A Noble Marriage - Chapter 30

Chapter 30 – Misunderstanding Between Young Friends (1)

Maria knew why her son’s mood was down in the dumps, but it was no excuse to treat their guests poorly. So she rebuked him in a low but stern voice.

“Andre!”

Although Andre wanted nothing more than to shout back, he stopped staring at the macaroon and politely said, “Do you mind if I go to my room for a while, Auntie Anna?”

Anna was taken aback that he had addressed her instead of his other. After she got over her surprise, she saw the boy’s big eyes filled with innocence and a bit of sadness. Anna was sure that she could not refuse the child’s request at any cost.

“No dear, I don’t mind.” Anna answered with a kind smile.

After Andre got his permission, he gave his mother an expression that Anna didn’t understand, and left quickly.

“I’m so sorry, Anna.” Maria apologized on Andre’s behalf.

“Oh no, it’s nothing. I can imagine that he’s not usually like this, is he?”

“Oh, how sweet you are Anna! You are right, he is usually good natured, but he is a bit down these days because he found out that his friend is permanently moving to Russia next week because of his father’s transfer.”

“That is so sad. I can understand why he’s so blue. It is troublesome to be separated from friends.” Anna sighed.

“That it is. I hope he gets better in a few days.” Maria said.

At dinner, they were all seated and Andre didn’t show up on time. Louis asked his servant to call him from his room. A few moments later Andre showed up with his eyes downcast. Seeing his son come through the doors, the gentle expression on Louis’s face morphed into an angry one.

“Andre, you can’t always be ill tempered. You are a big boy. You must learn to be dutiful.”

Anna was worried that Andre would cry after being scolded in public. After all, he didn’t look like he was regularly scolded in front of other people. However, Andre just looked up at his father and apologized.

“I will not do it again Papa.”

Andre sat quietly next to his sister, who gave him a tender smile, but Andre just shook his head lightly at her and looked down at his food.

Anna observed everyone at dinner and noted that all of them had impeccable eating etiquettes, even the children. Lively conversation continued during the dinner and everyone had big smiles on their faces except for two blue eyed people.

After dinner, they went to the living room. Karenin and Louis were having a political conversation, naturally drifting away from their wives and children. Anna settled down in the couch in front of the fireplace. Maria brought some fruit with her. Lucia sat next to her mother while Andre just plopped down on the first empty seat that he saw as soon as he entered the room.

He didn’t look like he would leave early this time, but still appeared bored. He sat with his left thumb and forefinger propped up on the sides of his temple and chin. Anna felt that the child completely personified the image of being in a state of “illusory and unrequited life”, and the thought made her laugh to herself.

She quickly looked around to see if anyone had seen her. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Maria and Lucia were deep in conversation and so were Karenin and Louis. But when her eyes came back to Andre, she froze slightly. He was looking at her with a deep frown on his face. His blue eyes lit up in irritation.

He shrugged as if to ask her why she was laughing, while his hand remained in its position under his face.

“Sorry.” She mouthed the word at him and was shocked that he understood her as his anger washed away and boredom took its place again.

Andre looked at her for a while, then blinked and looked away, as if he had fallen back into the state of “you stupid adults can’t understand my colorful inner world at all.” Anna held back her smile as she lowered her head and took a bite of the fruit Maria had given her.

At nine o’clock, the children had already gone to bed, and Maria advised Anna to go to bed early too.

“Louis, you will still have a lot of time to chat tomorrow. Let Alexei and Anna go to bed. They must be tired from their journey.” Maria gently commanded Louis.

Louis smiled and offered to show them their room.

Once they were in Maria’s guest room, Anna at the dresser and chatted with Karenin while combing her hair. Before she knew it, she was talking about Andre.

“What a clever child, isn’t he?” Anna told Karenin about the living room incident.

“Andre does have some cleverness, but he is too proud. This kind of pride will hurt him if he doesn’t grasp the concept of humility.” Karenin commented, making Anna realize that he was impartial to even his nephew.

“I thought you liked him.”

“Likeness or unlikeness shouldn’t be the standard of your judgment.” Karenin said.

He looked at Anna who was staring at him deeply. He didn’t understand the look she was giving him so he changed the topic.

“I have to visit an official with Louis tomorrow.”

“Okay.”