The Sin of Ludwigs

Every day that followed, I counted on my fingers where the courier to New Jersey was.

Elvis once showed me the route from Georgia to New Jersey on a map. The courier needs to ride a horse to a ferry town, then take a boat down the river from there, and take a ship north after arriving at the mouth of the sea. The most dangerous part of the journey is the sea route. If the weather is not favorable, it may even be impossible to go to sea for several days, and the letter will naturally be delayed.

One sunny morning, when I woke up from the bed in the living room, I was not surprised to find that Elvis had left. After a simple breakfast, I decided to take a walk in the garden.It was just a small garden attached to the main building. At the end was an oval three-story staircase with hundreds of large and small flowerpots planted with exotic flowers and plants. And the cobblestone passage, it is very comfortable to walk on it when the sun is just right.

Before Elvis allowed me to visit the Frigo Manor with George, but to be honest, George may not be a good tour guide. He happened to bump into Earl Ian the first time he took me, and Ka After Lorraine and her group of good friends were ridiculed by them, I decisively decided to stay with Elvis and not go to Earl Ian's side.

When passing through the corridor on the third floor, I inadvertently saw a closed golden door at the end of the corridor, with a very gorgeous gorse pattern on the door leaf. The unusual beauty made me stop and look at it for a while , suddenly remembered that Jane seemed to have told me not to enter that room, so I asked casually: "What's in that room?"

Lily, who was holding the hat for me, saw the door along my line of sight. She thought for a while: "I haven't gone in, it seems to be used to store the tableware that is not often used."

tableware?Didn't Jane say that it was for storing wine?But even what Jane said is suspicious, who would store wine in a place other than the cellar?

With this question in mind, after we walked around the garden twice, Lily brought me refreshments, I looked at them and said, "I would like to eat some sweet biscuits, and I would like a yoghurt rice pudding and hot sherbet. "

"My God, that pudding took a long time to make, you really know how to choose!"

Lily complained half-truthfully, but she went off to get it for me, what a girl!

After dismissing Lily, I sat on the chair for a while, making sure that no one noticed me, then quickly walked across the path in the garden, and quietly returned to the corridor on the third floor through the small internal stairs.

Never underestimate the curiosity and action of a dude, especially when he's bored and doesn't know what to do to pass the time - I stood in front of that gorgeous golden door and tried to twist it handle.

That door just opened.

The room is not as dark as I imagined, and the light is even brighter than my living room.I poked my head in and took a look, and at first glance only saw a lot of large or small picture frames.At this moment, I heard someone approaching the corner of the corridor, and I hurriedly hid in, closing the door lightly.

The footsteps in the corridor didn't mean to come here at all. I put my ear against the door and made sure that the people outside were just passing by. Then I breathed a sigh of relief and turned around to look at this mysterious restricted area.

There is neither the wine in the room as Jane said, nor the shadow of the tableware that Lily said-in fact, this place looks like a studio used to paint portraits of the owners of the castle, and the floor is covered with ink. The green soft carpet, the off-white curtains are opened, and the soft light filtered by the carefully designed glass makes the room very bright.There are many picture frames on the ground, those that are as tall as a person, half a person, and one foot high can even be placed on the dressing table. Except for two of these picture frames that are hung on the wall, the rest are made of Standing on it, or just resting against a low mahogany table.

With just one glance, all my attention was absorbed by the portrait of a tall girlish bride in the middle of the room.

It should be a portrait drawn on the eve of the wedding—the woman in the white wedding dress in the golden square frame has an astonishing beauty. The pearl and diamond necklaces she wore were eclipsed, and her jet-black, thick, waterfall-like long hair made all women envious and jealous; but what made people unable to take their eyes off was the girlish vigor and pride in her expression, And a kind of indescribable rebelliousness that is extremely rare among aristocratic women and commoner women.It was a kind of wildness that was faintly unconvinced to the arrangement of fate. This kind of wildness did not damage her noble demeanor in the slightest, but it was even more charming because of her noble status.

