A Walk on the Water

"That scoundrel!"

"What is it Alannah?"

"He took my money, everything I had left..gone…all gone. What if things don't work out here? Where am I to go with no money?"

"I am sorry Alannah, I am certain that something will work out for you."

He was about to go to her to put his arms around her in a comforting jesture, when he noticed a rope dangling just left of the door. Could this be a bell rope? He looked at Alannah with a questioning look, he could tell that she was on the verge of breaking down but she shrugged as if telling Nicolò that she was no better at knowing what the rope was for than he was. Taking one last look at her, as she sat down on the bench looking defeated, he pulled hard on the rope. As he pulled, the two of them heard the engines from a plane and Alannah jumped up thinking that maybe the thief had come back to give her back her money, but it flew directly overhead, and she sat down again. Head in her hands to hide her tears. Nicolò could feel through the tautness of the rope as though it was connected to some sort of heavy mechanism. In response to his hefty pull, came the sound of bells, musical and magical sounding bells. Within a few short moments a very stressed looking middle aged woman opened the thick wooden doors, she was dressed in black maid's uniform. She looked at Alannah and very rapidly began speking to them in a language that sounded vaguely familiar, but one they certainly did not understand. Nicolò and Alannah looked confused when the lady stopped talking. Noting the confused look on Alannah's face and apparent incomprehension of what she had just said, she started over, this time slower and in broken English.

"Yes, can I help you?" she said looking first at Nicolò and then over at Alannah she said "You are the young new floriculturist , si? Please, come in, come in. We weren't expecting you for …. " noticing the confused look on Alannahs face, she stopped in mid sentence.

Alannah stared. "A floriculturist ? Me? I love flowers, and can work with them, yes but I have not studied them enough to be a floriculturist. There must be some misunderstanding. We were dropped off by a man in an aéroplane, more than an hour ago, he left us there by the pond, he stole all my money and said someone from the Chateau would be down to collect us . This is Nicolò, my..uh..companion, we seek jobs and a place to stay."