Читать книгу God Loves Angels - Enrike Fluence - Страница 5

«I am Madame Argento, rector of the Nordlig School. Follow me. I’ll show you where the women’s hostel is. Boys and girls live in different wings of the castle. And meals and some lessons are held together. You yourself will learn everything about this and many other things later. «And Madame Argento took me to the women’s hostel. It was located right there in the castle. Great!

I turned around and noticed that my suitcase and small duffel bag were gone. This worried me. My stuff! Someone took them. By themselves, they could not evaporate. Or could they?

«It’s afternoon.» Lessons will start in half an hour.

– Ah … – I gave a voice. He sounded uncertain, aloof, – My things… Bag and suitcase. They…

I didn’t know how to say Gone. Wouldn’t that seem like an accusation of theft?

– Do not worry. They are already waiting for you in the hostel. – answered Madame Argento, turning her face to me. Then she raised her hand and snapped her fingers.

– Voila!

I guess my mouth opened with confusion. Voila?

At the mention of dinner, my stomach rumbled. I immediately felt hungry. And I was ashamed to admit this to Madame Argento. I decided that I would survive one missed lunch. I also figured out how I could have skipped lunch: after all, I went in a balloon with Franklin at about eleven o’clock in the afternoon! And the flight itself took several minutes. So it seemed to me. What if the travel time actually took longer? This would then explain my awakened feeling of hunger. Yes, I didn’t really have breakfast. But I would be hungry in a few hours. Or do they dine here much earlier?

Then the hurricane of thoughts about hunger, my suitcase, old Franklin disappeared. I was amazed at the beauty of the castle.

The heels of Madame Argento’s footsteps thudded on the stone floor. Even thick red carpets could not drown out the rector’s confident gait. I almost ran after her to keep up with her. Sometimes I stumbled because I didn’t look at my feet. All my attention was absorbed by the castle. These corridors and walls, architecture and decoration. This was the pinnacle of creative thought. I guessed baroque styles and notes of older architectures. My eyes darted. I turned to the paintings, canvases hanging in the corridors and huge colored tapestries. A whole museum could be assembled from all these paintings. Stern faces in huge wigs. Ladies in lush dresses. The artists depicted in their creations in great detail gorgeous balls, festive meals, faces of significant persons of bygone times and art workers and perfectly reflected the spirit of the past era.

They depicted hunting scenes, and simply landscapes, and much more, than people lived many centuries ago. But for me it all seemed like a fairy tale, not connected with reality, the fiction of an unknown artist. How can a lady of advanced age wear such a cap on her head, more like a rubber bathing cap, together with such an expensive dress, and a choker around her neck? I think no. But at the time, it might seem fashionable.

High ceilings were propped up by semi-columns with lush bas-reliefs. Huge stained glass windows, bright patterns on the curtains, in which I dreamed of unusual colored embroidery, and mystical stories dedicated to important events of magical life.

I reluctantly left it all behind and stepped onto the flight of stairs, followed Madame Argento to the second floor. Here the splendor has diminished. The ceilings were of normal height, the paintings on the walls were not visible. The half-curtained windows threw in a faint light, but still chased away the melancholy twilight. There were few doors. This was more like a school in the world of ordinary people, if not for the exquisite carvings on wooden doors. I was sure that behind these doors were classrooms, devoid of the expensive decoration of the main hall of the castle and the adjacent galleries.

Madame Argento led me down a quiet corridor, opened the door, behind which there was a spiral staircase, and we climbed even higher. The steps went further, where above through an invisible window, blinding sunbeams lay on the stone wall. I smelled a hint of floral scent. Our path passed this welcoming sign. Now he was walking along a narrow dark passage, and my anxiety was growing. I was afraid to appear in front of other students. I’m new and I don’t know anyone yet. How will other girls accept me?

Then the thought came to me that just as I am now walking along a castle that is new for me, one day my grandmother was walking. The young woman, probably unsure of herself, was heading to the women’s hostel, and did not know what awaited her outside the door. And my mom? My grandmother did not tell me where she studied. But I’m sure it’s also in Nordlig. Perhaps it was here that she met her dad, and they fell in love. These walls mean more to me than I thought. Here I can touch the past of people dear to me.

I clenched my fists for a second, trying to give myself confidence. The rector opened the door, entered, and stopped. I immediately bumped into her and stumbled on the threshold, taking a step back. I hastened to squeeze out an apology and stopped short.

