Aemilia returns to her room, feeling exhausted. The finishing training she was receiving was hard. Her niece Lucia was right about her instructor. The woman was strict and made sure you got what she was teaching you. If you didn’t move or walk like you were supposed to, her assistant gave you a light slap with a ruler.

Aemilia looks at the time and notices she needs to start getting ready for a luncheon. The luncheon was with several of the other ladies from the finishing class. It was one of her instructor’s tests, but no one knew who would be watching them or grading them.

She goes about getting ready and checks herself to make sure everything is right. A smile appears on Aemilia’s face as she grabs her small purse. The place where the luncheon was at was formal wear. So, she was ready for anything.

Aemilia leaves her room and walks down to where the parking lot is. Her niece bought her a car that was five years old and something her old self wouldn’t have bought. She gets into the car and familiarizes herself with it.

She programs the destination into the onboard GPS and follows the directions. Aemilia listens to some relaxing music as she thinks about her next move. Does she want to remain in France or move to some other country? She followed the GPS to the restaurant where she was meeting the other ladies and let the valet park her car. She slides them a good tip, so they park the car nearby.

Aemilia walks into the restaurant and is greeted by the hostess. She informs the hostess that she is meeting up with several women.

“Ah, yes. Miss. Scipio. Please follow me.” Sabine turns and escorts Miss. Scipio went to a table where several other women from Aemilia’s finishing class were waiting.

“Thank you, dear.” Aemilia sits after greeting all the other women at the table.

They talk and have a drink. A few men come over to join them and socialize with them. The man socializing with Aemilia was a Texan
businessman. He owned a cattle ranch and was visiting France for the first time.

Aemilia didn’t know how she felt about being with a man, so soon after her sex change. She figures this must be a test, so she acted like the proper lady she was becoming. She listened intently to what he was saying and used some of the training she learned.

Aemilia knew how to extract the information without letting the person know she was doing it. However, being a woman now made things easier because she knew most men liked to impress beautiful women. She learns that the guy’s name was Joseph "Little Joe" Francis Cartwright. His parents were big fans of the old western Bonanza that came on television. Plus, their surname was Cartwright, so it worked legally for him.

The luncheon lasted for almost three hours. Aemilia, during that time, comes to like Joseph and promises to stay in touch with him. She secretly takes a picture of him and sends it to Mouse for a background check. Just before Aemilia and the other ladies leave to go back to the Château. They all received a sealed envelope with a single piece of paper inside it.

A smile appears on her face and the other lady's face when they read what is written on the piece of paper. She folds the envelope and tucks it in her purse. Since she didn’t have anything else lined up for the day. Aemilia takes the long way back to the Château.

As she is driving along on one of the back roads, she spots a teenage boy pedaling away on an old bicycle. The boy was covered in dirt and looked like he had been working out in the fields. A thoughtful look appears on her face, as a memory of how, when she was that young man’s age. She worked her ass off learning how ordinary males did things. She came from a well-off family.

By the time Aemilia arrived back at the Château, it was a little late in the evening. She checks in with the security guard Aime Athos when she arrives. She was amazed that Aime had the last name of a famous Musketeer from French history.

She knew several other elite security guards were protecting the Château. One of the guards was a woman who had the last name of Aramis. She did carry around an old rapier. She knew the old-style rapier was popular among certain elite French sword wielders.

Aemilia parks her car and walks into the Château. She heads directly towards her room, waving to people as she passes them. When Aemilia enters her room, she relaxes and starts taking off the clothes and jewelry she was wearing. Most of the jewelry was from her family collection. However, her aunt and niece bought her pieces that couldn’t be traced back to the Bounty family.

After Aemilia has changed, she sits down and goes through a few listings that her Aunt Charlotte sent her that might interest her. She has a wide range of interests that she still likes to do. One of them was horseback riding and flying. She had a few airplanes that she kept from some of her spy days that everyone thought were destroyed.

After spending several hours going through files and checking their location on her computer. She stops and heads towards the cafeteria to grab some dinner. When she walks into the café, she smells the scent of barbecue floating in the air. Her mouth starts to water when she goes through the line. She spots a new girl manning the barbecue, which is located. Aemilia has never seen her before.

“Are you American?” Aemilia was curious because the young woman didn’t look like she was from Europe.

Betty looks at the middle-aged woman standing in front of her. A smile appears on her face. “I sure am, ma’am.”

Aemilia notices the young woman’s accent. She had a deep American southern accent to her speech. She noticed the woman had a nice pixie haircut.

“So, I take it, you made all this tasty meat.”

“Sure did, ma’am. Why don’t you try some and tell me what you think of it?” Betty has seen the reaction of some of the people who have never had American southern-style barbecue.

“Okay, I’m game.” Aemilia has never had American-style barbecue before.

Betty serves up a nice plate of a barbecue sandwich with homemade coleslaw on the sandwich. She also adds some burnt ends with her tasty barbecue sauce and several slices of the brisket as well. She adds some southern-style green beans, corn bread, and macaroni and cheese.

“Here you go, ma’am. Enjoy.” Betty hands the plate to Aemilia.

“Thank you.” Aemilia accepts the plate and places it on her tray.

She grabs some sweet iced tea to drink with her meal. After charging the meal to her room. She walks over to a nearby table and sits down.

“Here goes nothing.” As Aemilia picks the sandwich up and bites into it.

She couldn’t believe how tasty the meat, coleslaw mix tasted. A low moan escapes from her mouth as she takes another bite. She was loving the sandwich. She tries the brunt ends and the sliced brisket pieces. Aemilia looked over towards the woman serving people and saw that several people were trying her Southern-style food.

“God! If I ate this type of meal all the time. I would end up putting on weight.” Aemilia tries everything on her plate and loves it all. She was going to need to speak with that cook.

After dinner, Aemilia heads back to her room and lies down on her bed and read one of her favorite books. She knew she shouldn’t be keeping anything from her old life, but she had certain books she loved.

While reading her book, she slowly drifts off and starts dreaming about the story. She sees herself as the main character and encounters everything the character has to go through.