Читать книгу Five Quarters of the Orange / Пять четвертинок апельсина онлайн

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I folded my arms. “You can explain what you like,” I said. “But my mother’s legacy belongs to me and Reine-Claude, whatever my brother told you, and there’s nothing more to be said about it.”

Laure gave me a broad, hateful smile of dislike.

“Is that what you thought we wanted, Mamie? Your bit of money? Oh really! What a dreadful pair you must think us.”

Suddenly I saw myself through their eyes, an old woman in a stained apron, sloe eyes and hair dragged back so tightly it stretched the skin. I growled at them then, like a bewildered dog, and grabbed hold of the doorpost to steady myself. My breath came in gasps, each one a journey through thorns.

“It isn’t that we couldn’t do with the money,” said Yannick earnestly. “The restaurant business isn’t doing well right now. That last review in Hôte amp; Cuisine didn’t help. And we’ve been having trouble-”

Laure quelled him with a glance.

“I don’t want the money at all,” she repeated.

“I know what you want,” I said again, harshly, trying not to let my confusion show. “My mother’s recipes. But I won’t give them to you.”