"David Weber - Worlds of Honor 4 - Service of the Sword" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weber David)

private chamber that, as senior wife, Dinah claimed as her right. The other wives slept in
dormitories, an arrangement meant to prevent something vaguely referred to as Vice.
Judith had an idea that Vice might involve sex, but nothing in her experiences with Ephraim
gave her any idea why this might be something to pursue. She'd filed this away as a piece of
useless information, devoting her energy instead into devising ruses for leaving the dormitory
unquestioned. During the two years she had resided with the other wives, she had come up with a
large number of these and was careful never to use any one too often.
Dinah motioned Judith to a chair, then closed the door.
"Power surge following transit into N-space," Dinah said. "How useful is that?"
Judith actually started to answer, so matter-of-factly was the question put to her. Then she
realized what this meant.
"You can read!"
"My father was very elderly when I was born," Dinah said levelly, "and his eyesight was
failing. He never cared for the restrictions of recordings, and had me taught to read so that I could
read scripture to him. Later, when my meekness and piety caught Ephraim's eye, my father
commanded me to forget what I had learned, for it was well-known that the Templetons saw no
use for women's education. I, of course, obeyed, never disabusing my lord and master of his
assumptions regarding me."
Judith knew that Dinah's family had been poor and not well-placed within the Masadan
hierarchy. An alliance with the ambitious Templetons, especially one that also disposed of a
useless daughter would have been worth a little lie.
"Did you know that I . . ." Judith asked, feeling every bit the child, all the confidence of her
fourteen years fleeing.
"Could read?" Dinah set an audio recording of chanted scripture playing on her room's
system. "I guessed. You were very careful, even when there were no men present. I commend
you for that. Even so, there were times your gaze would rest over-long on some printed label or
other bit of text. I was certain the day you saved little Uriel from harming himself.
Judith remembered the day quite clearly. Uriel had been a toddler when first she came to
Ephraim's house. His mother, Raphaela, was great with child once more and chasing after the boy
had been one of the many tasks bestowed on the Grayson captive.
 Not able to transfer her hatred of Ephraim to any of his children, Judith's secret and her honor
had warred against each other on the day that Uriel had reached for a brightly colored plug that
superficially looked like any number of toys scattered about the nursery.
What it was, however, was a partially installed electrical system that a careless technician had
not finished sealing.
For a moment that seemed far longer than it had been, Judith had stared at the chubby hand
and the plug. Only the writing on the wiring revealed it for the danger it was. If she stopped
Uriel, she might give away her secret.
The little hand had barely moved toward the apparent toy when Judith scooped Uriel away.
Once she had soothed the screaming child, distracting him with an even more fascinating toy,
Judith had returned to put the wires out of reach. Now that she thought back, Dinah had been
present, but as the senior wife had made no comment, Judith had thought her too distracted by her
own duties.
"That long," Judith said, and her inflection was a question.
"You were very careful," Dinah replied, "and Ephraim never noticed anything odd about
youтАФexcept, perhaps, for wondering whether your apparent stupidity was a form of rebellion. I
assured him that I thought not."
"You protected me," Judith said, almost accusingly. "Then and today. Why?"
"Then, today, and a dozen times since," Dinah answered. "Why? Because you were careful,
because you were kind to those you had reason to hate, and because I pitied you. And for one