Disclaimer: I don't own Wicked (musical, book etc). It's all the creation of much more talented people.

The beauty of the City was mesmerizing. Elphaba had never before in her life seen so much beauty in just roads and buildings. Entering the City was the only part of the trip she genuinely enjoyed. The Opera, the Grand Munchkinland Museum, the national gallery, the library, the theatre... those were very few examples of the great buildings she came across. Her face was stuck in the window and her eyes were wide in amazement. All the time she kept imagining herself visiting and watching everything the city had to offer her. All the knowledge and the beauty were now at her disposal. And that was the only good thing she could see in her situation.

If she hadn't been so absorbed in the greatness of this new place, she would have seen the faintest of smiles on her father's lips. It was soft and lasted barely a few seconds- seconds in which Elphaba's face of amazement was suddenly replaced by Malena's face many years ago. It took him a few seconds to return back to reality. Malena was dead and all she had left behind was that green girl.

The moment the driver stopped, Elphaba became anxious. It meant that their small tour of the city was over and that they had arrived in her new home. Her father went out first and didn't even made the effort to help her down the carriage. She didn't mind since all she could think of as she emerged from the carriage was that she should have grown up here, in this house that looked more like a castle than a house. It would never feel like home but at least it looked like a museum and Elphaba would certainly find things to entertain herself so that she could avoid her father and cousin- and her aunt if she was as horrendible as the lot of them.

She entered the house and her father disappeared in a hallway. She thought he had left her all alone but she was proven wrong when a voice, sounding pretentiously sweet, called her name. A woman with dark hair tied in an elegant bun was standing close to her. Her features reminded Elphaba of a fish and her make up was put in a way that didn't do much to hide her age. Actually, she looked much older than her real age.

"Welcome home my dear!" she said sweetly again, when she realized that Elphaba hadn't heard her before. What surprised Elphaba was the fact that she didn't blink twice when it came to her skin color.

"Thank you Madame ..."

"Morvana Thropp my dear. I'm your aunt, Macon's mother." Elphaba nodded in understanding and offered her hand politely.

"Pleasure to finally meet you!" she said and suppressed the shiver the woman's touch sent to her. Macon's mother looked nothing like him and Elphaba would have had characterized her as kind if it wasn't for her cold hands and the fish like face.

"Cara please take the luggage of Miss Elphaba and make sure that everyone within the house staff welcomes her properly." she commanded and a young maid, Cara, went to retrieve Elphaba's very few belongings. Then, to Elphaba's dismay, her aunt offered her a hand and took her in the main part of the house. It was huge in her eyes that had gotten used to small cottages. It kind of reminded her of her mother's mansion in Santremo but that mansion was a safe place for Elphaba. This huge house made of stone- with its paintings of centuries ago, the golden details in the doors and the extravagant rooms filled with furniture they had no use of- reminded her of a golden cage.

Elphaba followed Macon's mother around the house till they reached a wooden door on the west wing of the first floor.

"That's your room my dear!" she said as she opened the door for Elphaba to enter. The young girl couldn't help but gasp a little. It was a room that in Santremo could occupy a family of four or even five. There was a bed huge enough for three people to sleep, a vanity, a bookcase and and a desk. What surprised her the most was the fireplace in a corner and the fact that she had her own bathroom in her room. All in all her room was far beyond anyone's expectations. And she was absolutely certain that with a few alterations she could turn this bedroom into her new home. The whole mansion was too big to feel like home but her bedroom was like a small apartment and she knew she was going to spend many hours of her life in that room.

"Is it to your liking?" Her aunt asked and Elphaba smiled for the first time since she had set foot in the City.

"I lived in a farm Madame. I wasn't raised to have great expectations." Morvana's eyes remained cold though she gave a lopsided smirk that did mot suit her ugly features.

"I supposed so dearie. But you are a lady of the high class and thus from now on you shall be treated as one." Elphaba nodded, unable to say anything else. She couldn't really speak against her aunt. "And please my dear sweet child, call me aunt Morvana. There's no need to call me Madame. It makes me look old!"

"Yes aunt Morvana." she said obediently and continued looking around the room with interest. It was a way to hide her discomfort and the disliking she had started developing for the woman.

"If you are wondering why this bedroom is so big , please allow me to explain Elphaba. Once you are married, you will be sharing this room with your husband." Elphaba pretended not to have given much importance to her words.

"Your father has already a few potential husbands in his mind and I know we have very few time till your wedding but he asked of me to give you proper guidance in matters of marriage and help you turn into a proper lady for when you meet the man he chooses."

At those words Elphaba turned her head slightly in the direction of her aunt and pretended to smile. "I am sure your assistance will be of much need, since my time in the village has left an impact to my manners. I surely want to impress my future husband and make my family proud." She hoped that Morvana hadn't detected the bitterness in her voice. She looked pleased so Elphaba guessed that the facade of a good and obedient daughter was working.

