Heart's Content

Part Forty-Nine

{'The Winter Garden' by Eduard Hau from Wikimedia Commons}

Author's Note: This part started pushing 4k words so I decided to split it up into two parts rather than one, on that note, the end of this part might be kind of wonky since I just did the split where I thought would be most reasonable without actually changing anything.

There were plenty of rumors surrounding the dismissals of the Abeleur governesses and from these Lisette was able to glean simple truths. The master of the house was named Julien Abeleur and he had business connections in Astiria and Kashal so it was probably best if she did not use her family name upon her introduction to the household. Julien's fiancé was Lenora Kuznekov, a widow from Daltis who resituated herself in Kashal after her husband's death and had met the Abeleurs through a mutual acquaintance. Julien was married at the time of their introduction and his now deceased wife was the mother of his daughter Adelaide. Lisette thought that perhaps Lenora was overly protective of Adelaide because she had known her mother and disapproved of one thing or another that the governesses had each done but the more information Bernadette and Mirella provided her with, the more she realized that it wasn't actually anything that the governesses had done so much as it was Lenora herself and from that she determined that it was best to just stay out of her way and that was exactly what she meant to do. It was too great an opportunity for her to lose either through misunderstanding or an error on her own part.

The dirt road that led from the Landrys' home also encircled the entire island so that those that tended fields far from the town or came into the far ports from the other side of the island had an easy means of travel. This main road forked once it reached the edge of the town, the right leading through the market and by the main port while the left led behind the market's wall and passed by rows of cottages, many of which were not unlike the Landrys' while others were bigger or smaller and the farther away from the market one got, the larger the buildings seemed to grow even though there were none Lisette had seen that appeared to be more than four floors tall.

Bernadette walked with Lisette to the foot of the hill where the Abeleur manor was situated. The lower part of the hill was dotted by smaller houses with equally small yards that took up space around the Abeleurs' property, leaving it with a very slight patch of lawn in the front and giving the manor the appearance of being part of a large city rather than just another home on an island with few.

The house itself seemed to be constructed of more carefully chosen stone rather than cobbled together with whatever rocks were to be found and so it appeared more stately and refined than the other more frugal domiciles in the area. Lisette easily recognized the style of the manor's architecture as one that was common in Astiria and given that the manor was weather worn though well tended, it had likely stood on the island for some time as a relic of the Abeleurs' ancestry. There were a few eccentricities that were not common features of manors in her homeland such as the vine patterns that were carved into the stone around the tall double doors of polished teak as well as around each of the visible windows. The effort made her smile slightly considering all of the natural vines that grew freely around this building and many of the others on the island, making the whole design practically obsolete.

"Thank you, Birdy," Lisette waited patiently while Bernadette gave her clothing a last minute check. They had learned that Lenora was very particular when it came to how the governesses dressed, she required that their gowns be loose fitting and have a hem no higher than the ankles, their sleeves must cover their wrists and be billowy and of fabric that wasn't sheer, and that the neckline must be no lower than the collarbones. The requirements brought to mind the most strict sense of modesty and considering the heat that had been present on the island since she arrived, she wondered how anyone would be able to stand the climate in such garb. Lenora also required that the colors of the gown be subdued earth tones but at the very least she wasn't so strict as to dictate the fabric from which the gown was made and for that Lisette was grateful, "wish me luck!"