little miss austin

But as proud as he is, he will no longer cry and ask a girl why she doesn't love him.His childish way of coping was to start wandering again, and went to find Andre, and openly appeared in the church where Alice painted with a delicate and beautiful boy.

Jacob and Sidney both said in their hearts: childish!

Grant also realized after two days, and asked Alice with great interest: "Is Byron mad at you?"

"Don't know, don't care, don't care."

"You and him—what did you do to him?"

"You don't need to worry about it." She glared at him.

"Tell me now."

"You are so idle."

Grant shrugged, "Where do you want to go tomorrow?"

"whatever."

Rome is now a religious country and the capital of the Papal States. Italy is not actually a unified country, but is divided into several countries: the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia in Sardinia, the Kingdom of Sicily in Sicily, and the Kingdom of Naples in Naples , the Papal State of Rome, and many cities and regions belong to the jurisdiction of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Papal State is actually not a secular country in the standard sense. Its main body is the Church of Rome, which owns a considerable amount of land in the southern part of the Italian peninsula. The Church collects land rent, taxes, production, etc. from these territories to maintain the operation of the Church.Since Napoleon proclaimed himself emperor, the life of the Papal State has not been easy. France has encroached on many territories that belonged to the Papal State, and exiled the current Pope Pius VII to France. Therefore, it is impossible for the Roman Church to support Napoleon I and support anti-French The Austrian Empire in the alliance, also known as the Holy Roman Empire.

Since the fall of the Roman Empire, for a long period of time in Europe, only the monarch of the Holy Roman Empire can be called "Emperor", and the monarchs of other kingdoms can only be called "King", the empire is "Empire", the kingdom is "Kingdom", until Napoleon Bonaparte called himself "Emperor", and Europe had a second emperor.The United Kingdom was late in the Victorian era when India was incorporated into the British territory. Her Majesty the Queen won the title of "Empress of India", and Britain began to be called the "British Empire".

The head of the Roman Catholic Church is the Pope, who is not hereditary and whose office is in the Vatican. The Vatican is a city within a city in Rome. The Vatican Museum has collected tens of thousands of works of art, sculptures, oil paintings, and murals since the Renaissance. Most of them are They are all masterpieces, and almost all of them are religious themes.

The Vatican Museum currently has several exhibition halls open, mainly for religious painters to copy and religious scholars to study.

Alice and Grant visited the Vatican Museum for several days to receive the baptism of art.Byron suddenly found out that she didn't go to paint these days, but went to the Vatican with Grant to play, and found another excuse to fight with Grant.

Alice was not downstairs in the men's playroom when Grant's black servant came upstairs to report to her, and she took Jacob and the black servant downstairs and told them to separate them one by one.

Grant felt aggrieved, "Alice, he scolded me!"

"What did you scold you for?"

"He called me a maggot that ate the bones and blood of black slaves."

"Don't pay attention to him. You go upstairs first, and I'll see you in a while."

Grant followed the black servant upstairs.

Alice looked in the game room. There were not many people. It is estimated that when the two of them fought, many people ran away quickly to avoid being affected.Hobhouse wasn't there, thinking about it. If Hobhouse had been there, Byron would have listened to him.

She pointed to Byron, and said to Jacob and Byron's servant, Hugh, "Take him to his room."

The parties were all gone, there was nothing exciting to watch, and the onlookers quickly dispersed.

This kind of thing is so common that no one thinks it's unusual—two young men fighting over a beautiful girl, it's not normal at all, is it?

First ask Sidney to treat Grant's wound.

Grant obediently endured the pain, "Byron is crazy!"

"He's kind of crazy."

"Don't get too close to him, I'm afraid he will hurt you."

"He won't. If he dares to stare at me, I'll whip him with a horsewhip."

Grant was very happy, "If you whip him with a horsewhip anytime, you must remember to call me to see it."

This kid is not a good kid either.

"Why don't we find a church to get married now, and piss him off." He had a sudden thought.

"Thinking too much, we are members of the Anglican Church and do not recognize weddings hosted by Catholic priests." She said calmly.

He doubted: "Really?"

"Of course."

There was a bruise on his handsome face, and he kept "hissing" gasping, but he was quite happy, "Byron is much worse than me! I'm not like that Frenchman, who can't fight back when he beats me."

Alice felt a headache. Byron's irritable temper was actually very similar to the father he didn't want to mention, although the father and son didn't get along for a long time.He was doted on by his mother since he was a child, and he developed this kind of self-important stinky temper. He couldn't bear that someone didn't pay all attention to him.

