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| Enchanted |
Warning: Pairing of Andre with original characters.
Part 4
Andr� had awakened in the clearing. It had to be very late, judging by the protests of his stomach, completely indifferent to love's sorrows. He heaved a sigh and got up to go back to take his horse that was quietly cropping the grass.
�Come on, my little one, let's go home... �
Some time later he arrived at the mansion and as soon as he crossed the threshold of the kitchen he was attacked by a furious grandmother.
�You scoundrel! Is this the time to return home? With all the work that must be done!�
She was just about to reprimand him a little bit with a ladle, when she noticed the sad air of her grandson. She adjusted her glasses on her nose, so as to better see his face: no doubt, something serious had happened.
�Andr�, what happened? You are not in your normal state...�
Andr� moved aside from his ancestress, putting on a smiling mask and he said: �But not at all, grandmother, I only have a great hunger! If you want me to work you have to give me something to eat! My stomach is pretty impatient...� and he laughed.
This didn't fool the old lady. She thought that the presence of the new maids at the mansion wasn't a bad thing after all, although they gave her problems with their ineptitude; perhaps with them, Andr� could divert himself... well, in the good sense, because Grandmother cared a lot about morality!
�Andr�, the new maids that I have hired today are giving me problems� she said while filling a dish with stewed beef �they are so slow, inept... a disaster! I think that I need help.�
�New maids?� Andr� asked, surprised.
�Yes, the General had decided that it was necessary to increase their number... undoubtedly he thinks that I am too old...�
Andr� laughed: �You, old? I can hardly believe it, given the energy that you unleash when you're angry!� he said, kissing his grandmother on the cheek.
�You scoundrel! So, will you help me?�
�Of course, your stew is too good to refuse.�
After the meal, Nanny, together with Andr�, went to see what the four new maids were doing. She had left them at the first floor, for the cleaning of the bedrooms, with the order to sweep and wash the floor and dust the furniture. She hoped that they were able to do at least that. The dish washing had been a disaster, not to mention the laundry: the set of glasses for 24 was now for 12, and the General's white shirts were a little holey here and there because they had removed the stains with too much ardour. Once at the first floor they noticed that there was water that was flowing on the floor: yes, they had definitely washed the parquet!
Following the current of the water that was flowing, Nanny and Andr� arrived at the corridor of the bedrooms, and there, the encounter: four maidens pretty and young in maidservant's outfits were coming forward, all taken by their task. An angelic blonde, a romantic brunette, a delicate brown haired and a peppy redhead. Each one was holding in her hand a bucket of water and was splashing waterfalls on the parquet.
Nanny couldn't restrain herself anymore: �But what are you doing, you brainless?! Stop!�
�Oh, Madame, but you asked us to wash the floor,� said one.
�Yes, and this it is exactly what we are doing,� said another.
Nanny hardly suppressed her anger. �Not like that, girls, you have to use the floor-cloths... yes, you have to wipe the parquet with the floor-cloths...�
Andr� was amazed: they were really so inept, was it possible?
Nanny took a scrubbing-brush from the brooms closet: �You can do this job with this...� and she wanted to give a demonstration, but Andr� took the tool from her hands.
�Grandmother, it isn't a job for you... tonight I don't want to hear your complaints for having had your back broken! I will give the demonstration instead...�
Nanny left the broom to her grandson, moved by his concern: always caring and good, this child.
�All right: girls, this is my grandson Andr�.�
The damsels surrounded him, all smiling, to introduce themselves: �My name is Marguerite, pleased to meet you.� the blond, blue-eyed girl said.
�I am Lilia.� the brunette girl said.
�And my name is Balsamine.� the brown-haired girl whispered, lowering her eyes.
The red-headed girl smiled shaking her flaming hair: �My name is Calendula.� [1]
�Nice to meet you.� Andr� said, then, turning towards his grandmother: �Come on, go to get some rest. I will take care of them, I will do my work later.�
�But, Andr�...� the old lady tried to protest.
�I think you need rest.� he said with a tone that excluded any objection.
�Okay, my child, thank you.�
�See you later... Oh, Grandma... and Oscar, where is he? I haven't yet seen him this afternoon.� [2]
�He returned to the barracks this morning and he told me he won't come back tonight...�
�Ah, well.� Andr� said, trying to affect an indifferent expression while he thought: �It is true... she no longer wants to have anything to do with me... everything is over... also our friendship.�
The damsels exchanged glances of understanding... Oscar won't return... what a stroke of luck!
�Well,� Andr� said, letting a sigh escape from his lips while he turned toward the girls �you have to hold this tool in this way...� and gave them a perfect lesson about the floor washing. The maids were enchanted by the qualities of this man and cast at him broad smiles; above all they appreciated the movements of his muscular arms, and the inclination that he was taking and... they continued to smile widely at him.
