Дом с привидениями. Уровень 2 / A Haunted House

The jersey, the rough woollen jersey, for her son, was finished. This boy cleaned the Church.

“The end!” she muttered.

Then she heard the cart. She got up. She stood in the yard, in the wind.

“They are coming!” she laughed.

The scar on her cheek lengthened.

She unbolted the door. Wing, the gamekeeper, drove the cart over the cobbles. The birds were dead now. The leathery eyelids were creased over their eyes. Mrs. Masters the housekeeper, Wing the gamekeeper, took bunches of dead birds by the neck.

“The last,” Milly Masters grinned.

The cart drove off.

“Luncheon is served, ma’am,” said the butler.

He pointed at the table. He directed the footman. They waited, the butler and the footman.

Miss Antonia put away her silk and her thimble. She hung her glasses on a hook upon her breast. Then she rose.

“Luncheon!” she barked in old Miss Rashleigh’s ear.

One second later old Miss Rashleigh stretched her leg out. She gripped her stick. Then she rose. Both old women advanced slowly to the table. And there was the pheasant, featherless, gleaming.

Miss Antonia drew the knife across the pheasant’s breast firmly. She cut two slices. She laid them on a plate. Deftly the footman whipped it from her. Old Miss Rashleigh raised her knife. Shots rang out in the wood under the window.

“Coming?” said old Miss Rashleigh.

She took a mouthful of pheasant.

“The Home Woods, now,” said Miss Antonia. “Hugh is shooting.”

She drew her knife down the other side of the breast. She added potatoes and gravy, sprouts and bread sauce. Methodically in a circle round the slices on her plate. The butler and the footman were watching. They were like servers at a feast. The old ladies ate quietly, silently. They cleaned the bird methodically. The butler drew the decanter towards Miss Antonia. Then he paused for a moment.

“Give it here, Griffiths,” said Miss Antonia.

She took the carcase in her fingers. Then she tossed it to the spaniel beneath the table.

The butler and the footman bowed and went out. The wind was rising. A brown shudder shook the air. The glass rattled in the windows.

Old Miss Rashleigh filled her glass. As they sipped their eyes became lustrous like half precious stones. Miss Rashleigh’s eyes were blue. Miss Antonia’s eyes were red.