little miss austin

His wife was pregnant with twins and died of dystocia. Even though he was a doctor, he couldn't save his wife. He is not an obstetrician.

Oliver asked Dr. Kerstace privately about women's fertility issues, and he was surprised to learn that childbirth is indeed a crisis for women, because many diseases caused by pregnancy and childbirth will lead to the death of pregnant women and mothers.

——So, Alice's worry is real, even doctors can't save his wife who is in labor.

This kind of life and death can't be taken by chance. One misfortune is death to Alice, and it will be his lifelong regret. He dare not take risks.

In fact, it’s nothing to think about it. There are many couples who have never had children in their entire lives. Don’t they still live their entire lives?It's not a big deal.

Once he let go of the child's problem, he found that the sky was blue and the wind cleared, and he felt much more relaxed.

Alice's writing progress is 1 pages per day, with a word count of about 3 words. The writing is very detailed. Sometimes Oliver feels that the writing is too detailed, but he never raises any objections.Because Ivo never said any objections, and listened carefully to her reading the new chapter every day, discussed the plot and words with her, and flattered her in the middle, Alice was always happy.

Who doesn't love to hear compliments?

Alice does not need others to guide her writing. She has her own writing style. Like most female writers, her description is as meticulous as that of female characters. She also has rich political, military, historical and cultural knowledge, which is reflected in the In the background, from the "big" of the American Revolutionary War to the "small" of a pair of men and women in a family, the daily life of the aristocratic class and the hypocrisy and hypocrisy of the aristocratic class are described in detail.The tragedy of Jacqueline lies in her innocence and ignorance of the dangers of human nature. Benjamin gradually exposed the class consciousness and cruel nature of his upper-class aristocratic children from the early promising youth.Jacqueline is the embodiment of "truth, goodness and beauty". When she despaired of Benjamin and this society, it was her moment of awakening.

Oliver's eyesight improved day by day, and by the end of December, it was almost fully recovered.

Dr. Kerstace examined him thoroughly and considered him cured.The retina has been damaged, and it is impossible to restore it to the level before the injury. However, myopia is only 3 or 400 degrees, and daily life is not affected. When reading books and newspapers, you can see clearly without wearing glasses.

Dr. Kerstace is going to take Oliver to the Kingdom of Sicily to get a pair of vision-correcting glasses. After wearing the glasses, his farsightedness is almost the same as that of ordinary people.The island of Malta is too small to have many things.

Alice hadn't been to Sicily in the Mediterranean last time, so she went with her this time.

In advance, I sent Jacob to the big city of Sicily, Messina, and rented a hotel. It is not immediately possible to get glasses. You have to go to the optometrist first. It will take a few days for the optician to polish the lenses. It is estimated that it will take a week to get them. Oliver Decided to live in Sicily for half a month.

On the passenger ship bound for Sicily, Alice stood leaning against the railing.

"Isn't it cold?" Oliver asked her.

"A little."

The Mediterranean region is warm all year round, even if the sea breeze blows in December, it is only slightly colder.

He touched her hand. Fortunately, the fingertips were slightly cool and the palm was warm.He touched her face again.

This time Ivo finally didn't follow, he felt comfortable and refreshed.

Kate was walking the cat on the deck, and the two snow-white Angora cats finally did not have to face the threat of the little African lion, and ran happily.

Alice called the kitten by name, "Liddy, Ruby!"

Kate brought the two cats over, they sniffed Alice's shoes, the hem of her skirt, ran away, and were brought back again.

Alice picked up one of them, "It's not good, little Simba is just a bigger cat, can't you treat him as a big brother?"

She whispered to the cat cubs, as if treating them like children.

"Your little Simba scares them." Oliver picked up another cat.

"Don't you like Simba? Simba is so cute! And fierce."

"Maybe it's too fierce. Everyone is afraid of a lion, even if he's just a little lion."

"Are you afraid of him too?"

"No, I carry a gun."

"What nonsense are you talking about!" She glared at him. "Simba is very obedient. He has been trained and raised by humans since he was a child. He will not attack humans."

"Maybe I don't have any dislike for Simba, I just don't like Ivo always approaching you in the name of Simba."

She squinted at him, "You're jealous of him."

"There is one thing. You—you know my feelings for him. If he still has the mentality of pursuing you, I will definitely not be able to like him anymore. But if he is willing to keep a distance, I will still treat him as a friend. We He's invited to dinners and dances. It's easy, isn't it?"

She stroked the cat's back and didn't speak for a long time.

Oliver didn't rush her.

After a long time, she said: "I see. When we get back to Valletta, I will talk to him. I can only talk to him about this matter. You don't need to talk to him."

He replied obediently: "I know."

It is a one-day flight from Valletta in Malta to Messina in Sicily. At night, I arrive in Messina and stay in a hotel.

It seemed strange and unaccustomed to Alice to register at the hotel under the name of "Mr. and Mrs. Bundfield".The hotel clerk called her "Mrs. Bundfield," and several times she didn't realize it was her.

