Читать книгу Pearly woman. Prose in English - Natalia Patratskaya - Страница 6

Count Peacock carefully looked at the modest girl and decided that he needed to send the singer back to the boarding house: his singer did not care. He called the yacht and said that the singer was taken to a boarding house. To accompany her, he did not come out. Victoria Lvovna was delighted with what she recently ran away from.

Bella was given a choice of brocade robes with peacocks, they were relatively dimensionless. She tried on one bathrobe and felt quite comfortable.

Count Peacock looked at Bella and realized how she differs from energetic Alla and even more from nervous singer Victoria Lvovna: calmness. It was thoroughness. She went, did not run and did not fly, she did not ask for anything, but carefully looked at the pictures. He invited her to sit in the chair. They brought a table with food and drinks.

For the first time in his life, Count Peacock felt himself in his palace at home. Bella didn’t grumble, she ate pies and squeezed compote without zhemanstvo. She was calm. With her there was no need to be cunning, to look after, to turn inside out. You could just sit, eat, drink, be silent. There was no flashy sexuality of the singer in her, but she pleasantly delighted the eye of the sophisticated lover of women.

“Bella, I have a room for you, and everything you need to write a picture will be delivered.” You write what you need.

Count Peacock went to his chambers. Mikhailovna escorted Bella to the golden room where the singer Victoria Lvovna lived.

– I will not work in this room! – Bella was indignant and asked: – There are rooms above the floor?

– Yes, but they are much simpler, and now they are busy.

– Come, please, and look at the view from the window from the room above the floor.

Mikhailovna showed the girl rooms on the top floor.

Bella chose one room overlooking the sea, which she was quickly released. She wrote a list of items needed to work on the picture. Bella turned on her mobile phone, but it didn’t work. Through the window she saw the singer, Victoria Lvovna, sit on a yacht, which sailed in the direction of the boarding house. “Change of prisoners,” – thought the girl and heard the cries of peacocks in the poultry yard. Scary in the castle she was not, but also boring, too, was not.

Bella had pleasant worries, she was brought everything she ordered to work on the painting. She drew a peacock in pencil, traced the sea on the sketches in great detail, it was necessary to combine the drawings and then paint them on canvas in oil. She worked in her room on the top floor of the castle.

Count Peacock sometimes went to Bella’s room, sat in an armchair, watched and left. He liked her more and more. He did not try to take possession of it, did not try to give to drink, to bewitch with his wealth. He wanted one thing: that she was always in his house. He did not have a daughter nearby. For the first time in his life, he had a desire to protect, not attack. He knew that after four days she needed to go home. Will she have time to write a picture? Rather yes than no.

Bella was working on the painting and was happy. On the caskets, she wrote, drew pictures on a given topic, the size of which was very limited. She painted and painted on canvas the way she wanted. “I would have been painting here all my life,” a thought flashed through her mind, and then she saw a white butterfly outside the window. Bella opened the window.

The butterfly quickly found peacock feathers in a vase on the window. The girl looked at the feathers and was surprised that the wires were stretched next to them, but decided that it was not her business, not her room, and she would not touch other people’s feathers and wires.

Singer Victoria Lvovna came to dinner beautiful. People in the dining room greeted her with deafening applause. In response, she invited everyone to the concert in the concert hall of the boarding house after eight in the evening. The people responded with clapping their hands together. Victoria Lvovna approached the trio: Pasha, Alla and Yura – and invited them to perform with her. They agreed. They did not remember Bella, everyone was firmly convinced of one thing: once Alla and Victoria Lvovna were here, it means Bella is where they were.

An hour later, the audience came to the concert hall. Victoria Lvovna had a good rest and acted with feeling, she sang with her voice without any plywood. Behind her back, the trio sang heartily, but their microphones sounded louder. They echoed her like waves, but she could be heard – the singer. The musicians played with inspiration, they were radiant with happiness, because their prima, soul and salary Victoria Lvovna returned from a short journey, and in a good mood.

After the concert, Pasha turned around at the throne of Victoria Lvovna. He melted at her sight, at the sound of her voice. The musicians did not interfere with another fan primo. Naturally, Pasha came to the singer in the room. I bought champagne and sweets. I decided that since the barmaid is different, it means that everything is fine with champagne.

