Seamstress with Sardinia

Alpina Plisher Publishing House represents Bianca Pitzorno’s novel “Swed with Sardinia” (translation of Andrei Manukhin).

The main character of the novel by the famous Italian writer Bianca Pitzorno is a girl from a very poor family born in a small town on the island of Sardinia at the end of the 19th century. She herself learned to read, loves ladies' love novels and Opera Puccini, but even if at heart and dreams of a beautiful prince, in real life she relies only on her mind and skillful hands. The eyes of a young dressmaker, entering rich houses, we see the amazing stories of the inhabitants of her town. There are love dramas, broken hearts and even murder (and maybe suicide?).

The book resembles classical novels that the main character loves to read so much, and at the same time, very modern topics of female independence, faith in their strength, freedom and search for its own path are raised in it.

We offer to read a fragment of the novel.

Signor Artonesy went to find out the news, but only touched his lips to his daughter’s forehead, who was resting at that moment, and returned home.

The night came and passed. Like the woman in labor, in a calm moment, the midwife and I, replacing each other, for a short while falling asleep right in the armchairs, until the dawn dawn outside the window. From time to time, the midwife raised the sheets and checked: "Fasten, the marquise, a little more patience." At eight in the morning, the husband knocked on the door and, sticking his head into the room, asked: "Still nothing?" - But Signorina Esther, who came in at that moment in a cry, did not hear him, and he hastily recoiled.

A little later, a rustle of wheels was heard over gravel - a stroller rolled through the garden. It was a rare moment of peace: the marquise was asleep, and the midwife just went to the dressing room to rinse his face from the pelvis and put the hairstyle in order. I looked out the window and saw Dr. Fratta, leaving the crew with a bag in my hand, and the Marquis, who was walking towards him. Is the Marquis, scared by his wife’s cries, sent after him, saying nothing to the midwife? Or did the doctor come by himself? I saw them entered the living room through the glazed door in the garden.

I don’t know how this idea came to my mind, what an angel-guardian or an evil genius prompted me to her, but I rushed to the bed, moistened with a napkin from a jug and carefully ran her along the forehead of Signorina Esther; She immediately opened her eyes. “TS-SC! I whispered, bringing a finger to my lips. “Let's listen.” Then, on tiptoe, she went to the stove and opened the damper. Two male voices were heard in the room, so loud and distinct that the midwife ran out of the dressing room and, not noticing anyone except us, looked around in surprise. I pointed her to the stove and made a sign to be silent.

The doctor said:

- Judging by what I heard, the situation is critical and requires urgent intervention. You can’t lose a minute.

The midwife grimaced contemptuously - only a couple of minutes ago she said to me: “I’ll go a minute while the Marquis was sleeping. There is nowhere to hurry-the child will be deployed correctly, the birth will pass as a clock, although they will probably take another hour or two. So don't worry, everything is fine. ”

What critical situation did the doctor say if he only arrived and had not yet managed to see anything? “Judging by what I heard,” and what did he hear? From whom?

- Then rise soon! The Marquis exclaimed excitedly. - My wife…

“Yes, of course, your wife,” his doctor interrupted with a serious look. “Excuse me, but I have to ask you about something.”

- Come on, ask on the stairs or upstairs, in the bedroom! Come on!

“No, Marquis, we must talk about this in private, only you and I, and so that no one will hear us.” Especially your wife.

Esther raised herself on the bed with eyes wide open from amazement.

- Quiet! I ordered her a look.

“I'm listening,” the Marquis answered, trembling with impatience.

“It may happen that way - I say“ maybe ”, but we must be ready for this - that in this situation it will be impossible to save both: both the mother and the child.

There was a stifled groan of the Marquis. Esther looked alarmed at the midwife, who, also silently, with the gestures and movement of her lips, reassured her: “Not true. He does not understand anything. Everything is in order, do not worry. ”

“We'll have to choose,” the doctor continued. - And only you can do it. I will make any of your solutions. Which of them to live: your wife or child?

- And I need to make a decision? Exactly for me? - the voice trembled: the Marquis could not believe his ears.

- And who else?

A long silence followed.

Esther with a slight smile leaned back on the pillows: she had no doubt in her husband's answer. "My life, my heart, can I live without you?" - read on her face.

