Flowers, Swords and France

"Char, I heard that a young lady moved into your home recently?"

Although Charlotte was gently leaning against Ciel's back, selflessly giving him waves of warmth, after hearing this question, Ciel still couldn't help but feel a chill drifting through his heart. .Because Charlotte's tone was very unkind and vague, giving him an unpleasant feeling of "If the answer doesn't satisfy her, today will be over!"

He gently broke away from Charlotte's embrace, then turned around slightly stiffly, looking at his cousin carefully.

Perhaps because she was staying at home, Charlotte was dressed very casually today. She wore an open-breasted blue velvet robe with white lace sleeves. Her blond hair was combed into an eighteenth-century style, and a few laurel flowers were cleverly hidden in her loose, hanging blond hair, exuding a faint fragrance.

She was looking at Charles with a half-smile, waiting for his answer. The small piece of white greasy on her chest swayed for a moment, making Charles feel a little distracted.

"What's wrong? Don't you dare to answer me, Mr. Treville?" Charlotte's smile became deeper and deeper, but the bad feeling she brought to Charles became stronger and stronger. The experience of growing up with her, Let Ciel know that this is a sign of her anger. If she doesn't answer well, the consequences will be unimaginable.

Fortunately, there is nothing that Ciel can't say about this matter.

"Yes, that's right." He replied calmly, "And you may know her. She is the Marquis de Léoland, a good friend of Fran. Now she wants to be Fran's female companion, so she lives in Come to my house..."

"Is that the Marquis that you helped?" Charlotte asked in return.

"Yes, that's right." Ciel nodded.

"Then should I congratulate you on having another good friend?" Charlotte was still smiling, her blue pupils staring closely at Charles.

If you don't choose a good answer in this choice, I'm afraid you will be shocked by a dagger suddenly being pulled out next...

A terrifying thought suddenly flashed through Charles' mind.

"You are wrong. She is not my friend. I have not even met her a few times. Although I have helped her before, I only regard her as Fran's good friend, nothing more!" He said something quickly. He explained eagerly, but he didn't understand why he was so nervous.

As he answered, Charlotte kept looking at Ciel, as if trying to determine whether he was lying.

Perhaps because Ciel's answer satisfied her, after continuing to stare for a while, Charlotte finally looked away, and the unsettling element in the smile on her face slowly faded away.

Ciel breathed a heavy sigh of relief in his heart.

Then, she suddenly reached out and took Charles's hand. The slender, white and soft fingers placed on Ciel's hand, and then directly pulled Ciel forward.

The two of them walked hand in hand through the Duke's mansion.

Along the way, the two people were certainly not walking with their heads down, but were talking as before.

"I was just looking for you, but I didn't expect you to come directly here today." Charlotte chuckled, as if she was in a good mood, "Why did you come to see my grandpa today? Is there any girl who needs you? Come to rescue?"

"Why can't you forget that thing?" Charles protested with some dissatisfaction, "I said, I just helped her once, I didn't expect anything in the first place! And, after all, that thing Didn't you cause this? Don't forget that she almost became your sister-in-law..."

After hearing Ciel's last joke, Charlotte pinched his hand hard as expected.

"You have indeed not forgotten this! Didn't I tell you that this was just a joke?"

"Even if it's just a joke, it's just a poor and inferior joke. It's not funny at all." Charles replied calmly, "Do you know what I thought when I heard the news? It was - scary, this Did the poor girl go crazy like this because she was separated from me? How sinful I am!”

The force of pinching him became harder and harder, and the nails on Charlotte's fingers had almost completely sunk into Charles's arm, causing him pain.

"Do you think you can hide anything by saying this? You are the one who is heartbroken..."

The two people quarreled and walked forward, ignoring the servants in the Duke's palace.

And under the dual influence of the Duke's family's rules and the eldest lady's usual prestige, everyone they passed on the road also pretended not to see anything and continued to do their own thing without looking away. Work, not even conversation - although within minutes after the two men left, gossip would spread throughout the mansion among the servants.

Finally, they came to the door of a room, and then Charlotte pushed the door open with her other hand and pulled Ciel in.

Although it had been a long, long time since he had been to the Duke's Mansion, Charles knew that this was Charlotte's bedroom.

There are beautiful things everywhere in the room, arranged according to Charlotte's preferences. There are some landscape paintings hanging on the walls. Although they have been carefully framed, they are actually graffiti made by the two of them when they were children. However, Charlotte Specially retained. Next to the bed is a large glass window, and under the large glass window, there are many cosmetic utensils placed on the luxurious dressing table, and a mirror in the middle reflects the two people in it. The dresser, which was painted gold, was reflecting the sunlight, giving the bedroom a halo of blur.

Charlotte pulled Ciel to the bedside, and then the two of them sat directly on her bed. The soft touch of the purple velvet sheets made Charles feel comfortable, so he simply lay down on the bed.

"Your etiquette is to just lie down in someone else's room without caring about it?" Charlotte still sat next to him and mocked in a low voice.

