"E. E. Doc Smith - D' Alembert 5 -Appointment at Bloodstar" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

to get upset. You'd both better leave, at once."

Reluctantly, Pias let the nurse shoo him out, along with Tas. The two men stood alone
outside in the hallway, facing each other appraisingly like two wrestlers in a ring. Pias
thought of and discarded a dozen different questions before finally asking, "Why? Why
did you hurt him so badly?"

"Me?" Tas laughed strangely. "You'd better check your pronouns. My only target is you.
Welcome home, brother Pias." Turning quickly, he marched off down the hall, leaving
Pias no chance for response.

Pias shook his head. It was true that his father's anger had hurt him, but he knew down
deep that it had hurt the duke even worse to feel betrayed by his oldest son. Pias had a
sudden insight into just how much his brother must hate him, if he was willing to torment
their father to such depths just to indirectly hurt his brother. He had known Tas was a
brat even before he left Newforest, but his younger brother had apparently sunk even


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lower during Pias's absence.

With a feeling of great sadness, Pias started down the hallway toward his own room. As
he passed one open doorway, he heard a sultry female voice say, "Aren't you even
going to say hello, Pias?"

Turning, Pias eyed the speaker. She was a beautiful, dark-skinned woman in her early
thirties, with jet black hair flowing smoothly down her back to the waist of her brightly
colored skirt. Her eyes had an easy, knowing look about them, and her patchwork
blouse was so open down the front that it exposed more cleavage than even the liberal
customs of Newforest tolerated.

Despite his worries about his father and brother, Pias forced himself to be cheerful.
"Hello, Gitana. I'd been hoping to see you again. I wasn't sure what to think when you
weren't there at the spaceport with everyone else."

Gitana walked toward him, closing the gap until the two of them were just touching. She
put her arms around his waist and said, "I was hoping to give you a little more private
kind of welcome." Her throaty chuckle left little doubt as to her meaning.

Coming on top of the painful reunion with his father, this new circumstance left Pias
even more confused. There had been a time, years ago, when he and Gitana had been
very much in love-but that was before he'd fallen in love with, and become engaged to,
her sister Miri. Gitana had felt bitter then, and now that her sister was safely dead, she
obviously intended to take up where they'd left off.

Pias's love for Yvette, though, made that impossible. Feeling very embarrassed, he
said, "Aren't you even going to ask me whether I found Miri's killer?"