Читать книгу The Plumed Serpent. Historical Novel - Life and Love after the Mexico Revolution онлайн

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‘I am afraid of fear,’ she said.

He laughed shortly.

‘You speak such English English,’ she said. ‘Nearly all the Mexicans who speak English speak American English. Even Don Ramón does, rather.’

‘Yes. Don Ramón graduated in Columbia University. But I was sent to England, to school in London, and then to Oxford.’

‘Who sent you?’

‘My god-father. He was an Englishman: Bishop Severn, Bishop of Oaxaca. You have heard of him?’

‘No,’ said Kate.

‘He was a very well-known man. He died only about ten years ago. He was very rich, too, before the revolution. He had a big hacienda in Oaxaca, with a very fine library. But they took it away from him in the revolution, and they sold the things, or broke them. They didn’t know the value of them, of course.’

‘And did he adopt you?’

‘Yes! In a way. My father was one of the overseers on the hacienda. When I was a little boy I came running to my father, when the Bishop was there, with something in my hands — so!’ — and he made a cup of his hand. ‘I don’t remember. This is what they tell me. I was a small child — three or four years of age — somewhere there. What I had in my hands’ was a yellow scorpion, one of the small ones, very poisonous, no?’