Generally speaking, the aristocratic women I have seen are probably turning around in a template. To put it bluntly, most of them, whether they are arrogant or gentle, or lively or quiet, their every move Neither will exceed the bounds of some unspoken yet omnipresent rule.This rule has no express treaty but is ubiquitous. It appears in the form of local customs, family habits, family history, religion, etc., and determines their words, deeds, and even the fate of marriage. They depend on it, coexist with it, and transform it. Transformed by it, even if they break it, they just pretend to "break" within its rules, once they achieve their goal, they will continue to fall back into that rule and continue to dance with it.

Anne once appeared in front of Earl Ian with a wild posture and successfully attracted his attention. However, compared with the expression on the eyebrows of the woman in the portrait before her, her "wildness" is like The contrast between the domesticated cat and the lion in the jungle——Anne's "wildness", in the final analysis, is only based on the foundation of being attached to Earl Ian. She lacks the self that emanates from the foundation of life. It was a real audacity to want to take control of one's own destiny.

That's right, it is daring - in this era, anyone who wants to break the rules must pay a heavy price, let alone a person who should obey the arrangements of his father and husband in terms of customs and laws - even if he doesn't Obedience can't be clearly disobeyed—a woman, I guess that's why this room is considered a forbidden place.

"Who is this painting?" I couldn't help muttering to myself. From the details of the gorgeous wedding dress covered with diamonds and crystals, and expensive accessories such as pearl earrings, the woman in the painting is It should be a countess of a certain generation. Unfortunately, I have not paid attention to the portraits of countesses of previous generations.I tried my best to recall it, but I still can’t recall a portrait of a countess with black hair—such thick and beautiful long black hair, if I have seen it, I should have an impression!

"That's Miss Louise Williers."

After I muttered my question to myself, an unexpected languid voice came from behind me.

"ha??!!"

O my Virgin Mary! ! !

If I use a mouse to see a cat as an analogy to being hit by Elvis when I was playing cards last time, then the level of fright this time is probably that of a bird in a cage suddenly finding itself caught by the neck by a cat—this kind of The shock is not so much the shock of being found in a forbidden room without permission, but rather the shock of suddenly discovering the existence of another person in a room that "thought there was no one else". The mood of the maid in the manor who I broke through with Baron Fred.

Only then did I realize why the curtains were opened, but when I turned around, I didn't see anyone at first glance until I noticed the ground.

——That's right, Ian William Heggs was lying on his side on the carpet without aristocratic style, and several picture frames cleverly covered him, which prevented me from noticing that there was someone here at the first time; This kind of bad behavior is enough to piss off the governess, but this person has no sense that his behavior is not in line with the noble manners. Instead, he crosses his legs and supports his head with his hands, as if he was lying on his golden bed. The king on the bed looked at me lazily.

"What are you sneaking here for, little mouse? Didn't Elvis tell you that you can't enter this room?"

"Master Elvis has not forbidden me to enter any part of the castle, and besides, you are here too?" I said.

This is not a sophistry, although Jane told me not to come here, but Jane is not Elvis, he did not say that I should not come here!

Ian snorted through his nose.

"Looking at how alive you are and how energetic you are to run around, it seems that that guy is not very powerful, he didn't even make you unable to get out of bed."

"What nonsense are you talking about!"

I feel like my face is burning.

Elvis doesn’t always look for me during the day these days, but he always shows up at my place at night, more punctual than a clock. I was indeed not feeling well at first, but after a few days, I gradually got used to it—— —But even with my face, I can't say such things in broad daylight.

In order to prevent this guy from saying any more shocking words, I can only change the subject in front of him: "Whose portrait did you just say? I don't think I've seen her in the castle."

Ian looked at me from head to toe with a haughty expression, and then he suddenly changed his tone to be gloomy.

"Of course you haven't seen her, because here are all portraits of dead people—Ludwigs, do you know the story of Bluebeard?"

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back to work

It feels like changing a place to autistic ORZ, but everyone should not go out in this situation.