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