В 1957 году в английской прессе появляются статьи о том, что непорочное зачатие все-таки возможно. И когда в газету «Эхо Северного Кента» приходит письмо от читательницы, Гретхен Тилбери, сообщающей, что именно это с ней и произошло, журналистка Джин Суинни берется расследовать эту историю. Но расследование меняет не только жизнь семьи Гретхен, но и тихую размеренную жизнь самой Джин – она обзаводится новыми друзьями, неожиданно встречает любовь. Однако за счастье приходится расплачиваться. В...
The lawns, front and back, would have to wait until the weekend, because that was a heavy job, made heavier by an obligation to do her elderly neighbour’s grass at the same time. It was one of those generous impulses that had begun as a favour and had now become a duty, performed with dwindling enthusiasm on one side and fading gratitude on the other.
Her younger sister, Dorrie, was married to a coffee farmer and lived in Kenya, which might as well have been Venus as far as Jean was concerned, so remote and unimaginable was her new life.
‘Yes. No. I don’t know. Do you think it’s possible to hold two contradictory views at the same time?’ ‘Perfectly. Religious folk do it all the time.’
A lifetime of quiet watchfulness had convinced her that the truth about people was seldom to be found in the things they freely admitted. There was always more below the surface than above.
When you spend all day at a typewriter, the idea of making something real with your hands is very appealing.
The contemplation of these treasures, still pristine in their packaging, gave Jean far more satisfaction than using them ever could. A leather notebook with marbled endpapers and gold-tipped pages was a thing of beauty only so long as its pages remained blank.
She had intended to read, but she hadn’t opened her book once, preferring instead to gaze out of the window as the dwindling suburbs gave way to the sun-baked fields of north Kent.
‘Would it surprise you to discover that a miracle had taken place within these walls?’ Jean asked him. ‘I think my staff feel they perform miracles here daily,’ he said with the ghost of a smile.
В том, насколько они были поглощены друг другом, было что-то обидное, и Джин пришлось напомнить себе, что к ней это не имеет отношения - просто универсальный симптом любовного недуга. А те, кто им поражён, заслуживают не осуждения, а жалости.
Я его люблю, с изумлением подумала она. Я никогда не собиралась, но теперь я его люблю.