Promises Kept and Promises Broken
Chapter One
It was not exactly a sunny day nor a cloudy one, it was…normal…I looked outside of the carriage and saw many of the indigenous people, I grimaced as I saw their dirty faces and tattered clothing, they were all asking for alms but very few were given. I do not know whether to feel sorry for them or to feel disgusted by them.
"Celeste, are you excited to see our house?" my father asked, I nodded and smiled.
"Of course I am Papa, but…do you think I will make friends?" I asked him, looking disgustedly at my dark skin tone underneath the gloves that masks it.
"Of course you will Celeste." He said in his usual soft tone, touching my arm with one rough hand, it was always uncomfortable to feel my father's rough hand against my smooth skin, but I had to keep it from being seen.
My father, was formerly an orphan peasant who worked his days away until he found work as a tailor and started his business in clothing, it was in that business that he met my mother, Lady Jeanette Fleur Apostol-Braizier, they fell in love and married against my maternal grandparents' will. It is a union which was left unblessed, but still my grandparents love me.
"Aceline, come here, let me show you something." My mother told me, I complied and went to her. She set me beside her and told me to look out the window. When I did, I saw a large house, it was beautiful and there were gardens with so many different flowers, most of which I can name and I was just so awed by it that I cannot speak.
"That is our home now my dear." Mother told me, smiling at my expression.
"It's so beautiful." Was all I managed to say, I had lived in many beautiful houses in the past years but this house caught me most of all. Perhaps it was just me but I believe this house is more than a house, it is special.
"Celeste, your grandparents also wanted to know if you would like to go and visit them, they will be having a ball next week and they wish to introduce you to everyone." My father told me, my face lit up when I heard him mention a ball. My grandparents always wanted to introduce me but my mother refuses telling me that when I turn sixteen, I will be introduced to society. A coming-of-age party as she would call it.
"Francois, you know she is not even close to the age she is required to attend balls." Mother told my father sternly. I looked at mother and sighed, she will never allow me to meet anyone unless I am of the "proper" age to do so.
"Mother, I am not a child anymore, I'm fourteen." I told her again as I try to prove my point; but that being said, my mother shook her head.
"Celeste Aceline Apostol-Braizier, unless you are of age, I will not allow you to attend any social gatherings of any kind." She told me, "My decision is final." She told my father this time. I huffed in annoyance and just went back to looking out the window, trying to find a way to attend a ball without having to wait two more years.
Once we got inside our home, I was led to my room by a servant and was left there to see how it looks. Once alone, I looked about the room, it was fully furnished with a wardrobe and a bed with a canopy and everything else; perhaps it was just me or something else but I was really drawn to the fact that the balcony outside was situated just above the garden, because that would mean that I could just stay out at the balcony during night and look at the night sky with the scent of the garden in the air, I have always been attracted to flowers, just like any other girl, but I am attracted in them in a level that I even began studying the meanings of the flowers.
/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/
It has been a week since we have moved to our home and mother still would not allow me to go to the ball which will be held today, mother got cross with me when I asked her why she forbids me to go to social gatherings and she gets to go to those events all the time. She told me that she has to but she must be having fun in those balls, she just pretends she is all formal to keep her image. Father on the other hand is not even fond of going to social gatherings unless it is required, he will not go.
I was strolling about in the garden, looking at the flowers and saying their names out loud alongside their meanings, that is when I saw an Agapanthus, it meant love. I smiled and picked it, carefully putting it in my hair; I was someone who is fond of the idea of love, perhaps it is because I read too many stories with love as a subject that I cannot help it.
Despite my not being allowed to go to the ball, I was still on a good mood; it is because in two weeks it will be my birthday and my grandparents will be visiting us. Every time my grandparents visit, they bring so many gifts for me, of course mother and father receive something for they still have to be civil or try to mend the broken bond with each other but they are so stiff when they talk. All they talk about is the weather or the recent happenings here and there or father's business, sometimes when the silence invades the room, they request for me to sing or to play any instrument I wish, which I love to do.
"Aceline, where are you?" My mother called for me, I sighed and went inside the house to see her inside a peasant's attire. I knew it, why she is wearing that I do not know.
"I will be going to the slums for a while and may be gone until dawn." She said as she set down one of her bags and servants rushed about carrying trunks and baskets and the like.
"What for?" I asked.
"They need help." Was all mother told me, I looked at her confusedly. Why would mother want to help peasants? After all, they are just the scum of the earth, who cares about these people?
"Mother, the slums are filled with horrid people." I protested, mother looked at me with a surprised expression.
"Aceline, perhaps you have forgotten that your father was a peasant." Mother said, her voice growing hard and she sounded cross with me.
"I know that mother but father is different, he is not cruel and a thief." I retorted, the next thing I felt was my mother's slap.
"Aceline, is that what all your visits to your grandparents has done?" She asked in disbelief, "Is this what they told you? That anyone who is not capable of such luxurious lives are thieves and conmen?" She continued, her eyes showing her fury, her face had gone paler than usual and she was shaking with anger, for the first time in my life, I am frightened of my mother.
Before I could say another word, mother told me to go to my room and told me not to show my face to her until I learn to respect the poor the way I would respect my elders and fellow nobles. I still do not understand why she was so cross with me, all I have said are what my grandparents have told me.