Endless Night / Бесконечная ночь. Книга для чтения на английском языке

We couldn’t bring things into the open[21 - We couldn’t bring things into the open – Мы не могли в открытую заявить] and say, �When shall we meet again? Where can I find you? Where do you live?’ Because, you see, if you ask the other person that, they’d expect you to tell the same.

Fenella looked apprehensive when she gave me her name. So much so that I thought for a moment that it mightn’t be her real name. I almost thought that she might have made it up! But of course I knew that that was impossible.

I’d given her my real name.

We didn’t know quite how to take leave of each other that day. It was awkward. It had become cold and we wanted to wander down from The Towers – but what then? Rather awkwardly, I said tentatively:

�Are you staying round here?[22 - Are you staying round here? – Вы недалеко живете?]’

She said she was staying in Market Chadwell. That was a market town not very far away. It had, I knew, a large hotel, three-starred.

She’d be staying there, I guessed. She said, with something of the same awkwardness, to me:

�Do you live here?’

�No,’ I said, �I don’t live here. I’m only here for the day.’

Then a rather awkward silence fell. She gave a faint shiver. Рђ cold little wind had come up.

�We’d better walk,’ I said, �and keep ourselves warm. Are you – have you got a car or are you going by bus or train?’

She said she’d left the car in the village.

�But I’ll be quite all right,’ she said.

She seemed a little nervous. I thought perhaps she wanted to get rid of me but didn’t quite know how to manage it. I said:

�We’ll walk down, shall we, just as far as the village?’

She gave me a quick grateful look then. We walked slowly down the winding road on which so many car accidents had happened. As we came round a corner, a figure stepped suddenly from beneath the shelter of the fir tree. It appeared so suddenly that Ellie gave a start and said, �Oh!’ It was the old woman I had seen the other day in her cottage garden.

Mrs Lee. She looked a great deal wilder today with a tangle of black hair blowing in the wind and a scarlet cloak round her shoulders; the commanding stance she took up made her look taller.

�And what would you be doing, my dears?’ she said. �What brings you to Gipsy’s Acre?’

�Oh,’ Ellie said, �we aren’t trespassing, are we?’

�That’s as may be.