La Niania

Antonine Karzof has just turned nineteen, and the echo of the birthday waltz still lingers in the grand salon. As spring light filters through the windows, she sits restlessly, hands clasped, waiting for a visitor who has yet to appear. The house hums with the ordinary bustle of servants and family, yet a quiet urgency pulses through her thoughts, hinting at something beyond the celebration.

Her mind drifts back to the summers spent at her parents’ country estate, where her brother’s university friends arrived for their theses. Among them, the aloof Dournou—strong, independent, and oddly detached—becomes the focus of her secret musings, his presence both puzzling and magnetic. Their interactions are sparse, but the shared moments in the school they run together plant the seeds of an unspoken connection.

Now, with the season turning and her mother’s absence felt keenly, Antonine must navigate the expectations of her family, the responsibilities of the free school, and the stirrings of a heart that yearns for something more than the quiet routine of her privileged world.