Luisa: The Orphan Tale

Part XIV: Reunion

Luisa woke up the next morning and quickly dressed herself in a fit of excitement! She woke up Dubois to tell him she was going and then she quickly breakfasted downstairs and headed out the door.

For some reason she had the inkling to visit her old convent, she'd been raised there and wondered what the mother superior would think of her return and all her tales! Omitting the less Christian ones of course!

She walked through the busy streets of Sevilla, taken aback by how much nostalgia she felt. She loved to roam the busy streets as a child! She used to run errands for the sisters and was always scurrying and running about, ducking under and around all the people and horses, wagons and carriages.

Luisa's face smiled wide as she gazed upon all the city's sights and wonders and gazed back through her own memories of being here.

She was walking through the market of the city, looking at the many stalls and the goods they sold. She considered buying some jewelry as a gift to Genevieve or a new cane for Dubois. She'd think on it for a while.

As she turned away from a stall she ran into a girl who was holding a stackful of books.

The girl went down with all the volumes tumbling with her, the impact had spun Luisa and she'd landed hard on her hands, skinning and bloodying them.

"My apologies!" She said as she recovered and turned immediately to help the girl.

"Mon dieu ! Tu viens de nulle part" A Frenchwoman's voice rang out, there was an innocent and familiar tone to it.

Luisa looked up and saw that auburn haired giant of a girl she'd know all those years ago in Paris.

"Elise!" Luisa cried! "Is it really you!?" Luisa asked now speaking in French.

Elise stopped stacking the books and looked up at Luisa as they both sat on their knees.

"Luisa?" She asked, tears immediately forming as she looked upon her lover. "Luisa!" She squeaked as she jumped on Luisa and hugged her so tight!

"Elise! Oh my love! How have you been?" Luisa asked crying. "Oh how I have missed you! My heart has ached for years without you to fill it my bonne fille!" Luisa said as she held and kisses Elise all over.

"I had thought the worst!" Elise said as she sat in Luisa's arms, the two of them sat peculiarly in the center of the marketplace on the ground.

"Come, my love!" Lusia said bringing the girl to her feet and grabbing her books. "Let's go sit somewhere!" Luisa said as she then led Elise to a bench nearby.

"Luisa! My God I can't believe it's you!" Elise squealed. "I thought you'd died!"

Luisa laughed. "Why ever did you think that?" Lusia asked. Before she answered Luisa looked at that face that she hadn't seen in so long. It looked just as young a fair and not at all tarnished by any hardship thankfully! Luisa's feelings in that moments were indescribable! Relief and love and care all came flooding to her heart!

"The word was that Chloe had been arrested for arson and you were last seen struggling downstream in the river. I was almost certain you'd drowned!" Elise explained. Her hands never left Luisa's, she gripped them as if her life depended on it. In her mind her best life did!

"Wait how did you know?" Luisa asked.

"I came back. I couldn't leave you two, I know you wanted me to go and be safe and happy but I needed to be with you. I was too late it seemed." Elise sighed.

"Did you learn of Chloe's fate?" She asked.

"All I heard was she was arrested. I felt there was nothing I could do so I actually heeded Chloe's words and went to Prussia." Elise explained.