Danbury kindercare: Daycare, Preschool & Child Care Centers in Danbury, CT

nochi.com uses cookies that are strictly necessary for its functioning. We do not collect analytical and marketing cookies.OK

Summer in Albaros read online by Iris Danbury (Page 2)

This time she cut him off sharply, her head thrown back, her hazel eyes blazing with anger.

– If you have the patience to listen to me, you will not have to draw the wrong conclusions. I didn’t come here on vacation. Mrs. Parmenter has hired me to keep these villas in good repair.

— You?! He managed to put a lot of contempt into one word. His scathing gaze swept over her from head to toe, his fluffy auburn hair, her usually pale oval face now flushed with indignation, her cream-coloured traveling suit and mud-splattered white shoes. “I can’t believe,” he continued quietly, “that she could have done such an incredible stupidity and sent you here.

– You don’t know anything about me, you don’t know what I’m capable of, Mr. Eldridge! she blurted into his face.

– I’m starting to guess. A slight smile flickered across his lips.

– Be so kind as to tell me where the Joy Villa is located, and I will gladly not linger here. I beg your pardon for being unannounced at your house. She spoke, and her voice rose higher and higher, almost breaking into a scream.

– Oh, you probably came from the direction of the city, along this terrible broken road. “Joy” – the first villa, but only from the highway.

She walked to the door, making a step, and took one of her suitcases, but he took the suitcase from her hands:

— Let me help you and take you to Joy at the same time.

“Thank you, Mr. Eldridge,” Karan said in an icy tone as he placed her luggage on the threshold of the villa she was to live in.

– I hope you don’t have to be sad here, Miss … Miss Ingram, but I warn you, you can control the rest of the villas, and along with their tenants, as much as you like, only I ask you to leave me alone. I will not tolerate any interference with my privacy. When I negotiated the rental of the villa, it was specifically agreed. Also, please don’t spy on me.

— I apologized, and you can hardly say that I was spying on you.

— So you get into the habit of looking into strangers’ bedrooms?!

– I thought that, God forbid, you got sick.

– As you can see, I’m healthy. Well, I leave you alone with your duties as a housekeeper, I really don’t know how long you can last here.

He quickly turned around and walked towards him with heavy steps through the garden.

An absolutely unbearable person, Karan thought, still unable to calm down. However, at that moment, she had another, more serious problem that required an immediate solution, because Karan was standing in front of the door of her new house, but she did not have the keys. She walked around the villa, but all the windows were tightly closed, and the back door was locked.

She regretted not asking that rude Eldredge where Manuella’s lodge was. Now I have to look for her myself. She walked a little further down the road and saw several small cottages. Two small children were playing near one of them, but when Karan approached, they ran into the house. The door of the next building was wide open, and Karan knocked loudly on the wooden frame. Almost immediately, an old woman in a black, faded dress appeared from the doorway.

The woman was so small that Karan towered over her like a tower.

“My name is Miss Ingram, I am from England,” she explained. Do you have the keys to my villa?

Yes, yes, senorita. Manuela trotted inside the house and returned a minute later with a bunch of various keys, most of them incredibly large, as if they still unlocked the massive iron gates of the old castle.

“Please come with me,” Karan suggested to her. “I need to ask you something about the villas.

At first Manuella hesitated, then announced that she was now preparing dinner.

“But there are no inscriptions on the keys,” Karan noted. How do I know which door they are from?

With a quick gesture, Manuella slammed the door in her face, which opened again almost immediately, and announced, not without irritation:

— I’m coming.

— Did you come here yesterday? Karan asked her as they walked down the road together.

Manuella stopped and stared at the young Englishwoman:

— No. Why did I have to come?

Karan realized that there was no point in asking further and indulging in explanations – it was still clear how dishonest Mrs. Parmenter’s employees were.

At last they came to the Joy, and Manuella selected one key from the bundle and inserted it into the lock. But the key was obviously not the right one, then she began to try others, all in turn, finally found a suitable one. It was dark inside, with a musty, sour smell.

The next villa, “Turquoise”, also stood with closed shutters, but when they approached the third, “Crystal”, the front door was open.

– Does anyone live here? Karan asked the old woman. – I understand that now only one villa is rented.

“No, there’s no one here,” Manuella said. – You have the only key.

She took Karan’s hand as if to take her away, but at that moment a woman’s voice was heard singing some song, and three small children ran out of the house in a crowd. At the sight of Karan, they immediately froze and cautiously began to examine the stranger. Then they ran up to Manuella, grabbed her by the skirt and by the hands.

“I’ll go and see who lives there,” Karan said decisively.

She walked quickly through the living room and into the kitchen. There, a young woman was washing clothes in the sink.

– What’s going on here? Karan asked. Who are you and why do you live here?

From the convulsive sobs of the young woman and the shrill cries of Manuella, Karan gradually learned the whole story. It was Gabriella, Manuella’s eldest daughter, who, with her husband and five children, had been thrown out of the cottage where they had lived for many years for non-payment.