The midwife only frowned. And the doctor downstairs continued to insist:

- Decide, Marquis! I will not get close to your wife’s bed until you tell me what to do. I repeat: mother or child?

- How much time do I have to think? - In this answer, mortal flour was heard. Upstairs, in the bedroom, the marquise’s smile faded slightly, but immediately blossomed again.

“Three minutes and not a single moment,” the doctor said sternly.

“Excuse me, but I need to know something else.”

Can my wife have children in the future?

- I'm afraid not. I will have to make several cuts to extract the fetus, and such procedures disrupt the functions of the childbearing organs.

Silence hung. I did not know if the allotted three minutes passed: the thought of the doctor’s bag, about his instruments, filed me in terrifying. It seemed to me that his steps, the steps of the killer were already heard on the stairs. The midwife resolutely went to the Marquise, grabbed her from the back under the mouse and whispered:

- Make up! Now or never! If the doctor enters, I will have to obey him!

But Esther was waiting, calm and confident: "My life, my heart, can I live without you?"

Finally, the Marquis cleared his throat and hesitantly began:

- If the child turns out to be a boy, I will have an heir. And if a girl, I, being a widower, will always be able to enter into a second marriage and have other children.

- So?

-If I choose my wife, then I will not have the heir: neither now, even if it is a boy, nor ever, because she will not be able to give another child ...

“Enough walks around the bush, Marquis!” I need an exact answer: who should I save, mother or child?

Silence again. The Marquise turned pale so that she became whiter than the sheet on which she lay. With every word of her husband, an increasingly more shadow of distrust appeared on her face.

“Child,” the Marquis finally answered.

- Fine. Then I get up, ”the doctor said. “Would you like to come with me, to kiss my wife in the end?”

It may come, it will be your last date.

- I lack the spirit. Go, but in the meantime I will go to ride. I'll be back in the evening, how it will end.

I heard the door slammed on the terrace, his steps, moving towards the stable, then - as the doctor took his bag and began to climb the stairs. Esther published a wild cry, but there was no one left in the living room who could hear her.

Outside of myself from rage, I rumbled with a stove shut and looked around in search of something heavy that I could hit the doctor, as soon as he crossed the threshold. Povituha, the woman is more experienced and practical, rushed to the door and pushed Skokold, and then immediately returned to the bed of the woman in labor. But, contrary to my fears, the cry of Signorina Esther was not at all horror before the quick arrival of the doctor and not disappointed from her husband’s betrayal, but by the attack of sudden and unbearable pain, which burned her bosom, like a whip.

- Breathe deeper! Make up! - Povituha called out.

The door handle turned. I grabbed a lily -shaped lamp standing on a chest of drawers, the stem of which rested on a heavy square pedestal of black marble.

- What's happening? Let me let me out immediately! - the doctor pulled the pen again, then lit up with all his might.

The soft tree cracked.

“Before he approaches my Signorin before touching her, I will smash his head,” I thought.

“Mother stronger, Marquis,” the midwife repeated.

- Open! Let me! - the doctor yelled, continuing to pound on the door. Finally, Skokold gave way, and when the bag appeared in the opening, I threw up the lamp over my head. “Did you go crazy here?” Away from the road, a snot! Let me go!

But I did not retreat, ready to bring down the marble pedestal on his head. I’m sure another minute - and there would be a ruined soul on my conscience, but at that moment the bedroom was announced by the jubbing exclamation of the midwife:

- Wonderful! Here is the baby! - And then children's cry.

I lowered the lamp. The doctor froze at the door in confusion.

- A boy or a girl? - the tired voice of the young mother was heard.

- Girl, beauty!

“Well, that means the Marquis Ritzcaldo will not have the heir.” Neither now, nor ever,-Esther said loudly, despite the weakness, flooding with a hysterical laugh. And lost her feelings.

A real chaos reigned in the bedroom. The midwife cut the umbilical cord, wrapped her girl, still soaked in blood, in a diaper and told me to keep her while she was trying to bring her mother to her senses to help her with the last. The doctor put the bag on the floor and bent over him, but did not even have time to open it, like me, without letting go of the newborn’s hands, kicked the bag with my foot, shouting: “Do not even think!” At that moment, the door swung open, and Signor Artonosi entered, accompanied by a maid. Having handed him the granddaughter, I rushed to the bed. Thanks to the efforts of the midwife, Signorin Esther has already recovered and recognized her father.