We stood in a spacious room with about twenty girls of different ages. Their faces immediately turned to us. The din of conversation subsided. All girls were in school uniforms. And I stood alone, unlike everyone else in my usual clothes. A second later there was a loud greeting:

– Good afternoon, Madame Argento!

There was silence. The girls stood and did not move. It seemed to me that they were all gathered on purpose so that they would meet me. I could hear my heartbeat and the crackling of logs in the large fireplace. My suitcase and bag lay near the door.

The rector nodded:

– Good day to you, young ladies! – Then she made a gesture in my direction, I felt a soft push in my back and obediently took two steps forward.

«This is Miss Roselyn Burling. Your new colleague. I ask you to love, and favor, and help her become «Heflig Miss»!

Heflig miss! It meant: a polite miss, a well-mannered lady. I felt humiliated. If I were even in school uniform, I would not stand out from the general mass of students and would feel much more confident.

Everyone looked at me, and I felt myself blush.

– What should I say? Madame Rector asked quietly. And then a chorus of voices filled the room:

– Welcome, Miss Burling!

Greetings for me. It was more chaotic, not as well-coordinated as for Madame Argento. I was confused and speechless. Now, of course, I should have said something too. And it was not supposed to be «nice to meet you», but something more valuable. I was silent, felt helpless and burned with shame.

Madame Argento winked at me and headed for the exit. Her steps began to subside outside the door. Someone chuckled, apparently trying to suppress a chuckle. One girl nodded amiably. Most of the students looked at Madame Rector. And then they returned to their business, scattering around the room.

But a plump girl with a short haircut, with a round face and plump lips, looked at me unfriendly. She collapsed again in the armchair by the fireplace, where she had sat before my arrival. I read some inexplicable hatred in her black eyes. She whispered something to her neighbor and now both unkindly bored their eyes at me.

I didn’t like these two girls right away. Especially a complete «toad». I wish I could conjure a fire spell and watch her scream while engulfed in flames.

I took my bag to distract myself from negative thoughts. My first day at school, my first appearance in this room in front of all the girls. An important moment on my journey to the lady. And I got angry seeing these two gossips like this. Bad thoughts must be extinguished, and it won’t be easy.

One of the students came up to me. She was older than the other girls.

– My name is Suzanne. Suzanne Dorte.

I smiled at her and held out my hand to shake, but Suzanne bowed her head a little and lowered her eyes. A kind of half-bow. I immediately pulled my hand and bowed my head too. It turned out for me not so gracefully as I wanted. Suddenly Suzanne laughed and grabbed my hand herself and squeezed.

– This is such a joke! I hope you will forgive me for this? Although, in fact, this is how you need to say hello when you meet one of the elders in the hallway. I am the headman of the girls. Come on, I’ll show you your bedroom.

I smiled back. I liked Suzanne. I have a good headman. Not sullen and not angry as it could be.

Suzanne grabbed my hand and pulled me along.

– Bedrooms are upstairs. Yours on the top floor.

I followed Suzanne up the spiral staircase. We found ourselves in a small staircase tower, in which on each floor there was a vault and a round room with three doors. As it turned out, a turret with a spiral staircase was adjacent to another, larger tower. The bedrooms were located in it. Light fell only through narrow vertical windows above the steps. A cold wind blew into these cracks. I shivered from the draft and turned away from the light. I was afraid of heights and did not want to see the ground far below my feet.

Suddenly Suzanne released my hand and spoke cheerfully, jumping over the step cheerfully:

– You can always contact me. If you don’t know something, it doesn’t work, you feel unwell or something else… and in general, if you need any help, contact us. I will be happy to help!

Climbing to the third floor, we found ourselves under the very roof. The round area was less well lit than the others. Frozen, out of breath, Suzanne asked:

– Do you use pearl shampoo?

– What? Not.

And then she suddenly spoke in a very quiet voice, as if she was afraid to wake someone up:

– Sorry, but there is only free space here. Now, if you arrived early, you could choose a room and better … – She pointed to the closed door. «My bedroom is in the next tower. The entrance to it is on the opposite side of the girls’ tower living room. Bye then!

And Suzanne went down the stairs.

– Thank. I smiled at Suzanne. Although her words of regret about my room alerted me. So, I will have to live in a terrible closet with a leaking roof? Yes, I’ll catch a cold right away, I’ll sleep with a temperature! What’s the matter with learning magic?!