"I really can't get used to people calling me by your last name." She pouted, sitting in front of the dressing table to comb her hair.

"Listen to it for a few days and you will get used to it."

"I like the name Austin very much, and I don't want to change it."

"Then don't change your surname." This is really not a big deal.

Alice glanced at him in the mirror and said nothing.Originally, if you don't marry him, of course you don't need to change your surname.There are also married women who do not change their surnames, but they are relatively rare.Jane Austen didn't actually change her surname, it's just that people now call her "Mrs. Lefroy".

She took off the ruby ​​ring on her left hand and put it in the jewelry box in front of the mirror.Oliver requires her to wear the ring every day as a reminder to Ivo that she is engaged.She didn't tell Oliver that Ivo also proposed to her. They may have been friends since they were young, but when it comes to maintaining mating rights, one must not underestimate a man's jealousy and determination to maintain his masculinity.

Oliver was used to being a commander in the military camp, and he often made demands on her. He had a tough attitude, but he was more particular about methods and methods. Most of the demands were trivial things, such as asking her to wear a ring. She felt that she could obey him. Will, will not cause harm to her self-will.When she chose to wear the ring, she actually made a promise, and he also gave his own promise, so that she would never accept the love of other men.It's a fair thing for her.

Oliver was kind enough that he didn't ask her about Byron; she didn't ask, correspondingly, who his lover in Lisbon really was.

Oliver has been a little uneasy because of this, and he can't figure out why Alice doesn't care.Just look at Lady Caroline Lamb, the shameless, publicly cheating married woman who would argue with Byron about his other short-term lovers, while Alice never asked about his former lovers, Really a weird girl.

He always felt that if she didn't talk about this matter, maybe she would get angry about it in the future, and he didn't want to wait for her to explode in an uncertain future and quarrel with him.

He asked about it carefully, and Alice's answer was beyond his expectation, "I don't need to know who you slept with before, if I really want to know, just ask Jimmy."

Oliver was embarrassed, "Jimmy?"

"A servant always knows his master's private affairs like the back of his hand."

That's true.

"Okay, don't worry I'm going to be mad at what happened, you're a normal man, if you say you're 27 years old and have no sexual experience, no one will believe it and laugh at you for not being 'manly' .I'm not interested in your sexual experience, and you don't have to worry about me getting angry about it in the future. I don't get angry that easily." She let her hair loose and went to bed. "Sleep, Mr. Bundfield."

He hugged her and put his face on her shoulder. "Good night, Mrs. Bundfield."

Mr and Mrs Bundfield spent Christmas this year in Sicily.

On Christmas Eve, Alice's 23rd birthday.

After having dinner at an outside restaurant, the two returned to the hotel.

On the table in the living room is a fruit plate with halved blood oranges, clusters of greenhouse grapes, salted olives, dried figs.

Sicily produces wine, and there are local wine bottles and two red wine glasses on the table.

Oliver poured two glasses of wine, "Come on, Mrs. Bundfield, today, you will be 23 years old."

Alice took the glass, "Thank you, Mr. Bondfield."

He sat down on an armchair, patted his thigh, and motioned for her to sit down.She sat on his lap, held the wine glass in one hand, and hooked his neck with the other.

He put down the wine glass, found a small velvet bag from nowhere, opened it, took out a thin gold necklace, and put it on for her.

"Happy birthday." He whispered in her ear.

She put down the wine glass and picked up the gold necklace, "There is a word on it—" The pendant of the necklace is a thin rectangular hollow gold pillar, the length just falls on her chest.One had her name "Alice" engraved on one side and his name "Oliver" on the other.

"Wear it, never take it off." He rubbed her face, chin, collarbone.

"Ollie, I should also give you a gift and mark you down."

He raised his eyebrows, "Then you have to think about what to give me."

"What did I give you?"

"Just—your hair. See, it's been here." He lifted the necklace from the neckline, and a lock of her hair was hidden in the heart pendant.

She sighed, "Ollie, you are so stupid."

"That's because I have always loved you."

"I know."

"Have you always known?"

"Always knew."

"You are so cruel."

"Probably because love is not necessary."

"Do you still think so?"

"It might be nice to have love."

"Obviously it's very good. You learn to love others, and you can understand the world better."

"Well, you're right." She pressed her face against his, kissing his face, nose tip, chin, and finally, her lips. "Being loved makes people happy, and the lover may be equally happy."

"I promise you'll find that loving me makes you happy just as much."

The two kissed for a while, Oliver stood up holding her, walked into the bedroom, and put her on the bed.

Being in love makes people happy.

Every day when you wake up, your lover is lying next to you, you kiss her awake, she smiles and says good morning to you, and then jumps out of bed in a panic to wash.

When she comes back to bed, she will come in with two beautiful kittens, and she treats them as children, she is mom and you are dad, so it's like you are already a family.

During the day they traveled around in a carriage and went to nearby wineries. Oliver bought several cases of wine.Alice is also a good connoisseur, Mrs. Becker and Mr. Hastings, Mr. Beckford have taught her to taste wine.