"It's not a good etiquette to force someone into your bedroom as soon as you meet them, right?" Charles also retorted.

After another quarrel, the two of them stopped talking, but quietly looked at the garden and the blue sky outside the window.

"Every time I come here, I always think your place is very nice." After admiring it, Charles couldn't help but sigh, "It's so comfortable. As soon as I open my eyes, I see the beautiful scenery..."

"It's not that you can't come often...it's just that you don't want to." Charlotte complained in a low voice, and then directly mentioned the previous incident, "It's really strange that you took the initiative to come to my house today. What is it for? Woolen cloth?"

"It's because of the law. I don't want Mr. Bonaparte to be unable to return to the country..." Charles had already thought about how to answer, and besides, this couldn't be considered a lie in the first place. "I think you don't want Mr. de Bourbon to be unable to return to the country, right? So we can all think of ways to cooperate on this issue, right?"

"So that's it..." Charlotte thought about it carefully, and then agreed with Charles, "It's not like we can't cooperate on this matter. Grandpa has already promised you, right?"

"Well, yes, I agreed." Charles nodded.

After getting the answer she wanted, Charlotte stopped pestering her and mentioned another matter. "So grandpa just told you, right? About the farm..."

"It's true that he said it...but it's not very detailed. He just said that there was something wrong with the farm over there and he wanted to ask someone to deal with it. For the rest, he said he asked me to ask you." Charles answered truthfully. , "Now that you are right next to me, I think I can ask, right? What is it that requires you to be so solemn about it?"

Charlotte hesitated before answering Ciel.

"Actually, it's nothing, just some disputes..."

Read the original text in Liu#9@书/吧!

Then she told the story of the farm in detail.

Before the Revolution, the Treville family had accumulated a huge estate through several generations of painstaking efforts - or plundering, which is the same thing - and by the end of the Bourbon dynasty, it had become One of the few large landowners in France. After the outbreak of the Great Revolution, these real estate estates were basically lost due to mob plunder and political confiscation.

After Duke Treville returned to the country following the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty, the road to revival of the Treville family began again. Taking advantage of his high position, the Duke made a lot of money back then, and then used the Noble Compensation Act to get a lot of benefits. Coupled with the public property returned from the government, after decades of painstaking efforts, the Treville family has regained its wealth. A large area of ​​land, although it cannot be compared with the old times, is still extremely impressive.

In Giverny, the ancestors of the Treville family had a large estate, but it was confiscated by the government during the Revolution. The Duke of Treville later regained possession of the estate by clearing it from the King.

However, although the ownership has theoretically returned to the family, some of the land was occupied by farmers in every possible way during the Revolution, and it was the most fertile part. What's more, the forest land inside is often stolen by them for firewood, which greatly reduces the income.

After the negotiations were fruitless, the Duke originally wanted to deal with them directly with force, but the sudden collapse of the Bourbon dynasty disrupted his actions. During the July Dynasty, the old nobles had been suppressed. In this political atmosphere that was very unfavorable to themselves, the Duke had no choice but to continue to endure in order to avoid causing big trouble and being used by political opponents or enemies to attack him.

Therefore, this problem has remained.

However, now, the July Dynasty, which originally bound the hands and feet of the Treville family, no longer exists.

Regardless of whether it was good or bad, the July Dynasty at least provided some kind of order. Under mutual checks and balances, the powerful could not do whatever they liked. However, now that the old order has been overthrown and the new order has not yet been established, the Duke of Treville can do whatever he wants with his wealth and law.

"So, we plan to tell them one last time. If it doesn't work...then we have to use the last resort." Charlotte's narrative ended with this sentence, "After so many years, it's time to talk to these people." The lawless gangster has to settle the accounts! Of course, this matter can only be best handled by someone from the family. Because my father is too busy, I have to step in... Then, I recommended you to my grandfather. …”

She didn't say the so-called last resort, but of course Ciel understood.

After listening to this, Charles couldn't help but feel a little touched.

This is the core of the nobles' pursuit.

Land, land!

Stripping away the so-called pretense of blood, etiquette, and education, the essence of the nobles is landlords and large landowners.

This desire and attachment to land is deeply engraved in the deepest part of every noble's heart, from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.

From the beginning to the end, the nobles' greatest wish is to continuously expand their territory or farms, and obtain rent and agricultural product income from them. Even the elite among the nobles, such as the Duke of Treville, after returning to power in France, the first thing they think of is to make a lot of money or use state public tools to restore their ancestral property.

As long as the conditions are right, they will try their best to expand the land.

As for the livelihood of those people, the nobles are too lazy to care.

In Charlotte's tone, it is reasonable and legal to clean up these people because the ownership of the land is in their hands. This seems to be just cleaning the kitchen and cleaning up some unsightly debris. There was no affectation, and I didn't even think it was strange.

How did that saying go?

Nobles are nobles.

"Charles, grandpa also said that the farm will be my dowry in the future..." (To be continued)