little miss austin

Alice took a shower early and washed her hair. Kate used almond oil to maintain her hair. The tail.

When she entered the bedroom, went to bed, lay down and was ready to sleep, she heard the door of the closet slam softly, and someone came out of the closet quietly. Before she could scream, she was covered by that person, "Don't Shout, it's me."

She punched him a few times, and he let go.

"Are you crazy? Why are you hiding in the closet?" What the hell are you doing, man!

"Keep your voice down, I don't want anyone to see me in your room—but maybe it's better to be seen, don't you?"

"What nonsense are you talking about? Get up, don't press on me."

Ivo got up and sat beside her, "I'll take you away, Alice, before you make a decision that you regret."

"Are you saying that getting engaged to Oliver was a wrong decision?"

"Yes. You'll regret it, and you'll regret it in a few days. Do you really want to be Mrs. Bundfield?"

"You're so funny. You don't have to be married to be engaged. I really don't understand this. Why do I not want to be married, which is such a simple and natural thing, but I have to explain it to everyone?"

"That's because everyone wants to get married."

"Oh, so I'm not in 'everyone'."

"So, you are engaged now, and you will definitely regret it in the future."

"What if I get engaged to you?"

"Then I'll pretend I didn't say what I just said. Alice, think about it carefully. The troubles Oliver caused may not be resolved. Maybe the Paul family will come to trouble him again in a few years. And probably die in Spain. Think about it."

"You're talking about uncertain things, and I can't give up Oliver because of uncertain things."

"what about me?"

"I explained."

"I don't accept it." He gave her a cold look, "The biggest mistake I've ever made is always putting your needs first. I respect you and I don't want to embarrass you, even if you fall in love with me. Others, I don't really want to leave you either. You know what men do for love, they get jealous, they go crazy, they do horrible things. Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you, but I might hurt myself. "

"You lunatic!" She rolled her eyes at him angrily, "What do you want?"

"I want you to come with me. Otherwise, I'll undress and go out of your room tomorrow morning, so that all the servants at Daylesford House, including Mrs. Austen and your sisters, will see."

Alice glared at him angrily, "Shameless!"

"Say, are you going to come with me, or wait until tomorrow to let everyone know?"

"I choose—you get out!"

Ivo starts to undress.

He was wearing no jacket, just a pullover and a polo shirt, which he quickly stripped to reveal his muscular chest.

She was a little shy, and quickly turned her face away.

"Come on, you grew up seeing all of us half naked and you never felt shy back then."

"You were all skinny like monkeys back then, nothing to look at."

He squeezed her chin, turned her face away, "Look at me."

She looked at his chest: it must be easy to touch - why is he training his chest and abdominal muscles so beautifully!

Byron has weight control problems, so he always does intensive boxing exercises one after another. As a cousin, Ivo often accompanies him. They are not in the same university, but when they meet during the holidays, they will take off their shirts and compare their chest and abdominal muscles. The vanity of men is really hopeless.

The body fat rate of men is lower than that of women. After years of practice, the muscular chest is full of strength and beauty, and the hormones are bursting.

He has grown up.

He was no longer the big boy who cried and ran away desperately to meet her.

She sighed softly, "Let's go, Ivo."

"Are you coming with me?"

She shook her head, "I can't let Oliver be the man to be laughed at."

"You are so hypocritical! You obviously still like me, but you are hesitant because of the so-called 'reputation'."

"I only have one, and I can't be divided into two. Cathy...Cathy said, there must be one person who will be sad, but I'm actually... you'd better go, don't say such strange things as leaving my room until tomorrow morning. By the way, how did you get in? Sigh, I shouldn't ask such a stupid question, you've been familiar with this house since you were a child, so it's not difficult to sneak in. Ivo, don't tempt me with your body."

"Is my body not good enough? Not enough to attract you? Or—" He approached her face, kissing her lips slowly and tenderly.

The engagement ball was huge.Although some of the arrangements were not perfect due to being a few days ahead of schedule, they were good enough.

The ballroom at Daylesford House was spacious enough to accommodate 100 guests.The servants shuttled among the guests with trays, unlimited supply of champagne, as well as fruits, pastries, and snacks.

The dance party started at 8:2 pm and didn't end until [-]:[-] am the next day.

