I would love to hear more about lost Garupe and Kostya!
And I’d love to talk about it!
It’s a cold morning when Levin is alerted to the fact that there’s a trespasser on his land. His workers are alarmed but Kostya is calm and goes to investigate, finding that the mowers are correct. There’s a thin, neglected-looking man sleeping amongst the hay bales, clearly completely exhausted.
With the help of his labourers, Kostya carries the man into his home and makes up the couch for him to rest upon, calling out a doctor immediately to check him. The man is dehydrated and malnourished and has a fever developing so must be monitored closely, something which Kostya is a little nervous to do but this man needs help and he isn’t one to turn a needy person away.
It isn’t until that night that the man wakes up, murmuring about mercy and death. Kostya is quick to his side and offers him some water, helping him drink it by holding his neck and pressing the glass to his lips. The man coughs and Kostya holds him, rubbing his back and telling him that he’s safe now. It’s then that the man opens his eyes and then holds his hands together as though he’s praying, bowing his head and muttering something in Portuguese.
He thinks that Kostya is an angel; a beautiful and caring angel sent to him by his god to save him. Kostya shies away from the compliments and presumes the man is delusional with illness but even the next morning, he insists that Kostya is an angel.
He tells Kostya that his name is Fransisco Garupe and he was a priest but he was exiled from his church after trying to stand up for peasants when the head priest would not. Garupe has a good heart, Kostya can tell. They’re similar men, quiet and good.
Their courtship begins quickly but subtly with Garupe trying to show his gratitude for Kostya’s kindness but he’s definitely flirting and Kostya is definitely welcoming it.
But one of Kostya’s labourers blabs about the strange man now living with his master and word gets around to the aristocrats about it and Kostya & his family face scandal! But like Garupe, Kostya will risk exile from his lineage if it means defending someone who needs it.
But Kostya isn’t cast out from high society. In fact, many of them support the fact that their beloved friend finally found love in someone who truly loves him back! It may have almost killed Garupe to leave his faith behind but he knows that his god was helping him along the path to find Kostya.













