"Jo Walton - Farthing" - читать интересную книгу автора (Walton Jo)

preferred to do it a few weeks ago in primrose season. Primroses are a beautiful color, very cheering.тАЭ

тАЬI find them a bit on the soft side myself,тАЭ Carmichael said. тАЬBluebells, now, we do have them in the
North. I wouldnтАЩt have thought you cared for flowers at all, sergeant. I thought you were a strictly town
man.тАЭ

тАЬWell, I was born and bred in London myself, but my motherтАЩs family lived in the countryside.тАЭ

тАЬRound here?тАЭ Carmichael asked.

тАЬKent. I have an aunt who still lives there; some of the family go down to see her at Easter and for the
hop picking. EasterтАЩs when we used to see the primroses, when I was a boy. ItтАЩs a good way east of
here, but I suppose from the perspective of Lancashire it would count as these parts.тАЭ

Carmichael laughed. тАЬAll these years, and IтАЩd never have suspected you of having a Kentish aunt,
Royston. You hide it very well.тАЭ

There was a fork in the road ahead. Royston slowed to a halt to check the arms of the little signpost.
тАЬWould we want Farthing Green, Upper Farthing, or Farthing St. Mary?тАЭ he asked.
тАЬCastle Farthing.тАЭ Carmichael checked his notes and his map without effect. There was an area on the
map labeled unhelpfully the farthings. тАЬHead for Farthing St. Mary,тАЭ he said, decisively.

тАЬYes, sir,тАЭ Royston said.

Carmichael knew the first secret of command, which was making a decision, right or wrong, but going
ahead without hesitating. He might have sent them off the wrong way and condemned them to an endless
trek through the barely charted Hampshire countryside, but at least he had made a decision.

By pure luck he was right. The next sign offered castle farthing on one of its branches, and the lane it led
down, with its heavy hedgerows, came at last to an end with a loop around a village green. There was a
church, larger than most, a pub, the Eversley Arms, a row of cottages, and a high wall containing a pair
of wrought-iron gates with the word farthing scrolling indolently across them as if there were no other
possible Farthing, as indeed, for anyone beyond this little corner of Hampshire where people no doubt
knew one Farthing from the next, there was not. Beneath the name was the ubiquitous robin, the obverse
of the farthing coin, the political symbol of the Farthing Set. With a start, Carmichael realized that
considering the antiquity of the gates, a century if it was a day and probably more, this particular robin
must pre-date the тАЬSetтАЭ and was doubtless the prototype for the whole thing.

Meanwhile, the gates were closed. Judging from the ruts in the gravel, this was an unusual state of affairs.
тАЬProbably the local police shut them to close off the house from press and sightseers,тАЭ Carmichael said,
indicating the ruts.

тАЬSightseers? Here?тАЭ RoystonтАЩs London face dismissed the possibility. тАЬAll the same, they should have left
a bobby on the gates,тАЭ he said, his tone reproving the absent local constabulary. тАЬShall I try if theyтАЩre
open, sir?тАЭ

тАЬYou do that, sergeant,тАЭ Carmichael said. As a young officer heтАЩd have got out to try them himself, and
lost all his subordinateтАЩs respect in the process. Now he sat back and watched Royston crunch across
the gravel.