Throughout the evening, Alice was led by the Baron and Oliver, and became acquainted with countless relatives and friends of the Bundfields, as well as those of Mr. Hastings.As for the neighbors, they have known each other since childhood, and many of them came to the dance.

Alice danced almost all the dance music, and broke a pair of dancing shoes in one night.Oliver accompanied her upstairs to change her shoes, and the two of them stayed in her room for a while.

"My feet hurt." She complained coquettishly.

"Go down later."

She raised her legs and put a pair of calves on his thighs, "The legs are sore."

He lifted up her dance skirt silently, and pinched her calf through the underpants.

She smiled sweetly at him.

well!This is what troubles adults.When she was a child, she could say "I want it all", but she -- they -- grew up and couldn't say "I want it all" childishly.Human sociality requires monogamy or a stable relationship between a man and a woman. This will try to maintain the stability of the ethnic group or society. Most of the suffering of human beings comes from unavailable love and lovers, and most of the violent incidents also stem from this.

Oliver may be a bit boring, but he's gentle, caring, and would make a great fiancé.She's been through Byrons who aren't boring, but the problem is that prodigal sons are prodigal sons, selfish and ruthless, too uncontrollable and unpredictable.It's not good, she doesn't like it.

The most beautiful thing in this world is to find someone you love, and he loves you; if you can't find someone you love, then find someone who loves you.This is a very simple calculation.

"Ollie."

He looked up at her.

She sighed, "Are you happy today?"

He nodded. "Very happy."

"You know I will only promise you an engagement, not a wedding."

"I know. So, I already regard tonight as our wedding." He whispered: "As long as you promise not to leave me and be loyal to me, I don't need you to sign the marriage certificate. Alice, you Swear, don't leave me, be faithful to me."

Alice was stunned: Why did this man suddenly ask her to swear?

She froze for a while, then stammered, "W-why?"

"I will also swear to you. Alice, I will never leave you, and I will never betray you, whether it is in heart or body." He focused his eyes, looked calm, and spoke calmly.

She pulled her legs back, stood up, and walked back and forth in front of the sofa, "I'm not sure, I'm not sure if I'm going to fall in love with someone else-Ollie! It hurts! Let me go!" Oliver grabbed her With one arm, he hugged her tightly from behind.

"I don't want to hear you say that you may fall in love with someone else. I allow you to say it again and give me a satisfactory answer."

"You are unreasonable!"

"You're really weird, you're already engaged to me, and you think you might fall in love with someone else? As long as I live, don't think about it. Now, my little blue-eyed oriole, say 'I love you' .”

"Ollie...I love you."

"Say 'I'm not leaving you.'"

"As long as you promise to be loyal to me, then I will also be loyal to you and will not leave you on my own initiative."

"I swear I will never betray Alice Austin."

He kissed the back of her ears, earlobes, and neck, and pulled down the sleeves of her dance skirt with both hands.

The morning after the engagement ball, Oliver set off directly from Daylesford House for Naval Port, Southampton.

Alice sent him to the intersection of the main road, talked for a while, and said goodbye reluctantly.

Cathy was with her, and the sisters stood by the side of the road, watching the carriage drive away.

"Come on, go back."

Alice sighed, "I hope he won't get hurt again in these few years."

"There is no way. You should persuade him to retire and not to go back."

"That's his business, and I can't stop him. Cathy, I have mine too. How's our school?"

"Very well, the girls are already in class."

"Is there any student who doesn't come to school after studying for a few days?"

"At least when I left, no. Not only did it not decrease, but many people came to ask us when the next class will start."

"How wonderful! Oh, by the way, we have to figure out whether we can break even in the first period."

"It should be fine."

"As long as we make ends meet we can keep going."

"It's a good thing. Girls are smart and willing to learn. I've never seen a girl who doesn't study hard. But they do--they don't have good habits, and that's because they don't have a good one." Your mother. You are right, whether a mother has received education directly affects the family, and their parents can understand the benefits of receiving education and are willing to send them to school, they are considered smart people.”

"It's simple math. Earning £10 a year is definitely not the same as earning £5 a year. If you earn £10, you'll soon earn £20."

"I think it's amazing what you're doing."

