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.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlBecket gave a long stare at Fotheringay.The truth, of course, was that being Niko's manservant was a matter ofFotheringay's choice, not an obligation.The old Marine sergeant could have,after the affair of Better-Not-to-Think-the-Name-of-Where, taken not only hisMarine pension, but the OC that His Majesty had said was due upon hisretirement; the only thing he had left Londinium with was the promise of Orderof the Crown.He had gone back to the Fleet, only to show up at Fallsworth buta couple of months later, asking Niko for a position as "the dogrobber that ayoung knight such as yourself ought to have."Niko had, of course, said yes, and while he had occasionally hinted at hisobvious curiosity as to what had gone on that had brought Fotheringay toFallsworth, his hat quite literally in hand, Fotheringay had never said.Nikofound himself unable to ask, although he had his suspicions about Fotheringayhaving gotten himself in some trouble, trouble that Niko didn't want toofficially know about.If he didn't know about it, he didn't have to cover forit, after all.Maybe it mattered; maybe it didn't.But he couldn't have said no.He remembered not only Fotheringay standing next to him onBetter-Not-to-Think-the-Name-of-Where, but later, on a windy Portsmouth dock,and Fotheringay stepping between Niko and a troop of soldiers, after awhispered, casual promise that he'd spend his life buying Niko the timenecessary to get Nadide free from her sheath, ending with,You can't count onmuch in this world, but you can count on that.It hadn't been necessary for Fotheringay to prove that he could do that; thesoldiers had turned out to be their escorts to the king.It hadn't beennecessary to prove that he would try to do that; Niko had no doubts, then orlater.But Fotheringay hadn't known what would happen, and Niko could still hearthat whisper in his mind.Turning Fotheringay away? That had only crossed hismind as something impossible to do, disgraceful to consider.Niko found the whole idea of others doing for him to be strange, certainlyenough, but it was convenient.When it was allowed.Becket insisted that Niko wash his own clothing, and maintain the two-roomsuite in Fallsworth that the baron called the "Red Suite," but Becketinvariably referred to as Niko's "cell," and do all the rest of the work ofmaintaining his gear and equipment, just as the other as the novices did, andNiko did that, and Becket insisted on constantly inspecting his work, to besure that he wasn't slacking off.Page 46ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlNiko didn't.He was clumsy with most of the tools, and all of the languages,and all the rest of the usages of knights, but he wasn't lazy, and, truth totell, the dawn-to-dusk regimen of a knight in training was less strenuous inmost ways than what he had lived with, day to day, as a Pironesian fisherboy.Hours and hours of the work of a knight in training, after all, involvedsitting at a table, reading in the daylight! when he should, by rights, havebeen deepdragging nets across a far-too-often rocky bottom.Fotheringay, of course, had his own ideas about what was proper for a youngknight, and was perfectly capable of taking a stack of clean tunics andtrousers out to the laundry in the back of the keep, rewashing them, and thenironing them himself, and more than a few times Niko found that the oftenclumsy mending and patching that he himself had done, obedient to Becket'sorders, had miraculously, overnight, been transformed into much finer work.That hadn't gone over very well with Becket, of course, but Baron Shanley hadtaken him aside, and had a word with him.There weren't many men that Becketwould hear out, but the baron was one of them.Becket finally nodded."Very well.You may be about your work."Fotheringay didn't move until Niko nodded, but then he walked off beyond thewan circle of the fire's light.With obvious discomfort, although no grunt of pain, Becket managed to movehis body until he could face more directly toward Niko."Tomorrow, we'll start to make our way down to the coast.We can report tothe earl on the way to the duke.Then, if there's no word waiting at Dunbeg,we'll see whether it makes more sense to head back to Fallsworth than over toColonsay." He almost grinned."The baron's to be summering at Colonsay, youknow [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]