A Beautiful Wife Learn English through story level 3

chapter one

a beautiful wife

i cannot remember how

when or where i met ligea

it was a long time ago and my memory is

not good

but i think i met her first in a large

old city near the rhine in germany

she told me that she came from an

ancient family

but i never knew the family name of the

woman who was my friend my partner in my

studies

and finally my wife

why did i never discover her family name

perhaps because she did not want me to

find out

but i cannot remember

i remember one thing very well

ligea was tall and slim

later at the end

she became very thin

how can i describe her quiet

aristocratic movements or the strange

softness of her footsteps

if she came into my office

i only knew she was there when i heard

her voice

or when she put her white hand on my

shoulder

she had a beautiful face

but it was not a classical kind of

beauty

there was something strange about it

i have often tried to understand it

was it her pure white skin or her thick

black hair

i looked at her long delicate nose many

times

it was perfect

i looked at her sweet mouth

how soft and red it was

and when she smiled her teeth were white

then i looked into her eyes

they were much bigger than normal eyes

sometimes when she was excited

they looked like a deer’s eyes

they were black with long black

eyelashes and black eyebrows

but as i looked into them

i realized that they had a strange

expression

i thought about it for many hours

sometimes all night

what was the expression in those eyes

i wanted to know

many times i thought i almost had the

answer

but then it was gone

lydia was very determined

she was always calm and quiet

but her determination showed in her eyes

it shone like a terrible energy and

sometimes it frightened me

lydia was very clever

she was excellent at latin and greek

and she knew many other languages

perfectly

she never made a mistake

she was also a student of science and

mathematics

when we were first married

i often asked her for help with my

studies

and we worked together

but after she died i was alone

without her i was like a child in the

dark

when she first became ill

she did not come to help me as often as

before

she lost weight and her skin became pale

and transparent

when i saw that she was dying i felt

desperate

lydia resisted death with all her energy

she was determined to live

i watched in agony as she fought for

life

i knew she loved me

but i only understood how much she loved

me now that she was dying

she held my hands and said that she was

devoted to me

i cannot talk about it now but let me

say that her love for me was part of her

determination to live

on the night she died

she suddenly got out of bed and cried

oh god must i die must i lose my fight

with death

no i can’t die like this

but my dear elijah died

i was so sad i could not stay in the old

city by the rhine

for a few months i traveled around

then i bought an old abbey in an

isolated part of england

this dark sad place expressed my

feelings of loneliness

but i decorated it with beautifully

colored curtains carpets and ornaments

i said to myself

perhaps the bright colors will make me

feel happier

unfortunately they did not

i began to drink too much

but i do not want to speak about that

time of my life

i will only say that one day i married

lady rowena trevanian of tremaine

new wife had blonde hair and blue eyes

she was very different from my first

wife

but how could i ever forget lydia

chapter 2

a fight with death

i took lady rowena back to a room high

up in the tower of the abbey

where we lived for the first month of

our marriage

the room was very large

with an enormous window made of glass

from venice

the ceiling was high

like a church

and in the center there was a big gold

chandelier

there were sofas from the east and an

indian bed

on the walls were long tapestries like

carpets with designs made of gold

the tapestries moved every time the wind

blew

my wife was afraid of me

because i was often sad and depressed

she did not love me much and stayed away

from me

but i preferred this

i always thought about ligeia

my beautiful idea dead in the tomb

sometimes in my dreams i called to her

in the night

i imagined that perhaps my love for her

could bring her back to me

at the beginning of the second month

lady rowena became ill

she did not sleep very well

and told me she could hear sounds and

movements in the tower

you have a fever i said

you’re imagining things

she got better

but then she went back to bed with a

second illness worse than the first

the doctors could not understand it

again rowena began to hear little sounds

and movements in the bedroom and they

frightened her

one night at the end of september she

woke up suddenly

i was sitting on a sofa by her bed

she whispered to me that she could hear

sounds and see movements

and there was a frightened expression on

her thin face

but i saw and heard nothing

it’s the wind i explained

you can see the tapestries moving in the

wind

but her face was white with fear

and she nearly fainted

i remember that there was some wine on

the table on the other side of the room

as i walked under the light of the

chandelier

a strange thing happened

i felt something invisible past me

and on the carpet i saw a shadow

almost the shadow of a shadow

i decided to say nothing to ruina

i poured out a glass of wine and gave it

to her

then i sat on the sofa and watched her

after some moments i heard very quiet

footsteps on the carpet coming towards

the bed

a second later as rowena was about to

drink the wine

i saw

or perhaps i dreamed that i saw

three or four large drops of a bright

red liquid fall into the glass

rowena did not see it

she drank the wine

and i said nothing because i thought it

was only my imagination

after this rowena’s health got much

worse

and on the third night she died

her servants prepared her for the tune

then covered her with a sheet

the next night i sat alone with her body

in the bedroom

strange forms and shadows moved around

me

i looked nervously into the dark corners

at the moving tapestries and i felt

frightened

then i looked at the carpet under the

chandelier

there was no shadow there and i felt

better

when i looked at rowena on the bed

sad memories of lydia the only woman i

ever loved came back to me

it was perhaps around midnight when i

heard a sound

it was quiet but clear

and it woke me from my dreams

i thought it came from the bed

i listened in terror but i did not hear

it again

i looked carefully at rowena for any

sign of life

she was not moving

but i continued to look at her

minutes passed

then i noticed a little color in

rowena’s face

my heart stopped in horror

i could not move

when i understood that rowena was not

dead i tried to revive her

but soon the color disappeared from her

cheeks

her face looked like marble again

and her lips were thin with the horrible

expression of death

when her body was cold and rigid

i fell onto the sofa and dreamed about

lydia

an hour later i heard the same sound as

before

i listened

yes there it was again

a sigh from the bed

i ran over and saw clearly that her lips

were trembling

then they opened showing her bright

teeth

i thought i was going mad

there was a pink color on her cheeks and

neck

her body was getting warm again

and her heart was beating a little

lady ruiner was alive

i did everything i could to revive her

then suddenly her color disappeared

her heart stopped and her body became

cold and rigid

i sat down and began to think about

ligeia again

then again for the third time there was

a sound from the bed

but why must i describe the horrors of

that night

again i tried to revive ruina and then a

fourth time

each time she seemed to fight with an

invisible force

and each time her body changed

i cannot say how but she looked

different

it was nearly dawn when she moved again

i was sitting on the sofa exhausted

but rowena’s body moved with more energy

than before

her color returned

signs of life changed her face

her eyes were closed but she looked

alive

then she suddenly got out of bed and

walked slowly to the center of the room

like she was walking in her sleep

i did not tremble

i did not move

i was as cold and still as stone

paralyzed by what i saw

as i looked at her my head filled with

wild thoughts

was rowena really alive

could i really see her blonde hair and

blue eyes

why wasn’t i certain

i could not see her mouth very well

but her cheeks were like pink roses

weren’t they rowena’s cheeks

but wasn’t she taller than before

i was filled with a kind of madness i

ran to her but she moved away

then i saw her long hair moving in the

wind

it was blacker than the black of

midnight

and now slowly her eyes opened

i shouted like a madman these are the

black eyes of my lost love the eyes of

lydia

you