The breakup
Then came the shock. Not more than a year after Jaime's death, Fran left Annalisa. And worse, she was leaving Annalisa to get married with a man from her home town down south. Something the family had arranged. For Fran it was practical - a way to settle into something more stable and ultimately more sustainable than living as a lesbian lover to an older spinster. Fran was not very sentimental about it, which made Annalisa both angry and crushed. She had definitely not seen this coming.
And it all happened so quickly, from the matter of factual announcement one spring evening in October and until Fran had packed her belongings and left. This was such a deep blow and Annalisa could hardly make sense of it all and could barely resume her regular life. How could this possibly be?
After the shock, Annalisa sought comfort with Annamaria, and they shared in different ways their sorrow for their lost loves. Everyday for many weeks Annalisa sat in Annamarias kitchen sobbing and complaining, as Annamarie had sat in Annalisa's and Fran's kitchen in their appartment one year before to share her dispair over Jaime's premature passing. Gertrude also took part in comforting Annalisa in her grief, although as always somewhat detached and in her own not very sentimental way.
It was clear that the two foster sisters were as close as ever, despite their misfortunes. They confided in each other and shared their griefs and darkest fears.
Annamaria eventually told Annalisa about her frustrations with Carlos, her younger lover. In reality he was not much of a lover, she confided. Too timid and possibly too afraid of Annamaria and her status to seriously arouse her. Perhaps Carlos needed to see Annamaria as less of a saint and more of a carnal being.
Annamaria also told Annalisa that she worried deeply about the loss of a father figure, role model and male teacher to the twins. As they had both now turned eighteen it should have been the time for them to seek closer confidentiality with their father and learn from him the things that young men cannot possibly learn from their mothers.
A thought had ruminated with Annamaria. It was part selfish, part desperate. She dared not share it. So it felt like almost a miracle that Annalisa herself began to make suggestions to the same effect.
Annalisa was broken and badly needed a change. To do something entirely different and completely leave her previous life behind for a while. There was ample room at the mansion, Annamaria mentioned. And maybe, Annalisa suggested, she could be of use in adressing Annamaria's frustrations. Both with her limpid lover and with the boys' education?
Annamaria accutely knew how skilled Annalisa was and what she could be able to provide of practical knowledge of certain things so very difficult for a mother the impart on her sons, and something she did not seem able to impart on her younger lover. In the end it was Annalisa herself that suggested it.
Why didn't she leave her disappointing life behind, move in with Annamaria and her sons and lover for the foreseeable future and teach her lover to become a proper lover and the boys to become proper men?
It was Annamaria who then found it right to make sure Annalisa did indeed sever her ties with her present life out of fear of falling back into the new loneliness and misery too soon. And to make firmly sure that Annalisa remained until the various challenges had been met.
Annamaria referred to the arrangement as a free use agreement. Annalisa instantly appreciated it. Annalisa would be an instrument for her lover and for the twin boys to use for whatever and whenever they desired sexually. Annalisa did not really hesitate. She needed a break and to immerse herself completely into a new and useful role. She had no qualms and no reservations. She loved her sister and loved that she was there to give her this opportunity. And she wanted so eagerly to help her and what remained of her family.
The Providencia mansion
It was decided that Annalisa would move into Annamaria's and the twins' home in Providencia at once. She would live in the three floors facing the closed expansive garden. This had been the private quarters of Annamaria until recently when she took over the business and moved into the front of the mansion, which was even more spacious and where the boys also had their private studies and bedrooms on the top floor above the master bedrooms.
There were three sitting rooms en suite at ground floor, the middle one with a double door opening onto the garden with a few steps down to a small path cirkeling a small pond and then disappearing into the rugged wooded far end of the mansion's garden.
On the first floor was a small study in one end and a long library in the other end. A grand piano and a small assembly of chairs were in the middle facing the large windows from which you could see eye to eye with the tree tops and nothing else.
The top floor was one large bedroom with the large bed in one end and rows of built in closets along the inner walls. A roomy bathroom with a large ornate porcelain bath and toilet was at the other end.
From the top windows you looked down on the tree tops stretching all the way to the windowless back wall of the neighbouring building in the distance. A dim mist from surrounding woods would regularly obscure the view in that direction.
All three floors in that part of the mansion were independently connected via a small winding staircase in each end including into the bathroom.
The only connection to the front house was the massive double door into the main hall at ground level facing the exit to the garden. The decor in the entire house was mainly dark wood with white or light drapes and carpets.
Annalisa and Annamarie agreed the details of the arrangement from the start. Annalisa would stay confined to this her own spacy part of the house and would have all needs met without having to leave at all.
All meals would be prepared and served for her in the ground level sitting rooms and all amenities provided as she would please. Gertrude would provide regular cleaning and the regular to and fro and do Annalisas errands. The only other role would be the family doctor who would agree to come on house calls and tend to any ailments of Annalisa's and would in due course be made familiar with the unfamiliar arrangement.
As for clothes and clothes washing, there would be no need. The agreement was that Annalisa would not wear any clothes during her stay, except for jewelry, socks or stockings, and the occasional headscarf. And shoes or boots for walking in the enclosed garden. The nudity was crucial for the arrangement and Annalisa agreed without any hesitation.
Annalisa would move in immediately without leaving even to collect anything and whatever few personal belongings she needed would be fetched by Gertrude from the appartment the same afternoon.
Annamaria would arrange for Annalisa's appartment to be subletted. They both felt that an important decision had been made and that any hesitation might jeopardise the delicate understanding and resolve. But probably the speed was as much an expression of their shared impatience than of any uncertainty.
Gertrude led Annalisa downstairs from the front office where the two sisters had agreed over tea and through the double doors into Annalisas new living quarters. It was telling that Gertrude already seemed to know exactly what was going to happen even though Annalisa did not notice any kind of instructions being given from Annamaria.
