"Enough of your boot licking! We both know you aren't gonna visit your poor old Grand-mère just like that." Laughing, Grand-mère pulled her beloved granddaughter into her embrace. It had only been a day, but her heart longed for the sweet girl. As her daughter had wished, Valerie had raised the girl with the greatest care to become a young woman from whom not even a bachelor as cold as Alexandre de Valois could take his eyes off her. Valerie de Clermont was proud of her little flower. The girl had mastered the impossible, something all the ladies of the upper class envied her, and each of them wanted to be guests at the wedding of the year.
Lilly laughed. "Grand-mère, what a thing to say!" Sulking, she puffed her cheeks into little round balls.
"By the way, you haven't even once paid a visit to your Grand-mère in the last month! You ungrateful little thing. I won't even begin to talk about the last two years." Over the years, Lily had learned to love her grandmother's rough manner. Despite her age and her noble upbringing, Grand-mère knew how to sulk in order to impose her will on her husband. This was a very special side of her Valerie, a side that actually only her grandfather Albert and Lily knew. It was a proof that the lady of the house revealed only to her dearest family. A gesture that showed Lily that her grandmother really cared about her.
Soothingly, Lily quickly kissed her grandmother on the cheek. "I love you to the moon and back."
"Sit down, sit down!" Valerie sang happily and pressed the girl into an upholstered chair in the middle of the greenhouse, where she usually received her guests. The greenhouse was huge and rose like a glass tower in to the sky, next to the gigantic property of the de Clermont family. Trophic plants imported from the Caribbean grew left and right. Colorful flowers exuded a sweetish trophic scent. Lily felt like she had landed in the middle of the jungle.
The family estate was not in Dijon, like most of the residences of the upper class of Burgundy. The de Clermont family had preferred for generations to escape the hustle and bustle of urban life and therefore lived in a rather rural area just outside Dijon. In this green and very peaceful idyll, Lily had grown up under a clear sky, far away from any urban noise.
"Which week are you?" Asked her grandmother straight ahead. Verlerie usually didn't mince matters when she trusted her counterpart.
Wondering, Lily tilted her head, not understanding what her grandmother was implying. " Week?"
"Week of pregnancy! Child. Your week of pregnancy. Which one are you in? Do you know the due date? The sex?"
Frightened, Lily opened her eyes. " Pardon?!" She felt how hot blood rushed into her cheeks. She never thought she would hear such an open question from her so elegant grandmother.
"Don't act so innocent, child, your Grand-mère has experienced it all before."
"W-what--what are you saying?"
"Tsk... my dear girl."
"G... Grand-mère... I... am not..."
"You don't have to play dumb with me, kid! Why else would your husband make such a spectacle of your marriage after all these years?"
"Grand-mère! I swear I'm not!" Lily exclaimed in horror. Her cheeks burned as if on fire, blazing with heat and shame.
"Child you can tell me, I am your Grand-mère. Are you sure you're not expecting a child?"
Lily lowered her head. "No..." Her voice was nothing more than a breath, as if she was ashamed of this fact. She knew she was a married woman. The families expected her to give Alexandre one or two children. It was her duty. Although she didn't love him, she couldn't stop it forever. That was the way a woman's image was knitted in this society. Women were there to be married, to take care of the household, to bear and raise children. It was a very archaic view of women in Lily's eyes. Since she still remembered the emancipated image of women from her first life. She grew up in the western part of the world. From birth on, girls were taught self-confidence and emancipation. Women were educated and could hold a candle to any man. They stood on an equal footing with men and had rights that strengthened this awareness.
But these rights did not exist in this world. Women were mostly treated like mere goods, even by their own family members.
But Lillian de Clermont led a very good life, she was not oppressed and Alexandre did not force himself on her. He usually allowed her to make her own decisions and demanded her judgment on important decisions that affected them both. Unless he was once again hiding something from her.
But she didn't know how much longer she could avoid him. She still thought about running away, she didn't want to stay at Alexandre's side, too many secrets were hiding in the darkness of his eyes. She was afraid to trust him. Escape seemed safer.