Английский язык с Крестным Отцом

flowers as the bridal party, principals and guests, went on foot from the church to the

bride's home. The wedding procession pelted (to pelt – бросать /в кого-либо/,

забрасывать) the neighbors with sugar-coated almonds, the traditional wedding

candies, and with candies left over made sugary white mountains on the bride's

wedding bed, in this case only a symbolic one since the first night would be spent in the

villa outside Corleone. The wedding feast went on until midnight but bride and groom

would leave before that in the Alfa Romeo. When that time came Michael was surprised

to find that the mother was coming with them to the Corleone villa at the request of the

bride. The father explained: the girl was young, a virgin, a little frightened, she would

need someone to talk to on the morning following her bridal night; to put her on the right

track if things went wrong. These matters could sometimes get very tricky. Michael saw

Apollonia looking at him with doubt in her huge doe-brown eyes. He smiled at her and

nodded.

And so it came about that they drove back to the villa outside Corleone with the

mother-in-law in the car. But the older woman immediately put her head together with

the servants of Dr. Taza, gave her daughter a hug and a kiss and disappeared from the

scene. Michael and his bride were allowed to go to their huge bedroom alone.

Apollonia was still wearing her bridal costume with a cloak thrown over it. Her trunk

and case had been brought up to the room from the car. On a small table was a bottle

of wine and a plate of small wedding cakes. The huge canopied (canopy [‘kжnpi] –

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балдахин, полог) bed was never out of their vision. The young girl in the center of the

room waited for Michael to make the first move.

And now that he had her alone, now that he legally possessed her, now that there

was no barrier to his enjoying that body and face he had dreamed about every night,

Michael could not bring himself to approach her. He watched as she took off the bridal

shawl and draped it over a chair, and placed the bridal crown on the small dressing

table. That table had an array of perfumes and creams that Michael had had sent from

Palermo. The girl tallied (tally – бирка, этикетка, ярлык; счет /в игре/; to tally –

подсчитывать, здесь: просмотреть) them with her eyes for a moment.

Michael turned off the lights, thinking the girl was waiting for some darkness to shield

her body while she undressed. But the Sicilian moon came through the unshuttered

windows, bright as gold, and Michael went to close the shutters but not all the way, the

room would be too warm.

The girl was still standing by the table and so Michael went out of the room and down

the hall to the bathroom. He and Dr. Taza and Don Tommasino had taken a glass of

wine together in the garden while the women had prepared themselves for bed. He had

expected to find Apollonia in her nightgown when he returned, already between the

covers. He was surprised that the mother had not done this service for her daughter.

Maybe Apollonia had wanted him to help her to undress. But he was certain she was

too shy, too innocent for such forward behavior (смелое, развязное поведение;

forward [‘fo:wd] – передний, передовой; развязный, нахальный /кто лезет вперед/;

behavior [bi’heivj] – поведение, манеры).

Coming back into the bedroom, he found it completely dark, someone had closed the

shutters all the way. He groped his way toward the bed and could make out the shape

of Apollonia's body lying under the covers, her back to him, her body curved away from

him and huddled up. He undressed and slipped naked beneath the sheets. He stretched

out one hand and touched silky naked skin. She had not put on her gown and this

boldness delighted him. Slowly, carefully, he put one hand on her shoulder and pressed

her hody gently so that she would turn to him. She turned slowly and his hand touched

her breast, soft, full and then she was in his arms so quickly that their bodies came

together in one line of silken electricity and he finally had his arms around her, was

kissing her warm mouth deeply, was crushing her body and breasts against him and

then rolling his body on top of hers.

Her flesh and hair taut (туго натянутый, упругий [to:t]) silk, now she was all

eagerness, surging against him wildly in a virginal erotic frenzy. When he entered her

she gave a little gasp and was still for just a second and then in a powerful forward

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thrust of her pelvis she locked her satiny legs around his hips. When they came to the

end they were locked together so fiercely, straining against each other so violently, that

falling away from each other was like the tremble before death.

That night and the weeks that followed, Michael Corleone came to understand the

premium (большой почет, спрос [‘pri:mjm]) put on virginity by socially primitive people.

It was a period of sensuality that he had never before experienced, a sensuality mixed

with a feeling of masculine power. Apollonia in those first days became almost his slave.