"Kim Wilkins - Giants of the Frost" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilkins Kim)

"I'm about the most skeptical person you'll ever meet. My mother is another story. Every week she visits
a new psychic, who tells her she's going to win the lottery. She uses the same numbers every weekтАФI
know them by heartтАФand even though her psychic says they're the right numbers, they never come up.
ButтАж"

"She still goes back. I know. People need something to hope for."

"If she'd invested the psychics' fees and lottery ticket money into a mutual fund, she wouldn't be living
upstairs at Mrs. Armitage's in Lewisham."

"What does your father think?"

"I don't have one. I mean, I suppose he's out there somewhere. My mum raised me alone, unless you
count the three husbands who each left in under a year."

"It must have been very hard for her. No wonder she needs to believe she'll win the lottery." He refilled
my glass.

"That's very generous of you." I smiled across at him, then wondered if the reason he was being so nice
was because he thought he had a chance with me. I nearly groaned. A girl doesn't make the decision to
move to a remote sea-bitten island lightly, and coming to Kirkja had seemed an excellent opportunity to
avoid entanglements of the heart.

"Do you have a boyfriend back home?" he asked, confirming my suspicions.

"UmтАж I just broke off .an engagement. It was messy."

"How messy?"

I sipped my wine: combined with extreme weariness, it was sending my brain in circles. "He got another
girl pregnant." Proud of myself for not saying, "He knocked up some tart."

"That's very messy."

"Yes, so I'm going to enjoy a few years of single life. Love is highly overrated."

"Do you think so? I think it's wonderful."

"It looks good in books and movies, I'll grant you that. But in real life it's justтАж" Never quite enough,
never really there, never living up to its promise. "Let's change the topic."

Gunnar left at nine. I liked him; it would be good to have someone my own age around. I had the distinct
feeling that after the wine and the conversation I would be able to sleep, and I was right I drifted off soon
after slipping into bed. Half-sleeping, half-awake, I heard noises outside in the forest. I thought about
Gunnar's ghosts and smiled. Some people will believe anything.

Chapter Two