𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 ✔

Chapter Six

Clearly none of the people on the poor side knew what he looked like, but in the very least the middle-class know-it-alls should have recognized him on the several occasions we went to the market.

Unless the privilege of seeing the duke was only reserved for those of much higher birth and wealth. But even then, eight whole years and not a single upperclassman or woman stumbled into him by chance? Either he was lucky, or he planned everything perfectly to avoid any foreseeable distractions.

There was something else that lingered in the back of my mind after that night, something that out of everything he had said made my rather uncomfortable and confused. "There is something special about you that only I know, and I refuse to let you slip away." I wanted to know what it was, but if he were the only one to know such a thing, I knew finding out would come at a very high cost, that was if he wasn't lying of course. I had no way of finding out if he had been bluffing or not, which bothered me even more.

I could have gone to Papa about the matter, but in doing so, there was a chance I would have ended up saying far more than he needed to know and everything would come crashing down around me. So, I decided it was best to find an alternative.

On top of everything else that had been going on at the time, there was this feeling that lingered after the Offering that enveloped me and as the days went by fear started to soak in. Something was not right, or at least it felt as if something was about to go wrong.

The next morning, I was greeted by a carriage driver just after I finished breakfast. They informed me Madam Fontaine had sent them to bring me to her estate that was on the other side of town. If it had not been for her kindness, it would have taken me just over an hour to arrive on foot. Not to mention I would have most likely caught a cold seeing as to how it was quite brisk that morning. Though, I supposed she sent for me because she did not want me tracking mud into her home.

Upon arriving at the estate, after riding down a long rocky driveway, I was greeted by many servants and a large two-story Chateau. I had never been in a house, let alone building, as large as the Fontaine's and still this was not the largest Chateau in the town. The amount of money one had to accrue annually just to live there must have been well over five thousand Leros. Though having a financial wellbeing such as theirs must have come with a vast amount of responsibility due to the fact there was a lot of management needed to keep said finances in check. Being wealthy was a task in its own and must have been cumbersome at times, which probably aided in them having such self-righteous attitudes.

Since there were only five wealthy families, it made it much easier for them to have large estates without having to see one another every day, like those of us in town. Unlike the middle class that surrounded the market and made up the town itself, the wealthy were isolated and just fifteen minutes, by horse, from the Castle; making it so they never had to see the lower class, except for when they attended the Offerings. 

Before the Offerings, few of the middle class and very few of the poor knew what most of the wealthy looked like. The few middle-class who had the pleasure of seeing the wealthy, depended on their position of wealth. They were either wealthy enough to be invited to the Balls thrown by one of the five families like Monsieur Chambren, or they were once servants that worked at the estates. The poor were most likely lucky and got a short glimpse of one of them as they rode through town, or like Papa had been called directly to the estate to repair something for them.

We passed two other estates on the way to the Fontaine's, and I presumed, as one came closer to the Castle, the larger the Chateaus grew in size. This due to the first Chateau being smaller than the second, and the second smaller than this one. Which by all means, none of the homes were small, in fact my very own home could fit in the first one a good six to eight times, perhaps more.