"Mary Stewart - The Arthurian Saga 02 - The Hollow Hills" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stewart Mary)

"My lord, the message тАФ"
"I have it safely. Later."

When I went back to him he had finished the broth and bread, and looked more like himself. He would
not take more food, but I made him drink a little wine, and watched the colour come back into his face.
Then I drew up a chair, and sat down beside the bed.

"Better?"

"Yes." He spoke without looking at me. He looked down at his hands, nervously plucking at the covers
in front of him. He swallowed. "I тАФ I haven't thanked you yet, my lord."

"For what? Picking you up and bringing you here? It was the only way to get your news."

He glanced up at that, and for a startled second I realized that he thought it was no more than the truth. I
saw then what there was in that look he had given me; he was afraid of me. I thought back to that night in
Tintagel, the gay youth who had dealt so bravely for the King, and so truly with me. But for the moment I
let it go. I said:

"You brought me the news I wanted. I've read your grandmother's letter. You know what she tells me in
it about the Queen?"

"Yes."

"And about yourself?"

"Yes." He shut his mouth on the syllable, and looked away, sullen, like someone unfairly trapped and
held for questioning, who is determined not to answer. It seemed that, whatever Marcia's motives for
sending him to me, he himself was far from willing to offer me service. From which I guessed that she had
told him nothing about her hopes for the future.

"All right, we'll leave that for the moment. But it seems that somebody wants to harm you, whoever it
may be. If those men this morning weren't just roadside cutthroats, it would help to know who they were,
and who paid them. Have you no idea who they might have been?"

"No," still mumbling.

"It's of some interest to me," I said mildly. "They might conceivably want to kill me, too."

That startled him out of his resentment. "Why?"

"If you were attacked out of revenge for the part you played at Tintagel, then presumably they will attack
me as well. If you were attacked for the message you carried to me, I want to know why. If they were
plain thieves, which seems the most likely, then they may still be hereabouts, and I must get a message to
the troopers down at the barracks."

"Oh. Yes, I see." He looked disconcerted and slightly ashamed. "But it's true, my lord; I don't know
who they were. I тАФ it was of interest to me, too. I've been trying to think, all this time, but I've no idea.
There's no clue that I can remember. They didn't wear badges; at least I don't think so..." His brows