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Cesare for some time silently looked at the Duke and Ornella.
Because of his great height the impression was created he was looking at them from above down.
In this moment all the aristocrats of the capital were flocking in a crowd to the Imperial Palace to see Duchess Erzet.
Numerous observers silently watched what was happening until Duke Parbelini, not having withstood it, first didn't speak.
"Your excellence, Duke Erzet." The house of Parbelini was famous as a political dynasty of the Traon Empire.
The Duke, an experienced politician, didn't manifest his true emotions.
He smiled unconstrainedly and spoke: "Congratulate.
Finally the seventh day has arrived."
It seemed he planned after an ordinary exchange of courtesies naturally to retreat.
For since Cesare had come forward, further dragging out and conversation to nothing good would lead.
But Cesare didn't intend so simply to let the Duke go.
He pulled forward the trembling Baron Elod, who stood behind.
Eileen, until this moment with all her might having tried to preserve an imperturbable expression of face, involuntarily shuddered.
Fortunately, she was not the only one whom this surprised.
The gazes of Duke Parbelini and Ornella too for a moment flickered.
A baron wedging into the conversation between a Duke, a young lady and a Grand Duke—this was simply unthinkable.
"Let's say hello," Cesare said, twisting lips in a smirk.
Duke Parbelini followed his example and smiled.
Then he first stretched out a hand for a handshake to Baron Elod.
In essence, the baron was a creature with whom Duke Parbelini wouldn't even cross in the stables of his palace.
And here they stood face to face and were shaking each other's hands as if equals.
For Duke Parbelini, born with blue blood and having lived a life in nobility, it was extremely unpleasant.
But he was the father of Grand Duchess Erzet, and Cesare himself insisted on greeting.
To refuse now would be unthinkable, therefore the Duke perforce had to shake hands, overcoming aversion.
Eileen with anxiety watched them.
The gaze of Duke Parbelini shaking the hand of her father was leaden.
Father was on the edge of a faint, but all the same managed to complete the handshake.
Ornella, it seemed, for a moment came out of herself and already opened her mouth, but Duke Parbelini laid a hand on her wrist, forcing her to fall silent.
The Duke smiled with a thin smile and said to Cesare:
"Didn't know your excellence was so attached to the spouse." To this sarcastic remark Cesare answered with carelessness: "They say that a man gone out of mind over a woman will sell even his own country."
The observers gasped.
It was such a radical statement that it was simply impossible to expect it from a member of the Imperial family.
But at the same time it sounded passionately and romantically.
Cesare was the only one who among all these gentlemen in smoking-jackets wore a military uniform.
His open admission of love, pronounced without a shadow of embarrassment, struck all.
Cesare, whose appearance so contrasted with the look of capital aristocrats, forced ladies and young masters to redden and emit ecstatic sighs.
Plunged into high-society gossip and pulp novels, they, it seemed, found huge pleasure in this scene, as if descended from the pages of a book.
The face of Duke Parbelini, unexpectedly having turned up in the role of a villain, froze in a stiff mask.
Cesare gaily continued, looking at the Duke from above down:
"Recently in the capital rumors are going that I’ve gone out of mind.
Apparently, your grace didn't listen to them."
"Your excellence, why such words..."
"It's true, so you can not worry." Since he himself admitted he was insane, what here could one object?
Duke Parbelini, having been deprived of the gift of speech, only moved lips when Cesare slightly leaned.
He sharply reduced the distance, forcing the Duke instinctively to recoil.
It was a reflex, but the very fact that he’d retreated forced him to feel humiliation, and wrinkled eyelids trembled.
Cesare looked at the Duke with a stone face.
Eileen held her breath, feeling herself as if it were she who was at fault.
His bright red eyes bore in themselves an instinctive threat for any who met with him with a gaze.
Knowing that Cesare's gaze was not a generation of cabinet meditations, few could for long withstand it.
Duke Parbelini held out, but couldn't hide a tremor in the tips of fingers.
After several moments of silence Cesare unhurriedly opened mouth:
"Thank for congratulations, Duke." As if mocking at the Duke's tension, he crookedly smiled and finished the brief conversation: "Hope you and further will bless our marriage."
It was similar to a warning.
Before Duke Parbelini managed to answer something, Cesare turned and stepped away.
Eileen, perforce having followed Cesare, looked back.
She saw the Duke and Ornella looking at them with an evil gaze, and also Diego who was fussing around the helpless father.
Having been convinced that with father everything was in order, she again looked at Ornella.
"Eileen!" that one called her with a resonant voice.
Her eyes, only just sparkling with rage, now shone as if it were a deception, and she with a playful smile said to her friend: "I will wait for an invitation to a tea party."
Let Eileen be not too insightful, but even she understood Ornella's intention: to mention a tea party in public was a way not to give Eileen to flee—to drag her into the world of High Society where Ornella had the advantage.
But Ornella didn't know one thing: Eileen already included her name in the list of those invited to the tea party.
Cesare for a moment stopped.
Eileen unnoticed took a breath and, like Ornella, radiantly smiled.
"Of course.
I’ve already prepared an invitation." And then, just as that one, addressed her without any titles: "By all means come, Ornella."
It seemed Ornella didn't expect that Eileen would dare call her by name without proper address: her eyes slightly widened.
But soon her face blurred in a smile, as if melted sorbet.
She answered Eileen with a sweetest tone: "Will be waiting."
Eileen hastily turned away and firmly squeezed Cesare's hand.
Her last phrase was a kind of final blow—more she couldn't withstand communication with Ornella.
Cesare quietly laughed.
He began to lead Eileen away, whispering: "Maybe we’ll go somewhere where there are no people?"
Eileen's heart beat wildly after the clash with Ornella.
Eileen pressed the other hand to her chest and quickly nodded.
"Yes!.."
The path to a desert place turned out not easy: people constantly approached them.
Some it was impossible simply to ignore, therefore one had to stop, exchange courtesies and conduct short conversations.
But the meeting with Count Domenico turned out pleasant.
Having seen Eileen from afar, he nearly ran to her.
He was so glad to the meeting that, strangely enough, Eileen involuntarily compared him with a huge dog.
Meeting with a friendly person calmed her.
Eileen began to feel herself freer and could now calmly communicate.
When they finally reached a desert place, Cesare put Eileen under a large flowering tree in the garden.
"Wait here a little." Then he nodded to Diego.
That one immediately lead the father to Eileen and followed Cesare.
Cesare stood at such a distance where Eileen and her father could see him, but not hear, and began to talk with Diego.
Eileen embarrassedly looked at her father.
She hadn't seen him since the very wedding—passed only a week, but for some reason it seemed it was many months ago.
"Father, how you..." Eileen's words were interrupted when father whispered in a low and fast voice: "Save me, Eileen." From such unexpected words Eileen blinked.
He was wiping sweat from forehead with a handkerchief and staring eyes.
"Is it really you who stuffed me onto that farm?"
"Farm?"
"Yes!
I am now there milking cows!"
"Milking... cows?" Father's words were completely incomprehensible.
All his life father had spent in drinking and gambling, distant from any labor.
And suddenly—milking of cows on a farm.
She required more explanations, but father, having blurted out this ridiculous statement, suddenly sharply fell silent.
Diego looked straight at them.
He’d taken off the uniform and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, having bared tattoos on his hands.
Having caught Eileen's gaze, he silently smirked.