"Christopher Stasheff - Warlocks Heirs 01 - M'Lady Witch" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stasheff Christopher)

"Nay, certainly not!" He leaped to his feet, stung to the quick. "You twist my meaning!"


"Nay, I attend to the meaning of your tone and your actions, not to your words alone! Why, you great gilded popinjay, you puffed-up princeling!"


"I am your future sovereign!"


"Of my nation, but most assuredly-not of my heart! How could you be, when you have no thought of love or yearning?"


"Do you take me for a heartless wretch?" Alain cried. "Surely I must love you!"


"Oh, aye, surely you must, if your parents command it! Yet had you thought of it before I said the word? Had you never thought to say it, never
thought to woo, to court? A fine prince are you, if you can but command!"


The absurdity of the charge struck him. "'Tis the place of the prince to command, and of the subject to obey!"


"Oh, my apologies, sire!" Cordelia dropped an elaborate, exaggerated curtsy. "Assuredly, if you order me to marry, I must obey, must I not? If you
command, my heart must obediently adore you!"


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 M'Lady Witch



"Why, you heartless witch, you storming shrew! I am your Prince, and I do command you!" Alain shouted, then drew himself up and glared down at
her coldly. "I command you to answer me straight! Will you be my wife, or no?"


Cordelia dropped her prettiest curtsy, bowed her head, smiled up at him, and said, quite clearly, "No."


Then she turned on her heel and stalked off back to her stillery.


She slammed the door behind her, leaned against it, and burst into tears.


Alain stared at the doorway through which she had gone, thunderstruck, distraught, and dismayed. Then he remembered that a steward was apt to
step through that doorway at any minute, and masked his hurt in a scowl. The scowl raised up a torrent of anger in its wake. He stalked through the
archway, and the steward stepped up. "May I fetch you anything, Your Highness?"


"A modicum of sense in a woman's heart," Alain snarled. "Aside, fellow! I shall seek my horse-'tis a fairer creature than the Lady Cordelia!"