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

degrees might be denied to women, but basic literacy and math were routinely taught. They had
to be, if only because the daily maintenance of household technology in such a hostile
environment required it.
Masada's less lethal planetary environment obviated that need, and no good Masadan
patriarch was about to waste education on a mere female. Judith's parents, scions of a merchant
family with ties outside the Grayson system, had begun her education earlier than most. They'd
decided to have her educated beyond even the normal Grayson standards for a variety of reasons.
One of these was that they did not wish to seem backward in the eyes of those with whom they
sought to do business. Another was that they were good, God-fearing people who did not see how
the ability to contemplate God's wonders and mysteries intellectually, as well as with the blind
obedience of faith, could hurt anyone. Especially not in a faith which enshrined the doctrine of
the Test.
Finally, there was an element of practicality. Even though propriety meant that a girl would
not be exposed to the prying eyes of strangers, that didn't mean she had to be useless. A girl who
could read, write, and work sums could help with the business. When her parents discovered that
Judith had an almost preternatural quickness with mathematics and logic patterns, they delighted
in giving her puzzles and games meant to enhance this ability.
But Judith's mother understood, as her father might not have done, the danger that knowledge
placed the girl in when the Masadan raiders took their ship. Despite her tender years, Judith
understood her mother's warning. Even within Grayson society she had been encouraged to
conceal just how much she knew. Indeed, as she grew older she had concealed from her parents
just how much she had learned, fearing they might view her education as complete.
That habit of secrecy and the knowledge it concealed was why Judith didn't kill herself, why
she didn't kill the man who called himself her husband, lord, and master. She had something else
in mind. Something that would hurt Ephraim Templeton a great deal more.
Judith began training for her revenge during the first years of her captivity, continued after
her marriage, focused more intensely once Ephraim began to try to father children upon her. She
hoped to put her plan into action before he could tie her to Masada through their children. What
she had never realized was that she would care about those little lives, even those never born.
On the day she learned that the child she carried was a girlтАФa girl Ephraim did not plan to let
liveтАФJudith knew she had no choice but to put her plan into action.
Even so, she knew it was unlikely that she could save this baby. Her hope was that she could
save the next.
***
"I simply don't see how we can pretend to forget that his sister is the Queen," said Lieutenant
Carlotta Dunsinane, assistant tactical officer of Her Majesty's light cruiser, Intransigent.
"Carlie, a slew of instructors and classmates at Saganami Island have been pretending it for
the last three and a half years," replied Abelard Boniece, Intransigent's captain. "Now it's our
turn."
 "But still . . ."
Lieutenant Dunsinane let her voice trail off. In her inflection was a wealth of unspoken
knowledge, the awareness that the young man whose dossier glowed on the screen between them
was next in line for the crown of the Star Kingdom of Manticore. True, Michael's sister, Queen
Elizabeth the Third, was married and her firstborn child would undoubtedly replace him as Heir
in due time. But Michael Winton had been the Crown Prince for the last nine years. His social
and political rank were not easy things to disregard.
Then there was the uncomfortable resemblance between Midshipman Michael Winton and his
father, the much-loved King Roger III. The latter had died long before his time, victim of a freak
jet-ski accident that had left the Star Kingdom grieving, and thrust Elizabeth and her brother into
the public eye.