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

evening had brought a chill with it, so I had lit a fire, and sat with my supper beside it.

"Ralf, bring your bowl and eat beside me where it's warm. I want to talk to you."
 He came obediently. He had somehow managed to mend and tidy his clothes, and now, with the cuts
and bruises fading, and with colour back in his face, he was almost himself again, except for a limp where
the wound on his hip had not yet mended; and except, still, for his silence, and the sullen shadow of
wariness in his face. He limped across and sat where I pointed.

"You said you knew what else was in your grandmother's letter to me besides news of the Queen?" I
asked him.

"Yes."

"Then you know she sent you to take service with me, because she feared the King's displeasure. Did
the King himself give you any reason to fear him?"

A slight shake of the head. He would not meet my eyes. "Not to fear him, no. But when the alarm came
of a Saxon landing on the south coast, and I asked to ride with his men, he would not take me." His voice
was sullen and furious. "Even though he took every other Cornishman who had fought against him at
Dimilioc. But myself, who had helped him, he dismissed."

I looked thoughtfully at the bent head, the hot averted cheek. This, of course, was the reason for his
attitude to me, the wary resentment and anger. He could only see, understandably enough, that through
his service to me and the King he had lost his place near the Queen; worse, he had incurred his Duke's
anger, had been disgraced as a Cornish subject and banished from his home to a kind of service he
disdained.

I said: "Your grandmother tells me little except that she feels you had better seek a career for yourself
outsideCornwall . Leave that for a moment; you can't seek anything much until your leg is healed. But tell
me, did the King ever say anything to you directly about the night of Gorlois' death?"

A pause, so long that I thought he would not answer. Then he said: "Yes. He told me that I had served
him well, and he тАФ he thanked me. He asked me if I wanted a reward. I said no, the service was reward
enough. He didn't like that. I think he wanted to give me money, and requite me, and forget it. He said
then that I could no longer serve him or the Queen. That in serving him I had betrayed my master the
Duke, and that a man who had betrayed one master could betray another."

"Well?" I said. "Is that all?"

"All.?" His head jerked up at that. He looked startled and contemptuous. "All? An insult like that? And it
was a lie, you know it was! I was my lady's man, not Duke Gorlois'! I did not betray the Duke!"

"Oh, yes, it was an insult. You can't expect the King to be level-headed yet, when he himself feels as
guilty as Judas. He's got to put the betrayal on someone's shoulders, so it's yours and mine. But I doubt if
you're in actual danger from him. Even a doting grandmother could hardly call that a threat."

"Who was talking about threats?" said Ralf hotly. "I didn't come away because I was afraid! Someone
had to bring the message, and you saw how safe that was!"

It was hardly the tone a servant uses. I hid my amusement and said mildly: "Don't ruffle your feathers at