- Nikolai comes out of the house totally furious and starts yelling at Alpatych for not being more on top of things.
- But this is clearly useless, so Nikolai rides into the village, where the serfs are already getting stressed and having a fight with Dron over the plan to stick around and wait for the French.
- Nikolai decides to just charge in there and terrify them.
- Screaming that they are traitors, he orders Dron and another leader to be tied up. He then orders the rest of the peasants to go back to their houses, which they do lickety-split.
- Two hours later the carriages and horses are ready in front of the manor house, and the peasants are very carefully loading up Marya’s belongings under Dron’s supervision. (Marya ordered him to be released.)
- Nikolai waits for Marya to leave and rides behind as protection. Then, when the carriage stops at a roadside inn to rest the horses, she thanks him and he says that no thanks are necessary.
- She feels like he saved her life...and she promptly falls in love with him. She’s also kind of feeling like it’s fate that his sister and her brother’s engagement fell through so that Marya and Nikolai could meet. Right. Fate.
- Nikolai, meanwhile, is also into her. But it’s stressful for him to think about her because – what about Sonya?