The singer is tired of the disdainful inattention of Count Pavlin, and here Pasha just creeped before her. She was flattered. Victoria Lvovna loved slaves. The two of them drank a whole bottle of champagne and ate some of the candy. Pavel Victoria Lvovna did not reject. The two of them lay down on the bed, but something happened to them: they just fell asleep.

In the morning, Victoria Lvovna and Pavel could not wake up. Yura and the musicians looked into the window of Victoria Lvovna. The curtains were slightly open. They saw that the singer and Pasha were sleeping in clothes on the same bed.

The director of the boarding house received information about the singer Victoria Lvovna, because it was his service who added sleeping pills to the bottles. They have developed their own technology for the introduction of sleeping pills in wine and vodka bottles. The new party was specially made weaker, so that they did not immediately understand why they fell asleep. Results are always reported to the director. It entertained him, and especially what was happening with his vacationers.

And now there was no love and betrayal. Singer Victoria Lvovna and Pasha just slept. They did not wake up. They themselves woke up for dinner. The singer in the evening had a concert in Abrikosovka. Victoria Lvovna again invited the trio to take part in her concert.

Alla was not surprised at anything and bought herself a new shiny dress. She liked to look from the stage into the hall. Scene delayed. She accepted applause on her own account, and this pleased her inexpressibly.

Pasha and Yura quietly basked, attracting the views of the female half of the hall. Singer Victoria L. felt that this trio has a beneficial effect on the attention of the audience. She decided to use them in all the remaining concerts. So it was easier for her. Musicians from Victoria Lvovna

They did not ask anything extra, they played with all their creative powers.

All tickets for the remaining four concerts were sold out. Four days later, the four had to leave the boarding house. Bella was not told. Ilya did not ask the guys anything. He dressed up and looked overconfident.

Yura and Pasha decided to buy the same trousers and shirts for four concerts. The singer has approved their idea. Alla added new sandals with thin heels and thick soles to the wardrobe.

The audience came to the second concert with bouquets of flowers. The audience in the hall dressed up. The musicians dressed up. The holiday was mutual. Flowers flowed through the rows onto the stage. Buffet worked at full capacity. The concert was on. The spectators fell asleep. In some places, ordinary snoring was heard.

Singer Victoria Lvovna began to get nervous. Pasha realized that here came the long hands of Count Pavlin. During the intermission, he tried to explain to the singer the reason for sleeping in the hall. But she refused to understand him and was even more nervous.

The evening, sweltering and hot, made everyone attach to drinks. By the end of the concert, the audience slept. There was no applause. The musicians fell asleep in their places on the stage. Singer Victoria Lvovna fell asleep in the wardrobe. Next to her, Yura and Alla slept on chairs.

One Pasha did not sleep. He examined the sleeping kingdom and thought that the guards here would not help, and he didn’t want to make enemies among the strong people of Apricot. Once someone had made a dream, then it was necessary.

He left the concert hall and went to the tower to breathe the maritime evening air. The overseer was delighted by Pasha as his own. After the departure of the girl artist, he was sad. The caretaker informed Pasha about his sadness. He told him that the girl who painted the waves here went on a yacht and did not return.

Pasha was expecting such a denouement over the disappearance of Bella. He thought about her again, and the conversation with the caretaker was by the way.

– Do you happen to know when the yacht will reappear here? – Pasha asked the caretaker of the tower.

– Oh, dear man, no one knows! The yacht will sail, will certainly sail, – replied the superintendent. – The girl was sitting on that boulder. The yacht sailed. A girl left with them. I thought that she left until the evening, but she didn’t have two days.

Pasha went up to the boulder, under which lay a piece of a picture with the image of sea waves and a few strokes with the image of a yacht. He sat on a boulder. Night fell. Through the night space, Pasha understood where to look for Bella. It seemed to him that she was talking to him through the dark and warm sky.

He decided to go to her the next day by boat, but he decided to keep quiet about his plans, said thanks to the supervisor for participating and hurried to the boarding house. The room was empty, it didn’t upset him very much. He closed the door and fell asleep to the righteous until the morning.

The sleep of the whole hall did not go unnoticed, the local radio talked about it. A newspaper was not allowed to be published on this topic, and a television announcer was not allowed to come out with this information. There was a whisper about a secret sleeping pill that could not be found in the blood. After the person woke up, the sleeping pill disappeared. To take a blood test from sleeping people have not yet thought of.

