Buried Jewellery Box. Reseda Shaykhnurova

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      “I assure you, my friend, he will be glad to marry Georgia!” said Rebecca Fellows. “It is just that he is modest and wanting in initiative. But he is certainly in love with your daughter. What else can explain the fact that no girl in the county was graced with his attention?”

      “Perhaps you are right, Becky, but I still want happiness for my Joe. She loves Ralph with all her heart, yet she will not humiliate herself in front of him for the sake of mutuality.”

      “Believe me they will make a wonderful couple! Imagine the headline in local newspapers, ‘A promising grandson of Esq. Fellows and a beautiful daughter of Earl and Countess Melshem are to be joined in the most outstanding marriage in Derbyshire’…”

      The guest rolled her eyes and smiled contentedly.

      “Yes. It will indeed be a wonderful marriage. They are both so beautiful and excellent in society. We should discuss the size of dowry. But I am going to leave it at the mercy of our husbands.”

      “I agree,” Mrs. Fellowes was delighted and took a sip of tea.

      “What about your Melody?”

      “Melody?”

      “Does she ever intend to become Lady Melshem?”

      “Oh, Fanny, when it comes to her I am not sure of anything,” raising her hands to the sky, Rebecca started complaining. “She does not welcome any local young men’s attentions; she even stays at home most of the time. I am afraid that one day she will announce that she is leaving for the monastery.”

      “Your daughter is too pretty for a monastery. Do not allow her to break your dreams!”

      “But what can I do? She does not even speak to me sometimes. I do not know what’s on her mind and heart. The only person with whom she shares her secrets is Henry. However, he will never disgrace himself by discussing them with me.”

      “George also avoids this topic. But I know that his feelings are hurt. Once he even aggravated Joe to the point that she slapped him on the face.”

      “Why?”

      “Because he had offended Melody.”

      Rebecca Fellows appeared unpleasantly surprised, but she did not try to find out how her friend’s son could hurt her daughter. In a quarter of an hour, she walked the countess to her carriage and then went to her husband’s study to tell him about the plans on their son’s marriage.

      Chapter V

      “What did you decide for me?” exclaimed Ralph at dinner. “I do not want to marry Georgia Melshem or anybody else!”

      “But, son, she will get three thousand as her dowry!” his mother said joyfully.

      “She is a good match for you, as well as for us,” said Lord Fellows sternly. “You have lived at our expense enough. You did not even complete your studies at Oxford that your grandfather paid for.”

      “I explained the reason,” the young Fellows strained through his clenched teeth.

      “No, you did not. We received a letter from your Dean, informing us that you had been involved in the incident, tarnishing the reputation of the university, and that you could not continue your education. He did not state the name of the second participant. The only thing your mother and I were able to learn, is that the incident had been hushed up before it could seep into newspapers.”

      “My dear, let us not talk about that,” his wife stepped in. “If Ralph does not want to tell us, you should not make him.”

      “You all told me then that my brother was ill, so he could not study,” mentioned Melody casually. “So what was his illness exactly? The cunning, cowardice or laziness influenza?”

      “That is enough!” said Ralph angrily. “Have you even heard that our parents are going to marry me?”

      “Yes, to my best friend,” smiled his sister.

      “Whom I do not love!” stated Ralph.

      “I do not love George either, but that did not stop you from showing him my naked body.”

      The parents froze in amazement with their mouths open. They looked at their daughter, then at their son unable to squeeze out a single word.

      “It is not what you think!” Ralph tried to soften the accusation. “Melody was not intimate with George.”

      “But how did he see her naked?” asked his mother barely able to keep from crying.

      “It was a demand of your beloved countess’s son, Mother!” tartly replied Melody.

      “What? It cannot be so.”

      “Yes, it can. On that very day when he called Ralph to a duel.”

      “But they made friends!”

      “Not quite, Mother,” the young Fellows joined in. “My friend insisted that his only condition to cancel the duel was… Melody.”

      “Henry, say something!” Rebecca broke down. “Our family’s honor is in question!”

      “Children, did it happen on Tuesday?” the head of the family joined the conversation finally. “When I, too, by accident, saw… I saw you, Melody?”

      “Yes, Father,” confessed his daughter.

      “Oh, lord! My nerves!” cried Mrs. Fellows. “Do not tell me that you saw our daughter naked too, Henry?”

      “Yes, I did,” was the answer.

      His wife fainted at once, and all the family members rushed to bring her to her senses.

      “Here are her smelling salts, milord,” Megan came to the aid.

      “Thank you. Please give all necessary instructions so Mrs. Fellows is put to bed and not disturbed.”

      “Yes, milord.”

      “See, what you have done?” Ralph snapped at his sister. “You could not keep your mouth shut!”

      “I am sorry, Father!”

      “Everything will calm down, dear, do not worry. You and your brother should go to bed now.”

      Melody sullenly walked up the stairs. Her brother followed her.

      “They would have found out soon anyway Ralph,” she said, going up to her room. “Georgia wrote me. She had heard how George boasted about that to his blacksmith when they were harnessing his horse.”

      The young man did not reply, just slipped into his bedroom and locked the door.

      In the morning, he gave his consent to the marriage. The newlyweds’ preparation work began. It took the two families a whole month to select wedding styles and fabrics, the chapel and the priest, as well as the venue of the festivities. Georgia and Melody did not participate in the debates, preferring each other’s company, away from the bustle.

      They liked to be alone in the beautiful garden of Melshem СКАЧАТЬ