On a beautiful sunny in a small village in the Villanueva France in 1740 I woke in my little room it was warm I sat up before moving to heat water after pouring the hot water into the basin. I took the rag and started to wash myself I got dressed tightening the corset and pulling on my slip before slipping on sky blue dress a slipped my apron over my almost floor length dress pinning the apron. I put my hair into a bow at the nape of my neck after I had brushed it out I took one last look before I left my room. I went and got all the stuff I needed for breakfast from the stable returning to the house I cooked the meal and sighed as I set the table. My father joined me as I was finishing our breakfast we ate and afterwards I grabbed my borrowed book and headed out. It was near 8 when I stepped out the door and started to walk to the church buying a loaf of bread.
I stuck it in my apron as I walked by the bakery I pet the horse at the blacksmith and gave a lemon to the donkey that was across from the smiths. I walked by the school as the boys were filing in the headmaster scowling at me as I jumped from stone to stone in the pond skipping as I neared the laundering area. I could hear them talking about me as I walked past people and children I knew I was different I ignored them I was almost 15 and I loved to read. The old women and girls were ringing out laundry as I walked past them towards the center of the village I had been a young child when we moved to Villanueva from Paris. I passed the market seeing people trading their wares as I arrived at the church I returned the book and thanked the priest Pierre Roberd. I walked as I started to think about my favorite book wish life were more like the books as I passed the barber who was pulling a man's tooth
I bought jam winding my way through the flower sellers I passed the cosmetics maker an stopped the pet the geese I made my way through the center of town I passed the fountain as I heard my name I turned to see Adam coming towards me I wasn't one to rudely snub someone but I didn't like Adam he was a brute I waited as he approached handing me flowers saying "Good morning Belle, hah wonderful book you have their"
"Have you read it" I asked looking down
"Well no not that one but books you know" he held out the flowers for me to take saying. "These are for you, for your dinner table. Shall I join you this evening?"
"Sorry, not this evening".
"Busy?" he asked watching me as I spoke his eyes unreadable.
"No" I said as I took a breather closing my eyes and walking away from the
I walked home I kept looking behind me until I was right outside of my home I heard my father's music box invention tune as I entered the house I heard him singing
"How does a moment last forever?
How can a story never die?
It is love we must hold onto,
Never easy but we try.
Sometime our happiness is captured,
Somehow a time and place standstill,
Love lives on
Inside our hearts and always will."
I made dinner and then I took it to my father helping him with his music box and Philippe I asked him to bring me a rose like the one in the painting of me and my mother from when I was a baby. After he left I went to do laundry I was sitting reading when a little girl asked what I was doing so I told her before I started teaching her to read. The headmaster of the school was walking by and got angry as that I was teaching a little girl to read. One of the older biddies from the village convinced them they should dumped my laundry on the rocks I gathered the wet clothes up into my woven basket the Pierre Roberd helped me. I was walking home when Adam came over to the house his features set in a guise of triumph as I was walking through the garden to go inside the house.