The buffet checked drinks and foods, but the period of disintegration of the elements of sleeping pills after its dissolution turned out to be too short. In the powder, sleeping pills persisted for a long time, but the dissolved one had a short shelf life, disintegrating into widespread elements. These factors were used by Count Peacock and held an invisible power over the whole region.

The next concert was in jeopardy. People were afraid to go to the concert. The audience tried to get their money back for the tickets, but they were told that there was no cause for concern, and they added, they say, take your water and food with them. People began to joke that if they didn’t see the concert, they would at least get enough sleep. Guards stood at the entrance to the concert hall. They checked hand luggage and women’s bags. The concert was quite decent. There were no sleeping people in the hall.

Doctors walked between the rows and peered into the hall. Everything was calm. In every case, the suddenness of the event is important.

Bella was unconsciously waiting for the white ship. She worked without long breaks, she wanted to paint a picture as soon as possible. She looked at the sea and was not mistaken.

Sailed the ship. Pasha went ashore, looked at the palace and found that all the doors to it were tightly closed. He lifted his eyes up and noticed a flickering of a sheet of paper in the upper window. He realized where Bella was, waved her hand and hurried to the ship.

Bella sighed more calmly after Paul’s visit. And freedom? She will certainly come. Freedom she decided to take cunning, but how exactly did not know yet.

The motor ship sailed to the winery. Many passengers bought wine in a factory shop and drank it quickly, someone was drawn to drink water in the buffet. Soon all the people were sleeping on the two decks of the ship. Slept crew of the ship. The barmaid fell asleep. Circus artists slept. The ship lost control in front of the quay of the Peacock Palace and was spinning at the behest of the waves.

He could be thrown ashore or carried with the stream, and no one would have helped him.

Bella watched the erratic movement of the white ship from the workshop window, realizing that her waving in the window was noticed by Count Pavlin. Escape time was postponed. The picture progressed successfully. Beautiful peacock straightened tail feathers on the background of river waves. The golden frame of an elaborate baguette stood and waited for a new masterpiece on the canvas.

Count Peacock went to Bella and at first glance realized that she saw everything from the window. Hysteria and requests he did not wait from her. The girl was firmly aware that the requests would only worsen her position and people on the boat.

The ship was only nailed to the pier, as the sailors Buiek and Ledok jumped out of the ground and pushed it into the sea with a wave. The ship spun in the direction of the sea.

Bella quickly drew a boat and hooks on the quay on a sheet with a pencil. In the poultry yard of the castle, besides peacocks, lived turkeys, hens and pigeons. She made friends with the birds, and they greeted her favorably. This time she tied a drawing to the leg of a pigeon with a thin elastic band, released it from the bird’s yard, tightened with a metal grid.

A beautiful pigeon with shaggy legs flew where it should be. Pigeon road passed through the air from the palace of Peacock to the pigeon house of the boarding house, located near the administrative building.

At the pigeon house usual lovers of pigeons were constantly spinning. One man noticed a piece of paper on the pigeon’s leg and the signature Bella. The entire pension knew about her disappearance. The man did not take it for work and found Detective Ilya.

Elijah looked at the drawing and suggested that she had another story connected with a sleeping pill in wine, but how could he help and to whom? However, he said thanks to the man for help and thoughtfully went looking for Pasha, who understood everything at once. Ilya caught his train of thought when Pasha told him about his trip and the search for Bella. Apparently, the ship is wrecked, and Bella is still a prisoner of Count Peacock. Ilya called the shipping company and said that there is data from the scene of events for which the white ship is in distress in the area of the Peacock Palace. He was told that they would take all measures to save people and the ship.

Alla in her own way worried about her friend Bella. The departure date inexorably approached, and she persistently continued to be jealous of Bell to Count Pavlin, but she could not help her and herself. Her friend Yura was glad that Alla was with him.

Pasha was worried about Bella, but it was clear that if she was not released from the clutches of Count Peacock, he would still go to his home, and other people would come to the boarding house.

Bella felt tired, she did not want to take a brush in his hands. She went to the luxurious swimming pool, empty and cool of marble. Then she went to the dining room, where with appetite she ate everything she served and fell asleep with a sense of accomplishment.

Waking up, Bella saw Count Pavlin.

“Bella, you can get driving license and car license.” This is your picture. She’s really good at it. You will finish writing a picture and get the keys to the new car, they will help you to master it, and you will pass on the rights in the city of Cypress.

– And I can go home on it?

