JК
Sharpes Havoc :: Корнуэлл Бернард
Страница: 95 из 242„Why would I want to wear such a thing?” Kate had asked, and Christopher had not told her that he had seen a Frenchwoman dressed in just such a uniform, the breeches skintight and the short jacket cut high to reveal a perfect bum, and Kate’s legs were longer and better shaped, and Christopher, who was feeling rich because of the funds released to him by General Cradock, funds Christopher claimed were necessary to encourage Argenton’s mutineers, had paid the tailor an outrageous fee to have the uniform stitched quickly.
„Why wear that uniform?” he responded to her question. „Because you will find it easier to ride a horse wearing breeches, because the uniform becomes you, because it reassures our French friends that you are not an enemy, and best of all, my dear one, because it would please me.” And that last reason, of course, had been the one that convinced her. „You really like the name House Beautiful?” he asked her.
„I’m used to it.”
„Not attached to it? It’s not a matter of faith with you?”
„Faith?” Kate, in a white linen dress, frowned. „I consider myself a Christian.”
„A Protestant Christian,” her husband amended her, „as am I. But does not the name of the house somewhat flaunt itself in a Romish society?”
„I doubt,” Kate said with an unexpected tartness, „that anyone here has read Bunyan.”
„Some will have,” Christopher said, „and they will know they are being insulted.” He smiled at her. „I am a diplomat, remember. It is my job to make the crooked straight and the rough places plain.”
„Is that what you’re doing here?” Kate asked, gesturing to indicate the city beneath them where the French ruled over plundered houses and embittered people.
„Oh, Kate,” Christopher said sadly. „This is progress!”
„Progress?”
Christopher got to his feet and paced up and down the lawn, becoming animated as he explained to her that the world was changing fast about them. „‘There are more things in heaven and earth,’ „he told her, „‘than are dreamt of in your philosophy,’ „and Kate, who had been told this more than once in her short marriage, suppressed her irritation and listened as her husband described how the ancient superstitions were being discredited. „Kings have been dethroned, Kate, whole countries now manage without them. That would once have been considered unthinkable! It would have been a defiance of God’s plan for the world, but we’re seeing a new revelation. It is a new ordering of the world. What do simple folk see here? War! Just war, but war between who? France and Britain? France and Portugal? No! It is between the old way of doing things and the new way. Superstitions are being challenged. I’m not defending Bonaparte.
„Why wear that uniform?” he responded to her question. „Because you will find it easier to ride a horse wearing breeches, because the uniform becomes you, because it reassures our French friends that you are not an enemy, and best of all, my dear one, because it would please me.” And that last reason, of course, had been the one that convinced her. „You really like the name House Beautiful?” he asked her.
„I’m used to it.”
„Not attached to it? It’s not a matter of faith with you?”
„Faith?” Kate, in a white linen dress, frowned. „I consider myself a Christian.”
„A Protestant Christian,” her husband amended her, „as am I. But does not the name of the house somewhat flaunt itself in a Romish society?”
„I doubt,” Kate said with an unexpected tartness, „that anyone here has read Bunyan.”
„Some will have,” Christopher said, „and they will know they are being insulted.” He smiled at her. „I am a diplomat, remember. It is my job to make the crooked straight and the rough places plain.”
„Is that what you’re doing here?” Kate asked, gesturing to indicate the city beneath them where the French ruled over plundered houses and embittered people.
„Oh, Kate,” Christopher said sadly. „This is progress!”
„Progress?”
Christopher got to his feet and paced up and down the lawn, becoming animated as he explained to her that the world was changing fast about them. „‘There are more things in heaven and earth,’ „he told her, „‘than are dreamt of in your philosophy,’ „and Kate, who had been told this more than once in her short marriage, suppressed her irritation and listened as her husband described how the ancient superstitions were being discredited. „Kings have been dethroned, Kate, whole countries now manage without them. That would once have been considered unthinkable! It would have been a defiance of God’s plan for the world, but we’re seeing a new revelation. It is a new ordering of the world. What do simple folk see here? War! Just war, but war between who? France and Britain? France and Portugal? No! It is between the old way of doing things and the new way. Superstitions are being challenged. I’m not defending Bonaparte.