Free The Champagne Queen (The Century Trilogy Book 2) by Petra Durst-Benning Page B

Gustave Grosse, by the way, and he’ll be here tomorrow around midday to show us how everything works. I can hardly wait! There’s nothing to do in the vegetable garden yet, so all you’ve got is the bit of work around the house. And I’m sure you’ll cope with that.”
    Isabelle looked speechlessly at her husband. The two champagne glasses that she had set at the end of the table caught her eye. She’d actually been thinking that on their first night in their new home, Leon would open a bottle of champagne for them. But here he was, telling her unpleasant stories instead.
    “Just think about how good you’ve got things now,” Leon went on in his most persuasive tone. “At my parents’ home, it always annoyed you that my mother had the final word. But here, you’re the mistress of the house. You make the rules!”
    “The rules . . . I will most definitely do that,” Isabelle replied vehemently. “First thing tomorrow, I’m going to ask around among our neighbors to see if they can recommend a young woman who can clean and do the washing for us. And I’ll be keeping a lookout for a good cook, too. I’m sure it won’t be too hard to find the people we need. If you think I’m going to waste my time with that kind of thing, think again! I’ll have enough to do just being the face of the estate and keeping the house organized.” Satisfied with her own resolution, she sliced off a sliver of ham and put it on her bread.
    “It isn’t that easy, Isabelle.”
    “Oh, really?” she said archly. “I see no difficulty at all.”
    “I don’t know how to say this . . . I mean, we’ve never talked about money. While my uncle left me this estate, he did not leave me any money with it.”
    Isabelle found the sight of him helplessly scratching his head, messing up his hair, so moving that she softened right away. There they were, sitting together on the first evening in Hautvillers, and they were fighting over nothing at all.
    “Don’t worry. I’m not planning to buy anything big. The house can stay as it is for now,” she said gently. “I’ll make sure that the staff is as frugal as can be. Of course, we will have to have some kind of here-we-are party for our neighbors, but we don’t have to break the bank with it. A small dinner, three courses, four at the most—”
    “Isabelle, my darling, there you go getting carried away again! You’ll just have to be patient for a little while with the invitations. And we simply don’t have any money to pay a maid or laundress. The little bit that my mother gave me we spent in Reims. And so far we haven’t had any support from your father, either. For now, things are tight.”
    Thunderstruck, Isabelle could only sit there while she tried to understand what he was saying. Her husband was penniless? He thought that money would come from her side?
    Until that moment, she had always assumed that Leon had a certain income at his disposal. After all, he was one of Europe’s best racing cyclists! And in the big races, the prize money was certainly considerable. Besides, what kind of man proposed to a young woman knowing full well that he would not be able to support her? It was unimaginable. For that reason, Isabelle had never thought about money, not once! And when they had lived in Grimmzeit, she hadn’t needed any, because she had simply lived in Leon’s parents’ household. Mentally, she quickly calculated how much she had left in her purse. After what she had bought in Reims, it wasn’t much.
    “Now don’t go looking so horrified,” said Leon. “It’s really just a temporary hole in the wallet. I’ll win another big race, and things will look different again.”
    “Cycle racing! I don’t want to hear about that anymore,” Isabelle replied harshly. “We are champagne makers now, in case you forgot. Somewhere down there”—she pointed in the direction of the cellar—“there must be many, many bottles of champagne. What we need to do is sell