Andr� noticed the dumb smiles of the damsels, but he didn't know what to think. After having dried the parquet, he gave each of them a task: dusting the furniture, putting the linen in the wardrobes, cleaning the windowpanes and changing the flowers in the bedrooms.
This should have been so easy, and yet... a few seconds after having sent the maids to their tasks, while he was putting mop and floor-cloths back, a feminine scream rent the silence. He rushed and saw in a bedroom the brunette Lilia, who was supposed to dust the furniture: she had dropped a crystal vase and had her finger cut trying to pick up the pieces. She was crying so Andr� pulled out his handkerchief to make a bandage for her: she took advantage of it to cuddle up to him.
�Oh, thanks, Andr�, you are such a kind man...� she said, fluttering her eyelashes.
Andr� hadn't the time to react before he heard another cry: he rushed again and he saw in another bedroom the brown-haired Balsamine buried under a mountain of linens that she had badly stored in the wardrobe that had all fallen on her. He freed her and then he shook her because she seemed not to recover. She murmured, laying her hands on his virile shoulders, clutching at them as if she were drowning.
�Oh, Andr�, thanks, I thought I was about to choke to death...� she said finally, looking at him with doe-like eyes, �you have saved me... You are so chivalrous...�
Andr� freed himself, and he was about to put the maid again on her feet, when they heard a very strong noise produced by a ladder just fallen on the ground. The noise came from the General's bedroom, where the red haired Calendula was cleaning the windowpanes. And in fact Andr� entered the room just in time to see the beautiful maid who was holding on to the curtains rod, in the air and on the verge of falling. He ran and the damsel in distress fell into his arms like a ripe apple.
�Oh, thank you, you have saved me... ah, how strong you are...� she sighed, while caressing his biceps.
Andr� put her down, and said to the maids: �I have something to do in the kitchen... you three for the moment don't do anything, rest a while... above all don't do anything! I will be back soon...� and he headed for the kitchen. He definitely needed something to drink... he was not so naive to the point of not realising that something was happening with those damsels, but he needed to pull himself together.
Ah, yes, he had just been rejected three more times by the woman whom he loved and suddenly three young and cute women were making... advances... on him: decidedly his life was strange. He helped himself to a glass of cognac and sighed.
He had just finished his cognac when the blonde Marguerite entered the kitchen, all shaken; she took him by an arm and with her blue eyes in tears she told him: �Oh, Andr�, come with me, there is a problem in the mademoiselle Oscar's bedroom, hem, I mean, in the Colonel's bedroom...�
Andr� looked at her questioning: �And you, how do you know this... ah, bah, the other maids told you, didn't they? But what is happening?�
The young woman was trembling: �Oh, come, you should see yourself... there is a horrible insect among the flowers!� she said, leading him towards the bedroom.
The blond maid pushed Andr� in the bedroom and closed the door. Andr� turned around and saw that hidden behind the door there were the three other girls.
�So... it was a trap...� he said, raising an eyebrow.
The blonde Marguerite advanced towards him, followed by the other girls, who came to surround him.
�Do not say so, Andr�... it isn't a trap... only an offer of love...�
�You are kidding, aren't you?� he replied, trying to keep his cool.
�Not at all...� she said, caressing his cheek. �And we all agreed... you know... none of us want to give up on you... do you understand?�
Andr� looked at her, shocked, then he said: �I... I can't.�
He tried to free himself, heading for the door. A feminine hand held him by an arm.
�It is useless to run away... she will never love you, she will never be yours... so why not to take pleasure when it is offered to you? We know perfectly well that your heart is already taken and we... we are not interested in having it...� the blonde said, whispering behind his ear. �Come... nobody will disturb us here... and we said that you have gone out...�
Where was he going to end up to dull his senses and not to think of her anymore? A shiver ran through his entire body.
The beautiful blonde took his hand and made him turn around, looking at him with her blue eyes so similar to other sky-blue eyes.
�Come... this is nothing more than a dream... only a dream...� she said, kissing him, while a tear ran down along the cheek of the young man.
And Andr� let himself sink into this illusion.
(the fourth condition in the next chapter... ^___^ ...)
Notes:
[1] Regarding the four damsels, in French one could understand that they were the spirits of the flowers by their names: Marguerite (it means daisy) for the yellow daisy, Balsamine for the impatiens (also known as balsamina), Lilia for colchicum (which is part of the family of Liliacee) and Calendula for the field marigold (calendula).
Marguerite, Lilia and Balsamine are real woman names in French, while Calendula is the name of a witch who is a character of a French-Belgian comics, "Isabelle".
[2] I remind you that in the French version Oscar is believed to be a man by everyone except few people, so normally Andr�, before strangers, uses the masculine to talk about her.
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