"Jane Yolen - Granny Rumple" - читать интересную книгу автора (Yolen Jane)

"But it is true!" she wailed and would be neither comforted nor moved from her
version of the facts.
"Then I shall lend you the moneyтАФand at no interestтАФto buy such a cloth and
you can give that to your father, who can offer it to the mayor in place of your own
poor work."
"At no interest!" Tana exclaimed, that in itself such a miraculous event as to seem
a fairy story.
"In honor of a woman as dark as you are fair, but equally beautiful," Shmuel said.
"Who is that?" asked Tana, immediately suspecting sorcery.
"My new bride," Shmuel reported proudly.
At which point she knew it to be devil's work indeed, for where would such an
ugly little man get a beautiful bride except through sorcery. But so great was her own
perceived need, she crossed herself surreptitiously and accepted his loan.
Shmuel found her a gold coin in the right pocket of his coat and made a great
show of its presentation. Then he had her sign her X on a paper, and left certain he
had done the right thing.
Tana went right out to the market of a neighboring town, where she bought a
piece of gold-embroidered cloth from a tinker. It was more intricate than anything
either she or her father could have imagined, with the initials T and L cunningly
intertwined beneath the body of a dancing bear.
The mayor of Ykaterinislav was suitably impressed, and he immediately
introduced his son Leon to Tana. The twined initials were not lost upon them. The
son, while not as smart as his father, was handsome, and he was heir to his father's
fortune as well. Dreaming of another fortune to add to the family's wealth he
proposed.


Good husband that he was, Shmuel reported all his dealings to Shana. He was
extremely uxorious; nothing pleased him more than to relate the day's business to
her.
"They would not have killed her for a story," she said. "Probably her father had
wagered on it."
"Who knows what the goyim will do," he replied. "Trust me, Shana, I deal with
them every day. They do not know story from history. It is all the same to them."
Shana shrugged and went back to her own work; but as she said the prayers over
the Sabbath candles that evening, she added an extra prayer to keep her beloved
husband safe.


Who says the Lord G-d has no sense of humor? Just a week went by and Shmuel
once again passed along the High Street and heard the miller's daughter sobbing.
"NaтАФna, Tana," he said. "What goes this time?"
"I am to be married," she said.
"That is not an institution to be despised. I myself have a beautiful bride.
Happiness is in the marriage bed."
This time she did not bother to hide her genuflection, but Shmuel was used to the
ways of the goy.
"My father-in-law-to-be, the mayor, insists that I produce the wedding costume,
and the costumes of my attending maidens besides."
"But of course," Shmuel agreed. "Even beyond the gatesтАж"тАФand he gestured