Flowers, Swords and France

Under the guidance of the female attendant, Charles forcibly pulled Fran, who was already in a daze, around the twists and turns of the stairs and corridors, and walked towards the room where Ms. Adelaide lived.

Along the way, Charles felt a little uneasy.

His uneasiness was not because he was afraid of meeting an old man, but because he was afraid that Charlotte and the others would have already taken action when he was not present, leaving him with no time to do anything. This uneasiness almost made him think about refusing to see the lady just now.

However, his reason has been telling him that the banquet has not officially started yet, the king will not attend at all, and Charlotte and the others will never take action. If he refuses the call of the lady now, I am afraid he will still be in trouble. It would make people even more suspicious, so he suppressed his uneasiness and quietly followed the female officer as he strolled forward.

Fran was lying on his shoulder. As her brother moved forward, his face turned red, his eyes were half-open and half-closed, and his breathing was very hot.

"What an idiot. If you can't drink, then don't drink!" Charles complained to her in a low voice, "You drank after Miss Bowen asked you to drink? Do you know the consequences now? Stupid!"

Although he seemed to be complaining, he still carefully carried his sister forward to avoid Fran falling.

"Brother, I... I'm fine... It's just... I just... drank a little bit... just drank a little bit..." Fran was still trying to be brave, but it seemed that she couldn't even speak clearly. He leaned tightly on his brother's shoulder and walked crookedly.

Seeing this situation, Charles awkwardly greeted the female officer in front of him, "Look, why don't you let her take a rest first? Wouldn't it be too rude to let her meet that lady like this..."

"It's okay, sir." The female officer seemed to be amused by the two brothers and sisters, and a smile appeared on her serious face. "That lady doesn't particularly care about such trivial matters, and the banquet will be held later. It’s time to start, so you have to hurry up, otherwise the lady won’t have time to meet you later.”

"Okay." Charles thought for a while and realized the same reason, so he gave up his original plan. However, he still whispered to Fran, asking her to cheer up as soon as possible.

…………

After a while, the two siblings finally arrived in front of Ms. Adelaide's reception room. The female attendant knocked on the door gently, and after receiving permission, she opened the door for the Charles brothers and sisters, then bowed her knees and motioned for the two to enter.

Fran's energy had recovered a little, she left Ciel's side, and followed her brother in.

The first moment he walked into the room, Charles scanned it carefully as quickly as possible. The candlelight inside was not bright, so Charles couldn't see the whole room clearly at the first time, but he could roughly draw a conclusion-the furnishings were not luxurious, and the carpets and wall hangings were just ordinary goods. Obviously the folk Rumors that Ms Adelaide lives a simple life are not far from the truth.

The most important thing is that there are no dozens of gunmen inside, everything is normal. There was only an old lady inside, sitting upright in her seat, smiling gently, staring at the two brothers and sisters who had just entered.

"Is it Mr. Treville? I finally see you." The old woman nodded towards Charles in a friendly manner.

The door was slowly closed.

Both Ciel and Fran bowed to each other.

"It's a great honor to be summoned by you, madam." As he bowed, Ciel said respectfully, "I'm really worried that I won't be able to repay your kindness."

"What a humble young man." The lady still smiled, "How old are you this year? You should be twenty years old, right?"

"Yes, he is twenty years old this year," Charles replied.

"Time flies so fast, twenty years have passed!" Ms. Adelaide sighed softly, and then pointed to the seats next to her, "Sit down, don't be polite in front of me."

Charles followed suit, and when he wanted to reach out to help Fran, he was surprised to find that his sister walked over and sat on the seat closest to the lady. Although her face was still slightly red, her movements were very light and there was no sign of any sluggish movement.

Wait, how did she recover so quickly! Ciel was a little shocked. Could it be... Ciel felt his cheeks feel a little itchy for a moment.

Forget it, I don’t have time to think so much, let’s deal with the current situation first. He quickly regained his energy.

The lady touched the forehead of Fran who was sitting next to her, and then looked at Ciel who was sitting next to her.

"They are really outstanding siblings. They are worthy of being descendants of the Treville family and the Nordlyon family. They are different after a famous family. If Alice could see today, she would definitely be very happy..."

Fran couldn't help but feel slightly moved when she heard the lady mention her mother again.

Oops.

In order to avoid making Fran sad, Charles immediately interrupted and changed the subject.

"Thanks to you, we have the opportunity to step into the palace. The first time my sister stepped into society, you invited her into the palace. You gave a young girl the greatest favor, madam, I really appreciate you.”

