Chapter one continues

As the breezy air caressed Anna's exhausted body, she walked more in the yard and ignored the toll of the bell. The blossoms of the pear tree were the first adorning that safe haven. She knew by heart that apple tree would be the next to bloom; and then the plum tree. As she pictured her sick husband in the bedroom, who had planted all those trees with his own hands, for he was a man of nature, a cold shiver ran into her bones and she sighed loud: "Why?" However, as she had no control of the happenings in her past life, it seemed, as though in this new life she was even more powerless and vulnerable.
*
Anna, an intelligent and energetic student, who had brought up in a high class, sophisticated Persian family, was different even from childhood than other girls in her class. Her father, Ali, was related from both father and mother side to the last dynasty, Qajar, which enabled him to carry the title Shahzadeh (Prince); and made him an aristocrat. He not only lived up to his title, but also taught his only two children to act like one. His first wife, the mother of his son, died at a very young age from a mysterious disease while their son, Aria, was only five years old. As it had been custom for an Iranian man of his class to find a new wife ( not for an Iranian woman under the same circumstance), Ali thought who was better than Fatie, his son's nanny to become his wife. His second child, Anna, from his second wife was born a few years later. Fatie loved both children equally and never even in her secret mind thought that Aria was her stepson. In return, even though Aria had an obscure memory of his real mother, he loved fatie just as she was his real mother and never called her anything but mother.
Two happy children, eight years apart in age, grew up without any conflict, poverty, and hardship where many children had had a real hard life. Unaware of their society, they lived in their golden cages, where everything from school to entertainment were provided for them in the highest level. They both mastered not only Persian language in school but also English and French by their foreign teachers. Their schools only accepted the students that belonged to that certain class. Their vacations, two or three times a year, were spent mostly in Europe and once in America. Their clothes came from the best designers in Europe. While Anna mastered music by playing piano and violin, since it was a sign of sophistication for a young Iranian woman in her class, Aria, her brother, learned horseback riding with the help of people who worked in his father's stable. He was raised in a way to become a man of dignity and integrity like his father which would enable him to take care of family's estate when his father was an old man or dead.
Whereas him, Anna was brought up to be a woman of class, to marry a Shahzadeh (Prince) and to carry on the responsibilities a woman had in the house. However, in such families, even those duties were turned over to maids, nannies, gardeners, and cooks.


To be Continued