More | Simon Basset

wander

It was a warm summer day in the south of France, Provence to be exact, as Eleanor prepared the tea.  It wasn't completely hot as there was a nice breeze flowing through the wind.  She had her trunks packed as she was going to be gone for a whilst as her pet cat, Gaston, was sitting outside with her as he did a sensual walk to a slinky strut and he walked between her legs and purred as he was excited to be with his owner.

The Bridgerton family enjoyed the quiet countryside of Provence.  Since her father, James, had been cut off from the Bridgerton family money the moment he married his wife who was Eleanor's mother, Mary, he had started his own business making whiskey as he named it JB Whiskey.  It had quickly become one of the most sought after liquors in all of Europe shipping to the UK, Italy, Austria, Belgium and of course France.  James and Mary Bridgerton did not have titles nor were they insistent on having them.  They were perfectly content with the life they had in France.  They did not care if their daughter married a man of great title nor did they urge her to.  They only wanted their daughter's happiness and if that man were to hold one they would actually be concerned, worried in fact, as they do not want happened to them to happen to her.  

She would miss home.  She would miss her maman and papa.  Her friends.  Gaston.  Everything that she was familiar with would be but a mere memory to her.  

If she were being honest, she was surprised that her father even was allowing her to go to England.  It had taken loads of convincing from her mother but eventually he gave in and he was hoping he made the right decision.  What helped him to stay afloat was that he was thinking of his daughter's future.  

(Her father hadn't spoken to his siblings in ages.  It was remarkable that he even allowed her to visit them.)

It all started back when her papa began to date her maman.  When he first started courting her and had mentioned to his siblings, specifically Hugo, how much he loved her, he forbade it.  Thus, creating tension between the brothers.  Not only did he not give his blessing for them to be married, but he even tried tearing them apart, by setting her papa up to make it seem like he was unfaithful to the woman he wanted to marry.

Unlike the rest of her cousins from aunt Violet, she still had both of her parents.  She felt like it wasn't fair that she got to experience what having both parents felt like whilst they only had one.  Life could be so unfair sometimes.  

"Je t'aime, Ella," her maman tells her as she kisses her head and she closes her eyes as she holds her.

"Je t'aime, maman," she kissed her mother's cheek and moved onto her father as he pulled her in for a hug.

"Be careful, oui?" He asked his daughter and she nodded her head against his clothes.  

"Je t'aime, papillon," he tells her as he kisses her head as well.  (I love you, butterfly).

"Je t'aime maman and papa," she tells them both and kisses his stubbled cheek that felt like tiny pine needles from the Christmas pine tree.  

Though the Bridgerton family was not French, they had lived there for her whole life, twenty-three years to be exact, she almost spoke French fluently.  Sometimes even having a French accent as she spoke it but that was few and far between.

Her trunks were being loaded into the carriage as they spent the last few moments with each other until she would come home again.  

"Miss, we're ready for you," the man told the young woman and she smiled at him and thanked him.

"Au revoir papa and mama," Eleanor waved to her parents as her carriage took off.  

Dear readers,