Sleep came intermittently, painfully. After the blood was washed away and I put on a new nightgown, my mind no longer calmed down. The pain persisted – between my legs, my right hip, down my back, my left breast, the bite mark on my shoulder – throbbing like a dying star. When sleep finally came to me, I embraced him like a lover. We descended together into the depths, where pain did not exist. A pinprick in the dark. "Get up! Come on now, get up!" I opened my eyes and found my canopy blown away by the morning light. Aunt Wallis stood there, dressed in a gray wool dress, smiling. There was no heat there. “Get up. » I rubbed my eyes. "What's going on?" "We're going to see your grandmother," she said dryly. “Then go get ready.” I did as I was told, ignoring the look she gave my shoulder and trying not to limp, and came back into the room a few minutes later - teeth brushed, face sprayed with cold water, hair pulled up in a neat bun - towards her in my still in the room, rummaging through my wardrobe. When she found what she was looking for – a long-sleeved black dress that fell above the knees – she tossed it to me. “Put this on,” she told me. “And wear that black coat.” “Please excuse me,” I mumbled. “Don’t worry, darling,” she said, smiling as she went to perch on my bed. “We’re both women, all the same.” I tried to maintain some pathetic form of dignity by turning my back on him and dressing in my chosen outfit, putting my arms through the sleeves and adjusting it to my figure. An ant was lower than me at the time. “He had fun with you last night, didn’t he?” my aunt asked me. That's what she called it -- [i]fun[/i]. A word comparable to days spent in the sun, laughing, spinning and spinning on the grass until dizziness takes over a... middle of paper ... or wait longer, d agreement ? " he said as he put his arm around my shoulders, propelling me forward. When we reached my aunt, who was still whipping the driver, my uncle bluntly told her to shut her mouth and get inside before lest she surprise death. He slipped the man a big note for his troubles and we followed my aunt inside. A languid man in a suit was waiting for us in the great hall - a vast decorated space. “Follow me, please,” he said, dry as a bone, and waved us through various corridors and corridors, past beautiful paintings of ancient and delicate objects hanging on and perched on the walls. the tables. Long-dead deer antlers dotted the walls like thorns sticking out of the woodwork. “It’s vulgar,” Aunt Wallis murmured as we walked past them. It happened to me. to think they were fanciful..