Extraordinary

By Laura Schiller

Based on: Anna Karenina

Copyright: Leo Tolstoy's estate

"You know," Konstantin Levin murmured to his wife one night, "Sometimes I still cannot believe my good fortune."

"No?" Kitty smiled impishly. "Shall I show you some more proof?"

"Not just now, darling. I'm exhausted."

They both laughed. The blankets were tangled all around them, and neither wore a stitch of clothing. Still, even in the mid-April evening chill, they did not feel the cold.

"You see," Levin began, propping himself up on one elbow to face her, gesturing with his other hand. "I've often heard that it's possible for women to fall in love with a plain, common fellow like me, but I didn't believe it. I judged by myself – and I could only love someone truly beautiful. Someone extraordinary, like you."

He picked up one strand of her golden hair and wound it around his finger, watching it gleam in the candlelight. Kitty tossed her head playfully, making him let go.

"I hope you don't mean that beauty is all you care about," she teased, pretending to pout – but in her soft gray eyes there was a flash of genuine worry, and he saw it at once.

"No!" He cupped her cheek in his hand and kissed her on both cheeks, once for emphasis, once for comfort. "No, that's not what I meant. I'm not Stiva. I would never … it's the beauty of your soul I love, Kitty – the woman who nursed my dying brother without fear, who welcomed Masha as a sister, who understands me without my having to say a word. No matter how you looked, you would always be beautiful to me."

"Oh, Kostya … "

She smiled up at him in that amused, patient, all-knowing way she had. Sometimes he found this irritating; other times, such as today, he simply wanted to kiss that smile off her face.

"What? What is it?"

"Don't you think you've got it backwards?"

"Backwards? How?"

"You don't love me because I'm extraordinary," she explained, "I'm extraordinary because you love me – and vice versa for you. No one is ever plain or common in the eyes of those who love them."

"You're right!" His face lit up, almost as bright as his tangled coppery hair. "I never thought of it that way! And to think of all the time I wasted, thinking I wasn't good enough – heavens, what a fool I was!"

"Well, you have plenty of time to make it up to me now … "

Her hands slipped down underneath the blankets, and judging by her less-than-angelic grin, she liked what she found there.

"Oh my," she purred. "I thought you said you were tired!"

"Not nearly tired enough."

And slowly, deliberately, she leaned across him to blow out the candle.