Chapter 4. Holiday
Lisa woke up first thing this morning. She was asleep very tightly, but suddenly her eyes opened themselves, and there was such a strange, blue sky outside the window! Lisa saw this pure azure in the gap between the thick curtains and immediately jumped out of bed. She ran barefoot through the room and, climbing up the window sill, opened the first one curtain and then the other. The sun immediately flooded the room, and Lisa, not keeping inside the bell of joy, laughed happily.
- Morning!" she exclaimed. - Carnival! Today is the carnival!
- She shouted... - Vlad murmured angrily, pulling a blanket over his head. - Go to the children's room and shout, you idiot! Even Martha hadn't got up yet! - With these words, her sister defiantly turned her back on the wall and completely buried herself in her feathered.
Lisa laughed even more cheerfully. She simply did not understand how to lie in bed when it was sunny and morning like this!
Nothing rattled or rattled in the kitchen, so Martha was still asleep, for she had always been the first to come up to make breakfast on time. It means that the morning is very early...
Lisa did not tease her sister and went to the nursery obediently. There she got out her little album abroad, which was presented to her by her uncle Albert, and the beautiful colored pencils brought by him. Andri also had such a set, but his brother preferred to draw with simple slates or took paints. And Lisa loved colored pencils - she could paint the whole album with them in one day. But it was a very valuable gift... Lisa saved every page, and pencils tried to sharpen less because each time they became shorter and shorter... She only took out these uncles' gifts when her soul was full of joy, and it was necessary to throw it out urgently somewhere.
And this time it was amazing flowers, like no other place, as if they themselves began to appear on the white page. Lisa didn't make them up - she just drew as she felt... Her drawings were always much easier than Andrew's, but her father lovingly hung the most beautiful ones in his office.
After a while in the kitchen, the dishes were bared up, and a slight singing and knocking of the doors were heard. It was Martha who finally woke up. Lisa knew that every morning the cook came down a black staircase to the basement, gathered there a full bunch of strong dry logs and carried them to the kitchen to meet the big stove. My father told me that a few years ago the same oven was used for heating bathwater. Then the maids had to oh how hard it was! First, it was necessary to drag this water from the yard, where it was brought by water carriers, then warm it up and drag it back to the bathroom... Luckily, Lisa didn't remember it, it seemed to her that they always had a convenient plumbing.
It wasn't far from the square, but my father still told me to serve a big cab. Andri had been used to such a good life since childhood... And I did not even consider them something special. Still, Professor Goran was a very, very prominent person, who was part of the Emperor's inner circle. Previously, Andry did not think about it too much, but the conversation in his father's office forced him in many ways to look at the usual things in a new way.
Their family was indeed different from many others... Goranov's children always had plenty of good toys, the table was always full of fresh and delicious food, the windows of the apartment overlooked the most beautiful in the city of Nevsky Avenue ... And Andri got used to living like this. Knowing that the cook will cook dinner, and you can still be capricious, they say, not what you wanted. Knowing that there will be delightful gifts for Christmas. And that instead of the irreparably soiled shirt will immediately appear a new one.
Andri spent the whole previous day thinking. He asked himself what he would have been like if he had been born into a poor family. Perhaps it seemed right to him to wish the Emperor, who was so indifferent to the hardships of his subjects, dead? After all, when his stomach rumbles with hunger, it is probably difficult to love his sovereign ... And anyone else in general! Andri himself couldn't stand hunger. As soon as he walked around with an empty stomach a little longer than usual, the mood spoiled by itself. And all his thoughts revolved only around food... Andri knew it was very bad, but he couldn't help himself.
My father never told me yesterday whether he would send the whole family out of town or let them stand up for themselves. Unlike Lisa, Andri knew that if the professor decided something firmly, it would be almost impossible to convince him. Stubbornness is a family feature of the Gorans... At least cry, shout, beg - nothing will help. He will say "Go!" and you will have to go. And I did not want to leave Alexandburg so much!
Continuation in the next part 15.