“So Gabriella brought the children here,” Manuella explained. “Only for a couple of weeks until her husband finds another place to live for them.

“But you can’t do that,” Karan said. “These villas are private property, and you can’t just live here.

— Why not? the old woman asked. They are empty in winter. Rich people come here in summer. Is it possible to refuse children a roof over their heads?

Gabriella insisted that she kept the villa clean and tidy, she didn’t do any damage.

Karan has agreed to help in any way she can, but Gabriella’s family needs to find somewhere else to live urgently.

What surprise awaits her at the next villa? Karan asked herself. But there were no residents on the Emerald, with the exception of large spiders. Manuella refused to escort Karan to the last villa, the Sapphire.

— Is there any other family living there? asked Karan, who was even a little amused by the stubborn refusal of the elderly señora.

– No, no, senorita, but a person lives there. He doesn’t like visitors. He didn’t give me the key.

Karan smiled:

— I have already met Senor Eldridge. Yes, let’s leave him alone for today. “She took all the keys from Manuella. “Manuella, I need some help. Today it is necessary to clean up the Villa “Joy”. Will you ask your daughter to help me?

— Not this one. My youngest daughter, Benita, will come,” Manuella promised.

Before Karan could find out anything else, Manuella hurried away along the path to her home. Karan took a deep breath.

“All the villas need to be repainted and in some places refurbished,” said the owner Karan. And be done by the end of January. This is the time when travel agencies start sending their experts and this year I lost a lot of good bookings because my villas did not meet the requirements of their clients.”

The estimates for the cosmetic repairs are already in place, so all Karan has to do is organize and oversee the work.

The girl wandered thoughtfully to her own house with the strange name “Joy”. The villas themselves would look good if they were refurbished and repainted, the garden would also need clearing and maintenance, but how could she expose Gabriella and her family?

Were don Ramiro and Señor Molina so surprised at the mention of the villas just because the whole property was in such a bad state? Or did they have another reason?

Karan brought her suitcases into the house, but before unpacking them, she had to unlock the shutters and open the windows to let in fresh air and light. She immediately went around all the rooms. If everything is tidied up here, then it will be quite possible to live, she thought. The walls were white and quite clean, but there were cobwebs in the corners. There was a layer of dust on the floor, covered with dark olive and white marble tiles; There was almost nothing of furniture, only an ebony table and four chairs with upholstered seats. A huge chest of drawers occupied one wall. Looking inside, Karan found a rich collection of empty wine bottles.

In the bedroom, she was horrified to find that the bedspread had been thrown right over the mattress, there were no pillows or clean linens. Maybe the linen is in some closet, but the search did not lead to anything. Then she remembered another bed, which appeared in Mrs. Parmenter’s approximate list of all the furniture, and which Karan did not see in her villa.

The kitchen was small, but quite sufficient for summer tourists, because the villa was intended only for two. Some villas were much larger and could accommodate up to six people.

By noon she had already cleaned the chest of drawers and wardrobe, hung and laid out her clothes and belongings, but the girl who was supposed to help her clean up never showed up.

Karan went to the villa occupied by Gabriella and asked when she should expect Benita.

— Did your mother tell you that Benita would come here? Gabrielle was surprised. But she works in the city.

— Why then did Manuella promise to send her?

Gabriella shrugged:

– She will probably come in the evening, after the store closes.

It’s getting dark by 5 pm anyway, and Karan hasn’t even looked to see if the house is lit.

“Still, I need to properly clean the rooms, and today,” Karan said firmly.

Gabriella’s dark eyes looked troubled. Then she turned to her son and told him to tell Manuelle that Benita hurried to Karan as soon as she came to dinner.

“I will too,” Gabriella promised. “And yet, senorita, you don’t have hot water.

— Yes? Then tell me how to organize hot water, how to cook and everything else. By the way, there are no linens.

Gabriella said that all spare linen is stored in the Emerald Villa, the largest of them all, where the wardrobes are much more spacious.

— What happened to the second bed in my bedroom? Karan asked sternly.

Gabriella lowered her head and said nothing.

— Gabriella, what’s the matter? I should know. “But Karan already knew where the bed was.

“We…we hired her,” Gabriella admitted after a long pause. We have kids, you know. There weren’t enough beds for everyone.

“We’ll talk about this later,” Karan said, anticipating how much more furniture they “borrowed” from other villas. “In the meantime, please send your sister to my villa as soon as possible.

Walking back through the garden, Karan noticed that the arrangement of the villas was well thought out and very comfortable. Although they were all connected by one path that ran parallel to the sea, each house had its own path, and each was isolated from the rest in the garden. Around grew magnolias, oleanders, lemon and orange trees, they protected the villas from prying eyes with a thick curtain.

Beyond the central path lay a strip of rough rocky ground that sloped down to a golden sandy beach and a lapping aquamarine sea. There was a small peninsula to the left, and Karan climbed a high ridge to see what was on the other side. There were no beaches in that place, only the waves licked the steep foothills of the rocks.

