Chapter 29 – The Grumpy Boy (2)
She yearned to hear about his family. She wondered if he had more happy memories or bad ones or if he was closer to his brother or his sister. Having an incomplete family, she was always curious to hear about other families.
Karenin pondered at it a little. Thinking a while about where to start, he started from the beginning. Taking Anna with a pleasant surprise. He talked about his parents, his older brother Matthews, and his two-year older sister Maria, his childhood teaching arrangements, and even about the death of Matvei, his second brother.
“When I was fifteen, my second brother passed away. I was very sad about it. Matvei was only a teenager when he died. He was always the smartest and best of us all, and also a wonderful brother. But the plague took his life.”
Karenin’s calm tone didn’t fool Anna. She imagined how hurt he must have been. She knew the calmer he appeared the deeper he felt. Maybe as he grew up, he could express it emotionlessly, but he had faced the death of a loved one at only fifteen years of age. She knew what that was like, and could imagine the pain he must have felt. So, she reached out and squeezed his hand in hers.
“It’s okay, Anna.” Karenin whispered, “It was a long time ago. You don’t have to be worried about me.”
“I know you don’t need any words of comfort and in your opinion, they wouldn’t solve any problems. But I still want to say that I wish I could’ve known you earlier.”
She wished she would’ve known him since his birth, in both lives. She imagined him as a baby, as a reckless, young boy, and wondered if he was as stoic then as he was now. She wondered if they both would have eased each other’s pain when they faced their tragedies.
“Everything happens when it is written.” Karenin said slowly, making Anna smile knowingly.
Karenin continued speaking after a moment of silence, while keeping her hands in his, caressing her fingers with her absent-mindedly.
“Maria’s husband Louis is a French diplomat. They have two children, Lucia and Andre. Lucia is a sweet girl and Andre is…well he’s Andre.”
Anna made a silly face at his description and they both laughed.
When they got off the train, Anna saw Karenin wave at someone and followed his gaze to a tall man with a moderately healthy figure. He had gray hair but he had a very handsome face. He walked enthusiastically towards them with a big smile on his face and greeted them with hugs and kisses. Karenin introduced them properly, in his calm voice.
“Louis, this is my wife Anna. Anna, this is Maria’s husband Louis.”
Anna smiled and greeted the hospitable brother-in-law.
“Let’s get going. Maria and the children can’t wait to see you.” Louis said with a smile. Anna noted that he had a very warm smile and made a person feel instantly comfortable.
They arrived at their house in a carriage. Maria and his children were waiting to meet them in the courtyard just as he had told them they would be.
Anna had imagined Maria to be tall and slender like Karenin, and she wasn’t disappointed. Maria bore a high resemblance to Karenin, even in her facial features. She had the same icy blue eyes but her face was pulled back in a wide smile, she thought how unlikely it was that she would see that wide of a smile on her husband’s face.
After they were introduced and had greeted each other, Anna handed the bouquet to the hostess of the family. She realized they would get along very well when Maria gushed as she accepted the bouquet and raised it to her nose and sniffed the bright flowers. With shiny eyes, she kissed Anna on the cheek and thanked her.
“It’s beautiful, Anna.”
Anna smiled, her dimples on full display as she turned to look at Karenin, who was already smiling at her. Anna was in love with his family.
Since it was only three in the afternoon when they arrived, Maria had prepared tea with colorful macaroons that looked mouth-wateringly delicious. Lucia, Maria’s twelve-year-old daughter, was absolutely enamored by Anna. She was a pretty little girl, with long sandy hair and her father’s brown eyes. She had called Anna ‘Auntie Anna’ the second they had arrived and hadn’t taken her fawnlike eyes off of her since.
“Do I have something on my face, Lucia?” Anna asked the little girl in a whisper.
Lucia was a little startled because she was spotted staring. She blushed and shrugged shyly.
“You are so beautiful.” She honestly said after a while.
“I’m sure you will grow up to be extremely beautiful too.”
Anna smiled at the sweet girl who looked very happy at the praise she had received. She still glanced at Anna from time to time, but when Anna looked at her, she would look away in shyness because Anna always smiled at her.
In contrast to Lucia’s loveliness, Maria’s ten-year-old son, Andre, had a lot of personality. She didn’t know how else to put it nicely. His hair was similar to Louis, but the rest of his features including his high cheekbones and pursed lips, and gem blue eyes were so like Karenin that she couldn’t stop observing the kid.
He wasn’t impolite, he had addressed her as Auntie Anna too, but it hadn’t been with as much fervor as Lucia’s greeting. He almost seemed bored as he sat with his head resting on his palm, sighing now and again. Sometimes, the child’s eyes would stare straight at a colorful macaroon. When Anna thought he wanted to eat and asked him, he just shook his head and stared at a macaroon with a different color.
A warm husband, a gentle mother, a shy daughter, and a very individual son. Anna could hardly believe that they were related to Karenin. They were very charming and were like a breath of fresh air to Anna.
“So this is what a proper family is like.” Anna smiled to herself.
And a long time later, by chance, when Anna talked about the meeting, a boy with blue eyes just used a slightly contemptuous tone to define the contrast.
“Didn’t you find that in the eyes of others, your marriage to him is unbelievable?” Andre told her with his brows furrowed.
“People who are as slow as you, I sincerely want to suggest that you should be packaged and thrown on Mars. There, without messy interference, you will understand what I’m saying faster.
“I told you that Mars is not suitable for humans And I’m starting to regret telling you this.” When Anna complained, she only got a snort in reply.