"Patricia C. Wrede - Enchanted Forest 2 - Dealing with Dragon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wrede Patricia C)

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Dealing With Dragons / Book One of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles
Patricia C. Wrede
Copyright 1990 by Patricia C. Wrede

1

In Which Cimorene Refuses to Be Proper
and Has a Conversation with a Frog

Linderwall was a large kingdom, just east of the
Mountains of Morning, where philosophers were
highly respected and the number five was fashionable.
The climate was unremarkable. The knights kept their
armor brightly polished mainly for showтАФit had been
centuries since a dragon had come east. There were the
usual periodic problems with royal children and un-
invited fairy godmothers, but they were always the sort
of thing that could be cleared up by finding the proper
prince or princess to marry the unfortunate child a few
years later. All in all, Linderwall was a very prosperous
and pleasant place.
Cimorene hated it.

Cimorene was the youngest daughter of the King
of Linderwall, and her parents found her rather trying.
Their first six daughters were perfectly normal prin-
cesses, with long, golden hair and sweet dispositions,
each more beautiful than the last. Cimorene was lovely
enough, but her hair was jet black, and she wore it in
braids instead of curled and pinned like her sisters.

And she wouldn't stop growing. Her parents were
quite sure that no prince would want to marry a girl
who could look him in the eye instead of gazing up at
him becomingly through her lashes. As for the girl's
dispositionтАФwell, when people were being polite, they
said she was strong-minded. When they were angry or
annoyed with her, they said she was as stubborn as a
Pig-

The King and Queen did the best they could. They
hired the most superior tutors and governesses to teach
Cimorene all the things a princess ought to knowтАФ
dancing, embroidery, drawing, and etiquette. There
was a great deal of etiquette, from the proper way to
curtsy before a visiting prince to how loudly it was