Butterflies [On Hold]

Chapter Two

CHAPTER TWO:

‘I thought the letter said there were two houses?’ Marie asked, getting slowly out of the taxi at half past four. After a long seven-hour flight to Philadelphia from Paris, Marie’s legs were beyond rigid.

‘Your mom must’ve wrote that letter before the second house caught on fire …’ Stephan said, pursing his lips. ‘It burned down to the ground last year, but don’t worry because there’s plenty of room in the main house. We’ve got a bedroom each for the two of you.’

There sure was. The house in front of her was enormous, and so, so beautiful. Under the sun, it gleamed a deep burgundy, with pale ivory surrounding the large windows and huge front door. There were three floors, ivy crawling up the side of the property. There was a large porch, with a garden swing seat gently swaying on its own. Carnations, lilies, roses and tulips adorned the front yard, where the lawn was perfectly manicured.

Marie hadn’t expected anything like this. She thought it was going to be run-down and dirty, like a normal house owned by four young people would be, but it was the complete opposite. The house was amazing, and no matter how much she hated to admit it, it was so much nicer than the last one in Venice. When she went inside, it was even more gorgeous.

It was like she had just stepped into a museum, except it was extremely cosy and full of warmth. The carpet was maroon, some walls were painted cream and some were made of some type of dark wood. Old chandeliers hung from the high ceilings, men and women in portraits posed proudly, and the antique furniture stood beautifully in each of the many rooms. It was so authentic, so precious, and Marie could feel herself slowly falling in love with the place.

Marie’s bedroom was on the third floor, next door to Louise’s bedroom. It was big, a little dark and gloomy, but in a gorgeously vintage kind of way. Dark purple carpet covered the floor and a large bay window was dressed up with cream ruffled curtains. A king-sized bed, with a vintage headboard and footboard, was pushed up against one of the peach walls full of shelves. On the opposite side of the room was an antique dressing table with a huge mirror and a stack of books she couldn’t wait to flick through, and next to it was a gigantic mahogany wardrobe. A blank bulletin board hung on the wall beside the mirror and glass wall candle holders were hanging on all sides of the room. It was unbelievable.

‘It’s so beautiful …’ Marie sighed, feeling blissful.

Louise laughed. ‘Well, the rest of your stuff arrived from Venice, too. We can help you bring everything up, and if you need help putting everything away just call me,’ she said, running down the spiral staircase.

For the next hour, Marie and Louise decorated her room with all of her old things from her old bedroom. When they were finished, all of the shelves on the wall were full of her favourite books, all of her clothes were in her wardrobe, tons of cushions and blankets covered her bed, things she had painted and sketched adorned the walls, photographs were pinned to the bulletin board, and all of her makeup was thrown onto her dressing table, along with her piggy bank and even more books. Last, but not least, she placed her great-great-great-grandfather’s typewriter down onto the little space left on the table.

‘Oh, wow, nice typewriter you’ve got there. Where’d you get that?’ Louise said, messing around with Marie’s laptop to get it to connect to the internet.

‘It was my great-great-great grandfather Michel Dumont’s typewriter,’ Marie said. ‘It was supposed to go to the first born son, but my mom didn’t have any brothers, and Alan didn’t want it either so I took it. It still works, if you want to try it.’

‘I actually have to go down and cook some dinner, but I’ll definitely check it out later, okay? I hope you like spaghetti carbonara?’

Marie nodded. ‘Yeah, I love that. My mom used to make that all the time.’