– I think no. If you want to stay in the Peacock Palace, then I can provide you with the entire second floor. You have a choice, but I have no choice. I suggest you become a housekeeper and an artist.

“Can I leave the palace grounds of my own free will?”

– Yes. There is an exit on the other side of the palace on the highway, through which you can leave the house when you want, but you must return until evening.

– Can I think a day? During this time I finish writing a picture.

“Think,” said Count Peacock, and went about his business.

A day later, Bella said she agreed to stay in the castle. Count Peacock replied that the car was waiting for her. From her point of view, she was incredibly lucky: she got a job, a whole floor of living space, on the east side of which there was a sunbathing balcony with deck chairs, and the floor below she could use the pool. She was scheduled art workshop and private car.

But Count Peacock would not be himself if he so easily gave away half of his palace. In Bella, he saw a serious girl, it was possible to leave her abandoned housing. Yes, it is abandoned housing. The village of Abrikosovka did not have its own station, there was no airport in it, there was a small pier for water transport.

The new apartment of Count Pavlin was located in the neighboring city of Cypress, his business flourished in gaming halls, he was the owner of a fabulous gaming complex. His beautiful face inspired the confidence of visitors to the city. People, or rather their money, flowed like a river into slot machines, on card tables. Roulette ate the rest of the financial reserves of visitors.

Pasha, Yura and Alla came out of the gates of the boarding house. They were waiting for a regular bus to go to the railway station in the neighboring city of Cypress. Their last words were about Bella. Naturally, she immediately appeared on a new car and offered to take them to the city.

Pasha melted at one glance at Bella, but she was unusually serious and offered to sit behind the wheel. He refused due to lack of driving license. Bella already had her driving license, she received them almost simultaneously with the car, and she drove the car along with her father, so she was not a novice at the wheel.

Bella’s success did not give rest to Alla, she bit her elbows, because she is more beautiful than her, she was first with Count Pavlin, and everything went to her friend. Not fair. Yura had no thoughts about this. With Alla they went to different cities, and before Bella he didn’t care. Bella drove the car smoothly along the road, she studied the route between Abrikosovka and Cypress on the map, did not answer questions from friends about the rest.

She was saying goodbye to her former life. Her decision to stay with Count Pavlin seemed solid and was not discussed. The car drove through the central streets of the city of Cypress. On the way, she saw a glittering game complex and a portrait of a man whose face was vaguely familiar. But to recognize the face of Count Pavlin in the illuminations on the facade of the building her friends and girlfriend did not guess. All three of them were traveling on the same train, however, Alla had to go to a halt earlier.

Bella spent her buddies and asked goodbye to Alla to talk to her parents and dismiss her from work, while she handed over an application for dismissal from the factory on the painting of boxes.

Pasha felt with his gut that relations with Bella were no longer shining for him. Bella calmly got into the car and drove back. At the gaming complex, she suspended the car, once again looked at the glittering portrait and easily recognized him as Count Pavlin. The girl smiled at the portrait and went to her palace. Bella began to gain something, but she decided not to ask the owner because of the elementary safety of the questions, but to perform the functions for which she was left in the Peacock Palace.

Pasha came home, went to the store with the name “Products”, but instead of products it sold wine and there were slot machines, decorated with all the colors of the rainbow. The young man went to the tea shop, but there were also money dispensers in it.

At home, his younger brother sat at his computer and played games. On the monitor screen, he drove cars, a man ran from the car, got into other cars and drove along the roads, breaking all the rules. Pasha decided to go to the computer room, but instead of computers everywhere there were automatic machines, painted to disgrace.

What is it for? Throughout the city, there was one computer room where computers were located, but they were almost all occupied by people. This salon was known to everyone, the owner of the salon was killed in it and computers were dragged away, but, apparently, another owner was found and everything was restored.

What could Paul do? After leaving for work, go out and buy a new computer for yourself, and give the old one to your younger brother? Work after the holidays has accumulated and for some time occupied all his thoughts, but already at lunch he remembered Bella.

Women in the office and in the cafe looked askance at him: tanned handsome man of the best male years, and his heart remained in the south. Pasha decided to fly to Bella on the plane as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, Bella found work in the house and on canvas. In the yard she threw a flower bed. The old house seemed to be alive. The birds greeted her with joyful exclamations and, like small children, fled, flew towards her. She was getting used to her new lifestyle. The chauffeur of the count gave her money for the management and maintenance of the palace. In the palace of Peacock, besides her, there were people needed to maintain him in a living condition, but she had no one to talk with.

