"Charles Stross - Merchant princes 02 - The Hidden Family" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stross Charles)

"No," Miriam interrupted before Paulette could wind her upany further. "Brill,
ordinary people don't have servants in their homes here."

"Ordinary? But surely this isn'tтАФ" Brill's eyes widened.

Paulette nodded at her. "That's me, common as muck!" she said brightly. "Listen,
the way it works in this household is, if you make a mess, you tidy it up
yourself. You saw the dishwasher?" Brill nodded, enthused. "There are other
gadgets. A house this big doesn't need servants. Tomorrow we'll go get you some
more clothesтАФ" She glanced at Miriam for approval."тАФthen do next month's food
shopping, and I'll show you where everything's kept. Uh, Miriam, this is gonna
slow everything upтАФ"

"Doesn't matter." Miriam put her knife and fork down. She was, she decided, not
only over-full but increasingly exhausted. "Take it easy. Brill needs to know
how to function over here because if it all comes together the way I hope, she's
going to be over here regularly on business. She'll be working with you, I
hope." She picked up her wineglass. "Tomorrow I'm going to go call on a
relative. Then I think I've got a serious road trip ahead of me."

"You're going away?" asked Brill, carefully putting her glass down.

"Probably." Miriam nodded. "But not immediately. Look, what I said earlier
holdsтАФyou can go home whenever you want to, if it's an emergency. All you have
to do is catch a cab around to the nearest Clan safe house and hammer on the
door. They'll have to take you back. If you tell them I abducted you, they'll
probably believe itтАФI seem to be the subject of some wild rumors." She smiled
tiredly. "I'll give you the address in the morning, alright?" The smile faded.
"One thing. Don't you dare bug out on Paulie without telling

her first. They don't know about her and they might do something about her if
they learn ... mightn't they?"

Brill swallowed, then nodded. "I understand," she said.

"I'm sure you do." Miriam realized Paulette was watcning her through narrowed
eyes. "Brill has seen me nearly get my sorry ass shot to pieces. She knows the
score."

"Yeah, well. I was meaning to talk to you about that, too." Paulette didn't look
pleased. "What the hell is happening over there?"

"It's a mess." Miriam shook her head. "First, Olga tried to kill me. Luckily she
gave me a chance to talk my way out of it firstтАФsomeone tried to set me up while
I was visiting you, last time. Then the shit really hit the fan. Last night I
figured out that my accommodation was insecure, the hard way, then parties
unknown tried to rub out Olga and me, both. Multiple parties. There are at least
two factions involved, and I don't have a clue who this new bunch are, which is
why I'm here and brought BrillтАФshe's seen too much."