Byron was indeed in worse condition than Grant, and had a bruise on his face.

Sidney attended to his wound, but he said nothing, neither looked at Sidney nor Alice.

"What? Feel guilty, dare not look at me?"

He immediately replied angrily: "I'm not guilty!" He glared at her angrily.

"Why are you staring at me? You beat Gabriel last time, and you beat Grant this time. Tell me, why are you so bad-tempered?"

"I don't like them."

"Don't like it? Then hold back!" She said angrily, "Don't think that I should just hang around you, you are spoiled by your lovers."

He stood up angrily, "Did I treat you badly? Obviously you are so happy with me—do you admit it?"

"I just feel happy being with you."

"Then why don't you want me to hold your hand?"

"It's hot, your palms are sweating."

He glared at her angrily: "It's only April, why is it so hot?! You're just making excuses."

"Don't make things so big." She frowned, "It's best for you and me to keep the status quo, and I won't stop you from going to Andre or Juliet."

"Where's Juliet?"

"It's just a metaphor."

Confused, he kept looking at her. "You...how are you like me?"

Alice couldn't help laughing, "You are really stupid sometimes. Well, don't always find someone to fight. If you want to fight, I think there should be an underground boxing ring in Rome. Let your servant take you there ...However, in order to prevent you from being beaten out of your mind, I advise you to find some other ways to vent."

He touched the bruise on his face, "You are so heartless."

"You too. Too much affection is ruthless, you should understand."

On the issue of "passionateness is ruthless", Byron really thought about it for several days.Before he could come to any conclusion, Alice asked Sidney to find him again.

"Are you going out today?"

"I'm not going out, I'm so tired, I'm going to rest for a few days." She was wearing an ivory white cotton dressing gown, the collar straps were loosened, revealing a small section of her snow-white neck.

Strangely, the skirts she usually wears have a wide open neckline, but it is far less attractive than the half-covered ones.

"Then what are you doing with me?"

"Don't go out today, either."

"I'm whatever."

She smiled at him, and began to gather things on the table.It was some letter paper, some rose-scented paper with poems written on it.she receives

Picking up very slowly, I took those rose letter papers in my hand and put them in a wooden box for a while, then took them out again and put them in a cloth bag.

He looked at her for a while, and finally couldn't help walking behind her, "Where do you want to put them?" He was only half a head taller than her, and he could easily rest his chin on her shoulder, so that he could directly touch her. spoke in her ear.

"Put it away so you don't lose it."

He pressed his palm on the back of her hand, "Do you like it?"

"like very much."

"anything else?"

"What else?"

"Can't you like me too?"

"I always liked you."

"Don't hide from me."

"Have I? I haven't."

"You're outside...you shook off my hand," he was a little annoyed again, "like I'm some annoying monster."

"You think too much, I don't even remember such a thing."

"You don't talk to me much, you're alienating me."

"We meet every day, how can I alienate you? Don't always think that I have to pay attention to you all the time, you are a bit arrogant."

He opened his mouth angrily and bit her left shoulder hard.

She yelled in pain, "You madman!" Just as she was about to hit him with something, she found herself being hugged.

He threw her on the bed, "You have to make it clear."

"say what?"

"Tell me something to make me happy."

You can go away!

(Okay, for well-known reasons, there should be 500 words here)

Grant was beaten, and within three days, Alice went out to paint with Byron again.

The way the two get along has become strangely close for a while now, and Alice began to dislike him, ignoring him, and then Byron started to go out and stay out at night, while Alice and Grant continued to go to the Vatican Museum ; but fortunately Byron did not fight Grant again.

The two of them don't quarrel, probably because they're both too smart, and they just stop talking.

And as long as Alice told him to go to her room, he would obediently go, and then the two became intimate for a while.

So back and forth, continuous cycle, the cycle is about 2 to 3 weeks.

By the beginning of June, Rome was already very hot, and Gabriel Bernisson arrived in Rome.

Alice went downstairs to have breakfast early this morning, and the front desk of the hotel handed her a note saying that Mr. Bernisson had left a message for her.

The note had the name of the hotel where he was staying.

She quickly put the note in the handbag hanging on her wrist.

"Who left you the note?" Byron tried to peek, but failed.

"Gabriel."

Byron was startled, "How does he know we're in Rome?"

