The Invisible Duchess: A Medieval Historical Time-Travel Novel by Alexandria Grolleau

Author:Alexandria Grolleau [Grolleau, Alexandria]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-12-28T00:00:00+00:00

18

Chapter 18

Bordeaux

France

T he train blurred the image of the land it passed on the way towards the city of wine, Bordeaux. Lyra and her older sister, Elodie, tried to sleep on the morning ride, but their cousin, Melina, had other plans.

“Do you plan to pay me back for the salt?” Melina asked Lyra with a light kick to her foot. Their chairs faced one another, separated by a plastic table that was unfolded to hold Melina’s laptop.

Lyra had nearly forgotten with the time that had passed since she had asked for her cousin to buy salt for her to use as an exchange in Medieval France. She rubbed her light blue eyes and blinked them open before seeing Elodie resting peacefully. Her return had been uneventful. Her heart was torn between the joy of seeing her family and the pain of leaving behind Odon.

“Do you have an extra toothbrush? I seem to have lost mine,” Lyra said, trying to change the subject before admitting that she would need to answer. “For the salt, I’ll get you the money.”

“It’s fine,” Melina stated. “It wasn’t much anyway. Why don’t you have your toothbrush? Didn’t you brush your teeth this morning?”

Lyra covered her mouth with her hand and bit down on both of her lips. She then shook her head in embarrassment.

“Just take some gum for now,” Elodie stated with closed eyes.

“I thought you were asleep,” Lyra said. “Do you have any gum?”

Elodie sighed as she stood to catch her backpack from above their heads and handed the gum to Lyra. “Don’t talk yet, Lyra.”

“Prochaine arrêt, Gare de Bordeaux-Saint-Jean,” the voice of the automated speaker called out in the train.

“Oh, that’s our stop,” Lyra’s Aunt Emma remarked. “Put away your things and grab your bags.”

The family left the train station behind them, with Emma leading the way. “There are lovely fountains and other sites that will blow you away here.”

“Are we just going to walk?” Melina asked.

“The city has a lot of public transportation, so we don’t really need a car here,” Emma explained. “Here, we can rent a bike and go wherever we want.”

Lyra gazed at the many buildings in the extremely clean city. Everything was so prestigious that Lyra felt underdressed by just walking down the streets.

The eighteenth-century architecture was overwhelming in the beauty it brought to the family, but those who lived in Bordeaux seemed not to pay it any mind.

“Place de la Bourse,” Emma stated. “Right there, that fountain is supposed to be the Three Graces from Greek mythology.”

The place was a marvelous sight. It was a vast expanse of awe-inspiring architecture alongside the flowing waters of the Garonne River. Two imposing L-shaped structures, each standing four stories tall, faced each other with a stately central building facing the river. The ground floors were adorned with towering windows, while the size of the windows gradually diminished as they ascended towards the roof.

“Amazing,” Deanna said. She was busy taking pictures for her sick husband, who had stayed behind in Poitiers. “Poor Seb, he would have a field day with these sights.

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