"Haha, he is really Edgar's child...so good at complimenting people! Isn't that what made Alice fall in love with him back then?" Ms. Adelaide smiled broadly, "You don't have to be so humble, Treville. A surname is enough to be a passport to anyone’s home, even a palace.”

Although she has a kind heart and a gentle temper, the daughter of the Duke of Orleans is still an aristocratic surname, even a very standard aristocratic surname. Naturally, she attaches great importance to things like family name and bloodline, but she doesn't care so much about so-called political stances and ideologies.

However, it was not a problem that she always mentioned her mother like this... Charles looked at Fran from the corner of his eyes and found that she was indeed very sad now.

"Ah, I'm really sorry to mention this to you at this time." After feeling Fran's emotions, the lady smiled apologetically, and then explained, "I just... I just really remembered that year. Ally Si was very smart when she was a child and was very polite to us elders. Everyone liked her very much. At that time, she She acted coquettishly in front of me as if it was yesterday... Who could have imagined that something like this would happen later, hey..." The lady's eyes were full of sadness and nostalgia, and she gently stroked Fran's forehead again, " You are all her children, so when I see you, I can’t help but think of her. I’m so sorry..."

In the face of the old woman's sincere apology, Charles couldn't say anything more and had no choice but to remain silent. Because he couldn't say anything about his mother in this life - not because Charles had any bad feelings towards his mother in this life, but because he had no impression of her at all.

Because she passed away when Ciel was five years old in this life, and she did not often take care of Ciel when she was still alive. Ciel only vaguely remembered her beautiful face (which was somewhat similar to Fran's), and had no other special memories.

Read the original text in Liu#9@书/吧!

After she died in childbirth while giving birth to Fran, Charles almost never mentioned her in order to prevent Fran from being sad. After more than ten years of deliberate forgetfulness, Charles found that he could not say much about that person. Mother's memories. This is a pity.

As if she understood what the brother and sister were thinking, the lady said gently, "You were all still young when Alice passed away, so you may not know it well, but she was famous as a beauty at that time, no. You know how many people she has been pursuing... When she decided to marry your father, many young people were discouraged, and some even said they wanted to duel with your father!"

She meant to make the two young people happy, so of course Ciel could only smile in agreement.

"It seems that my father suffered a lot back then."

The lady chuckled.

"That's not true. Don't try to take away our treasure easily."

Speaking of this, she seemed to think of something again, "The Nordlyon family didn't agree with this marriage at the time. Fortunately, Alice insisted, and they finally got together. It's a pity that Alice soon got married. She went out less, so we didn’t know much about her in the future... Fortunately, fortunately, she still stayed with you. She should be very happy in heaven... By the way, did the Nordlyon family come later? Have you come to see me?”

"We don't have much contact with the Nordlyon family, so I don't know much about the situation. I'm sorry." Ciel's answer was very cold, and his attitude was even a little arrogant.

Charles was telling the truth. Although the Duke of Nordelion and the Marquis of Treville were married, they basically had no contact with each other. The family had not visited the young lady's two children for many years. Even when the young lady passed away, they only treated them with indifference and casually sent someone to deal with them. Since the other party looked down upon the Marquis family, who had no money and no power, the old Marquis and Charles' grandson were arrogant enough to prevent themselves from having anything to do with each other - Charles had never visited their home. , and I don’t plan to go there in the future.

Perhaps due to a mixture of Alice's genetics, this young man's facial contours were softer than his father's, and his forehead was not as wide as his father's. She had even felt that the faces of the two generations were not particularly similar. But at this moment, the stubborn, arrogant, cold and reserved look on Charles's face was so much like that young man back then that she no longer doubted his Treville bloodline.

People from the Treville family must have this kind of arrogance and reserve in their bones.

It seems that the two families are still at odds with each other. The lady sighed secretly in her heart.

While sighing, she also felt a vague sense of satisfaction of curiosity. Noble women—especially older noble women—are very interested in the grievances and disputes between nobles. This can be regarded as a kind of gossip among women.

She turned to look at the wall clock next to her.

"It's getting late, so I won't waste your time. The dinner party is the real deal. A young man like you must like the excitement, right? Just go and have fun!" She still smiled, "But , I want to borrow your sister, I want to keep her by my side, chat with me, and paint some pictures, can you allow me?"

"Of course." Ciel stood up and saluted again. (To be continued.)