#Chapter Three
"What changes would you make to our garden?" Serene asked. She was seated and there was a middle-aged man in front of her dressed in a jumpsuit, his mouth continually moving because he was chewing on something and making noises so disgusting that she wanted to tell him to stop. But she didn't, because she was desperate.
She needed to find a Head Gardener. Frank handed her the job of managing the estate and she had hired every other role in the Great House, but she was lacking one role - a gardener. Everyone that applied to the job was so questionable, she wanted to ask why the perfume industry in Rainer was so bustling.
"Ma'am," the man said. "I wouldn't change it one bit. It looks amazing already."
Her shoulders slumped down. Not again. Another dud! The garden now was only the bare minimum, and she often had replies like these. They thought that paying her a compliment increased their chances at being hired, but far from it. It proved to her that they had no vision.
"You may go," she told the man. "I'll send for you if you are chosen." And the man nodded before leaving.
Done for the day, she went back to her room and had her maid draw her a steaming bath. She rested in it for a solid hour, her fingertips becoming crinkled. After she was fully relaxed, she came out of the bath and put on a simple dress. Her maid got to decorating her hair while she put earrings on. After she was done, she met with her friend, Nora, in the town square.
"Are you sure we can get shaved ice there?" Serene asked her. "I've never been around this corner before."
"Yes, we can. And I haven't been much too, since lots of poor people frequent this place. It's dangerous."
"It's good that we have guards then."
"Yes. I hate poor people. They're so dirty and they smell," Nora said with a scrunch of her nose. "It's down there."
Serene approached the corner with Nora. "What's that smell?"
Nora turned her head around. "What smell?"
"That smell," she said. "Flowers."
"Oh!" Nora said. "I smell it too. Where is it coming from?" Then she looked at the guards. "Do you guards know where the smell is coming from?"
"Your Excellency, there is a perfume factory down that road," the guard pointed down an alley.
"Let's check it out," Nora suggested and Serene nodded her head. Within moments, they were before the perfume factory.
A woman came bounding towards them. "Countess! Your Ladyship!" she said. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"We caught a whiff of some flowers, so we stopped by," Nora said. "We want to take a look."
The woman held her hand out towards the factory. "Come! Come! It's wonderful to have such dignified women around."
They walked around the factory which faced fields and fields of flowers. In one room, there was a large tank which the woman said was meant for flowers to be boiled to pry their essence from within to produce fragrances. As they strolled further in, they came upon an open room where there were rows and rows of tables and people seated in front of them, placing petals onto frames that the woman said were filled with fat underneath to trap scent.
"This is interesting," Serene said.
"Perfumery is a sacred art, Your Ladyship. You have keen eyes!"
"Look at that man!" Nora exclaimed, pointing in one direction and Serene followed her line of sight.
The man was dressed in a simple white shirt and loose pants, as did many menial workers did, but what was different was how he made it seem like the clothes cost more than what they actually did. His arms were thick and covered in hair, his skin bronze and his body well-built. Nora and Serene approached the man, and she was slowly served a closer look to his face.
He was clean shaven, with dark pink lips atop a wide, strong jaw. His hair lay tousled on top of his head, generous and smooth. His muscles flexed as he picked petal after petal from the table to place on top of the frame filled with animal fat. Serene looked at the work his peers were doing, and found their petals hastily thrown together on the frame, while this man's were neatly arranged in uniform rows.
"Look how he handles those petals," Nora said. "He handles them like he would a woman."
Those words decided it for Serene. She stepped up to the side of the man and he lifted his head up at her nearing figure. Sunlight caught in his eyes for a moment and he held a hand over his eyes as they squinted. As he grew accustomed to the glare of the sun, she watched him staring at her with a strong gaze.
"Become my Head Gardener," Serene ordered.
He laughed a little. "As you can see, Your Ladyship, I'm otherwise employed."
"I'll pay you five times what they're paying you."
"Five times? You don't know what they pay me."
"Is that not enough? Ten times then. Deal?"
And that was when his face broke out into a handsome smile of victory. "Deal."