"Wilhelm,_Kate_-_The_Hounds(1)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilhelm Kate)

"No."
"You should. It's like silk. Warm and soft and alive under your fingers; My god, it's the most sensuous dog I've ever seen." He backed off and studied them both. They continued to watch Rose Ellen. "Come on and feel them. You can see how tame they are."
She shook her head. "Put them out, Martin."
"Rose? What's wrong with you? Are you afraid of them? You've never been afraid of dogs before. The poodles ... "
"They're not dogs. They're animated toys. And I have always been afraid of dogs. Put them out!" Her voice rose slightly. Martin went to the door, calling the dogs. They didn't move. She had known they wouldn't. Slowly she walked to the door. They followed her. Martin watched, puzzled. She walked out on the porch, and the dogs went too. Then she went back inside, opening the door only enough to slip in, not letting them come with her. They sat down and waited.
"Well, they know who they like," Martin said. "You must be imprinted on their brains, like a duckling imprints what he sees first and thinks it's his mother." He laughed and went back to the table for his coffee.
Rose Ellen was cold. She wasn't afraid, she told herself. They were the quietest, most polite dogs she had ever seen. They were the least threatening dogs she had ever seen. Probably the most expensive ones she had ever seen. Still she was very cold.
"What will we do about them?" she asked, holding her hot coffee cup with both hands, not looking at Martin.
"Oh, advertise, I guess. The owner might have an ad in the paper, in fact. Have you looked?"
She hadn't thought of it. They looked together, but there was nothing. "Okay, tomorrow I'll put in an ad. Probably there'll be a reward. Could be they got away miles from here, over near Lexington. I'll put an ad in Lexington papers, too."
"But what will we do with them until the owner comes to get them?"
"What can we do? I'll feed them and let them sleep in the barn."
Even the coffee cup in her hands couldn't warm her. She thought of the gold eyes watching all night, waiting for her to come out.
"Honey, are you all right?"
"Yes. Of course. I just think they're ... strange, I guess. I don't like them."
"That's because you didn't feel them. You should have. I've never felt anything like it."
She looked at her cup. She knew there was no power on earth that could induce her to touch one of those dogs.
Rose Ellen woke up during the night. The dogs, she thought. They were out there waiting for her. She tried to go to sleep again, but she was tense and every time she closed her eyes she saw the gold eyes looking at her. Finally she got up. She couldn't see the porch from her bedroom, but from Juliette's room she could. She covered Juliette, as if that was what she had entered the room for, then she started to leave resolutely. It was crazy to go looking for them, as crazy as it was for them to keep watching her. At the hall door she stopped, and finally she turned and went back to the window. They were there.
The hall night light shone dimly on the porch, and in the square of soft light the two animals were curled up with the head of one of them on the back of the other. As she looked at them they both raised their heads and looked up at her, their eyes gleaming gold. She stifled a scream and dropped the curtain, shaking.
On Saturday morning, Joe MacLaughton, the county agent, came over to help Martin plan for a pond that he wanted to have dug. He looked at the dogs admiringly. "You sure have a pair of beauties," he said. "You don't want to let them loose in those hills. Someone'll sure as hell lift them."
"I wish they would," Rose Ellen said. She was tired; she hadn't slept after going back to bed at three-thirty.
"Ma'am?" Joe said politely.
"They aren't ours. They followed me home."
"You don't say?" He walked around the dogs thoughtfully. "They don't come from around here," he said finally.
"I'm going to call the paper and put an ad in the Lost and Found," Martin said.
"Waste of time in the locals," Joe said stubbornly. "If those dogs belonged around here, I'd know about it. Might try the kennel club over in Lexington, though."
Martin nodded. "That's a thought. They must know about such valuable dogs in this area."
They went out to look at the proposed pond site. The dogs stayed on the porch, looking at the door.
After the agent left, Martin made his calls. The kennel club president was no help. Weimaraners? Martin said no, and he named another breed or two, and then said he'd have to have a look at the dogs, didn't sound like anything he knew. After he hung up, Martin swore. He had an address in Lexington where he could take the dogs for identification. He called the newspaper and placed the ad.
All day the sound of hammering from the barn where Martin was making repairs sounded and resounded. Annamarie and Jennifer came in and volunteered to gather apples. Jeffrey helped his father, and Juliette tagged with one pair, then the other. She tried to get the dogs to play with her, but they wouldn't. After patting them for a few minutes she ignored them as thoroughly as they ignored all the children. Rose didn't go outside all day. She started to leave by the back door once, but they heard her and walked around the corner of the house before she got off the steps. She returned to the kitchen. They returned to the porch.
They wouldn't stay in the barn. There were too many places where creatures as thin as they were could slip through, so Martin didn't even try to make them stay there. They seemed to prefer the porch. No one wanted to go to town to buy collars for them in order to tie them up. Martin didn't like the idea of tying them up anyway. "What if they decide to go back to where they came from?" he asked. Rose didn't press the idea after that.
At dinner she said, "Let's go over to Lexington to a movie tonight?"
Martin sagged. "What's playing?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. Something must be playing that we'd like to see."
"Another night? Tomorrow night?" Martin said. "Tell you what, I'll even throw in dinner."
"Oh, never mind. It was a sudden thought. I don't even know what's on." Rose and Annamarie cleared the table and she brought in apple pie, and coffee. She thought of the dogs on the porch.
"Next February I'll spray the trees," Martin said. "And I'll fertilize under the trees. Watch and see the difference then. Just wait."
Rose Ellen nodded. Just wait. Martin was tired, and thinner than usual. He worked harder here than he ever had anywhere, she was sure. Building, repairing, planting, studying about farming methods, and his school courses. She wondered if he was happy. Later, she thought, later she would ask him if he was happy. She wondered if that was one of those questions that you don't ask unless you already know the answer. Would she dare ask if she suspected that he might answer no? She hoped he wouldn't ask her.
Martin was an inventive lover. It pleased him immensely to delight her, or give her an unexpected thrill, or just to stay with her for an hour. They made love that night and afterward, both drowsy and contented, she asked if he was happy.
"Yes," he said simply. And that was that. "I wish you were, too," he said moments later. She had almost fallen asleep. She stiffened at his words. "Sorry, honey. Relax again. Okay?"
"What did you mean by that?"
"I'm not sure. Sometimes I just feel that I've got it all. You, the kids, the farm now, and school. I can't think of anything else I want."
"I've got all those things too, you know."
"I know." He stretched and yawned and wanted to let it drop.
"Martin, you must have meant something. You think I'm not happy, is that it?"
"I don't know. I don't know what it takes to make you happy."
She didn't reply and soon he was asleep. She didn't know either.
She dozed after a while, and was awakened by a rhythmic noise that seemed to start in her dream, then linger after the dream faded. She turned over, but the noise didn't go away. She turned again and snuggled close to Martin. The bedroom was chilly. A wind had started to blow, and the window was open too much. She felt the air current on her cheek, and finally got up to close the window. The noise was louder. She got her robe on and went into the hall, then to the window in Juliette's room. The dogs were walking back and forth on the porch, their nails clicking with each step. They both stopped and looked at her. She ran from the room shaking, and strangely, weeping.
At breakfast she said to Martin, "You have to get them out of here today. I can't stand them any longer."
"They really got to you, didn't they?"