His Lioness (Alan Rickman FF) ENGLISH VERSION

Chapter 10

Saskia got up bright and early and put on her old holey jeans and a flannel shirt to go with them. Almost dancing, she walked down the stairs to the first floor. It already smelled wonderfully of coffee. Even though it had been so long since she had been here, everything felt so familiar again.

She walked into the spacious kitchen. "Good morning!" she called out to the group. Sandy and Sam were already seated at the table, serving themselves delicious breakfasts. Melly was just standing by the coffee machine, pouring a cup for her.

"Good morning Sia!" came from all of them almost simultaneously.

"I've already put your old rubber boots down for you, better safe than sorry. It's often quite wet at the field next to the sea, don't want you to ruin your sneakers," Melly spoke to Saskia.

"Thank you Melly! I almost didn't think about them anymore. Luckily the feet don't grow anymore when you're old!" she replied with a grin.

Meanwhile, she joined the others at the table and sipped a cup of the aromatic coffee first. Only then did she grab a loaf of bread and help herself to breakfast.

Strengthened, she immediately went outside into the yard, where the ancient McLaren tractor was already ready for departure. Sam walked up to it and lovingly stroked the red, faded paint. "Real British workmanship," he shouted proudly, "let's go! Let's not lose any more time!" he added and got in.

Saskia didn't have to be asked twice and got in as well. She squeezed onto the small platform above the tractor tire, which could also be used as a seat. Together they drove out of the yard, along the country road. After a short drive, Sam was already turning onto the dirt road. The bumpy road led directly to the sea, they could already see the small wooden shed that served as a shelter for the sheep.

Once there, they got out. The sky was cloudy and they could clearly smell the salty air and see the sea. The small flock of sheep stood just outside the shelter drinking from the water provided.

"Come Sia, you can help me get fresh straw for the shelter from the back of the hut in a minute," said Sam.

"Coming!" shouted back Saskia, as she just enjoyed the view and forgot about the actual work.

Together they went to the back of the small hut. Sam handed her a pitchfork to lift the straw into the wheelbarrow. It smelled slightly dusty but wonderfully like hay, which was also stored here. Saskia loved this smell, unfortunately she got it far too rarely in the nose.

All in all they needed four loads of straw to renew the floor for the sheep. They had moved away by now and were grazing near the sea.

Saskia was glad that she had the rubber boots on, the grass was quite wet by the morning dew. In addition, there was always droppings from the animals around. After they had looked after the right for some time and had talked about everything possible during the walk, they decided to go home again.

Lionel, in the meantime, stood in his huge office at home and looked out the floor-to-ceiling window over his park. This stretched farther than he could see from here.

Slowly he strode back to his enormous mahogany desk and sat down in his comfortable armchair. Just then his butler entered his office with the ordered coffee and placed it in front of Lionel.

He began to drink his coffee and looked at Gem, who was sitting unabashedly at the far corner of the table, looking at him curiously. "Teaching you any manners is as useless as keeping Mister Deane employed in my company," he spoke to his cat, looking at her as if she might give him an answer for once.

Lionel had been thinking about getting rid of his art curator Harry Deane for some time. There was something about this one that he didn't like. He had someone else in mind instead, the German curator Martin Zaidenweber. He had an appointment with him next week, including dinner, but he really wanted his new assistant to be there. After all, she was supposed to take notes on any agreements in case there was an actual collaboration.

Satisfied with the current situation, he turned his thoughts back to his book idea. Should his co-worker prove to be capable, he would also involve her in this project. But only the near future would show whether this was the case. After all, he didn't want to have everyone at his home, because that's what this task would entail. In the end, it was all about the estate.

By now his coffee had gone cold and he left the last sip. Lionel walked through the spacious corridors in the direction of the gallery. There, his lion Leonardo was already waiting for him, leisurely roaming the halls.

"Did you miss me?" asked Lionel.

He was already used to talking to his animals, probably the other people would think he was crazy. But he avoided anyone watching him do it anyway. This characteristic around him nobody had to know!

That's why he had separated from his former wife. She hated all his animals and everything that had to do with them. Also she did not want to live here in the country, but much rather in an estate directly in London. He had his ex-wife to thank for his title, since she was a lady of royal descent, but all that was of no use.

He had tormented himself with her for thirteen years until he had had enough and drew a line under it. Since then, he no longer wanted a steady relationship. All the women he met either wanted his money or had no brains, so he preferred to stay alone. Very few showed interest in himself or liked his bevy of animals. But this belonged to him as much as everything else around him. It was a matter of living with it, or not!

In the meantime he wandered around the picture gallery together with Leo and stopped again and again at his precious paintings. He was especially proud of his Monet, "Haystack at Sunrise". He would have loved to have the second painting, "Haystack at Sunset", but it was considered lost.

Lionel stood especially long before this picture and looked at the beautiful work of the exceptional artist Claude Monet.