Inventing Wonders

Chapter 12: I Cannot Explain It to You

Lara woke up with a heavy heart and a splitting headache. Her soul was restless. She tried to hide from the intrusive strip of light peeking through the partially open curtain. But sleep wouldn't come, and how much could she sleep anyway? The last few weeks had stretched out into a torturous series of empty working hours. Lara didn't want to go out, but she did need money. However, for the first time in all these months living in this strange world, she was struck by a creative crisis: when a young and handsome engineer burst into her life, writing about old and not very successful love felt like some kind of vulgarity and stupidity.

The atmosphere in the house, however, had become much more peaceful. After the incredibly vulgar outburst of Georgiy Mikhailovich, in which, to everyone's surprise, there was no blame on Lara's part, Anya had revised her views on the matter of falling in love. Of course, under different circumstances, she might have convinced herself that Larisa Konstantinovna had asked for it and provoked the officer, but in the house on the embankment, it was not customary to question the authority of the countess, and so the main villain was designated as the lieutenant. And since Anna Matveyevna stopped sulking, Larisa Konstantinovna didn't miss the opportunity to load her with additional lessons for Fedya. Lara decided that come what may, she would give the child a good education.

Already, she didn't miss the chance to tell everyone that she had taken her cousin's son into her care, who had until then lived somewhere in an estate near Kyiv. And despite the fact that he had been running her small errands just in February, now no one could imagine that the scruffy boy had anything to do with the sweet and rosy-cheeked Fedenka. The boy, in turn, had taken a liking to Kondraty Fyodorovich, and not long ago, as a joke, the latter even suggested that if the two friends' children were of opposite sexes and similar ages, they could be betrothed in the near future. It was then that Lara first caught herself thinking that her Kondraty didn't have that near future, but she didn't share her grim thoughts.

That morning, Lara decided not to leave her bedroom, but her soul craved gossip. Dragging out her writing supplies from under the bed, she sighed heavily, remembering how easy it was to communicate on Telegram. Writing letters with a quill, she didn't dare, as she did it quite poorly. But the pens smuggled through the ages still worked, so the girl set about writing:

Dear friend of mine, Yekaterina!

I hope you will not refuse to satisfy my curiosity and reveal a secret to me. The other day I noticed the strange behavior of Natalya Mikhailovna. I cannot fathom what terrible offense I caused her to deserve her scorn. I beg you, if you know any detail, however small, to dispel my doubts. I do not exclude the possibility that inadvertently, and you must know better than anyone that my character sometimes is barely restrained, I might have touched some delicate chord of her soul... In any case, I would gladly offer her my apologies if I had the happiness of knowing how exactly I offended her.

I await your prompt reply, hoping this letter will not seem impertinent. I look forward to our meeting on the coming Sunday.

Warmly, Your Lara

Despite her firm decision not to leave the room, Lara went in search of an available household member who would agree to deliver the important message. The unfortunate one turned out to be Pelageya, as Anya had taken Fedya to fit his new Sunday suit. There weren't enough hands in the house. At that moment, Lara even thought about hiring another nimble boy, but quickly reminded herself that her humanity would force her to dress him up too, and then pay him decently, while her constant income had not yet increased.

Having dispatched Pelageya with some money to buy something sweet, Lara sighed with vague relief: for the first time in a long while, she was completely alone in the house. Suddenly, her mood became so light: she wanted to do something incredibly silly. If she had the internet, she would probably have written to her ex, just for fun. But lacking the opportunity to write to anyone at all, Lara dragged her makeup bag down from the second floor and decided to apply a pretty makeup look with bright pink eyeliner. Of course, for big balls, she would apply a light blush, dab a bit of highlighter, but this was child's play compared to the extravagances she used to create in her best times.