•𝙀𝙪𝙘𝙖𝙡𝙮𝙥𝙩𝙪𝙨 •✧ 𝙂𝙞𝙡𝙗𝙚𝙧𝙩 𝘽𝙡𝙮𝙩𝙝𝙚

𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝟏

My name is Frances Delacour and I have been an orphan for 16 years now.

after the death of my parents when I was only but 4 months old, I was sent to a small town in the country and lived with my aunt Stacy, her and her husband looked after me and brought me up as if I was their own, until my uncle came down with an awful case of influenza, which sadly lead him too his death, I was 15 when he died. But, my aunt Stacy never stopped being herself, and learnt to deal with the after affects of the death of a loved one, though me, not so much, I never really recovered from the death of my uncle, he was and unusual person - as is my auntie- And in the best way possible, he taught me how to build fires, forts and even sheds, he really was an imaginative man, and I never did get over his death, things got easier with time and me and aunt Stacy found a way to live without him for a short while, until a few weeks after my 16th birthday, money began to grow harder to get and our pantry grew smaller and smaller, until we only had a few days worth of food left in the cupboard.

My aunt decided that it would be fun and adventurous to move to another town, she said I would make new friends and that she May be able to get a job in the post office for a while, She had decided to move to the nearby town of avonlea.

———

"Did you pack your green dress? Oh and the hat you got at the fair last week?"

Asked my aunt whilst running around the now empty house.

"Yes, did you remember to pack your boots, you always forget them."

I replied with a small smile.

"Oh I almost forgot them!" She said before running upstairs frantically. I smiled at her clumsiness and turned around to look at the portrait on the wall behind me, it was a painting of me, aunt Stacy and uncle Robert, we got it at the town fair two years ago at a stall that sold custom paintings. I Remember needing the loo desperately whilst that was being painted, I smiled to myself as I grabbed the edges of the painting before lifting it off the wall and placing it in a crate besides where the sofa used to be. I was going too miss this place. it was all I ever knew, I remember accidentally flooding the kitchen when I tried to make a pond for the ducks that always lingered around the small cottage, and tripping on the last step off the stairs so often that we had to put a cushion at the top of the stairs to stop me from injuring myself.

My attention was drawn from the crate when I hear the consistent creaking off the old, badly repaired steps.

"Alright, I think that's everything." She walked over too me and swung her arm around my shoulders as we walked out the front doors. "Mr rosen next door is going to take the last few crates to the new house tomorrow, he says it's on his way to the market." I nodded in response as I allowed the front door to close behind me. Aunt Stacy removed her arm from my shoulders and locked the front door with a large metal key, which was heavily rusted.

I flung my bag into the back of the carriage and hopped onto the cushioned bench before shortly followed by my auntie, I passed her the reigns and looked back at the small woodland cottage for the last time, smiling at all the memories I made there.

"You will love the new house, it is rather large, and it has a big bay window in your bedroom" she told me as she tightened her grip on the reigns.

"I can't wait." I told her grinning

________

We arrived in the small town of Avonlea within 2 hours, The journey was beautiful when we weren't passing through busy cities, I began counting the trees about half way through but gave up when I realised how many forest we would pass through on the way.