Chapter 2

"Meeting you was like finding the answer to a question I had long since forgotten asking."

-Ranata Suzuki-

***

They were seen busy unpacking their luggage and having nothing else to do he decided to take a walk around the house, there were nothing interesting for him to see inside the place, thus he went outside. The countryside atmosphere brought him a certain state of peace. The air was fresh and unpolluted, there were rarely any cars passing by and it was far away from the crowd, it was like time could just stop right there. It felt like there was no worry in the world. Of course, it was all just an illusion, even he knew about that, but he could not help but feel attached to the atmosphere although he had only barely arrived.

All of a sudden he heard a giggle from somewhere, curiosity led him toward the sound and he found himself walking further away from the house. From afar, he could see a female figure under the tree. Her light honey hair bounced under the sunlight, she was smiling wholeheartedly as her hand reached out to touch a wild deer who was standing right in front of her. The deer was twice the size of the girl, yet she showed no fear whatsoever.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you." her voice was soft and gentle.

Just right before she could touch the wild animal Raphael accidentally stepped on a dry stem and it let out a pretty loud creaking noise, scaring the deer off. It jumped and ran away from the girl. She was taken aback by the sudden movement and lost her balance, falling on her butt to the ground.

"Ouch!" she let out a groan and stood up, clearing off the leaves and grass that were sticking to her arm. She looked at his direction but Raphael had hidden himself behind a large tree.

Why am I hiding?

"Clara!" A loud voice called her and a middle aged woman approached her with a panicked expression.

"Goodness, how many times do I have to tell you not to go near those wild animals, look, now your dress is dirty! Come, you need to take a bath, we can't have you show up for dinner looking like this!"  Clara shrugged at her and went inside. Clearly she was not sorry at all. After the two were out of sight, Raphael came out of his hiding and took a deep breath. He almost made himself look like a criminal. He did not have to hide but that was his first instinct. Guessed he was still suffering from the flight. It had messed with his head.

Raphael went back to the house and got himself ready for dinner. He walked alongside his parents to the dining room where Dennis had been present in advance. The housekeepers came out of the kitchen with a tray full of food and served them to the guests. The menu for the night was Agneau de lait de Paulliac, which was a lamb dish which was quite popular in Bordeaux. Other than being famous for its wine production, the city was also quite famous for its meat and seafood based dishes. The cook in Bellavance mansion was a local expert, of course they had to serve one of his specialty.

The guests had just about to enjoy their meal, a loud sound of footsteps was heard and two young ladies rushed into the room.

One of them was a black haired girl with pale blue eyes, she was seen wearing a black and white vertical stripes sleeveless dress, her hair was cut just above her shoulder. Surrounding her was an air of coldness, her gaze was sharp, one could tell she appeared to be a brilliant person. Not the friendliest, but definitely brilliant.

The other girl, however, was the honey haired girl he saw from before. She had changed her dress into a simple sky blue one with white and pink carnation embroidery. Now that he had seen her up close, her green eyes were brighter than before, she had a million-dollar smile which she was not afraid to show, and Raphael found himself unable to stare away from her. There was a weird feeling inside his chest, something he had never sensed before.

"Sorry we're late." the two spoke as they marched toward their seats. Dennis shot them a look of disapproval, he was clearly not pleased with their lack of punctuation yet the girls did not seem to be bothered. They flashed a polite smile toward the guests and took their portion of the meal.

"Archard, this is my daughter Clara." he opened his palm toward Clara who was seated right beside him.

"And this one is my god daughter Giselle." he pointed toward the black haired woman. Both girls nodded their heads a sign of introductory.

"You certainly have such beautiful daughters." Darline complimented. Archard nodded in agreement.

Clara was indeed beautiful, she had rosy cheeks and a sweet smile with a soft appearance. Her emerald green eyes, a heritage from her mother, complemented her face well. Giselle on the other hand, was equally as beautiful, but she had a certain coldness of a corpse in her appearance that dulled out her shine, she was like the moon, while Clara was like a shining sun. Though she had a pale blue eyes which made her gaze striking, people had a tendency to compliment Clara over her.

On the other side of the table, Raphael felt troubled, he tried on eating his food like a normal person but he was certain at the moment he altered his eating manner a bit to be politer. Which he found odd. Deep down he wanted to give Clara an impression that he was a polite and well-mannered man, but why?

Clara on the other hand was oblivious to it, instead she quickly became the main attention of the dinner, she held up the conversations with the adults with grace, which shocked Archard and Darline a bit. Her manners and words were simple and sweet, Raphael who had been listening silently found something about the way she behaved that was very different from the girls Raphael had known his entire life. At the moment, he had not figured out what it was yet.

When the meal was over, a bottle of wine was served. It was one of their finest batch and they had kept it purposely for the dinner with the Desroches. Dennis poured over the wine for the guests and for his two daughters.

"Santé!"

Each took a sip of their glass. The sweet taste of the wine quickly filled their mouth, there was definitely nothing better than red wine on a good dinner.

"Your wine is certainly one of the finest." Archard complimented.

"You are too kind." Dennis sheepishly replied.

"Are the girls old enough to drink this?" Darline asked out of curiosity.

"Both of them are sixteen, it's fine. Beside a vintner's daughter must be familiarized with wine since an early age, otherwise what would other people say?" He explained with a hint of pride. Everyone was laughing and talking, even Giselle who they thought were a quiet girl started to open up after a while and joined the conversation. But someone on the table was not following the rest.

Archard noticed his son had been silent during the whole dinner which was unusual for him. He was usually a bit talkative, he asked him what was wrong but he just shook his head.

"Ah, Clara, why don't you get more meat for us?" Dennis suggested. She nodded and brought more chicken from the kitchen, she walked around and offered each of them a piece, and they gladly allowed her put another piece in their plate. When she stopped beside Raphael. She reached out to put a piece on his plate, he grabbed her hand, oddly enough, it took him a moment to realize what he was doing and released her hand. Everyone had their eyes on him. How embarrassing.

"Ah, sorry. I just don't want the meat." That was his first conversation with her. Memorable indeed. She smiled at him and told him it was okay, yet Raphael felt guilty. Clara finished handing out the meat and returned to her seat. The small act was soon forgotten by all, but Raphael.