1986: My Happy Life in Provence

Chapter 27 The Favor of the Ladies
Standing behind the door was a young woman with dry, yellow hair, freckles on her face, and timid eyes.

"Lisa!?" Elena said in a high-pitched voice.

"Elena?" Lisa took a small step back.

Elena's notoriety is known to everyone in the village of Lourmarin, and Lisa doesn't want to get too close to this crazy woman who gets angry at any time.

"Why are you here?" Elena frowned deeply. How could there be a woman in Ronan's family?
"Let's fix Mr. Ronan's window."

Before he finished speaking, Henry appeared behind Lisa with a hammer.

He bit a nail in his mouth, glanced at Elena, and said vigilantly:
"Lisa, don't let strangers in. Ronan didn't say anyone would visit today."

"Okay, Dad." The appearance of her father made Lisa tougher and she pretended to close the door.

Elena used her body to block Lisa's movements:
"Where's Ronan? I want to see him."

"Mr. Ronan went into the mountains." After saying that, Lisa closed the door.

Elena backed up the muddy dirt road and looked up at the window through which Ronan had climbed out when she first met him.

"Henry is the most snobbish guy in the village. Has he been trying to curry favor with Ronan recently?" Elena thought this was a reasonable explanation.

But Lisa can also fix windows?

The angry look on Elena's face was replaced by seriousness.

Things are by no means that simple.
She trudged through the vineyards and reached the main road of the village, heading quickly towards home.

After a few steps, I ran into two acquaintances.

It may not be appropriate to say that they are acquaintances, it would be more appropriate to describe them as 'mortal enemies'.

They were also wealthy girls from Lourmarin and had quarreled with Irene on many occasions.

Elena immediately stopped her hurried and messy steps and started walking leisurely on the stone road, as if she was on a spring outing.

The two girls opposite were chatting animatedly and didn't notice Elena approaching at all.

"Are you going to the market tomorrow?"

"of course."

"Go see Ronan again?"

"No, but we're out of truffles, so we might consider buying some."

"If you say so, I'll go talk to him!"

"Can't!!"

"Haha - you still don't admit it? But Ronan is handsome, capable and rich, it's normal to like him."

"Yeah, that's what my parents said too."

The road in Lourmarin village was only wide enough for one car, and every word of their conversation flew into Elena's ears.

She didn't care about being dignified or elegant, she just lifted her skirt and started to trot quickly.

The situation is more serious than expected!

Lucas must be notified immediately!!

"Keep your voice down. Do you want the neighbors to laugh at you?" Lucas rubbed his ears which were hurt by the shock and closed the curtains.

Although he knew it wouldn't work, he wanted to stay away from the 'manic' Elena.

"What's the emergency? Henry is a dog that follows others and eats garbage. He won't stop Ronan from doing truffle business. He even hopes that Ronan will take him with him when he makes money. I don't understand why you are so nervous."

Is this what you called me here from so far away to say?

"No, Lucas!" Elena jumped up from the sofa and paced nervously in the living room. "Someone used the same trick as you, hoping to bind Ronan to him by 'betraying' his daughter or sister!" Lucas poured himself a glass of red wine:
"It's not like they are in the truffle business. If they had planned it, it would have been something else."

"You only think about yourself?" Elena asked with a distorted expression.

If it was Theo on the other side, she would definitely curse - selfish trash!

Lucas drank half a glass of wine and shrugged in confusion:

“Who else do we need to consider?”

Elena completely broke down and screamed madly.

Lucas seemed to have guessed the reason for Elena's collapse and drowned out her shouting:

"If you don't want Ronan to think you're crazy, you'd better sober up on the day of the party!"

Elena stopped shouting instantly and asked pitifully:
"You'll help me, right?"

This is your suggestion. You also want Ronan and I to be together, right?

Lucas drank the wine in one gulp:

"Mother Earth taught us that only when you give will you get. Elena, what have you given for love? Do you want to hear what Phil thinks of you? If you want to get Ronan, money alone is useless. This is all I can do for you."

Elena sat down on the sofa dejectedly and hugged herself tightly.

It's another Friday.

The heavy snow gave Ronan a short vacation and he only went into the mountains twice this week.

The ankle-thick snow in the mountains also added a lot of obstacles to truffle digging. He only harvested 7 small truffles this week, but even so, the stall was still crowded with people.

Many beautiful young women braved the cold and stayed in front of the truffle stall for half an hour or even longer, making sure that Ronan knew their names, ages, parents' jobs and family conditions before leaving reluctantly.

It was not convenient to ask Pierre and his gang to maintain order when dealing with young ladies, so Ronan's stall once again became a unique "scenery" in the market.

Fortunately, there wasn’t much stock this week and it would eventually sell out. Those people felt embarrassed to have awkward conversations and gradually left.

Ronan folded up today's 1700 francs and put them carefully into his pocket.

I thought I would spend more than I earned this week, but I still managed to make a small profit.

The new windows cost him 850 francs, and on top of that he had to pay 200 francs to Henri.

Henry, this guy, always hangs around Ronan, and the matter of repairing the window cannot be hidden from him.

Henry won't replace the windows, but he has no problem reinforcing the others.

Seeing that he had helped a lot recently, Ronan gave him this job.

I thought Henry would ask for a high price and make a fortune, but I didn't expect him to only ask for 200 francs.

Ronan guessed that it might be because Henry was not popular, so other farmers would not give him any work, which led to his financial difficulties. Now he would do any work as long as he was paid.

Ronan went back to check last night and found that the work was done well without any slacking.

It's just that Henry's daughter Lisa insisted on making dinner for Ronan, which gave him a headache.
Henry said that the people of Provence attached great importance to the decoration of windows, and the windows and doors of his house were too bare and needed to be "repaired".

Ronan decided that he must find an opportunity to make things clear to Henry that if he wanted to earn the money, Lisa must never appear in his house.

Seeing that the stall owners around him were starting to close their stalls, Ronan asked Zoe beside him:
"have a meal together?"

It has become a habit to have a meal together after the weekly market.

But Zoe said without raising her head:
"No, I'm going home after I finish packing."

Ronan tilted his head back.

Because you didn’t find a reasonable reason to eat today?
(End of this chapter)