"I spoke to him, but not when we will be in Rome."

"When did you say that?" He said dissatisfied.

"Athens."

"You didn't write to him?"

"No. Even if you write to him, you don't need to take care of it?"

"Then who cares? Oliver? Or Ivo?"

"No one can control it." She frowned.

He snorted coldly and said nothing more.

Gabriel came to visit Alice in the morning.

He bid farewell to her in June last year, and it has been a year in a blink of an eye.

She was wearing a new summer dress decorated with calico and ribbons, and a ribbon headband. She was tall and tall, and she walked down the stairs gracefully, with a light step, like a little fairy.

"Miss Austin." He took off his hat and saluted her.

She is also well behaved

He curtsied curtly, "Mr. Bernisson."

They went out in a buggy and had lunch in a restaurant.

"How do you know I'm in Rome? I probably didn't tell you the specific itinerary. Besides, I left for more than a month and didn't go to Cairo."

"I asked people to ask in Cairo, Malta, Sicily, and Naples, but you are not in those places."

She smiled softly, "I didn't expect to see you again."

"I thought about it."

"Have you raised any money?"

"Some have been raised, but not enough."

She smiled again.

"How long will you be in Rome?" he asked.

"I don't know, maybe until the end of the year." She had been away from England for more than two years and it was time to go home.

"Mrs. Austin should miss you very much." Gabriel said wittily.

"Yeah." She agreed casually.

"I'm in Rome until the end of the month, and then I'm going to Athens. Do you want me to accompany you to Cairo?"

She hesitated.

"The opportunity is rare. I know it is not easy for you to go abroad. Maybe you will never have the opportunity to go abroad after you return to the UK. I have been in Egypt for 5 years, and I know the best places to go. I will take you to eat delicious food. Arabian food, and will take you to the desert, don’t you always want to visit the desert?” His beautiful voice was deliberately lowered, and he said seductively.

"That's not enough." She raised her eyes and glanced at him quickly.

"Do you like tents? Just sleep in the desert - don't worry, there are many oases in the desert - with a campfire outside, rolling sand dunes in the distance, no one else, just me and you."

Alice really wanted to say that there must be servants.He must not have counted the servants.

"I'll think about it." She pretended to hesitate.

He smiled at her, "I'm going to book a boat ticket."

In the evening, Alice returned to the hotel.

Byron and Hobhouse's servants were busy going upstairs and downstairs, packing their luggage.

"What happened?" she asked in surprise.

A servant stopped, "The young master has received a letter from Newstead Manor. Mrs. Catherine is very ill, and the young master wants to go home."

She was very surprised, "Ms. Catherine is sick?" As a child raised by a single mother, Byron was both attached and disgusted with his mother. He once complained to Alice about his mother's desire for control, and once laughed at her mother He is a short-tempered alcoholic. A similar description makes Alice, who has never met Mrs. Catherine, feel that the way this mother and child get along is extremely abnormal.

The servants were busy running around, but Byron was drinking heavily in the room.

He didn't put down the bottle until he saw Alice entered the room.

"where did you go?"

"Going out to dinner with Gabriel."

He didn't speak for a little while.

"You go back with me, I took you out of the country, and I have to bring you back to the country."

Alice thought for a while, then nodded, "Okay."

"I already asked Sidney to pack for you. Why did you go out without her?"

"I brought Jacob and Kate." She wasn't really going out by herself.A servant is a status symbol, and she can avoid encountering street hooligans, which is why she is very careful to protect herself.

"Hobhouse went to book a boat ticket. I don't know if I can book a boat for tomorrow." He sighed, "Tell me, will she be very angry after I've been away for more than two years?"

She didn't want to answer the question, and he didn't really want to hear the answer, "Sometimes I hate her, but she's really sick—and I'm afraid I won't be able to see her one last time."

He burst into tears, "Alice, what's it like to lose the person who loves you the most?"

"Painful, very painful, you have

One part is empty and can never be filled again. "

He hugged her, buried his face in her shoulder, and said with a sob, "I'm going to be an orphan."

Alice couldn't bear it anymore, "Is it so serious? What is the disease?"

"I don't know, but the housekeeper said that she can't eat anything. She used to drink too much. As far as I remember, she was drunk half of the time." There was a look of disgust on his face, which flashed past , "I don't want to be like her."

"Then—drink less?"

He couldn't help but smiled, "I'll give it a try."

