little miss austin

Mrs. Austin and Cathy watched over Alice day and night, and wiped her body with warm water to cool her down.

Fever is due to trauma, but not necessarily due to infection.After the piece of glass was taken out, Kate put the glass away, and Alice checked the glass. It was indeed not big, and the wound was not too deep. It did not hurt any important internal organs, which can be said to be the luckiest of misfortunes.

Neither Oliver nor Ivo mentioned the specific details of the duel, but told her that Thomas Paul died in an illegal duel.

The Earl of Devroll and Baron Bondfield soon started negotiations with the Paul family on Oliver's engagement or marriage.

Oliver also didn't tell Alice how much his family spent to settle this matter. In short, when Alice's fever subsided and she could get out of bed, the Paul family would have left long ago.

Alice joked to Oliver again, "If they do produce a nine-year-old, you'll probably have to marry Cynthia Paul by now."

"I appreciate your humor, but this topic should really end." Oliver pushed the wooden wheelchair and took her for a walk on the lawn outside Daylesford House.

"It's a pity that I haven't had time to have a good exchange with Miss Paul."

"What did you say?"

"Actually, this question is very simple. If you really haven't slept with her, and if the Paul family really sues you to court, your lawyer can ask Miss Paul to describe your physical characteristics, such as—" She turned her head and looked at him meaningfully.

He shook his head, "baby, you are so naughty."

"I can talk to her about your preferred position—um—" Oliver covered her mouth.

Mrs. Austin looked at her little daughter not far away with joy, "Look! How beautiful they are!"

Cathy agreed, "It's really nice. It seems Alice doesn't care about his business."

Mrs. Austin looked disdainful, "It looks like someone is trying to blackmail Oliver!" She said angrily: Anyone who wants to destroy the relationship between Alice and Oliver is her enemy! "Henry said that the baron will need to spend at least 2 pounds to settle this matter. After all, someone in Paul's family has died, and duels are forbidden. The baron doesn't want Oliver to go to court, so he can only spend more money."

Cathy sighed, "Poor Oliver!"

"Oliver is worthy of sympathy, but Alice is the most unfortunate! The thought that she might fall to her death, I am scared to death!"

Cathy hurriedly said, "Alice will be fine. Look, isn't she recovering?"

"When they, oh no, when we get back to London, I'll send Henry to talk to Oliver and get him ready for the wedding as soon as possible. This time, no matter what Alice says, I want them to get married soon! If they hadn't Just got married, how could such a thing happen?!"

Cathy had a headache, and quickly advised her, "Mom, don't force her again. Besides, if the Paul family wants to blackmail Oliver, they won't care whether he is married or not. Besides, if Alice is now Mrs. She will be even more angry when it comes to this matter. In short, it is better not to get married, at least you will not be hurt by possible betrayal."

"Oliver will not betray her."

"Not now, but in the future? You can't guarantee that he won't change."

Mrs. Austin hesitated, "Is Alice telling you that?"

"No, she didn't say it. But I think you can only really see a man clearly after you get married. There are not many husbands like my father."

Mrs. Austin was very sad, "Indeed, your father is a good man with integrity."

"If Oliver had been a decent and good man like his father, Alice might change her mind and marry him later on, but you had better not force her now. She is just a little better, and she should be pleased."

Mrs. Austin sighed, "I'm worried about them."

"She knows, mother, she knows everything. Don't worry, she can always arrange her life."

Alice didn't know that she had escaped Mrs. Austin's forced marriage again.

Oliver and Ivo come to accompany her every day.

Ivo's trauma healed quickly, scabs formed after a few days, and the scabs fell off after two weeks, leaving a whitish scar.

Alice asked Ivo to squat down and examine his scars, "This way you will always have a scar on your head. Besides, there will be no hair on this part."

"It's nothing, look," he stroked his hair easily, "can't you see the scar?"

"I can't see it."

"Are you feeling better today?"

"Every day is better than the day before. Ivo, push me over there." She pointed to the fountain in front of the garden in the front yard.

The fountain is in imitation of Rome, surrounded by statues of some Roman gods.

They stayed at the fountain for a long time, until Oliver came.

It has been two weeks since she was injured, and she has successfully passed the most dangerous stage of fever. No fever basically means that she is getting better and the wound is beginning to heal.

She has always paid attention to her health, but in the era of underdeveloped medicine, there are countless dangers, first tuberculosis, and this injury, if she wants to avoid getting hurt, she can only stay at home and not go out.

She had neither surprise nor pity for Thomas Paul's death.He shot at the carriage, which was tantamount to a murder. Oliver would definitely challenge him to a duel, and he could not refuse; will not fail.

Of course, she didn't know at the time that Oliver was going to fight Thomas Paul for a life-and-death duel, and she was dizzy because of fever in those days.

Oliver was a man who had actually been in the field, and Thomas Paul was nothing to him.