"Now, I would really love to see the rest of the house. I'm sure I'll get lost every step I take." the green girl asked to avoid more talking about her dreaded marriage.

"I'm going to give you a proper tour of the house once your are settled. Take a bath and nap, settle your clothes in the closet and throw away those rags you wear at the moment."

"But most of the clothes I own look like these rags..." Elphaba tried to explain but her aunt gave her an austere look.

"Then throw away all of them. You won't need those clothes ever again. Besides, tomorrow we are going to the market to buy new ones, more suitable for our social status and much more appropriate for a young lady in need for a husband."

"In need for a husband..." Elphaba murmured bitterly but her aunt didn' hear as there was a knock at the door.

"Enter!" Morvana answered and a woman in her late fifties entered the room, unsorted by a girl around Elphaba's age, who she recognized from earlier.

"Elphaba, this is Madame Nadine. She is the housekeeper and she is the one responsible for all the servants and those who work in the mansion. She will be your guide in everything you need." Morvana explained.

"It is such a pleasure to finally meet you my lady." the older woman said. "I knew your mother and you look so much like her. It's almost as if she's back in the mansion."

Elphaba's whole face lit up. "You knew my mother?"

"Of course she did!" Morvana cut in the conversation. "Nadine works for the Thropp family all her life."

Madame Nadine smiled faintly. "I was your mother's personal maid when she came here as a bride. I was by her side always and her smile was everything this cold mansion needed. I hope you bring this house as much joy as she did. And even more..."

"Of course she will. Once she gets married and has an heir." Morvana cut in again and Madame Nadine realized that if she wanted to speak to Elphaba about her mother then it had to happen in privacy.

"And here is your personal maid, Cara." Elphaba smiled at the younger woman but it was obvious that her maid was cautious of her.

"Welcome home Miss Elphaba."

"Thank you Cara."

"If you need any help Cara is here to assist you." Madame Nadine said and Elphaba nodded. She really wanted to stay alone at the moment and thankfully the other women understood that need as they slowly exited the bedroom one by one. They told her something but she didn't listen. All she wanted was the solitude this place could offer her. All she wanted was peace of mind, before this bedroom would accommodate another person for the rest of her life.

She looked at her self in the grand mirror of the bedroom. She really looked awful compared to the ladies she had seen on the streets while she was still in the carriage. Hence, even the maids looked more appropriate for the City life than her. But these clothes, these rags, were her clothes. They were her belongings and all that was left of her old life and throwing them away wasn't an option.

As she stood awkwardly in front of the mirror, she decided that taking a bath was the reasonable thing to do. She was sure that she smelled like the village and though she had grown to love that smell, she had seen the slight disgust in her aunt's face. She was a lady of the high class and she had to smell like lavender or jasmine. Her hair had to be neatly done and her clothes perfectly washed and ironed. She had read all those things in her books and her aunt Amelia, her mother's dear sister, had taught her as many things as she could. Amelia wasn't really fond of the life in the city though she lived there most of her life due to her responsibilities.

Elphaba walked to her private bathroom, where she took off her old shoes and clothes and filled the bathtub with warm water. It was the first time she was using a bathtub and she wanted to enjoy every moment of it. With the excitement of a five year old, she filled the bathtub with shampoo and entered it. The warm water relaxed her muscles immediately and the shampoo, which smelled like jasmine and lemons, gave her a fresh sense. She pushed her head under the water and stayed underwater for a few seconds. She felt as if she wanted to stay there forever but soon she brought her head to the surface so that she could breath.

When she was totally relaxed and well washed she walked out of the tub and wrapped herself in a warm and soft bathrobe. She had never used one of those. Without even realizing it she had started humming a favorite song of hers. It was an old habit, singing while she was doing things like taking a bath or cooking or even working in the cottage. With light, relaxed steps, she walked to the vanity she had spotted earlier and found a brush. She was highly surprised to see that her long hair could be tamed now that they were properly washed with a shampoo of good quality.

"If only Nessa could see this..." she thought with melancholy as she remember how her friend would always complain about her hair. She seemed to enjoy some things about her new life and she was sure she would get used to some others. But her family wasn't there with her and that hurt more than anything.

Two weeks later and Elphaba was still living in misery. Breakfast was served everyday at 8a.m. thought she could join whenever she wanted. There was food and coffee on the table till 10am. Her cousin would leave for work really early in the morning along with her father and her aunt was a woman that had the habit of sleeping a lot. So whenever Elphaba would go to eat breakfast she was usually by herself or in the company of Madame Nadine. The old woman hadn't yet told her stories with Malena. Elphaba noticed that she was very cautious around Morvana and whenever the fish looking woman would appear, she would stop talking even if their topic of conversation was the weather.

