The Book of Lies. James Moloney

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СКАЧАТЬ hands are these? he thought, looking down at his body. They must be his feet, because he was standing on them.

      A small mirror hung from a hook on the wardrobe. He went closer but he was only certain that this was really his face when a pair of wide blue eyes blinked back at him. What else could he see? There was brown hair, almost black really, and pale skin, as though he had been kept out of the sun for some time. He worried for a moment that he was a ghost, but then wouldn’t this woman have been afraid of him? What had she called herself? Mrs Timmins, wasn’t it? There she was, watching him with friendly amusement. No, he wasn’t a ghost.

      He took another look in the mirror. That mouth drooped a bit. Perhaps it came from feeling so dazed. Now that he’d seen it he decided that, as faces went, it could have been worse, and the thought brought a smile to his lips.

      “Can you tell me your name, then?” Mrs Timmins asked.

      “Name…” the boy murmured. He opened his mouth quickly but no words came out, causing him to frown in confusion. “Name…” he said again. Why was it so hard for him to say it? Wait… he did know, after all. “I think my name is… Robert.”

      “Ah, you do remember,” Mrs Timmins said brightly. “Welcome to my orphanage. There’s always room for one more in this house.”

      She left him alone to dress in the clothes she had brought for him. “Robert,” he said to himself when he was finished. He knew he had been born with that name and he sensed somehow that his mother was dead. Was it… yes, when he was a baby. If he was an orphan then his father must be dead too. Shouldn’t he feel sadness? With a shock, he realised that all he could feel was emptiness and the few things he could remember rattled around inside his head like peas in a kettledrum.

      He was still grappling with these thoughts when Mrs Timmins returned. “It’s time you met the others,” she announced briskly. “Come with me.” She led the way out of the tiny room, along the passage to a flight of stairs. There she paused. “We have few rules in this house, Robert, but one is that you be as quiet as you can just here, outside the entry to the tower,” she said, nodding towards an imposing oak door set into the wall opposite the staircase. He glanced at it, but for now he didn’t give it a second thought.

      “Come on, the girls are rather keen to see you – though they’re meant to be working in the kitchen.” They started down the stairs, but after three steps the boy stopped, startled by the gang of five girls that had gathered at the bottom.

      “It’s a boy,” said a voice rather dismissively.

      “Quiet, Dot,” hissed one of her companions, but Dot wouldn’t be silenced.

      “I wanted it to be another girl,” and with this announcement she led the posse of girls away, disappointed.

      One of them seemed to linger for a moment. Was she smiling at him? It was difficult to tell, because the girl herself seemed no more than a shadow.

      “Am I the only boy, Mrs Timmins?”

      “No, no, the boys are outside, doing their chores.” She looked pointedly towards the girl. Then she led him down the remaining stairs and through a large kitchen. “Come on, Robert,” she called when he lagged behind.

      Robert? Yes, of course, that’s me, he thought. He stepped into the sudden brightness of a cloudless day. The sunshine felt good on his skin and he turned his face towards it, hoping that the sun, at least, would recognise him.

      A tall boy, almost a man, came striding towards them. “This is my son, Albert,” said Mrs Timmins. “He’s in charge of all the outside work that’s usually left to our boys.” Albert was rather proud of his role, judging by the grin that filled his face, a face already crowded with an unsightly rash of pimples. “He’ll give you jobs to do as well, but not today, since you’ve only just joined us.” She glanced at Albert to be sure he had understood.

      “No, not today,” he agreed readily enough. “Come on, I’ll gather all the boys to meet you.” He walked to the well in the middle of the courtyard and shouted, “Boys, boys, come here!” Before long, half a dozen boys had joined them in the courtyard.

      “This is Robert, everyone,” called Mrs Timmins. “I hope you’ll make him feel at home.” She picked out two of the older boys. “Hugh and Dominic, I’ll leave him in your hands, so you can show him around.”

      After an awkward moment or two, a boy stepped forward. One of his legs was shorter than the other, making him limp noticeably as he moved. “I’m Dominic,” he said, offering his bony hand like a man. The boy shook it warily, but the hand was warm and the gesture friendly.

      He relaxed a little as a second orphan introduced himself. “My name’s Hugh.” He put his hand to his mouth to stifle a sickly cough. Hugh didn’t have a limp but he didn’t have much else either. His arms and neck were skinny, the bones visible beneath the skin. His face was painfully narrow too.

      “Do you want to join them, Fergus?” Mrs Timmins added, bringing a sterner tone to her voice. “It’s not so long ago that you were the new boy.”

      This Fergus was a head taller than the rest and broad-shouldered. He nodded politely to Mrs Timmins but then turned to the younger boys around him, rolling his eyes in mockery. They sniggered uncertainly. “What’s your name again?” he asked bluntly.

      The new boy hesitated, as though even this simple question were too much for him.

      “You do know your name, don’t you?” Fergus urged him.

      “Robert,” he answered finally, not sounding quite convinced.

      “Of course it is,” said Mrs Timmins a little too eagerly. “Well, come on, Dominic, introduce the others. I have work to do if you lot expect to be fed.” She bustled off towards the kitchen. Albert lingered a moment, but he didn’t seem one for words and soon he had disappeared as well.

      Dominic turned to the waiting circle and fired off names faster than they could be matched to faces: Watkin, Oliver, Jonathan…

      “Where do you come from?” asked Hugh.

      Where do I come from? he asked himself. He wished he could remember.

      Hugh tried again. “What happened to your mother and father?”

      “I’m not sure. I think my mother’s…” Something held him back. It was in his mind, yes, as hard as a stone. His mother was dead, but still he didn’t feel it.

      When he said nothing further, Fergus wandered away, uninterested, and the younger boys went with him, leaving only Dominic and Hugh.

      “I suppose we’d better start showing you around,” Hugh said. “That’s the stables over there.” An arm waved vaguely towards the low, ramshackle building that faced them across the courtyard. “Old Belch lives in there, in one of the stalls.”

      “A horse?”

      “No, a man,” Dominic said with a laugh, “but he smells like a horse. Worse, really.”

      “Why’s he called Old Belch?”

      They glanced at each other, smirking. “You’ll find out when you meet him,” said Hugh.

      While СКАЧАТЬ