The Fisherman and His Wife part 3

The old fisherman walked the same path he always had, but instead of ending up at his little home by the sea, he found himself standing in front of a great mansion in the nicest part of town. He stared in amazement at seeing his cozy little house transformed into something so elegant. He approached a bit cautiously, and jumped when the door was opened for him by a prim, plump butler.
“Good evening sir,” the butler said, helping Fraco remove his stained old fishing jacket and dirty boots. “Madam is in the drawing room.” He spirited away, leaving the fisherman to wander through the mansion until he found the drawing room.
“Isn’t this nice?” his wife said when she saw him. “This is the sort of life we deserve after all those long years of work and worry. We can retire comfortably in a house like this.” Fraco muttered a half-hearted agreement and wandered around until he found his bedroom. The bed was too soft and large for him, and he didn’t sleep all night.

Everything went well for several weeks. Liberelle attended fancy dinners and parties. Fraco felt uncomfortable mingling with so many people he had never met. He felt he didn’t have anything in common with any of his new peers. Instead, he spent more time than ever at the sea, fishing until he was exhausted and going home only to sleep.

Even though Fraco was bringing in more fish than ever and the grand mansion had come fully supplied, including a full money chest, Franco’s meager income couldn’t keep up with Liberelle’s parties. Their money slowly dwindled to nothing. One day when Fraco came home, his wife said, “I’ve been thinking. I’m sure the flounder meant well, but I’m not sure he knows quite how things work here. He should have given us an estate so that we would have an income to match our expenses. After all, it isn’t fair to you to work so hard to keep this nice house that he’s given you.”

Fraco could tell what Liberelle was going to say and tried to cut her off. Liberelle simply raised her voice and talked over him. “Go back to the flounder and ask him to give us an estate. And make me a lord. Then we’ll have everything we need, and we won’t have to ask him for anything else.”

“But the flounder has already been so generous with us,” Fraco began, but Liberelle cut him off.

“If the flounder really is a prince, then a lordship would be a proper present to give to someone who spared his life. Go tomorrow and ask.”

Fraco agreed half-heartedly, thinking that maybe if she had everything, his wife would finally be happy and they could go back to being a peaceful couple. Not for the first time he wished he had never mentioned the flounder to her.

When the fisherman went to the shore the next morning, the sea and sky were both a steely gray. The wind nearly blew the hat from his head when he cupped his hands to call:

“Flounder, flounder, prince of the sea,

my wife Liberelle, whom I love very well,

has sent me to ask a boon of thee.”

Instantly the flounder’s golden head broke through the choppy gray water. “Well,” he said, “what does she want now?”

“She wants to be a lord,” Fraco said miserably. “With an estate.”

“Go back to your wife,” the flounder said. “She is at the estate already.”

Fraco walked back home slowly. Even though he trusted the flounder, he was surprised when he saw what his house had become. There was a park with a large pond and carefully cultivated forest. The estate was so huge that the walk down the driveway to the enormous house was longer than the walk from the sea to the gate had been.

When he found his wife, she was dressed in the richest clothes he had ever seen, and her gray hair was regally swept up and adorned with small flickering jewels. “Well now you’re a lord,” he said.

“Yes,” Liberelle said smugly. “I knew the flounder could do it. Isn’t this kind of living appropriate for the sort of people that we are?”

Fraco was confused. The sort of people they were? He was an old fisherman who had worked every day of his life and had been content living in his little shack. But he knew better than to say any of this. Instead, he said, “now we have everything we will ever need.”
His heart plummeted when his wife simply said, “We’ll see.”