Chapter Six
Kara woke up with a smile on her face, feeling as though she had slept on a plump cloud. The sounds of the ranch drifted in through her window and stirred a warm feeling within her.
She was so excited! It was going to be absolutely awesome working on this ranch. She couldn’t wait to see a horse up close and maybe pet it if it wasn’t going to eat her hair. She’d seen horses eat women’s hair on TV and it didn’t look particularly exciting.
Putting her thoughts away, Kara hurried out of bed and quickly threw open the curtains. Sunlight immediately flooded the room and her smile grew.
She really had a beautiful place to live! All to herself.
The land outside her window was green and a beautiful paved path she could see led to an even more beautiful large flower garden.
Further, the land just stretched into a wide expanse of green. Dips and dives of hilly terrain, but with a lot of relatively flat land.
Oh, she was going to explore that later. Besides, she had to quickly learn the terrain, just in case one day she needed to hide or quickly get away. Though she really hoped it would never get to that.
Still smiling, she hurried into the bathroom and took a hurried shower.
It was only when she went looking for her other pair of jeans in the backpack that she saw the money and remembered its existence.
The sight of all that money hit her again as she’d forgotten about it and she stared into the bag. Well, she had all this money… and only a few items of clothing. No toiletries. No painting instruments.
Kara pursed her lips as she decided. It was time for some shopping.
With a nod, she quickly dressed, slipped on her boots and went out in search of Celeste.
She found the kitchen door wide open and heard cheerful humming from the inside.
Celeste was sorting different colored clothes into separate baskets. Seeing an opening to begin her duties, Kara hurried forward.
“Good morning, Celeste,” she said with a smile, as she gently took the baskets from her and continued with the chore.
“Karen!” Celeste grinned. “Bonjour, did you sleep well?”
“Like a baby, thank you so much.”
Celeste grinned, looking beautiful with her thick blonde hair pulled back in a French braid, her grey eyes twinkling in the morning sunlight.
“That’s perfect.” She helped Kara quickly sort through the few remaining clothes.
“Come. I will show you the laundry room and everything,” she said. Kara smiled as she picked up a basket to follow her, loving how she pronounced ‘laundry’ as ‘la-oon-drey’. It was so sexy, she thought.
“We are not doing much today, so I want us to finish up so we can go…” turning to walk backwards, Celeste did a little shoulder dance. “Shoppiiiing!” she sang.
Kara laughed. “Oh, that would be lovely. I need some stuff.”
Celeste nodded. “I can’t wait. I have no one to go shopping with here. Everyone is too busy,” she pouted adorably. “You’re going to be my shopping uh… how you say… buddy! Yes, my shopping buddy.”
Kara grinned with a nod. “I would be delighted.”
Three hours later they were done with the few house chores and prepared to go out. Kara glanced at Celeste uneasily before she headed back to her cottage.
“Uhm…Celeste. I don’t mean to be a nuisance…”
“Of course not!” Celeste interrupted with a frown. “What do you need, my dear?”
Kara pulled at her fingers. “Just a purse, if you have an extra one. I have some money, but nowhere to…”
“Say no more, ma Cherie,” Celeste stated with a proud smile as she went on to produce a wide variety of stylish purses for Kara to choose from.
Kara stared before choosing a chic black leather purse that seemed to match her boots. She’d never seen so many purses together before. Not even back in the dump when the other girls would decide to go on an all-day stealing spree and return at night with loads of stolen handbags.
Kara and Celeste packed the rest of the bags away in her purse closet. A whole closet. Just for purses! Kara was stunned.
She hurried back to her cottage and put a neat stack of hundreds into her purse, a sum well over one thousand Francs. Who knew how much she’d need to spend?
Five minutes later, the women were in the back seat of a powerful Ford, being driven to their destination.
“What do you kids want?” Raphaël asked as he drove towards mall.
“Sugar!” Zavier yelled from the backseat, making Isabelle cringe as she looked down at his brown hair.
Not noticing his mother’s expression, Zavier turned to Rayan with an excited thumbs up. Rayan grinned back in amusement.
“Sugar isn’t good for you, Zavier,” she said, tilting his chin back to look at her. “Or you, Rayan. Your father has the dentist on speed dial, remember that,” she warned, smiling when both boys flinched.
Lucas scoffed from where he was reclined in the front passenger seat.
“You feed these kids nothing but chocolate cookies for four years straight, then complain when they get a mouth full of sweet teeth. It’s the monster you made, live with it,” he stated with closed eyes.
Zavier felt particularly proud at the ‘monster’ part and gave a loud roar to support it.
Isabelle scowled before lifting a finger at her son.
“Hold on, Simba,” she said, before facing the back of Luc’s head.
“What was that, Luca-Luca?”
Lucas tilted his head, roughly cracking his neck joints with loud ‘pop’ sounds before he glanced at Raphaël.
“Why’d you make me come along?” he questioned accusingly. Raphaël rolled his eyes at him.
“Would you have rather stayed behind to be used as a jungle gym for Luna and Liana’s play time?” he retorted.
Luc shrugged. “I might. They’re that beautiful, those children of yours.”
Raphaël smiled proudly.
“Besides,” Luc continued. “Anything’s better than Old Blabber Jaws back there.”
Isabelle delivered a swift slap to the back of his head.
“Wha…!” Luc stuttered.
Raphaël groaned. “No violence before my kids. Rayan,” he said quickly before Isabelle could murder Lucas. “What do you want to get?”
Raphaël glanced at his quiet nephew through the rear-view mirror.
“Uhm…” Rayan began, pushing his curly brown hair back with one hand. “A pizza?” he asked.
Raphaël nodded. “Perfect, we’ll get you boys pizza.”
Soon they were driving through the mall entrance, Zavier hopping in his seat from excitement. Isabelle held his little hand the moment they were out of the car, trusting her Rayan to behave himself as he walked calmly by her side. Her husband’s nephew was only eleven, but she could see such early maturity in his deep blue eyes. It had always been there long since she and Raphaël adopted him five years ago. Knowing the painful place that that maturity stemmed from, Isabelle threw an arm around him for a quick random hug. How she loved this child. He smiled back at her as they walked on.
“Mama!” she heard Zavier’s little voice a second before someone crashed into her.
Isabelle pulled away from Rayan to grab the girl who’d bumped into her as she went falling to the floor.
“I’m so sorry,” the girl said, hurriedly picking up the two bags she’d dropped. Isabelle helped her.
“Oh, no, it’s my fault. Are you okay?” she asked as the girl smiled and nodded, her beautiful green eyes twinkling.
“Oh, Karen, I was just…” a new voice suddenly said. “Isabelle?”
Isabelle gasped as Celeste appeared before her. “Celeste!” she exclaimed, happily pulling her friend in for a hug. Celeste said hello to her two adorable Godsons and quickly introduced Karen.
“Isabelle, meet Karen. She’s new here and is staying with us on the ranch,” she said. Isabelle grinned. “It’s great to meet you, Karen.”
Kara smiled, her cheeks flushing a little. God, that fake name was really sticking. “It’s a pleasure to…” she trailed off, her eyes looking past Isabelle to see a head of long dirty-blonde hair, a bearded face and a scowl. She paled.
Oh shit.