Inventing Wonders

Chapter 3: With a Strange Woman

By the end of her first week living in the 19th century, Lara was thoroughly disappointed in herself:

"A thief, a fraud, a dishonorable girl!" Lara lamented to an old portrait of a chubby-cheeked boy while devouring another pastry. "What do you think about that, Maximka?"

"But you haven't started selling your body yet, and that's a success!" she noted in the voice of chubby-cheeked Maximka.

"Yeah? Selling such cheap rings for that kind of money!" Lara scolded herself for a successful deal at the pawnshop, where she had taken gold-plated earrings with cubic zirconia and passed them off as rare stones.

She had done it so convincingly that the incredibly shiny earrings were taken off her hands for almost five hundred rubles. Lara, who had watched two seasons of "The Fortress" during the last winter session, understood perfectly well that for a hundred rubles or so, one could buy oneself a servant.

From the inexpensive jewelry with exotic stones, Lara literally had three rings and two bracelets left on her hands. However, the calculating girl immediately inquired of her banker about the cost of maintaining the mansion. Paradoxically, but for the huge abandoned building in one of the most expensive parts of the city, Lara had to pay three thousand rubles, despite the fact that neither light nor a toilet was included in the utilities. She needed to find some means of subsistence urgently.

The solution was simple and straightforward: to turn her elite abandoned building into an income-generating property. First of all, to avoid wasting money, Lara began cleaning it herself. In the meantime, she drew up an estimate, perhaps not the most professional, but as good as her humanities brain could manage. First, she needed to have a decent dress made; the stolen one was not only unfashionable but also undermined her moral fortitude. Then she had to hire workers and, ideally, an architect for the building's redevelopment—one problem after another.

Lara was quick on her feet, so after roughly washing up and brushing her hair, she went to collect her first honest dress from the seamstress, if a dress bought with swindled money could be considered honest. The outfit turned out to be modest and a bit chilly. She needed to think about buying a coat, but with the impending repairs, Lara would have to walk around in her modern sweater until December.

***

Kondraty Fyodorovich looked displeased at the unexpected guest.

"I take it you're not happy to see me?" Lara smiled.

"Arriving uninvited is the height of impropriety," the man said pointedly.

"Oh, come on," Lara snorted, believing that pointing out people's lack of tact was the height of impropriety itself. "You're my only friend!"

"Allow me to clarify, Larisa Konstantinovna, when did we become friends?"

"I'll allow it!" Lara exclaimed indignantly. "You saw me without pants, I saw you drunk, Kondraty Fyodorovich, isn't that friendship?"

"You are phenomenally vulgar, dear lady!"

"Come on, Kondraty Fyodorovich, if I were repulsive to you, I wouldn't have been let into your parlor."

Ryleyev had little to say in response. In general, Larisa Konstantinovna possessed all the qualities he valued in people. Though he had never had such friendships with women before, her lack of even a shred of tact and elegance in her manners gave him reason to judge her by male standards.

"Suppose so," sighed the writer, "but what is the purpose of your visit?"

"Glad you asked!" Lara figured the formal part was finally over, though anything she participated in could hardly be considered formal.