightly-battered hatbox done up in coarse string. Her hair,
titian in her youth, had faded almost to pink with age, but was still elaborately
dressed beneath its rich lace cap. She studied Lady Roxbury intently through eyes
that Time had washed to silver as she unclasped her wool traveling cape and laid it
beside the bonnet.
Lady Roxbury managed a bleak smile. ,,I shall soon need nothing at all," she said
wryly, ,,or so my physicians tell me. I wonder who shall have Mooncoign when I am
gone?"
,,You would be better employed in wondering who will do that which you ought
to have done, when you are not here to do it," Dame Alecto snapped. ,,Who will
take your place, Lady Roxbury?"
Such plain speaking was not something her ladyship cared for at any time, and
still less at a time like mis. Ignoring the effort it cost her, she forced arch indifference
into her voice as she replied.
,,I dare say Wessex will find someone. But you have not come to tease me
because my dying releases your mistress's grandson from his betrothal?" н It
suddenly occurred to Lady Roxbury that, though Bath was a. day's journey away,
she had received her death-sentence from Dr. Falconer only hours before. Even if
the doctor had talked, there was no way that the Dowager Duchess could have