"William Tenn - Wednesday's Child" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tenn William)

"Since when? How long have you been an orphan?"
"Since I was a little baby. Someone left me on the doorstep of a foundling home."
He noticed that while she was replying to his questions in an even tone of voice, she was staring at
her food with a good deal of concentration and her blush had be-come more pronounced. Was she
embarrassed at having to admit her probable lack of legitimacy? he wondered. Surely she had grown
accustomed to it inтАФhow old was she?тАФtwenty-four years. Nonsense, of course she had.
"But on your original application form, Miss Gresham, you gave Thomas and Mary Gresham as the
names of your parents."
Wednesday had stopped eating and was playing with her water glass. "They were an old couple
who adopted me," she said in a very low voice. "They died when I was fifteen. I have no living relatives."
"That you know of," he pointed out, raising a cautionary finger.
Much to Fabian's surprise she chuckled. It was a very odd chuckle and made him feel extremely
uncomfortable. "That's right, Mr. Balik. I have no living relativesтАФthat I know of." She looked over his
shoulder and chuckled again. "That I know of," she repeated softly to herself.
Fabian felt irritably that the interview was somehow getting away from him. He raised his voice
slightly. "Then who is Dr. Morris Lorington?"
She was attentive again. In fact, wary was more like it. "Dr. Morris Lorington?"
"Yes, the man you said should be notified in case of emergency. In case anything happened to you
while you were working for us."
She looked very wary now. Her eves were narrowed, she was watching him very closely; her
breathing was a bit faster, too. "Dr. Lorington is an old friend. HeтАФhe was the doctor at the orphanage.
After the Greshams adopted me, I kept going to him wheneverтАФ" Her voice trailed off.
"Whenever you needed medical attention?" Fabian suggested.
"Ye-es," she said, brightening, as if he had come up with an entirely novel reason for consulting a
physician. "I saw him whenever I needed medical attention."
Fabian grunted. There was something very wrong but tantalizingly elusive about this whole business.
But she was answering his questions. He couldn't deny that: she was certainly answering.
"Do you expect to see him next October?" he inquired.
And now Wednesday was no longer wary. She was frightened. "Next October?" she quavered.
Fabian finished the last of his shrimp and wiped his lips. But he didn't take his eyes off her. "Yes,
next October, Miss Gresham. You've applied for a month's leave of ab-sence, beginning October
fifteenth. Five years ago, after you had been working for Slaughter, Stark and Slingsby for thirteen
months, you also applied for a leave of absence in October."
He was amazed at how scared she looked. He felt triumphantly that he had been right in looking into
this. The feeling he had about her had not been merely curios-ity; it had been an instinct of good
personnel management
"But I'm not getting paid for the time off. I'm not asking to be paid for it, Mr. Balik. And I didn't get
paid theтАФthe other time."
She was clutching her napkin up near her face, and she gave the impression of being ready to bolt
through the back door of the restaurant. Her blushes had departed with such thoroughness as to leave
her skin absolutely white.
"The fact that you're not going to be paid for the time off, Miss GreshamтАФ" Fabian began, only to
be interrupted by the waiter with the entree. By the time the man had gone, he was annoyed to observe
that Wednesday had used the respite to recover some of her poise. While she was still pale, she had a
spot of red in each cheek and she was leaning back in her chair now instead of using the edge of it.
"The fact that you're not going to be paid is of no consequence," he continued nonetheless. "It's
merely logical. After all, you have two weeks of vacation with pay every year. Which brings me to the
second point. You have every year made two un-usual requests. First, you've asked for an additional
week's leave of absence without pay, making three weeks in all. And then you've askedтАФ"
"To take it in the early Spring," she finished, her voice entirely under control. "Is there anything