Inventing Wonders

Chapter 10: Yes, a Loser

Larisa Konstantinovna settled into her favorite armchair by the window in Ryleyev's parlor, waiting for someone to come and talk to her. During Lent, there weren't many entertainment options in the city, so the choice between hanging out with Ekaterina Ivanovna's friends, who mostly couldn't stand the young and ambitious countess, and drinking with brave officers was an obvious one for Lara.

"I'm telling you again, Alexander Alexandrovich, journalism should aim to change the way people think, not incite rebellion!" Lara declared, sipping the sour champagne.

"I must disagree with you, Larisa Konstantinovna!" protested the man who had imprudently sat next to her.

"How can you disagree?" Lara was always baffled when her opinion wasn't immediately accepted as the ultimate truth. "Our people have a mentality of slaves, not free individuals."

"But we want to give them freedom!" Alexander Alexandrovich was not about to accept the opposite position.

"Do they want it? Our peasant, let's take him for example, has always lived under the baron's yoke, and here you come! Telling him cheerfully: 'Now you have to solve all your problems on your own'!" Lara threw up her hands. "But he doesn't know how to solve problems. And the worst part is, he doesn't want to."

"Listening to you, dear Larisa Konstantinovna, one might think freedom is something dreadful and we are some kind of beasts," Prince Trubetskoy finally intervened, who still couldn't understand what this girl was constantly doing in Ryleyev's parlor.

"Oh, prince!" Lara wasn't very fond of Trubetskoy either. "I don't consider freedom to be something dreadful, I thought that was evident."

Evgeny Petrovich, standing behind the countess's chair, snorted approvingly.

"But if they don't know how to be free, there must be someone to teach them this fine art," she took another sip from her glass.

"And you believe literature should do this," Alexander Alexandrovich concluded.

"Exactly," Lara nodded, "otherwise, you will end up making decisions for them. Then what's the difference between being under the rule of the Romanovs or the Trubetskoys, dear prince?"

"And you want to say that those texts your mysterious brother regularly writes don't incite rebellion?" Sergei Petrovich objected.

Evgeny Petrovich, one of the few who knew that those texts were actually written by Larisa Konstantinovna herself, snorted approvingly again.

"Maxim Konstantinovich writes about the injustices in society, and society, as far as I know, doesn't end with the imperial family!" Lara bristled, defending her works. "Just the other day, he wrote about brothels..."

"Please, Larisa Konstantinovna!" Trubetskoy interrupted her. "It's not proper for a lady to think about such things."

"Come now, prince, listening to you, it seems a woman isn't allowed to choose her own topics of conversation. Then what was the previous discussion about?" Lara raised her chin slightly.

"But there are proprieties!" Trubetskoy raised his voice.

This puritanism of the prince reminded Lara of her father, who would disappear into the depths of their apartment every time he heard the word "sex" from his daughter's lips.

"The proprieties you speak of are gender discrimination!" Lara shot back, who had disliked Trubetskoy since school. "Forgive my rudeness, but I don't walk around with my breasts bared in front of you and don't relieve myself in the nearest potted plant."

There were stifled laughs, and it seemed someone remarked that the countess's bare chest wouldn't cause any particular objections either.

"And whether I discuss women of a certain profession or not, I'll decide on my own."