"Really?" Alice said with a smile, "I think it's amazing too. I plan to open three to four phases first, and after the London school experiment is successful, I will open branch schools in other county capitals. Let's see, in the end we will It’s profitable, and it’s going to be very profitable.”

"You're already rich, you're a super rich girl. By the way, Oliver still doesn't know how much money you have?"

"He probably knows that I'm rich now, but he doesn't know that I'm already richer than him. He won't be richer than me until he inherits the family property."

"You're such a cunning girl!" Cathy pinched her cheek affectionately.

Mrs. Austin returned to London with her three daughters.

Alice still lived in Baker Street, Cathy, who was in charge of the girls' school, now lived in Victoria Street, and Mrs. Austen lived at home.Henry Austin lived near Hans Square, and Jane and Tom lived not far from Henry.

The place of work, Alice's "Women's Time" magazine is in the same four-story brick and wood building as the office building of Austin Press, and the editorial offices of "London Morning News" and "London Critic" are in another building a few houses away. In the small three-story building, the distance is not far.

Alice started working 4 to 3, 6 days a week.The few girls who were sent to the training were all working in the editorial department of the magazine, and signed a three-month probationary contract seriously. Two of the six girls will be eliminated, and four will remain.

It is relatively difficult to start a new product from scratch, and no one knows where to start.And because there are no cameras in this era, it is very difficult to make a magazine full of pictures and texts like the later generations.

First of all, it is necessary to decide how many pages and what content will be included in the trial version of the three issues presented with the "London Morning Post". The positioning of the "London Morning News" is for the ordinary wealthy class. After all, a newspaper costs 3 shilling, and it costs more than 1 pound a month just to buy a newspaper. Families struggling to meet their food and clothing do not have the money to buy the newspaper of the day. The positioning of "Women of the Times" is a little higher than that of "London Morning News", and the family income is at least 1 pounds a year.

What are the troubles of the rich?Still spend money, but the point is to spend money freely and uniquely, only choose expensive ones, not the right ones.

I like to follow the trend, follow the fashion, and follow the fashion leaders, such as handsome and romantic figures like the heir of the Duke of Hamilton, or a dashing prodigal like Lord Byron.As for the female leaders, there are no particularly outstanding ones. Everyone follows the French court. At present, it seems that Josephine Beauhanel, the former queen of Napoleon I, is recognized as fashionable.

Empress Josephine was 6 years older than Napoleon. She had a husband and a son before marrying Napoleon Bonaparte. Divorced, the title of "Queen" is still retained after marriage.

Empress Josephine was extroverted. After her divorce, she lived in Malmaison Castle near Paris and opened her own salon. Many foreign nobles came to Paris to take part in the former empress's salon.The luxury style of the French court spread from the salon of Empress Josephine, and it was always fashionable for high society women in London to imitate the fashion of the French court.

Alice told the girls to collect pamphlets on the fashions of the French court, which some shops published in order to sell new styles of dresses.They were also asked to collect recipes, flower recipes, poetry, cosmetics, jewelry and other information.

I also asked the girls to make a list of fashion figures in London, and asked them to make a proposal for topic selection and submit it a week later.

Susan Hamilton was very interested in the magazine, so she came here to visit the editorial office of the magazine and Alice's office, and excitedly came up with ideas.She took her two-year-old son, Little William. Little William is a very beautiful little boy with delicate features, very similar to his mother, but also has the commonality of children: skin.

Alice kept a respectful distance from the child, and hurriedly called the child's nanny to take over after only holding her for a few seconds.

Susan teased her: "Look how scared you are! You treat your pet cat better than your children."

"Pets are not related to me by blood. If I don't like them, I can throw them away at any time. Can children throw them away?"

"Look at what you said!" Susan patted her arm reproachfully, "Your engagement party was brought forward, and I didn't even have time to go there, and Bundfield was not in the country, so I wanted to hold a make-up party for you. That's good." Well, when you want to get married, I can lend you the Hamiltons' palace."

"Although it is unlikely that I will hold a wedding, thank you." Susan has hardly changed from before she got married, and her figure has basically remained the same after giving birth.Aristocratic women are not happy to breastfeed by themselves. Little William has a nanny and a wet nurse. The two-year-old kid already has his own team of servants. At least 5 people serve him. Susan does not need to breastfeed, wake up at night, and take care of his food and drink. Lazar sleeps, that is, takes him to play in the morning and evening.

