"Meeting you was like finding the answer to a question I had long since forgotten asking."
-Ranata Suzuki-
***
They were seen busy unpacking their luggage and having nothing else to do he decided to take a walk around the house, there were nothing interesting for him to see inside the place, thus he went outside. The countryside atmosphere brought him a certain state of peace. The air was fresh and unpolluted, there were rarely any cars passing by and it was far away from the crowd, it was like time could just stop right there. It felt like there was no worry in the world. Of course, it was all just an illusion, even he knew about that, but he could not help but feel attached to the atmosphere although he had only barely arrived.
All of a sudden he heard a giggle from somewhere, curiosity led him toward the sound and he found himself walking further away from the house. From afar, he could see a female figure under the tree. Her light honey hair bounced under the sunlight, she was smiling wholeheartedly as her hand reached out to touch a wild deer who was standing right in front of her. The deer was twice the size of the girl, yet she showed no fear whatsoever.
"Don't worry, I won't hurt you." her voice was soft and gentle.
Just right before she could touch the wild animal Raphael accidentally stepped on a dry stem and it let out a pretty loud creaking noise, scaring the deer off. It jumped and ran away from the girl. She was taken aback by the sudden movement and lost her balance, falling on her butt to the ground.
"Ouch!" she let out a groan and stood up, clearing off the leaves and grass that were sticking to her arm. She looked at his direction but Raphael had hidden himself behind a large tree.
Why am I hiding?
"Clara!" A loud voice called her and a middle aged woman approached her with a panicked expression.
"Goodness, how many times do I have to tell you not to go near those wild animals, look, now your dress is dirty! Come, you need to take a bath, we can't have you show up for dinner looking like this!" Clara shrugged at her and went inside. Clearly she was not sorry at all. After the two were out of sight, Raphael came out of his hiding and took a deep breath. He almost made himself look like a criminal. He did not have to hide but that was his first instinct. Guessed he was still suffering from the flight. It had messed with his head.
Raphael went back to the house and got himself ready for dinner. He walked alongside his parents to the dining room where Dennis had been present in advance. The housekeepers came out of the kitchen with a tray full of food and served them to the guests. The menu for the night was Agneau de lait de Paulliac, which was a lamb dish which was quite popular in Bordeaux. Other than being famous for its wine production, the city was also quite famous for its meat and seafood based dishes. The cook in Bellavance mansion was a local expert, of course they had to serve one of his specialty.
The guests had just about to enjoy their meal, a loud sound of footsteps was heard and two young ladies rushed into the room.
One of them was a black haired girl with pale blue eyes, she was seen wearing a black and white vertical stripes sleeveless dress, her hair was cut just above her shoulder. Surrounding her was an air of coldness, her gaze was sharp, one could tell she appeared to be a brilliant person. Not the friendliest, but definitely brilliant.
The other girl, however, was the honey haired girl he saw from before. She had changed her dress into a simple sky blue one with white and pink carnation embroidery. Now that he had seen her up close, her green eyes were brighter than before, she had a million-dollar smile which she was not afraid to show, and Raphael found himself unable to stare away from her. There was a weird feeling inside his chest, something he had never sensed before.
"Sorry we're late." the two spoke as they marched toward their seats. Dennis shot them a look of disapproval, he was clearly not pleased with their lack of punctuation yet the girls did not seem to be bothered. They flashed a polite smile toward the guests and took their portion of the meal.
"Archard, this is my daughter Clara." he opened his palm toward Clara who was seated right beside him.
"And this one is my god daughter Giselle." he pointed toward the black haired woman. Both girls nodded their heads a sign of introductory.
"You certainly have such beautiful daughters." Darline complimented. Archard nodded in agreement.
Clara was indeed beautiful, she had rosy cheeks and a sweet smile with a soft appearance. Her emerald green eyes, a heritage from her mother, complemented her face well. Giselle on the other hand, was equally as beautiful, but she had a certain coldness of a corpse in her appearance that dulled out her shine, she was like the moon, while Clara was like a shining sun. Though she had a pale blue eyes which made her gaze striking, people had a tendency to compliment Clara over her.
On the other side of the table, Raphael felt troubled, he tried on eating his food like a normal person but he was certain at the moment he altered his eating manner a bit to be politer. Which he found odd. Deep down he wanted to give Clara an impression that he was a polite and well-mannered man, but why?
Clara on the other hand was oblivious to it, instead she quickly became the main attention of the dinner, she held up the conversations with the adults with grace, which shocked Archard and Darline a bit. Her manners and words were simple and sweet, Raphael who had been listening silently found something about the way she behaved that was very different from the girls Raphael had known his entire life. At the moment, he had not figured out what it was yet.
When the meal was over, a bottle of wine was served. It was one of their finest batch and they had kept it purposely for the dinner with the Desroches. Dennis poured over the wine for the guests and for his two daughters.
"Santé!"
Each took a sip of their glass. The sweet taste of the wine quickly filled their mouth, there was definitely nothing better than red wine on a good dinner.
"Your wine is certainly one of the finest." Archard complimented.
"You are too kind." Dennis sheepishly replied.
"Are the girls old enough to drink this?" Darline asked out of curiosity.
"Both of them are sixteen, it's fine. Beside a vintner's daughter must be familiarized with wine since an early age, otherwise what would other people say?" He explained with a hint of pride. Everyone was laughing and talking, even Giselle who they thought were a quiet girl started to open up after a while and joined the conversation. But someone on the table was not following the rest.
Archard noticed his son had been silent during the whole dinner which was unusual for him. He was usually a bit talkative, he asked him what was wrong but he just shook his head.