When a man kills someone to avenge you, you can't blame him for being reckless, or for taking another's life without authorization.In fact, Oliver did what anyone with a similar education to him would do in this day and age.

Julian brought Maria and little Isaac to visit her.Mrs. Austin is very fond of little Isaac, and seems to imagine that little Isaac will be the child of Alice and Oliver.Cathy doesn't comment on her mother's sweet dreams.

After Julian became a father, he was not as self-righteous as he was when he was a boy, but he still told Alice that she should marry Oliver as soon as possible to avoid such bad things from happening again.

Alice found it super funny, "After a person has been unlucky once, it is unlikely that the same thing will happen to him again."

"How did you know?"

"It's a matter of mathematical probability. Your family is not rich enough to be targeted all the time. A man died in Paul's family, and I don't know if the money he got can make up for the loss."

"Whatever! I don't care at all." Julian looked disgusted. "In fact, similar things happen almost every year. For example, guys like Byron seduce women everywhere, and someone will always get pregnant and say it's him. But, of course, he could deny it. Or, like Shelley, elope with a young girl and marry him in Scotland."

"Oliver is not like them."

"It's different. He was famous during his Cambridge years because he never took a woman back to his dormitory or stayed with any woman. He was too clean."

"Isn't that a good thing? At least you won't get STDs."

Julian frowned first, then smiled helplessly, "I know you know everything and dare to say anything."

"Paul's family was too meticulous. They actually found a priest who was willing to give false testimony, and also found a witness who was willing to give false testimony, and even forged a signed marriage certificate."

"It was really meticulous, which shows that they spent a lot of money."

"What happened to his family? Bankrupt?" The investigator sent by Ivo has not yet sent a letter.

"I don't know. They just want money anyway. I don't think they can come up with such an idea with their brains."

"Do you know the Pavels well?"

He shook his head, "I'm not familiar, everyone in their family is stupid."

"You see, everyone thinks they're stupid."

"Oliver is also stupid." Julian looked disgusted. "Probably because he is too gentle, so he was actually regarded as a blackmail target by the Paul family."

She thought about it, indeed, Oliver is a good man who is very deceptive, well-behaved and boring from the outside.The Paul family should have thought that since he dared to join the army, survived on the Iberian Peninsula battlefield, and was promoted all the way, how could he be a simple man?So the result of wrong judgment is that one person died.

Mr. Warren Hastings went to London to accept the invitation to become a consultant to the Privy Council and to put forward his opinions and suggestions on the Indian question in the House of Commons.

After receiving a letter from the steward of Daylesford House, he went home to visit Alice, and exchanged views with the Baron and Earl de Flore on Oliver's strange wedding, and agreed that this was a premeditated blackmail. Oliver, the unlucky boy, is really too unlucky.And the three agreed that Oliver and Alice should announce their engagement publicly immediately, at the end of May, after Alice recovers.

The three first called Oliver to tell him the "good news"; then Hastings went back and told Alice and Mrs. Austen that he would hold an engagement ball for Alice at Daylesford House.

Mrs. Austen was overjoyed and immediately agreed, and Alice thought for a while before reluctantly agreeing.

Engagement is one thing, but it is better to delay marriage anyway. The military may send Oliver back to the Spanish battlefield at any time. She still remembers the time of the Battle of Waterloo, which was in June 1815, and now it is the beginning of May in 6. , that is to say, there are still two full years. After the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon will not be far from stepping down.Had Oliver remained with General Wesley, he would not have returned home until the end of 1813.

Knowing that Alice was about to announce her engagement to Oliver, Ivo left Gloucestershire immediately.

"Oh!" Alice sighed, "Ivo will never come to see me again."

She was lying on the bed, and Cathy raised her head and pulled her thick hair out from under her body, "You sleep with your hair loose again, and you will cry when you can't comb your hair tomorrow."

"He must be very sad, but I can't comfort him, and I am also very sad."

"There is always someone who is sad, not Ivo, it will be Oliver. Well, you grew up together, even if he is angry, he won't be angry for too long. He will always come to see you again. At that time, he He's going to be a real mature man."

"You're right. I hope he meets another girl who's cute enough to fall in love with and marry her."

"He will, probably not soon, but he will always meet his happiness."

"Is mom happy?"

"She is very happy! But don't worry, I advise her not to be too anxious to see your wedding, she can wait. My lovely little sister, you live your life according to what you want, and I will help you block your mother. "

"Thank you, Cathy, you are the best sister in the world! There is no better sister than you."

"And Jane."

"Yes, and Jane. Have you written to Jane? She must come to my engagement ball."

"It has been sent. Don't worry, she will definitely come."

10 days before the engagement ball.

Oliver has received a transfer order from the military. He will board a warship in Southampton on the first day of June and head to Lisbon, Portugal.

The engagement ball had to be brought forward, and new invitations were sent out.

On the night of the day when the new invitation had just been sent out, an unexpected visitor came into Alice's bedroom.