AllFreeNovel
Share Us
eyes were friendly, although a bit impish. Reluctantly,
my heart t
humping so hard I thought it would take my
breath away and cause me to faint before I reached the
front door, I took his hand and let him lead me back to
the gate and up the walk to the grand galerie. There
was a tile stairway.
"How did you get here?" he asked before we
reached the door.
"The bus," I said. He lifted the ball and hammer
knocker and let the sound echo through what I
imagined, from the sound of the reverberation within, was an enormous entryway. A few moments later, the door was opened and we faced a mulatto man in a butler's uniform. He wasn't short, but he wasn't tall either. He had a round face with large dark eyes and a somewhat pug nose. His dark brown hair was curly and peppered with gray strands. There were dime-size brown spots on his cheeks and forehead and his lips
were slightly orange.
"Good evening, Monsieur Andreas," he said,
then shifted his gaze to me. The moment he set eyes
on me, he dropped his mouth. "But Mademoiselle
Gisselle, I just saw you . . ." He turned around and
looked behind him. Beau Andreas laughed.
"This isn't Mademoiselle Gisselle, Edgar.
Edgar, I'd like you to meet Ruby. Ruby, Edgar Farrar,
the Dumas' butler. Are Mr. and Mrs. Dumas in,
Edgar?" he asked.
"Oh, no, sir. They left for the ball about an hour
ago," he said, his eyes still fixed on me.
"Well then, there's nothing to do but wait for
them to return. Until then, you can visit with
Gisselle," Beau told me. He guided me into the great
house.
The entryway floor was a peach marble and the
ceiling, which looked like it rose to at least twelve feet above me, had pictures of nymphs and angels, doves and blue sky painted over it. There were paintings and sculptures every-where I looked, but the wall to the right was covered by an enormous tapestry depicting a