"Ah, Clara, why don't you get more meat for us?" Dennis suggested. She nodded and brought more chicken from the kitchen, she walked around and offered each of them a piece, and they gladly allowed her put another piece in their plate. When she stopped beside Raphael. She reached out to put a piece on his plate, he grabbed her hand, oddly enough, it took him a moment to realize what he was doing and released her hand. Everyone had their eyes on him. How embarrassing.
"Ah, sorry. I just don't want the meat." That was his first conversation with her. Memorable indeed. She smiled at him and told him it was okay, yet Raphael felt guilty. Clara finished handing out the meat and returned to her seat. The small act was soon forgotten by all, but Raphael.
"Sometimes the small pleasures in life are the sweetest." -Karen Marie Moning- *** The next few days Raphael managed to keep himself busy with the books he found on their library and the newfound admiration he discovered. He ended up following Clara in secret whenever she sneaked out from the house to play, he would hide behind trees to take glances at her. Sometimes the other girl would accompany her, sometimes she was all by herself. When she was on her study room, he would look at her from the window, almost making himself look like a stalker. But he could not find the courage to talk to her. It was one day in the middle of his stay he finally bumped into her. That time she was holding a large canvas in her hand. He wanted to just run away when his shoulder hit hers. The ca
"A promise is a promise." -Proverb- *** On his last day there, the whole Bellavance household was gathered in the living room. Dennis, Clara and Giselle has wanted to bid a proper farewell to the Desroches. Archard was the one who thanked Dennis first for his hospitality and Dennis returned it with a smile. "It was my pleasure." What the adults failed to notice was the gloomy air that surrounded both Clara and Raphael. They had grown fond of each other during Raphael's stay and Clara had spent more time with him than he did with the others. In her young mind, she knew exactly if he left then she would be alone again. Well, not exactly alone, but she would lose a dear friend and the thought made her somewhat upset. The same could be said with Raphael, the young boy's heart had been fill
"Betrayal is the only truth that sticks." Arthur Miller *** Drizzle of rain started pouring over from the sky, cool breeze from outside blew its way into the slightly dimmed room. From the balcony one could hear sounds of bird's wings flapping as they took a flight back to their nest. The sun had begun to set and dusk had arrived. Inside the Bellavance mansion, the sound of feet stomping on the wooden floor echoed throughout the room "What if she finds out about this?" Two figures had cornered themselves, their bodies were rubbing against each other ever so slowly, the woman who had been taking the lead stepped closer to him, wrapping one of her arms on the drape of his neck as with the
"Nobody deserves your tears, but whoever deserves them will not make you cry." -Gabriel Garcia Marquez- *** She had known Marcel for five years. They had been through so much together. They even got engaged and had planned their marriage the next summer. Everyone had known about their relationship. Some had jokingly admitted how envious they were of her. She had dreamed of the bouquet and the cake, the guest and the dress. Oh, how those memories and dreams were shattered in an instant. She thought he would be faithful to her, and only her, but Clara never realized he had also been seeing Giselle at the same time. She turned and faced Giselle. "Giselle, how could you do this to me, we grew up like sisters, how can you betray me like this?" she shouted in disbelief. Out of all people she had kno
"Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family." -Anthony Brandt- *** Celine Desroches had been enjoying her alone time in the patio of her house with a glass of cold lemonade with soda and a pair of huge dark purple sunglasses beside the pool. If there was one thing she loved in life, it had to be the sun and the subtle smell of chlorine mixed with salt. Only the air was not exactly salty because there were barely any beaches in Paris. She had been working all weekdays long, and being a luxury interior designer, she had traveled back and forth between places just to find the right item for the customers, it had been a long week and dealing with people who had no idea about the difference between vanilla and marshmallow white was tough. She would definitely say she deserved
"The first time you fall in love, it changes you forever and no matter how hard you try, that feeling just never goes away." -Nicholas Sparks- *** The black car arrived in front of Bellavance's residence. The driver exited the car and opened up the backseat door, to revealthe now twenty-six years old heir of Desroches family. He walked out with confidence and charisma, mixed with excitement, hope and nervousness at the same time. It was none other than Raphael Desroches. The man had grown a lot since the last time he visited the place. He was taller and his shoulder was broader, he hadchanged his hairstyle and personal style, wearing a white t-shirt and jeans, he took off his round edged square sunglasses and turned his attention to the house. A small smile escaped his lips
"Only actions give life strength, only moderation gives it charm." -Jean Paul- *** The sun had set and the sky turned into a dark twilight shade. When the town was about to reach its peaking hour of beauty, Raphael had just freshly come out of the shower when he was invited by one of the housekeeper for dinner. Once he was done changing his clothes, he walked down to the dining room which still remained pretty much the same as he had remembered it, only then everything felt slightly different. It was far less crowded without his family around and other people, whoever they were that were present in the room at the time, instead, he found Dennis sitting there with a glass of wine in his hand. For a brief moment the man looked like he was on the verge of being an alcoholic, due to the sorrow pre
"Remember tonight, for it is the beginning of always." -Dante Alighieri- *** Her daughter sudden request had troubled him, he was not worried about money or any of those because he knew she was financially capable of providing for herself, and he himself had more than enough to spare for his daughter, he was more worried about his daughter's gentle nature. The last time she was away from her family was when she went to college in the city region of Bordeaux, but it was not too far away from them and she still went to visit every weekend. But Paris was different, she would meet many people with different intents toward her, so far he had raised her to be a righteous woman and he knew she would not stray from her principles, but would other people accept her there? Perhaps from a strange