7 Chapter 7
The sun shines brightly and birds chirp loudly at the window of Celestina's room.
"Good morning bird." Celestina says as she leans to the window.
It's around five in the morning and because of her excitements Celestina manages to wake up early in the morning.
She feels her stomach grumbles so she silently goes down to the first floor where the kitchen is.
"Where are you going?" His voice near makes Celestina shouts. She turns to the owner of the voice and manages to change her face before answering him.
"To the kitchen."
The man raises one of his brow and asks again.
"Why are you going there so early in the morning?"
Celestina curses her stomach for being so greedy in the morning.
"I'm hungry." She says with a slight embarrassment in her voice.
Francisco hears the girl says she's hungry and he feels like he wants to feed her all the food in the world. He looks at the little girl's appearance and notices she doesn't wear any slippers.
"Let's bring you there then." Francisco carries her like a potato sack. He places her in his arm and her legs are dangling behind.
"Uncle! Why are you carrying me?" 'And you carry me like a potato sack.' Celestina filters out the last sentence. His sweeps her in his arm so fast and so easily as if she's as light as feather.
Francisco knows the girl is skinny but he never thought she will be this light. He doesn't feel like he's carrying anything at all.
"I'm bringing you to the kitchen. Quiet down." With his last words, Celestina doesn't dare to defy the expressionless man. She quiets down and doesn't dare to move even her fingertips when he carry her down the stairs. She knows he will never drop her but she can't dismiss the thought of falling down the marble stairs.
When they arrive at the kitchen, the chef is already inside there. He thinks it is one of the servants coming in but he doesn't expect the duke and the young miss to come in! Moreover the duke is carrying the young miss like a potato sack.
"Greetings to the duke and young miss. How can I help you?" The chef says after he composes himself.
"What do you want to eat?" Francisco asks as he places Celestina on a chair at the corner of the room. She finally notices that she isn't wearing any slippers. 'That's why he's carrying me! This duke acts like he doesn't care but he does care after all.'
"I want to drink milk." She doesn't feel comfortable eating too much in the morning so she just requests a cup of milk and plans to eat more later during breakfast.
"Milk isn't enough to fill your hunger. Anything else?" Francisco is a person with huge appetite and he will need to eat at least one full plate of food before feeling full.
"It's enough! I will eat more later during breakfast."
The chef brings a cup of milk after hearing their conversation and he also adds some cookies and biscuits to make sure the girl isn't hungry afterwards. He also thinks that just milk isn't enough to fill her hunger.
"Thank you." Celestina says to the chef. The chef feels happy even though he doesn't cook anything, the nobles he served never thank him for any of his service. This is the first time someone thank him so sincerely even though he only brings a cup of milk and some cookies and biscuits.
He's already thinking what to cook for the young miss for her last meal here in capital. It's such a shame that such a cute young miss have to go only after 2 days. He enjoys cooking for her especially looking at her eating his food so deliciously yesterday.
"Uncle, what time are we going?"
"Maybe around 7."
"What about Ambrose and the others?"
"They will stay here."
"But I want to stay with them..."
"You will meet them when you come back here."
"Can I just stay here?" The duke grows silent and after a while he opens his mouth and declare
"I want to adopt you Celestina, as the second daughter of Duke Ashdown. Do you want me to adopt you?" The duke's bad with children. Even though he already has 2 children, his child aren't the cutest and they mature so fast. They always act like they are adults so the talks he have with them are all about school and official matters.
"You will be my dad?" Celestina asks. Her knowledge about this world is little as the book mentions more about the romance of the lead characters. She has no idea how the duke meets or adopts Celestina, she knows it will happen soon but when it actually happens, it makes her feel so touched. She finally have a family.
Francisco grows anxious at the child's quietness, when he sees that she's tearing up he starts to panic and tries to calm her down by giving her the cookies that she hasn't touch.
"Do you not want to? It's fine, you don't have to worry about it, I-"
"I want to!" She cuts his words before he manages to take his words back.
"I... Thank goodness" Francisco looks at the small girl in front of him and feels like he wants to hug her, he wants to protect her from any troubles that might come. To his surprise, the girl hugs him first. Her short arms aren't able to circle his body but it makes him feels warm in the cold of the morning.
"Duke! Miss! You both are here! We must get ready now and go to the shop or else we'll be late for our journey." Ginny barges into the kitchen and rambles. She isn't even scared of the duke.
"Go on."
Celestina waves her left hand to the duke and left with Ginny holding her right hand.
"This dress one looks good." Ginny holds up a baby blue dress that looks like it is designed for a doll.
"It's looks so beautiful!" Celestina says honestly.
They are right now in a famous dress shop in the capital. Celestina feels like a princess with all the dresses and accessories surrounding her.
"What about this one?" Ginny holds another pale yellow dress.
"It is beautiful too."
"I think we have enough dresses for our journey, let's go choose some pajamas and underwear." Ginny hands over the yellow dress to the worker and walks to the pajamas rooms with Celestina beside her.
"I want this." Celestina looks at the white pajamas that looks like it belongs to a horror movie and directs her attention to the accessories where she sees a pale blue ribbon that looks just like the ribbon that was described as Celestina's most treasured ribbon in the novel.
The old Celestina loved to collect ribbons and hair accessories. Her favorite in particular is a pale blue ribbon decorated with white lace and a shining diamond in the middle, some people said it's a gift from the duke to her which is the reason she treasured it very much but no one knows whether it's actually true or not.
'Well, this one isn't that one but let's buy this to honor the old Celestina.'
"Alright, it's all done. Let's go back now." Ginny leads Celestina outside where all of the others are waiting.
"Let's go to Ashdown now."
