"TUROW, SCOTT - THE BURDEN OF PROOF" - читать интересную книгу автора (Turrow Scott)

"Oh my," said Stern. He grasped her hand. "My," he said again, smiling
bravely and trying to recall exactly how he would be expected to reflect
his delight. He kissed her first on the temple, then took her in his
arms. He did so only rarely, and here in her thin nightgown he was
amazed by the feel of his daughter, her narrowness, the loose movement
of her breasts against him. Kate wept with sudden abandon, then drew
back.

"We couldn't say anything," she explained to her father.

"It wasn't safe yet. We'd had some problems. And now I keep thinking,
What if Mommy knew?" Once more she became uncontrollable. Once more
Stern took his dark, beautiful daughter in his arms. But even as he
held Kate, he found there was an abrupt adjustment in his own vision of
things.

Clara had abandoned the children, too. He had viewed this last act of
hers as aimed exclusively at him. But the children, grown but troubled,
were still not past the point where they required occasional assistance.
Would it have made a difference, had Clara known Kate's secret? Or had
she decided that they too'd had the last of what she could stand to
give?

Above them there was stirring. Marta wa on the stairs, a smaller woman,
also dark, with wire-rimmed glasses and a bosky do of untamed black
haft. She regarded the scene

below with a vulnerable look of her own.

"Group cry?" she asked.

Stern awaited Kate's lead.erself taught school. She loved her husband
with a pitiable tender innocence, but Stern at moments could feel his
heart rub itself raw with worry at the prospect of the moment Kate
finally learned about the wallops the world could deliver.

Now she touched his hand.

"Daddy, I want you to know something. We weren't going to say anything
for another month, but everyone is so sad--" Kate's mouth trembled
slightly.

Dear God, thought Stern, she is pregnant.

She lifted her face proudly. Kate said, "We're going to have a baby."

"Oh my," said Stern. He grasped her hand. "My," he said again, smiling
bravely and trying to recall exactly how he would be expected to reflect
his delight. He kissed her first on the temple, then took her in his