On the right side, almost the whole of Albarosa appeared to her eyes, with the square, white Moorish-style houses, tiers attached to the mountains. After she has more or less put her villa in order, she will try to explore this unusual town at the first opportunity.

When Karan returned, Benita and Gabriella were already in the house, they were cleaning and tidying, scrubbing the floor, shaking out the rugs and trying to give the villa a residential look.

Benita turned out to be much younger than her sister, she was no more than seventeen years old. A pretty girl with wet brown eyes and black hair that curled and spilled over her shoulders, beautiful full lips spreading into a happy smile.

Benita showed her how to handle the gas stove and water heater. However, when she flipped the switch, only one of the four bulbs came on. The rest of the bulbs, Karan thought gloomily, must have been unscrewed by Gabriella and carried away.

With incessant smiles and exclamations of joy, both sisters began to assure the new housekeeper that in a couple of hours the house would be unrecognizable.

Karan suddenly felt very hungry, but she was careful not to talk about it and casually asked:

“I would like to visit the city. How can I get there?

Benita told her that she had to go up the winding road to Albarosa, the same way she should have come here this morning.

— Is there a cafe or a restaurant where I could have lunch?

“Yes, there is a place there called El Catalan,” said Gabriella. You can easily find it, it’s on the main square. There are others, but worse.

Karan changed her shoes, put on a white wool sweater over an orange-colored dress with a belt and went to the city.

In the light of the sun she saw a completely different Albarosa. Now she had the opportunity to slowly examine the city rising above the sea, its white, like children’s cubes, square houses with flat roofs growing into a rocky slope. The rose-purple hills and the blue sky were the perfect setting for this town, dazzlingly shining under the bright rays of the sun.

The distance to Albarosa turned out to be much greater than she first thought, and now she realized that Vicente had taken her by the shortest, though not the most convenient route.

Once in the city, Karan began to examine it with pleasure, and she liked everything very much. Crowded squares, dark narrow streets with arcades selling fruit. Between the high crowded houses she had to overcome countless ladders, and finally, almost losing her way, with unspeakable relief, she again went to the square, where cafe tables were set out on the street.

Karan found El Catalan in the corner of the square. She decided to eat slowly, because she did not want to rush to the villa at all, and besides, soon she would probably not have free time to walk around the city and dine in cozy cafes. She ordered a glass of wine and the classic Spanish dish, tapas, tidbits of smoked fish and ham in a spicy sauce. The paella was followed by fruit, and the dinner was rounded off by cheese.

She spent the rest of the day visiting shops and souvenir shops. There were several small hotels in the city, some taverns also had rooms for the night, but so far she had not come across anything like a comfortable hotel.

So don Ramiro didn’t have much choice last night but to put her up with his friend. Karan remembered the tall, handsome Spaniard and wondered if they would meet again, but since he lived in Almeria, there was little hope of this.

Then it occurred to her to stock up on groceries for the next few days. Then she will be able to order the delivery of products and other necessary things to the estate. She bought everything she needed, then sat for another half an hour in a cafe with a cup of coffee, looking at the passers-by.

Tomorrow she has to get down to work, but today she can relax a little.

Lights went on in the shop windows, and then Karan suddenly realized that it was already evening, it would be completely dark before she could reach her villa. She quickly collected all the packages, paid for the coffee, and hurriedly headed in the direction she thought she needed, but soon found herself on a steep street going up, completely dark, if not for the reflections of white houses on both sides. There was no hope to find a taxi in such a place. Finally, Karan came to a lighted intersection and asked an elderly woman how to get to the central square. Now it turned out that she had taken a wrong turn somewhere and was now going down the hill from the opposite side of the city, away from the road to the villas.

It was difficult to walk in the dark, but at last she found herself again in a busier part of the city. Having refreshed herself in a nearby cafe, she asked the waiter for the exact direction, but neither he nor his partner knew more than herself. Karan drew the streets and intersections on the back of the envelope, and they both assured her in unison that she would not get lost now.

Half an hour later, Karan had to sadly realize that she was lost, because soon the road became completely impassable. Well, never mind, Karan told herself, sooner or later she would get to the place anyway, maybe even safe. She stumbled painfully on the stones several times, and once even stretched out to her full length. Her eyes were already accustomed to the darkness, and she could make out a dimly whitening stone road, and walked along it forward.

She suddenly heard footsteps and a blinding flashlight shone into her eyes.

She froze with fear, and then the man exclaimed in English:

“That’s the miracle of miracles! Isn’t that our young housekeeper!

— Mister Eldridge?! She was greatly relieved to meet a friend here.

— What are you doing here? Are you jumping on rocks in the dark? he asked sternly. – Do you want to break your neck?

“But it’s not too late yet,” she objected.

– For sissies like you, very much. Even I had the brains to take a flashlight with me, although I am quite familiar with this area.

“When I went home, it was still not so dark,” she explained.