Simon Hawke - The Merchant of Vengeance
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- Название:The Merchant of Vengeance
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“And so you came to me,” said Granny Meg. “Well then, what is it you wish of me, Elizabeth?”
Elizabeth shook her head. “In truth, I… I do not know. I came to seek your wise counsel, Granny Meg. I thought, perhaps, that you could tell me what I should do. Mayhap there is some potion or some remedy or charm that would restore my friend to her senses. I would do anything to help her.”
“Perhaps the best thing that you can do is to do nothing.”
Granny Meg replied.
Elizabeth stared at her with dismay. “Nothing? But… but surely there is something that can be done!”
“Oh, there are many things that can be done,” said Granny Meg. “That is not the question. The question is, should they be done?”
Elizabeth shook her head. “I… I do not understand. If there was something that could be done to help my friend, then why should I refrain from doing it?”
“Because often the best thing is to let people find their own way to help themselves,” said Granny Meg. ‘The grief that your friend feels now is of her own making. She has engendered it within herself, and now she nurtures it, and cherishes it, and will not let it go. And the reason that she will not let it go is that it serves some purpose for her.“
“What purpose could that be?” Elizabeth asked.
“‘Tis a question that only your friend could answer,” Granny Meg replied. “Although ’tis possible that she may not know the answer.”
Elizabeth frowned. “You speak in riddles, Granny Meg. I beg of you, speak plainly. Please tell me what you mean.”
“Your friend’s grief may be her struggle for the answer that she seeks,” Granny Meg replied. “Or else it could be her struggle to avoid facing it. Betimes, when faced with a trying situation, one may already know the answer, but be unable to accept it.”
“And what would happen then?” Elizabeth asked.
‘The answer would not change,“ Granny Meg replied. ”Nor ›would the situation, unless one accepted it for what it was and faced the answer.“
“So then, you mean that unless she can accept this thing she does not wish to face, then she will be ever thus, trapped within this struggle, within her grief for this young man? Oh, but that is terrible, Granny Meg! What if she can never bring herself to accept it?”
“Sooner or later, Elizabeth, all people must accept their fate, for refusing to accept it shall not change it.”
“What, then, is the remedy for my poor friend?”
“Time,” said Granny Meg. “Time is often the best remedy of all. Time, and patience, Elizabeth. Your patience. The patience of those who care for her.”
Elizabeth shook her head sadly. “I think that I may be the only one who truly cares about her, Granny Meg. Her father has already made another match for her, it seems. And the man with whom this match was made…” She shook her head. “Well, the less said of him, the better.”
“If her father truly cares for her, then he must give her time to accept that which she must face,” said Granny Meg.
“And if he cares less for her than for himself?” Elizabeth asked.
“Then in the end, he shall fail both his daughter and himself,” said Granny Meg.
Elizabeth nodded. “‘Twould seem clear, then, what I must do. I must speak with him and make him understand his daughter’s plight.”
Granny Meg smiled and shook her head. “You cannot make him understand, Elizabeth. He must choose to understand. In the end, we must all make choices for ourselves. Even when it appears that we have no choice, the truth is that a choice always exists.”
“I must present him with that choice, then,” Elizabeth replied, “and do all that is within my power to see he chooses wisely. Thank you, Granny Meg, for your good counsel”
“We are not yet done,” said Granny Meg, as Elizabeth started to get up. “Sit down, Elizabeth.” She pulled out a soft leather pouch and opened the drawstrings.
Elizabeth swallowed nervously, her gaze fixed upon the deck of cards that Granny Meg withdrew from the bag and placed face-down upon the table. “Perhaps now is not the time…” she began.
“Shuffle the cards,” said Granny Meg.
Elizabeth moistened her lips and reached slowly for the cards.
She half expected to feel some sort of jolt when she picked them up, but she did not. They felt like a perfectly ordinary deck of cards, even though she knew otherwise. Slowly, purposefully, she shuffled them.
“Place them down upon the table whenever you feel that you have shuffled them enough,” said Granny Meg.
She did so.
“And now cut the cards.”
She picked up approximately half the cards and cut the deck, making two neat little stacks.
Granny Meg picked them up and put them together once again, then started to deal out the cards, face up, in a ten-card spread known as the Celtic Cross. The first card she placed face up was the Wheel of Fortune.
“This indicates your present,” she said, as she put down the card. “The card of fate and changing fortune.”
“We were just speaking of fate,” Elizabeth said softly.
Granny Meg smiled. “Indeed.” She placed another card down, laying it across the first one. It depicted a woman with her arm around a lion. “The card of Strength. It speaks of courage and conviction. And this card crosses you.”
“What does that mean?”
“It could mean that you are one who has the strength to soothe the grief of others…”
“As with my friend!” Elizabeth exclaimed.
“Or else that there are strong influences aligned against you.” Granny Meg continued.
Elizabeth bit her lower lip. “But which one is it?” she asked. “It could be either one.. or even both,” said Granny Meg.
“Let us see what else the cards may have in store.”
As she drew the third card, she said, “This shows what may arise from the current situation in which you find yourself… or else that which you hope may come to pass.” She placed it down upon the table in a position above the first two. “The Chariot,” she said. “Interesting. All very strong cards, having to do with destiny and movement.”
“‘What does it mean?”
“The Chariot indicates a moving forward, a sense of purpose, or a triumph over problems or adversity.”
“Well… this is encouraging, at least,” Elizabeth replied. “Is it not?”
“We shall see,” Granny Meg replied. She drew the fourth card and placed it below the first two. Elizabeth gasped at the image it depicted, a tall stone tower struck. by lightning in a storm, with two people plunging from the heights.
“The Tower,” Granny Meg said. “This shows the past, that from which the current situation has arisen. It speaks of sudden change or transformation, of destruction, or of disgrace or loss.”
Elizabeth nodded, wide-eyed. “Destruction. Aye, murder is surely the destruction of a life. And when her father discovered that the man she was betrothed to was a Jew, he must have felt disgraced. And loss, which is what she feels now. ‘Tis all there, Granny Meg!”
“Let us see what influences the events that are unfolding now,” Granny Meg replied as she drew another card and placed it down upon the table to the right of all the others, and even with the first two. “The Five of Pentacles,” she said, gazing at the card, which depicted crippled beggars in the snow. “The card of misery. It signifies loss and destitution, loneliness, impoverishment…” She shook her head and drew another card.
She stared at it for a moment, then placed it in the sixth position, to the left of the first two cards, thus completing the cross.
“This signifies what is soon to come,” she said. The card showed a dark-cloaked figure in an attitude of woe, standing over five cups, several of which had spilled out upon the ground. “The Five of Cups. The card of sorrow and despair. There will be loss and bitterness, illusions shattered, bonds broken…”
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