Хольмгард - Владимир Романовский

— `Tis useless.^[13]

— What is?^[14]

— Thy sarcasm.^[15]

— Was I being sarcastic? Do accept my apologies. Force of habit, I suppose. Mind explaining to me the meaning of thy earlier soliloquy, and especially the part in which thou mentioned my name?^[16]

— It shall come to pass.^[17]

— Who is King Henry? And King Richard? I'm sure I've never heard of them. Methinks benevolence isn't their strongest point.^[18]

— I would not know.^[19]

— What's a crusader?^[20]

— I know not.^[21]

— I'm pretty certain thou mentioned some kind of crusader. What's a crusader?^[22]

— I know not.^[23]

Вернулась молочница, неся в руках сложенные вчетверо простыни.

— Ты чего это к ней подсел? — спросила она подозрительно. — А ну, вставай. Негоже так тебе сидеть. Дай я ей хоть грудь прикрою.

— Интересные грунки она говорит.

— Мало ли что. Бедная ты моя, бедная.

Певунья мутно посмотрела на молочницу и снова закрыла глаза.

— When in the Course of human events, — сказала Певунья, — it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.^[24]

— Да уж ладно, — сказала молочница. — Сейчас я тебя подвину немного, ты не бойся.

Удивительно, но, продолжая говорить, Певунья вроде бы поняла, что именно собирается делать молочница, и даже посодействовала ей, сама передвинувшись в дальний угол ложа. Молочница сняла простыню и покрывало и бросила их на пол.

— Помоги, — сказала она Годрику.

— We hold these truths to be self-evident, — сказала Певунья, — Тhat all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…^[25]

Годрик помог молочнице, а затем, снова присев на край ложа, сказал:

— Listen. I have no idea what thou meaneth. How didst thou know my name? Just humor me, all right? Just answer that one question.^[26]

— Something closer to home, perhaps.^[27]

— Shit… What?^[28]

— Attend to what I'm going to tell thee, Godric, — сказала Певунья. — The little one, being wiser and more depraved than her years on this earth would suggest, the little one plying her ignominious trade along or near the Stout Spinners, has seen the vile act committed in the murk of night.^[29]

— Great, — Годрик пожал плечами. — «In the murk of night» — that's just awesome. Very poetic. You should have been a minstrel.^[30]

— Tell thy master.^[31]

— What dost thou want me to tell him?^[32]

— What art thee, dull of mind? — с возмущением сказала Певунья. — Tell him that the little one, wiser and more depraved than her age would suggest, the little one who plies her ignominious trade…^[33]

— Yeah, so, what am I supposed to…^[34]

— …along or near the Stout Spinners, has seen the vile act committed in the murk of night.^[35]

— Ты понимаешь, что она говорит! — сообразила наконец молочница.