In Which We Discuss War and Peace, Part 10, Chapters 13 and 14

Chapter 13

By the 17th of August, Bogucharovo is right inbetween the French and Russian armies, and Nikolai Rostov is determined to loot it first.  When he rides up, he is greeted by a crowd of peasants.  Alpatych comes to invite him to see Mary, and explains matters.  Basically, the peasants won't let Mary leave, and they say that, if she stays, they'll serve her as before.  Nikolai has no idea that Bogucharovo belongs to Andrew Bolkonski, and he's never met Mary before.  Their first meeting strikes him as quite romantic, and it's helped that she's so grateful to see him that it makes her look quite pretty.  He promises that he will help her to leave.

Chapter 14

Nikolai heads out to meet with Ilyin, his junior officer.  Ilyin has now met Dunyasha, Mary's nervous and describes her as his delicious pink one.  He asks if Mary is as pretty, but stops when he sees Nikolai's face.  Nikolai is very taken with the idea of himself as the noble and honourable hero, and is determined to teach the peasants a lesson.  He tells Alpatych off for letting everything come to this, and threatens to flay him alive.  Alpatych claims he can't face the peasants without an army, which Nikolai scoffs at.  The peasants, meanwhile, have been fighting amongst themselves because they're a bit afraid of what's going to happen.  Dron, the elder, has quite his role regarding Mary and the estate, but is still officially the leader.  The peasants have all fallen out with him, though, and are resistant to bringing him to the front of the crowd to speak to Nikolai.  They change their mind when Nikolai starts knocking caps off.  Nikolai starts ordering people to bind up the peasant who's answering back, and Dron when he comes forwards.  He gives the order as if it's impossible they won't be obeyed, so they are.  Then he sends the peasants away to start packing up the estate, and they go, muttering that it was all a bit of harmless foolishness.  Seeing that Nikolai is winning, Alpatych decides to openly support him.  When Mary leaves, Nikolai rides alongside her carriage for eight miles, and then kisses her hand in goodbye.  He quite enjoys her grateful thanks.  They're both blushing, and Mary is convinced that Nikolai is a man of "lofty and noble soul", to have rescued her so.  On the rest of the way to Moscow, Mary wonders if she loves Nikolai.  She's pretty sure he'll never love her, but at least her father isn't around to make fun of her, so she can enjoy the memory.  She knows that he's Natasha's brother, though Nikolai didn't appear to realise who she was at any point.  He's currently being teased by his brigade about having gone out looking for hay and having picked up one of the wealthiest heiresses in Russia, which makes him angry because he has considered marrying Mary.  It would make his mother happy, get the family out of debt, and, he's sure, would also make Mary happy.  The only problem is Sonya.