"Sharon K. Penman - The Sunne In Splendour" - читать интересную книгу автора (Penman Sharon K)

He found it hard to understand how so perfect a day could so suddenly sour. The morning had dawned
with infinite promise, and when Joan yielded to his coaxing and agreed to take him riding along the
wooded trails around Whitcliffe, his spirits had soared skyward. His excitement proved contagious and
his pony had responded with unaccustomed elan to his urgings, breaking into a gallop even before they'd
passed through the gateway that led from the outer castle bailey.
With Joan trailing him like an indulgent, sedate shadow, he raced the little animal through the village at an
exhilarating pace. Circling the market cross twice, he jumped the pony neatly over the ancient dog dozing
in the street by Broad Gate and then drew rein just before the small chapel of St Catherine, which stood
on Ludford Bridge. As Joan was not yet in sight, he leaned recklessly over the stone arch and tossed a
groat down into the currents swirling below. One of the village youths had once assured him that he
would gain great good fortune by so doing, and the superstition now became engraved in Richard's faith
as Scripture even before the coin sank from sight.
Riders were coming up the road that led south, toward Leominster. The lead stallion was white, marked
with a queer dark star, the favorite mount of Richard's favorite brother. Richard sent his pony toward
them at a breakneck run.
Ned wore no armor and the wind was whipping his sunstreaked tawny hair abo.ut like straw. He
towered above his companions, as always; Richard had seen few men as tall as Ned, who stood three
full fingers above six feet. Earl of March, Lord of Wigmore and Clare, eldest of the four sons of the Duke
of York. At seventeen, Ned was, in Richard's eyes, a man grown. On this summerlike September
morning, there was no one he would rather have encountered. Had Ned permitted it, Richard would
happily have trailed after him from dawn till dusk.
Richard thought Joan was pleased to see Ned, too. Her face was suddenly the color of rose petals and
she was looking at Ned sideways, filtering laughter through her lashes in the way Richard had seen other
girls do with Ned. Richard was glad; he wanted Joan to like his brother. What Joan thought mattered a
great deal to him. The nurses he'd had in the past, before he'd come this spring to live at Ludlow Castle,
had not been at all like Joan; they'd been dour, thin-lipped, without laps or humor. Joan smelled of
sunflowers and had burnished bright hair, as soft and red as fox fur. She laughed at his riddles and had
enthralling tales to tell of unicorns and knights and crusades into the Holy Land.
Seeing now how she was smiling at Ned, Richard felt first a warm contentment and then incredulous
delight, unable to believe Ned was truly going to come with them. But Ned was dismissing their escort,
waving his own companions on, and with the prospect dawning of an
Entire day in the company of these two people he loved, Richard wondered why he had never thought to
throw a coin over the bridge before.
The day seemed likely to surpass all his expectations. Ned was in high spirits; he laughed a great deal and
told Richard stories of his own boyhood at Ludlow with their brother Edmund. He offered to show
Richard how he had fished for eels in the swift-running waters of the Teme, and he promised to take
Richard to the faire to be held in Ludlow just four days hence. He coaxed Joan into putting aside the
headdress that covered her hair, and with nimble fingers, he adroitly loosened the upswept braids that
gleamed like red-gold rope.
Richard was caught up in wonder, captivated by this sudden cascade of bright hot color; he knew, of
course, that red hair was said to be unlucky, but he found it difficult to understand why. Joan had smiled
and borrowed Ned's dagger to cut a lock, wrapping it in her own handkerchief and tucking it inside
Richard's tunic. Ned claimed a lock, too, but Joan seemed strangely reluctant to give it to him. Richard
rooted about in Joan's basket while Ned and Joan debated his demand, a murmured exchange that soon
gave way to whispers and laughter. When he turned back to them, Richard saw that Ned had a lock of
her hair and Joan was the color of rose petals again.
When the sun was directly overhead, they unpacked the food in Joan's basket, using Ned's dagger to
slice the manchet loaf and cut thick pieces of cheese. Ned ate most of the food, and then shared an apple
with Joan, passing the fruit back and forth between them and trading bites until only the core remained.
After that, they lay on Joan's blanket and searched the grass about them for lucky clovers. Richard won