It was almost 11 o'clock at night, Gabriel had already fallen asleep in the hotel, and was awakened by a light knock on the door.

"Who is it?" he asked.

"Gabriel." The girl lowered her voice.

He was very surprised, "Why are you here so late?"

A man wrapped in a hooded cloak quickly entered the room, "I'm leaving the day after tomorrow."

He was even more surprised, "Leaving the day after tomorrow? Are you leaving Rome? Wait, what happened?"

"George's mother is seriously ill and we're going back to England." She looked up at him, "Gabriel, you—"

He raised a finger and put it gently on her lips, "You don't have to say it, I know what you're going to say. So do I."

He unbuttoned the cloak for her, revealing her small white face, and looked at her carefully.

The candlelight flickered small flames in her eyes.

Her body trembled slightly.

"You too...do you think the same as me?"

"Same. I'll know it when I see you."

He asked her again, "Are you afraid?"

"Are you ready?" she asked softly.

He nodded, but suddenly laughed for some reason.

"What are you laughing at?" She asked strangely.

"It's nothing. You are so strange and charming." His slender fingers lightly traced on her eyebrows, and then tapped the tip of her nose, "You seem to know everything, but in fact you don't know anything."

"I... I understand a little bit."

He hugged her horizontally, "Is it Byron?"

"Ah."

"That's not bad, at least he's an experienced man."

"Shh, stop talking."

No one spoke for a long time.

The window was open, and the wind blew in through the window, blowing the curtains and stirring the hot air in the room.

"when are you leaving?"

"The day after tomorrow—is it tomorrow? The boat tomorrow afternoon."

"That's less than 48 hours away." He sighed. "Don't go back. Your servant will pack up. You write a note saying that you will go to the dock tomorrow."

"To go to Civitavecchia, I have to leave early tomorrow morning." Civitavecchia is a port satellite city of Rome, and Rome does not directly face the sea.

"I just came and you're leaving. I should have put you in my bed in Athens."

"Isn't that good? I'm just a traveler passing by in your life, and you will forget me."

"As I said, I will never forget you. You have to know that there are not many men in their lives who can meet the woman who wants to hug her to bed the first time they meet, and you will never meet a man like me again." .”

"It's enough to meet one. In this way, we will keep the best impression of each other, so that if we think about it many years later, we will also feel that this experience is very good. If we really get married, it will be bad."

"You're the only woman I've ever met who doesn't want to marry. You know I proposed to you, right?"

"Don't talk about it, I want to sleep for a while."

As a result, she didn't return to her hotel until dawn

.

On the first Friday in July, Alice once again set foot on the land of the British mainland.

It was still Hobhouse who arranged the carriage and accommodation, and it took only 3 days to get from Portsmouth to London. Alice and Grant ended their journey in London, and Hobhouse accompanied Byron to Newster in Nottinghamshire De Manor.

Because the return trip was a temporary decision, the departure was still very hasty, and none of them wrote home. Only Alice wrote to Julian and Evan who were still in Egypt, saying that they had left Rome and returned home.

After saying goodbye at the intersection, the carriage team was divided into two teams in a mess, and one team headed north.

Grant said, "Where do you go first?"

"Go back to my own quarters."

"I send you."

He sent her back to his residence in the city of London. Cousin Anna was at home, and was very surprised to see her return home suddenly.

Greetings, greetings, and drinking tea, Grant sat for half an hour before leaving quickly.He also had to visit his sister and little nephew.

"Why did you come back suddenly? Didn't write a letter to inform you in advance."

"It's a temporary decision. Byron's mother is seriously ill, so he has to rush back."

"You've been away for more than two years, it's time to come back." Cousin Anna was very happy, "Look, you've really grown up now."

Alice smiled, "Is there nothing going on at home recently? What about Austin's house?"

"Everything is fine, nothing happened."

The servants have been busy carrying the suitcase she brought back upstairs, and Sidney took Kate to pack the luggage.She brought 6 large suitcases when she went out, and 8 suitcases when she came back, and there are still many things that she didn't bring back.

She wrote a note in a hurry, asking the servant to send it to Austin's house in the suburbs, and to deliver letters to Henry and Jane. In addition, tomorrow, Jacob will go to Ivo's London villa to ask where Ivo is, go to Bond Baron Field's family asked about Oliver's situation.Because they left in a hurry, they left the postage for the hotel and asked the hotel to forward the letter addressed to them to the University of London, but they certainly would not receive it too soon.