For many years, Bella’s friend was Alla, they shared any thoughts, told each other everything that was possible and impossible, and now she didn’t have a person to talk to. The superintendent of the tower also talked to her, and people from the palace avoided her, or they did not trust her. At times Bella was attacked by longing for simple communication with people, and in the house she only had to give orders or follow them herself.

Involuntarily, her hand reached for a piece of paper, she began to write down her thoughts, the pen and paper became her companions. Once Bella sat on the balcony and wrote. The wind stirred the leaves. At some point, she could not hold them, and the sheets flew.

At the same time, her eyes fell on the dock: Pasha stood there, waving his hand. She could do everything, but she didn’t have the key for the gate to the pier, the key was in the hands of the guard. She stood at the window and depicted the lighthouse, then she pointed at the clock and showed five fingers in the hope that he would wait for her at the lighthouse tower at five o’clock in the evening.

Pasha understood, he showed the time on his hand, his palm and nodded in agreement. Bella waved her head at him and collected the sheets of paper that the wind had taken. She got into the car and drove to the lighthouse on the ring road.

Buying shared notebooks along the way, she arrived at the lighthouse. Paul was not there yet.

The superintendent of the tower was delighted with the girl as his own. They sat and talked. Pasha appeared almost on time. The superintendent invited the young couple to his house, but they refused the invitation and went together in a car. On the beach, they stopped, got out of the car to talk on the air. He blew a gust of wind, their hair entwined and spread to the sides.

– Bella, why do you need notebooks? – could not resist the question Pasha.

– I write, draw and write down expenses.

– Bella, what a backwardness, and why not using a computer?

– We do not have computers in the castle.

– So order a computer, I hope your master is not a poor man.

– I will certainly order, and will you help me buy a computer?

– No problem, but it would be better if I bought it in the capital.

– And here you can not buy?

– In Abrikosovka I did not see computer hardware stores.

– There is everything in the neighboring town. We’re going, I’ll show you.

They got into the car and drove into the city.

A store with computer equipment was located next to the gaming complex, she remembered it on her first trip. Pasha looked at the samples of goods on the shop window and said that everything can be bought here.

– Pasha, you choose what you need to buy, and I will come soon.

Bella left the store and entered the gaming complex, the guard said she was going to Count Pavlin.

– We have no Count Pavlin. Who you need, say more precisely or pass.

– I need the owner of the Peacock Palace.

– I understand, and say that you need the owner of the gaming complex.

Bella walked to the door of Count Pavlin’s study. She entered a luxurious office with light leather upholstered furniture. Count Peacock sat in an armchair at the coffee marble table and looked closely at Bella.

“Bella, is there a problem?”

– I want to buy a computer in a nearby store, but there is no money.

– A good idea, I also want, but how do we choose it?

– Pasha arrived for a couple of days, promised to buy a computer, he is a programmer.

– Wonderful. Come on, buy five computers with all the giblets.

Count Peacock and Bella entered the store. Pasha, looking at them, said nothing.

– Pasha, they told me here that you know everything about computers. Pick us five sets, take the best of what we have, and then you will have a training course.

– I do not know who you are, I can only guess, but in a day I have to leave.

– Consider that you are on a business trip and you will train us for ten days. I’ll pay for everything. Bella will put you in the castle, and for two hours a day you will come here and train me and three more people. I agree?

“I agree,” answered Pasha, and decided that he would have to call Jura in order to arrange a vacation at his own expense for ten days.

Pasha picked up the monitors with a flat screen, chose the case for the system units, all the necessary boards, picked up the keyboard and mouse. People came from Count Pavlin, paid for the goods. Four computers were brought into the gaming complex, one was left in the car for Bella. Count Peacock gave his business card, a few words were written on it: “Mikhailovna, have Paul settled in the palace.” Pasha and Bell did not expect such happiness, they were shining from an unexpected offer.

The servants of the palace began to talk with Bella. They saw now that she was not just another woman of Count Pavlin, and she was Paul’s woman. It was not necessary to say this, one glance at the couple was enough to understand that they were close people. Bella settled Paul in the next room, nobody forbade meeting them. She performed her household chores with even greater obsession, and she had time to take Paul to Count Pavlin for computer training.