Nacre's Promise

Chapter I : At the hacienda

Twenty-one years earlier 1889.

— Diego, Salvador, come on boys, it's time to take your bath before dinner. Be obedient, don't keep Ramona waiting or I'll tell your father to go without you tomorrow.

The two children looked at their mother, but after a moment's hesitation they started running towards the house.

Come on, hurry, it's already very late and your father has planned to leave at dawn tomorrow morning. In order not to miss the start, I will wake you up early.

Dressed in an anthracite gray taffeta dress embellished with pearls and dove-gray laces, the signora Elvira d'Almondara was a young and fulfilling woman, charming without being really beautiful and whose elegance was often envied. She moved with grace and lightness, as she had learned in the posture classes that people from her birth were to undergo as teenagers.

She was convinced that every woman should walk elegantly and know how to dance.

Barely showing her cheek, to protect her complexion, she kissed her children before they left with the maid.

Seeing them go away happy and carefree, Elvira thought she had not seen the time pass since their birth. And now, they would soon become men. She had to remember those moments of happiness when they ran around the house laughing, and she would have liked to call them back to shake them a little harder.

But for now, the children had to sleep because the next day they would leave at dawn to accompany their father to the most distant lands of the estate.

Their destination was the chestnut plantations. They would inspect the trees to determine the harvest date according to the stage of production. The children didn't need to be begged to come because they adored following their father to the ends of the property where they rarely had the opportunity to go.

The estate of Cuevas-Blancas belonged since several generations to the d'Almondara family. Located near a small village in the alluvial plains south of Barcelona and close to the sea, it was composed of several hundred hectares of varied crops: olive trees, vineyards, chestnut trees, fruit trees but also forests exploited for their woods. For many years, the estate employed about fifty people, most of whom came from neighboring villages. The workers were housed on site with their families in a hamlet of pretty whitewashed houses. Depending on the volume of the harvest, day laborers strengthened the teams for short periods but the population was not changed. The same families lived on the ground for decades and everyone knew each other.

At first, the estate was only a small farm acquired by the ancestors of Don d'Almondara. It has been gradually expanded and its production diversified by each generation to become what it was today. The chestnuts they were going to control were widely used for the most part to produce flour that would be packed in the field and partly sold to bakeries, the other part reserved for the food of men and animals.

Large areas have been developed to collect spring water from the area and nearby streams. In addition of the lakes serving as private water reserves, they offered a haven of greenery in this country where rains were rather rare. This resource was a wealth that also largely contributed to the prosperity of the Cuevas-Blancas exploitation.

The estate was managed with a master hand by Rodrigo d'Almondara. He lived in a large traditional style hacienda with his wife Elvira, their two boys and their servants. This robust and elegant father of a family came from the Spanish gentry who did not frequent court.

An handsome man and with a smiling nature, he was appreciated by the fair sex, which displeased his wife a little although he was very faithful.

The children, Diego the eldest and Salvador the youngest, were ten and eight years old. They could have been born on a horse so great their ease was.