"Chelsea Quinn Yarbro - Olivia 1 - A Flame in Byzantium" - читать интересную книгу автора (Yarbro Chelsea Quinn)

"They are better because they don't intend to raze the city," she pointed out, rising and coming to join
him at the window.
"But look at them. And you know what they have done to half the countryside. I realize that an army
must eat, and that soldiers might not have the manners of saints, but that doesn't excuse the raiding and
looting they've done." He had folded his arms and was looking more stubborn than usual.
 "I'm not going to argue with you," said Olivia, faintly amused by his conduct. "But this is not the first
trouble we've seen, is it?"
"No," he admitted grudgingly.
"And with a little good fortune, it will not be the last." She continued to stare into the pallid afternoon.
The light, softened by a faint haze rising from the Tibros, was kind to her face, making her appear
younger than her years. Her soft, fawn-brown hair was braided and wrapped in the current fashion for
widows, and she wore a paenula of wool embroidered with silk and gold thread that showed her wealth
more than her manner.
"You have a strange way of thinking, my mistress," Niklos said, beginning to smile in spite of his own
foreboding.
"It comes with the years, my friend," she said, and shook off her slight melancholy. "I want you to
make sure that copies of these writs are in the hands of the monks by morning. That way, no matter what
happens here, the slaves will be free and they can make lives for themselves. You'd better take the grants
with you to the monks as well."
Niklos laughed cynically. "You're not seriously asking me to put money in the hands of a servant of
God and expect it to go anywhere but into Church coffers, are you?"
"You may be right in that, Niklos," she sighed. "All right; I'll find a way to make sure each gets the
money they've been promised, and the copies of the writs will be safe. Take one or two of the gold cups
with you to make sure the good monks continue to care for the records we entrust to them. I'm not quite
as trusting as you often fear I am."
"And what else?" Niklos ventured. "You have most of your belongings crated and packed and ready
to be moved. Does that trouble you?"
"Of course it troubles me. Roma is my home. I drew my first breath here, within sight of the Tibros. It
is part of me and I am part of it." Her expression was slightly distant as she delved her memory for the
events of her long life.
"We can still arrange for you to stay in Italy," suggested Niklos. "You don't have to go as far away as
Constantinople."
"Almost all those who can afford to leave have done so already and if I remain much longer, I will be
exposed to more risks than the mere clash of Byzantines and Ostrogoths. So long as I must live with
lions, I might as well find myself a good place in their dens." She laughed suddenly. "How unendurable! I
sound worse than one of those Epicureans who ape the manner of their teacher without the least
understanding of what he said."
"You don't want to go, do you?" Niklos persisted.
"No, if it were possible to remain in safety. But since it is not, then I'mтАж resigned. I will go to
Constantinople, to the house that Belisarius has arranged for me, and when the army is at home, I will
entertain this Drosos and do my best to be as inconspicuous as possible." She held out the parchment
sheets to Niklos once again. "Please, Niklos, take these to the monks and bring me the sigil of the abbot,
or whatever superior they have now, so that I can give proof of the transaction. We can squabble later,
when we're safe."
"As you wish, my mistress," Niklos said, making a reverence to her that just missed being insulting.
He took the parchments and strode to the door. "I'll send Kosmos to guard you while I'm gone. I don't
trust those soldiers to be respectful."
Olivia chuckled. "No more do I, but they're likely to look for female slaves rather than the owner of
the villa who is also known to be the hostess of their General."
 "You put more store in that than I do," Niklos warned as he started across the smaller of the two atria