Porcelain

26

Fleurette on the other hand, retired to her room and sat down at her desk and flicked through one of the books which was on it. Resting her head against her hand she rolled her eyes skyward. No part of her had the attention to read right now. In all honesty no part of her wished to be stationary right now. All she wanted was to have a task at hand to do. Being sat still caused her to take to nibbling her nails and twiddling her thumbs. Out of experience she knew full well that it'd be another few hours before anyone was up and about in the house.

All in all, Fleurette needed to find something, anything, to do to pass a few hours. Pulling off her cloak and throwing it over the back of her chair, she pushed herself up out of the chair. Turning swiftly on her heels she walked over to the door quietly and slowly. Peering around the doorway, she eyed up the dark corridor which was slowly getting filled with the morning sun. Despite knowing no one was up and about she felt like she needed to be careful and make sure not to wake anyone up.

Shutting the door quietly behind herself she walked slowly down the corridor. She passed Eleanor's room and briefly glanced at the dark wooden door before setting her eyes straight ahead again. Reaching a doorway, she reached out slowly and hesitantly and put her hand on the cold handle. Giving it a twist and pushing the door inwards she eyed up the full bookcases which were before her.

She needed a task to do and the only decent task she knew of which would occupy her mind was to venture into her father and mother's library and scan the bookcases for something to read. It took her a while to find something to read, happily enough she walked around the library as her eyes scanned the words within the book which was in her grasp. Nearly every fictional tale which was in here she had read at least once. But nonfiction books she hadn't really glanced upon before. So at this point in time Fleurette paced the floor quietly reading about the wonders of the world.

It was sometime later when there were noises from below that Fleurette ventured out of the library and made a beeline towards the kitchen. Peering around the door, she raised an eyebrow, turning around Geoffrey looked in her direction. Geoffrey was another servant which much like Claudia, had been working in the household for as long as she could remember. "Good morning, Fleurette," he spoke quietly, "Did I wake you? The blasted door was jammed again." The older man smiled and nodded in the direction of the back door.

Fleurette walked more into the room and sat down at the kitchen table. She lifted up her arms and put the book down in front of her. "I never went back to sleep." She answered plainly while taking to reading about a place called Africa. She was currently enthralled about the different animals which apparently inhabited the environment.

"Are you hungry?" Geoffrey's polite voice pulled her out of her reading. Flitting her eyes up to look at him, she smiled slowly and shook her head. "You know you really should eat something."

"I will, when I am hungry." Fleurette smiled and lowered her head to commence reading again. Geoffrey looked at her worriedly, yet started to do his morning routine of getting the breakfast and teas ready for Eleanor and for the other servants which inhabited the house.

——

"We should avoid a Wednesday." Eleanor said while dabbing a handkerchief under her eyes. No sooner had the elder Bousquet got up and ventured down into the kitchen her eyes settled onto the reading form of Fleurette. As soon as they did and Fleurette felt her gaze and looked up at her confused, did she burst into tears.

The redhead soon got enveloped in a tight embrace and it would be several minutes before she was going to get released. Right now, after they all had breakfast, or in Fleurette's case; forced food down just to stop Claudia, Geoffrey and Eleanor from nagging at her, the sisters were sitting in the drawing room with the nearest churches priest.

Fleurette flinched and looked at her confused. Eleanor gave her an equally confused look back. "Why should we avoid a Wednesday?" Fleurette asked completely bemused, she needed to ask the obvious.

"Because it is in the middle of the week. It would be inconvenient to have it then." Eleanor answered back while reaching out and grasping onto her cup lightly. Lifting it up she drunk some of the tea which was within it. Holding it in her hands, she enjoyed the warmth which the cup gave off and looked at the priest.

Fleurette mused over her words and still looked confused. She didn't honestly get how a Wednesday could inconvenience anyone, in her mind, funerals in general were an inconvenience because they were horrible experiences all round. However, Eleanor's words made sense to Eleanor and Fleurette was leaving it as that. "How about a Friday then?" She questioned she could see Eleanor was about to say something but she beat her to it. "We cannot have it on a Monday because no one wants to start their week off with a funeral. So why not end the week with one?"

"That's a rather bleak way to look at it." The priest chimed in, "Perhaps we can decide on a day later. Why do we not settle out the rest of the service?" Fleurette could see the old man was trying to stop a sibling argument from breaking out.

"Very well," she said while fidgeting slightly from her spot on the couch next to Eleanor. Between the two of them she was being the more helpful. At any given moment Eleanor would suddenly burst into tears. Although little did her older sister know that she had already shed loads of tears for their father. Right now Fleurette didn't think she had it in her to cry anymore.

"We should get in contact with Monsieur Firmin and Andre." Eleanor said once the door had been shut and she was left alone with her sister. Eleanor slowly turned and looked at her. Fleurette had picked up a book which she had refused to let go. Opening the pages and finding the one she had got to, she sighed. "We cannot return back there yet."

"Can we afford to return back there anyway?" Fleurette asked bluntly, Eleanor looked at her confused. Sensing the growing confusion in her sister, she looked at her sidewards. "We need a decent paying job to keep this house running."

"Felix said he would assist where he could."

"That is very kind of him, but we cannot depend solely on him." Fleurette shook her head slowly, "That would not be fair."

"So what?" Eleanor questioned while standing up suddenly. "We just leave? Just like that?" Fleurette looked up at her and closed her book slowly. "You would really leave that job to find another? Fleurette you love dancing, are you telling me you will find another which you shall love as much?"

Fleurette's green eyes darkened a little and it was clear that she had struck a nerve somewhere. Frowning lightly, Fleurette stood up and walked silently out of the room, she turned briefly to look in her direction before walking quickly up the stairs. Fleurette was trying to be logical in her reasoning, pragmatic at best and Eleanor wasn't in that frame of mind right now, clearly. No matter what alternative, or suggestion Fleurette would offer, she knew Eleanor would have a response waiting. There was a quiet slamming sound which signalled to Eleanor that her sister had entered her room. Apart from that there were no other sounds from Fleurette for the rest of the day.

——

Reedited: 11/Jan/2022