"Mary Stewart - Wildfire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stewart Mary)

"Oh dear." I was dismayed. This golden prospect seemed, now that I was here, to be infinitely more
desirable than the rain-washed hills of my dreams.

"Never mind," said Mr. Grant cheerfully, "it'll improve the fishing." I must have looked blank, because he
added: "You do fish, of course?"

"Oh no." To my own surprise I sounded apologetic. "But IтАФI could learn."

His interest quickened. "You climb, then?"

"No." I felt suddenly very urban and tripperish. "Actually I came for aтАФa rest, and quiet. That's all."

His eye fell on my cases. "London?" He grinned. "Well, you've certainly come to the right place if you
want to get out of the crowds. You'll have no neighbors except the Black Cuillin, and the nearest of them
isтАФ" He stopped abruptly.

"Nearest?" I glanced at the hotel, much closer now, islanded in its green valley, dwarfed and overborne
by one great solitary mountain to the east. "That mountain? Is that one of them too? You didn't speak of it
before. What's it called?"

He hesitated perceptibly. "That's Blaven."

The boatman took his cigarette from his mouth, and spat into the water. "Blahven," he repeated, in his soft
Highland voice. "MphтАФmm. . . ."

"The Blue Mountain ..." said Grant in a voice that was almost abstracted. Then he pitched his cigarette
into the water, and said abruptly: "Was London so very crowded?"

"Oh yes. It's been steadily filling up with people and excitement for months. Now it's like a great pot
slowly simmering to boiling point."

Murdo turned the boat's nose neatly towards the river mouth. "London, is it?" His voice held a naive note
of wonder. "Did ye not want to stay and see the Coronation, mistress?"

"In a way, I did. But IтАФI've been a bit overworked, so I thought a holiday was a better idea after all."

"What made you come here?" asked Grant. His eyes were still on the Blue Mountain.

"To Skye? Oh, I don't knowтАФeverybody wants to visit Skye at some time or other, don't they? And I
wanted quiet and a complete change. I shall go for long walks in the hills."

"Alone?" There was something in Murdo's expression that made me stare at him.

"Why, yes," I said in surprise.

I saw his eyes meet Grant's for a moment, then slide away to watch the approaching jetty. I laughed. "I
shan't get lost," I said. "The walks won't be long enough for thatтАФdon't forget I'm a city bird. I don't
suppose I'll get farther than the loch, or the lower slopes ofтАФBlaven, was it? Nothing much can happen to
me there!" I turned to Mr. Grant. "Does Murdo think I'll go astray in the mist, or run off with a water