After breakfast she would go exploring. Everyday she would find something new to occupy herself. A new room she hadn't seen yet or a book in the library of the house. She had been lucky enough to discover the library the first day of her living in the mansion. It was obviously her favorite place in the whole house. That, and "the room of sun" as Madame Nadine would call this place.

"The room of sun" was a room Elphaba discovered on the second day of her stay. It was a small tower- thirty steps up from the rest of the mansion- in the west wing of the house that was especially made to work like a greenhouse. It was there she had found out what her mother's sanctuary had been when she had lived in that cold house. The greenhouse had been turned into a warehouse where her father had hidden all of her mother's belongings. Dresses, jewelry, perfumes ... they were all there in brown boxes along with empty flower pots in every corner. It was also that room in which Elphaba had found a portrait of her mother and it was the first time she could actually see their striking resemblance. Dark hair, dark eyes with freckles of green and amber, the same nose, the same smile... only the skin color was different.

From then on, Elphaba had decided to give this room life again. She had asked for Cara's help to clean everything and along with Madame Nadine she had went outside to buy soil and seeds of various of her favorite flowers. It was the first time she walked outside of the house and it took a bit of effort to ignore the rude stares of the other people. Her father had been furious at her for leaving the house without notifying him but Elphaba had learnt to be independent and she needed no permission to take a walk to buy flowers for her greenhouse.

Taking care of the greenhouse was all she did nowadays, along with reading books about herbology. And that's how her life went until lunch time.

Lunch was the most quick meal of the day as her father and cousin were working and she usually ate something small by herself in the kitchen, or in the company of Aunt Morvana. Usually her aunt would try to make small talk and ask Elphaba about her life in the village but the young woman knew that she wasn't really interested and was only trying to be typically polite. After lunch she would either read a book in the library or play the piano a bit because whenever her father was at home she was forbidden on playing the piano.

The day that her father had caught her playing the grand piano in the parlor aunt Morvana told her "Malena used to play the piano and she was so mesmerizing when she played that her music filled the whole neighborhood. It hurts your father to hear those same songs coming from your talent."

Of course, every two or three days she would write a letter to Nathan and Nessa and to the Dillamonds. She was telling them everything she had learned about the City and her mother and in every letter she reminded them how much she missed them all and how she would love it if they were to visit her. She had also sent Nessa one of the perfumes she had discovered in her vanity table. It smelled like roses. Nessarose had answered to the letter with words full of excitement and gratitude and her foster parents had received her letters in tears and had answered that all they wanted for her was happiness. In their letter, Jean Dillamond had added a few words that had made her cry a whole afternoon as she remembered her adopted father's kind heart and soul.

"Green or white it never mattered to me and it never will. You are you Elphaba and that's what makes you special. Not your skin color and certainly not your family name. You are a strong woman who can do everything she wants and fight and you have every right to be happy. If you every wish to leave that place, please do it and my family, our family will always be by your side.

I love you my daughter..."

Such a contraction compared to her real father, who had barely spoken a few words to her in the two weeks she lived under his roof.

And just like that there came the worse meal of the day, dinner, since she had to suffer through three plates of food in the same table as her father, her aunt Morvana and her cousin. It was usually her father and cousin who did the talking with a comment or two coming from her aunt's side. They would ignore her and no one really cared that Elphaba would barely touch her food each night. She remembered that after that first dinner she had been shocked to see how much food went to waste so she had asked Madame Nadine if she could keep the food and give it to the poor that were certainly roaming the streets of the City. That night Elphaba had left Madame Nadine with tears in her eyes and the old woman had immediately done what her new mistress had asked for.

Two weeks had passed since she had started living in the Mansion and during dinner the same routine went on. Elphaba had barely eaten again and was absently pushing the food in her plate with her silver fork when she felt three pairs of eyes burning her skin. She looked up and she came to the realization that her father had spoken to her.

"I'm sorry father. I wasn't paying attention." she said clearly and her father nodded.

"It is quite obvious you haven't been paying attention for the lot of the time you live under my roof Elphaba." Elphaba made a fist under the table but her face remained stoic.

"I am sorry father. It won't happen again." she assured him and he nodded again in acknowledgement.

"So, I was telling you that it is time for you to go and buy few more proper clothes as well as ball gowns." Elphaba swallowed hard. Buying ball gowns meant that he intended to sent her to social events from now on and introduce her properly to the people of their social status. She was about to protest when he said something else too.

"You'll be going tomorrow morning and you shall be accompanied by someone you really love and who is the perfect person to take you to your first fitting."

There was no need to explain anything more. She had already guessed the person he was talking about and she couldn't be happier...

I know it took me a while to update but I;m here. I am alive and nothing;s gonna stop me from writing this story. It has a special place in my heart. Writing is my little secret hideout from reality!

So next chapter Elphaba goes shopping and there she meets someone very important, a new ally in her life in the City, that we all love! Any guesses who that person might be ?

Feel free to review as my updates mean nothing without your support ! So Review Review Review !

Till next time,

Katria