- Daddy! She exclaimed. - If Gwelfo returns, do not let him in!

- But why?

“Marquise is crazy,” the doctor intervened.

“Come on, let's look at the placenta,” muttered the midwife, not paying attention to the audience. - It seems to be all right. Hey, you, ”she turned to the maid,“ why are you standing with my mouth? ” Run to the kitchen and bring hot water, but more.

“Don't let him in,” Esther repeated. - My husband. I don't want to see him. Never.

And she held back the word. Signor Artonasy, while we women were busy with the newborn, washed and dressed her, spoke in an undertone with his daughter.

- When can she get out of bed? He asked the midwife, defiantly ignoring the doctor. “I would like to take her home.”

- You want to kill her! - exclaimed the doctor.

“Well, since you didn’t have time to do this ...” the Marquis commented. I could not believe that in this state, soaked with sweat, shocked and completely exhausted, she is capable of such sarcasm.

“It would be better not to get up for a couple of days,” said the midwife.

“Well, we will not force her to rise,” the father nodded.

In less than half an hour, Signor Artonasy organized transportation. He sent a groom to the brewery for the two strongest workers who appeared with a large covered van drawn by two horses, and meanwhile he escorted the doctors, firmly stating that his services were no longer needed here, and adding an impressive check to these words. Signorin Esther was carefully transplanted into a soft chair; Two workers who came easily demolished him down the stairs and loaded him into the van. We also climbed inside: a midwife with a newborn in his arms, Signor Artonesis, who did not let go of his daughter’s hands, and, finally, I am with a satin and decorated with lace and ribbons of a basket, inside of which there was everything dowry for the baby. Of course, in her father’s house, Esther would easily find for herself dresses remaining from girlhood, but the girl needed a whole wardrobe, and it would be a real waste, I decided, to leave the result of the seven months of our work on the villa.

A few hours after the move, when the Marquis was already sleeping in a big bed that once belonged to her mother, the midwife in the next room changed her newborn diaper, and I was just about to return home, a loud knock was heard in the front door. We looked out the window: as expected, it was a marquise. He was shocked about how amazed and shocked when he returned to the villa and found the bedroom empty, I later learned from the groom. And if he would restore the chain of events even with difficulty, but he was able, then he never understood the reason for what happened. Esther flatly refused not only to discuss or explain her actions, but even to meet with the Marquis. Signor Artonasy also did not accept him, sending instead of his lawyer, a cunning fox who, on the move, rejected all the demands of the abandoned husband, turning them against him. I don’t know how he did this: it was not the time that his wife could freely leave the family hearth, not to mention the legitimate fruit of marriage. Esther Artonasy succeeded only thanks to the support and money of her father. However, it is possible that, she, she is a boy, and not a girl, her husband would not reconcile so easily and would fight for reuniting with the child much longer and more decisive.

But what tormented the Marquise most of all (even more of their own wounded pride) was the inexplicability of the reasons, who once turned his young wife’s boundless love into such deep hatred. The only assumption that he could make was that because of the generic pain she simply went crazy.

The truth, except for our heroine and, probably, her father, only we knew the midwife, but not one of us blabbed. The midwife was middle -aged and had seen a lot for his life, for me what happened became truly bitter disappointment. Having discovered, and even under such circumstances that great love is just a deception, that it exists only in stupid novels, that all men are selfish traitors, just like Pinkerton, I lost all the illusions that I have ever amused. You can’t believe anyone. "My life, my heart, I will live well without you, it will be even better."

That's just the new life of them two did not begin, but Signorin Esther. She never allowed the Marquis to see the girl, whom she named Enrica in honor of Signor Artonosi, and not Dianore in honor of her paternal grandmother. Together with the baby, the Marquise went to travel for a long time, away from the gossip and gossip of our town, and started as many new acquaintances as I could not even imagine. When we had a scandal with the Parisian dresses of the check of the check of the check, she was in Brussels, and returning, she said that people were indeed stupid, because only real fools can attach the importance of such nonsense.