Chapter 11
The Melyukova household seems a little dull - they're busy dropping wax into the snow so they can look at the shadows the shapes will throw on the wall - until the mummers - disguised Rostovs & co - arrive and start dancing. Natasha takes charge of getting the Melyukova girls' dressed in men's clothes, and then they join the party too. After an hour or so of dancing and playing games, they get on to talking and telling scary stories. Nikolai can't look away from this new, masculinely-confident Sonya. When she goes off to stand in a dark barn by herself to listen for spirits, he chides himself for having been a complete eejit. In the dark, with the stars and the snow shining, he runs off to a part of the path he knows Sonya will have to cross.
When Sonya arrives, Nikolai looks just as new and different to her, and they run into one another's arms.
Chapter 12
Natasha figures out what's up with Sonya and Nikolai, and arranges the ride home so they're riding together. Nikolai spends the whole journey gazing at Sonya - even though he's driving - and vowing never to be apart from her again. They're back to using thees and thous. Halfway through the journey, Nikolai switches to Natasha's sleigh - by passing his reins to a coachman and running across to climb on the wing - and tells her that he's made up his mind about Sonya. Natasha is pleased for them, and tells him to run back. Nikolai notices the same bewitching newness in her disguised face - moustache drawn on - as he did in Sonya's. This mix of male and female and the change between is another dichotomy, like War and Peace, which causes new revelations within the characters.
When they get home, Natasha and Sonya get changed - but leave the moustaches on - and sit and plan their future weddings and marriages, and how their husbands will be best friends, and so on. Then they play a fortune-telling game, in which Natasha looks into a mirror by candlelight and tries to see her future husband. She expects to see either a coffin or Andrew Bolkonski - which are the sort of things she's heard people talk about before - but doesn't manage to see anything except, as she jokes, "someone with a moustache" (herself). She then gets Sonya to play, and whispers to Dunyasha, her servant, that of course Sonya will see something. Sonya doesn't see anything, but, not wanting to disappoint Natasha, starts making things up. She describes seeing Andrew lying down and 'something blue and red', which, despite being complete fiction, I predict will turn to be an actual prophecy, ala Ron Weasley being accidentally right about things all the time.
Chapter 13
Soon after Christmas, Nikolai announces his plans to his mother, who is not best pleased. It was Darwin who did some experiments with self-crossing plants compared to non-inbred plants and first showed that inbreeding depression could be a problem, so we're well over a hundred years before the countess would be worrying about having two-headed grandchildren from Nikolai marrying his cousin (n.b. - that joke only works under the hopeful monsters theory of evolution, which is not true of our world, but must be true of the X-men and any other universe where genetic mutations leads to dramatic new powers and traits rather than, at best, small, slightly fortuitous changes, and, more often, to no visible change in phenotype or horrible death. This note courtesy of my genetics degree). The countess tries to tell the count calmly, but bursts into tears instead, prompting him to begun rebuking Nikolai. Nikolai refuses to go back on his promise to Sonya (again). The count is annoyed with Nikolai for not marrying an heiress and saving the family from ruin but is also aware of how he himself contributed to the state of the estate and so can't exactly tell Nikolai off for it, especially since, deep down, he does think Nikolai and Sonya are a good match.
Neither the count nor countess discuss it any further with Nikolai, but the countess does call Sonya to her rooms a few days later and tells her off for being a money-grubbing hussy (paraphrased). Sonya would genuinely like to please the countess, but can't see how when she can't keep from loving Nikolai and Nikolai wouldn't be happy if she did. When Nikolai hears of all this, he first seeks his mother's forgives, but, when it can't be won, threatens to elope. The countess says that, like Andrew, Nikolai is old enough to marry without his parents consent, but she will never accept Sonya as her daughter.
Natasha interrupts before either says something truly unforgivable, which, the narrations tells us, was about to happen. Natasha manages to negotiate a truce. The countess will leave Sonya alone, and Nikolai will not elope. At the beginning of January, Nikolai returns to his regiment, resolves to retire as soon as he can so he can come back and marry Sonya. With him gone, the whole household falls into a fit of depression, and the countess falls ill from "mental agitation". They should be going to Moscow to sell the estate there, but they can't because of the countesses' illness. Natasha isn't coping well with the continued prolongement of her engagement either. She's annoyed that her best days are being wasted while Andrew is off doing interesting things and meeting new people. Eventually, the count can't delay selling the estate any longer, especially not with Natasha's wedding trousseau (collections of linens etc needed to being married life) to be ordered. Plus, Andrew is expected to be in Moscow for the winter, and Natasha is sure he's already arrived. So, the count, Natasha, and Sonya set off for Moscow, leaving the countess behind.
And that's the end of part 7! I'm still on track to finish before my 31st birthday if read an average of 4 chapters per day.
No comments:
Post a Comment