The groomsmen dressed her in red boots and sat her on an upturned kneading trough placed in the middle of the room. The bridesmaids asked in a chorus:
“Mister matchmaker, and you too, father and mother, allow your child’s plait to be unbraided!”
Olena went pale.
Moved to the hilt, Skovoroda watched the girl who would become his wife today, his companion in grief and joy, his closest and most loyal friend.
He didn’t have a drop of doubt: she would warm his heart, which had been cooled by the winds of travel, teach him to live in comfort, bear him children... God, in a year or two he would become a father! And then... Then he would take his sons to Kyiv, to the academy! Samuyil would be surprised...
And at this point a harsh frost entered his soul: “And you, Hryhoriy?! Are you ready to
