"THE GARDEN HAS NEVER LOOKED SO NEAT."
"I like doing it. It was my main occupation in the castle. Mama and I took care of the plants together. The small vegetable garden provided food for us all."
"Yes, I know. You used to be delivered cereals, eggs and other things, but never vegetables."
Celeste then arrived at Adelle's yard.
"We could stay here with you. Roxanne would look after the garden and I'd help her."
Adelle gave her a kind and anxious look.
"Who knows how long we villagers will remain here."
Celeste and Roxanne knew what she meant. Joseph had gone into details with the three of them about his telephone conversation with Mr. Harris. It seemed the latter suspected Leonard was on the verge of selling all his properties on Planet Eleven and spend his retirement years on Earth. Right now, he was on a trip on one of the nearest colonized planets and he was likely to undertake the long final voyage from there, without setting foot on these lands again.
Mr. Harris, his principal man of confidence for more than a decade, hadn't been clearly informed of that, which had led him to bitterly vent his suspicions on Joseph that day. The only thing the soon-to-be deposed foreman - according to his own fears - was absolutely certain about was that Leonard had lately held talks with obvious potential buyers, that he hadn't wanted his company on this trip, whose purpose he had not been informed of either, and, the clearest of all, that, once there, he'd given him phone orders to call all his daughters' applicants to pick them up urgently. The fact that he wasn't even going to be present at the delivery was quite vivid proof of his scarce attachment to anything related to this territory anymore, which he'd originally turned into his private medieval playground, costumes and dispersed small villages included. The villagers, whose tasks were merely to support themselves, to maintain the rustic environment Leonard liked and to take care of his guests when he brought them, were afraid a change of ownership would leave them out of place and, most probably, dispensable.
"Colonists needn't worry," Joseph had tried to reassure her. "This is still a sparsely populated planet. It is much easier - let alone cheaper - to relocate the ones already here than to bring new people."
It seemed a perfectly reasonable assumption, but the changes coming were so deep it was impossible not to be nervous.
"Joseph says we're leaving in a little while," Celeste informed.
"Right, I'll get ready."
The four days at the inn had flown by for Roxanne. Almost without realizing it, the time had come to return to the castle and face her sisters' destiny.