Susan was very surprised, "Didn't you agree to the proposal? Oh! Bundfield is an idiot! He must have promised you everything, right?"

"of course."

"Well, I don't advise you to get married, as long as it is your wish. If Bundfield forces you to marry, you tell me, and I will let Alexander go to him to 'talk'."

Alice pursed her lips and smiled, "No, I can handle him."

Susan's first child is a boy. Now that she has an heir, the pressure of childbearing has been greatly reduced. She will not be forced to have children at home. She is living a very good life.Alexander Hamilton was a vagabond before marriage. After marriage, at least on the surface, he maintained the image of a good husband and father, and Susan did not ask for much else.Alexander and his father-in-law, Mr. Beckford, have a very good friendship. Weng and his son-in-law have a common language, and they often go around picking up artworks together. Susan thinks it is great that the old father and her husband get along well.

When Susan was a girl, she liked to play pranks, make up nonsense, and pretend to be pure and cute. None of this would work in front of Alexander, and her husband would easily see through her.Since she was a child, she had everything she needed, and her requirements were always met as much as possible. After marriage, she was also favored and loved by her husband. It can be said that she has always been a little princess, even more free than the real royal princess. After all, the royal princess will face When she needed to sacrifice her own happiness for the country, and if she hadn't really fallen in love with Alexander Hamilton, no matter how much Beckford liked this kind of person, it would be impossible for her to marry his only daughter to him.

Because Alice's engagement ball was a week earlier, many guests from other places who were scheduled to come did not come. However, the ball itself is not important. The important thing is to publicly announce their engagement. It's nothing if the guests don't come event.

Alice hadn't really given much thought to what would happen after the engagement.

Because her fiancé was the heir to the baronet, she suddenly became a member of the narrow circle of nobility.Although Henry was an emerging capitalist before, most of the time he could only play with people in the bourgeois upstart circle. The party invitations of the nobles and upper-class gentry were actually limited, and this was only because of the benefit of the family.

In addition, General Wesley's rank of nobility is rising rapidly, and his cronies are also rising with the tide. Oliver is not considered his cronies, but he is already regarded as the periphery of his cronies. He did not upgrade to get his title of nobility because he is already a A future baron, so he was given a rank in the Order.

The Baron, the Earl of Deverolles, Mr. Hastings, and Alexander Hamilton all believed that when the war on the Iberian Peninsula ended, General Wesley would be promoted to the Duke of Wellington if nothing happened. A group of his cronies also Will receive their respective rewards, Oliver will have his own baron title and fief at that time, after his father's death, he will be at least a double baron, and may be promoted to earl.

Oliver was actually a very promising young man, which made his fiancée a lucky one who was envied.

After Alice became the new darling of the high society fashion circle, reports about her gradually increased.

For example, if she goes to the theater with Susan or Jane and Cathy to watch a stage play, the next day it will be featured in local newspapers such as The Times; Jane is the wife of a member of the House of Commons, and can be regarded as a wife of status; Cathy was the principal of the "Red Star Girls' School", which was reported as a new thing in The Times and The London Morning Post.

The last baron of Mrs. Austin's natal family died in 1786. Because there was no male heir, the title of baron was taken back by the royal family.Another branch of the Lee family had a boy, Chandos Lee, who was born in 1791. He was one and a half years younger than Alice. He met Alice when he was a child and later went to Harrow School. He was George Byron’s junior. Lun learned that he was Alice's cousin and often took him to play.

Chandos Leigh did not go to Alice's engagement ball because he was embroiled in a lawsuit accused of murdering a relative of the Leigh family.He was not arrested but his freedom of movement was restricted to the Leigh family's ancestral home, Stoneleigh Abbey.

Originally, this was just a small incident in Warwickshire, where Stoneleigh Manor is located. The cause was the sudden death of Chandos’ uncle Thomas Leigh——Thomas Leigh was 79 years old, and it is extremely normal to live today and die tomorrow. things.But it involves the heirs of Stoneley Manor and the surrounding large real estate, so it is not a simple matter.