The Phantom of Vendée(2)

not the shyness commonly seen in young boys when facing the opposite sex, but rather gave the impression of someone unfamiliar with socializing."

"Such a detailed description! I bet the maid must have fallen head over heels for him!" Amy took the opportunity to tease.

"Hush! Don''t interrupt, Amy!" Daisy immediately scolded the naughty girl.

Charlotte chimed in, playing along with a smile. "But really, with such a mysterious beautiful youth descending from the heavens, which girl wouldn''t be curious and enamoured?"

"Especially a naive countrywoman! She''s seen nothing but rugged and barbaric wilderness, now in the presence of this fertile and lush valley, how could her heart not bloom with ecstasy?" The other girl added with a mischievous grin.

"Hey, don''t forget my maid was already in her thirties!" The storyteller tapped both of them disapprovingly. "Besides, what impressed her wasn''t just his handsome appearance, but rather the strong sense of familiarity he evoked in her. However, she couldn''t pinpoint where she had seen him before. Moreover, his noble status was evident at a glance, how could a peasant woman like her have had the chance to know him? To say that he resembled anyone she personally knew would be even more impossible, as his appearance was hardly connected to any man of her own social class.

"As the two young men rode off side by side, she still failed to recall. It wasn''t until that evening when she carefully bolted the door that the reason for this habit suddenly came to mind, and memories all at once flooded back. My maid finally understood: that person was the phantom boy she had encountered in her childhood when she got lost! He had grown up, changed!

"This is absurd! Wasn''t he supposed to be a ghost child? How could a ghost possibly grow up?" Amy immediately interrupted.

"And to appear in broad daylight?" Anne added.

"She couldn''t fathom it either, so she told her