The wintergarden was behind the main house, you would have to walk between dead arched trees, that made a pathway to the wintergarden. The place was indeed in bad shape, but it could be used if was well prepared to receive some vegetables.
Normally winter gardens would be filled with beautiful aromatic flowers, but since there were no predictions of receiving any visitors and the surviving of those in the house was at risk, that would be the best use for the wintergarden.
The glass walls were made with sturdy glass, with some golden decorations on metal frames. It was a circular shape like a turtle shell. If taken care it would be a very beautiful place.
It was not as closed as Alana had wished from the main house. With a few repairs the wintergarden could be made for warmth keeping and some growing vegetables. The glass was not cracked but some were already out of the place because of lack of mantainence.
" It seems that this is it. Let's start cleaning." In spite of their advanced age, both Theodor and Clair didn't wait for another word from the lady and started cleaning the garden collecting anything and every dead flower and roots. "Please save everything for composting, we will need everything even if it seems to be dead, just put it aside."
Theodor and Clair didn't know much of farming or and growing plants but they would not let the young lady down, and miss anything.
*
Few days later they had cleaned the garden of any old roots and prepared the soil there was not much they could use to enrich it, except the ashes of the burned wood. The two servants though that the young lady was very resourceful she hadn't wasted anything she used everything for the wintergarden.
The potatoes that they wished to eat were rooted in to a small bucket and kept in the kitchen closed to stove and the window so it can keep it warm and receive the sun light.
For days they haven't ate much except for the water herbs and some mushrooms that Clair would find in the wild, she knew which ones were edible and which were poisonous.
The few days that the lady arrived was enough for the house to became a warmer place and very lively, there was always something meaningful to do.
Mrs. Clair would sometimes stare at the young lady that was always busy with potting the seeds, she would explain which seeds was okay to pot during the winter and would be able to sprout in the hardest conditions, and which would have to wait for later winter early spring to be potted. The lady had knowledge and was beautiful, she could not compare her the others young ladies of the kingdom they would certainly not be able to survive with them and work hard with two old servants like them.
Mrs. Clair looked at her hands they were already pink from the cold her body couldn't tolerate the cold like before when she was younger, but seeing the young lady working hard everyday gave her motivation to keep on working hard as well.
*
The people in town knew that young lady was in the main house, they have met Clair and Theodore while one was collecting wood and the other was looking for edible mushrooms, they young lady would often accompanied them, looking for any edible herbs that survived the harsh winter on the frozen Lands. The kids would stare at Alana, her mahogany brown skin and her white hair called alot of attention they would whisper to each other on how beautiful she was and would come to spy on her and follow her to the main house.
In the beginning Alana found it annoying to have the kids always following her, but little by little she was starting to warming up to them. Differently from the kids from her older town, they weren't afraid of her nor were they calling her a monster, she often heard the word beautiful between whispers which would make her feel a little embarrassed but because of her brown skin they didn't notice when she was blushing. Her face remained cold and expressionless.
While preparing some mushrooms soup, Alana was in the kitchen taking care of the pots and asked Mrs. Clair why did the master decided to get married.
Mrs. Clair was in awe since they started living with young lady, that was the first time she had shown any interest in the young master.
"The young master has been training to protect his people since he was a young boy. ... " Mrs. Clair paused bitting her lips like she was about to say something she shouldn't. " I mean young master was already at that age, should have been able to make a successor, we kept pestering him to find a wife." Mrs. Clair kept on going on how the young master handsome man it was a shame he couldn't leave any heirs.
" Such a pity..." She continued "the young lady never met the young master, you would make an amazing couple, his dark brown her and his broad shoulders, he is a very tall man..." She bit her lip and corrected herself "... was...was a very tall man." Her heart ached Alana felt uncomfortable to have asked about him. Alana was ready to change the subject but Mrs. Clair kept talk more excited. " You know my lady when he was a small kid we would look for him in the entire house, sometimes we would find him hiding under the house with his red cheeks and pink nose. That little mouse could find any place to hide."
Alana kept thinking how they always talked how he used to disappear on the house when he was little, 'but wasn't he supposed to be a new noble, how did they have lived here since he was little kid. '
Outside the kids spying on them through the window would smell the mushroom soup and herbs and would salivate.
Mrs Clair looked at young lady looking pityful, not wanting to anger the young lady by sharing the little food that they already have with the kids.
"It's okay I am not that hungry today" said Alana, understanding the ache in the old woman heart. The old woman went outside sharing the food with little ones.
While Alana was alone in the kitchen.
' I will have to borrow a little of your power, I know you are brumating right now, but I know you can hear and feel me, so I am going to use it.' Alana didn't take for granted Tera's power she thought that power wasn't hers to use, so she would ask for permission. Acessing part of the power was not hard, but Alana also never dared to access the full power of Tera.
Tera would normally take control of her body whenever the situation was critical.
Alana planned to use Tera heating ability to control the temperature on the greenhouse, she knew too much heat would cause the vegetables to die and too much cold would freeze their growth.
She started with the bucket where the potatoes were. It was already hard enough to find soil that was not frozen,they had to wait for the soil to get warm before they planted the rooted potatoes. It had been a week and they could see some green leaves sprouting out of the soil. She kept her hands with minimum heat enough to increase the temperature over 15 degrees. With a little more water she gave a little boost and saw the potatoes leaves grow in a amazing speed. Her heart was racing she didn't know that she could speed up the process of growth. She kept giving the boost. She had to stop as soon she felt the bucket starting to getting bigger on the sides as if was about to explode. She was trembling and sweating so much that when Mrs. Clair came back inside she became pale looking at young lady. She run over the old the young lady that was on verge of collapsing.