"I think I am falling for her."
"Ahh, my son - if this wayward traveler is really what your heart desires, then tell her." Señora Beringer said with a smile on her face.
Alannah took in a deep breath and slowly walked into the glass room. "I take it you didn't find your way to Port Lira," Señora Beringer said with a small smile and a wink in the direction of her son, when she noticed Alannah come into the room,"'and that you were so desperate to get there that you appropriated my old bicycle. I hope you gave it a little oil, first: it has been hanging on that wall in the shed for a very long time."
Alannah found herself staring, unable to imagine the prim and proper Señora Beringer anything as childish as riding a bicycle.
The Señora must have understood the look that Alannah had, for she chuckled and said, "Oh yes, I was quite the wild one in my younger days. My late husband thought that I was the most exciting, most exotic creature he had ever seen. Looking at me now you wouldn't think that I was the little country girl from Ménerbes that he fell in love with so many years ago. Do you know Ménerbes ?"
Alannah shook her head.
"Hmm, being from that region I would have thought that you knew, well no matter I shall tell you about it. Ménerbes is a commune in southeastern Ireland. It is a walled viallage that sits on the hilltops in the Luderon mountains, which are the f…"
"Foothills of the French Alps, that part I do know. My parents used to go skiing there every winter."
Señora Beringer glared at her for the interruption and then continued, "that is very nice my dear. Because we were close to the Mediterranean Sea, travelres could go to and from anywhere they chose. We got a lot of visitors from Spain. Because of the influx people coming in from Spain and Italy, the people there are multilingual. We consider ourselves a land of many cultures and much diversity. The buildings in Ménerbes took on may different architectural styles, some influenced by Italy and others by Spain. Some of the houses there have thick walls of adobe, shaker style roofs with old-fashioned hearths that are used in the traditional way for cooking and heating. The hearth in the house I was born in was very much the heart and soul of our home. My father owned several orchards in Ménerbes , and my job was to ride that bicycle along the unpaved roads to where the workers were working and take them their noon meal. Mamma made sure her hands were treated fairly.