The big Caunter’s Villa stood resolutely, the indifferent light still shot out cold, only the stars in the sky shone to express mercy for her.
The world had ended in her eyes that day.
Abigail behaved as if she had lost her voice, since that day, she hadn’t spoken a single word.
During the day, she was like a machine, she cleaned every single corner in the backyard, to the point that there was almost nothing on the ground anymore. At night, Joshua would come to her room once in a while and be intimate with her. At those times, Abigail would keep her mouth shut and not make one little sound.
No matter if Joshua brought bitterness to her, or joy.
She didn’t eat as much anymore, and she looked pale too, but not like any expectations, she was gaining a little weight. When autumn hit, and the weather hadn’t changed yet, she already put on thicker clothes.
She ate with the other maids in their room, and had to force herself to eat a few bites.
“It’s really hot outside, isn’t she afraid she’ll get a heat shock wearing such winter clothes?” Usually the maids like to gossip about her during mealtime.
“Yeah I guess she had to take a lot, in the past at least there was still Mrs. Caunter who liked her, and Mister Caunter treated her alright, but now, none of them care about her, so she’s wearing so much to save herself warmth.”
Abigail pretended that she didn’t hear anything and kept eating her food emotionless, then Rowena came and gave her a bowl of soup that was usually only for the masters. “Drink that, it’s left over from the meal.”
Rowena’s face showed no expressions, her voice was ice cold. She turned around and told the maids in a warning manner, “The Caunter house hired you to work, not to chitchat. Remember the best way to keep your job secure is to shut up and work hard.”
When she finished talking, she threw a look at Abigail.
Abigail’s hand was shaking, so hard that she was almost not able to hold her chopsticks, she knew that Rowena’s words were also addressed to her.
The maids started telling her to do different work, here a little, there a little, and none of them forgot to point out her sweat on her face, and laughed, “Are you sure you are not crazy? Look at how hot you are, and you don’t bother to take off some clothes?”
Abigail didn’t even raise her head, she didn’t react to anyone elses pointing except for Rowena. She pulled on her shirt, to cover herself more. Her baby was now five months, and her belly was getting bigger, enough that even her thicker clothes couldn’t cover it anymore.
She didn’t care much about their mocking and laughter, she just kept on doing her own thing.
“She really is crazy, I think some wires in her head are wrong.” The maids all thought. It was good that Rowena was strict with them, so none of them actually did anything to her.
And towards the cold comments, she just pretended as if she didn’t hear anything, she just kept on working and doing her job.
From the maid’s gossiping she knew that both Annie and Harry have been trying their best to get Joshua’s attention. Each of the two of them already saw themselves as the master of the house, and were both demanding things from the maids.
The servant’s lives were pretty hard nowadays.
Abigail was sweeping the leaves in the garden, each of them had fallen from the trees, and were now laying on the ground all by themselves, cold and alone.
The ruthlessness of the tree, the meaninglessness of the wind, and the unyielding of the leaves brought infinite sadness to her. After a short pause, she picked up the broom and swept the dead leaves one by one.
Rowena passed by Abigail in her quick steps, she didn’t stop, but Abigail raised her head a little and said to her in a small voice, “Thank you!”
She paused for a little, turned and kept walking, without showing her any emotions.
Stacy was coming back from outside, she waved towards the car that was leaving in the far. She behaved as if she drank some sugar juice today, her face showed a joyful smile, and she was blushing like when drinking alcohol, her eyes were also showing some shyness.
Abigail only needed to take one look to know that the person in the car leaving was Bill.
She had been in his car several times to know that white car well enough, it was a different car than any other on the street.
Abigail lowered her eyes pretending that she didn’t see anything. Stacy’s mood today was so good that she didn’t even bully Abigail.
Stacy looked around herself, and found Abigail, she called out to her, “I’m friggin thirsty, go get me some water.”
Abigail took the broom, and cleaned her hands a little, then walked into the living room a little fat to move.
“Hey, wait.” Stacy called out for her, she sounded like she noticed something about her. She took a few rounds around Abigail, and looked at her tummy multiple times.
She tilted her head and her doubts were getting stronger, “It’s really hot, why are you wearing that much?” She tried to inspect under her clothes and Stacy quickly noticed that the reason she looked fat was all because of her tummy.
“I like it.” Abigail was scared Stacy might find out and turned around, and bent over a little to hide the changes of her body. Stacy though had no intention to stop asking her, and pulled on her arm, forcing her to turn towards her.
“I don’t believe you, there is more than that. Your stomach looks way too big, are you pregnant? Whose is it?”
Stacy’s words scared Abigail so much she almost dropped the broom in her hand. Her small face was pale from lack of nutrition, her mouth opened and closed, again and again, she anxiously wanted to get away from Stacy, but she wasn’t strong enough for it.
“Tell me right now, otherwise I am going to get a doctor!” Stacy was clearly not going to let it go, which made Abigail so scared that sweat was running down her face.
If the doctor was called, everything would be out in the open, everyone knew who she slept with, and her baby’s identity would be clear.
“No!” She looked at her begging.
“Miss.” Rowena’s voice caused Stacy to take a quick turn, and let go of Abigail’s arm.
“What is it?!” She stared at Rowena upset, her voice was filled with dissatisfaction.
“Mister Caunter asked me to look for you, he wants to see you.” Rowena lowered her head, her voice was calm as usual, it did not change because of Stacy’s anger. She saw Stacy still staring at Abigail’s stomach, and said, “Abigail, the doctor said that there is stagnant water in your stomach, you should take a rest for the afternoon.”
Abigail was relieved, and gave Rowena a look of gratitude, even though Stacy was still doubtful, but she had no choice but to follow Rowena to see her brother.
“What does Joshua want to see me for?” Her attention was directed quickly, and now all she thought about was why her brother asked for her.
“You will know when you see him in a minute.” Even if Stacy was one of the masters of this house, Rowena still didn’t change the tone of her words.
Joshua was in the living room waiting for her, both his hands in his pants pockets, he stood straight, and in his pose he looked like a model from the magazines. His tight suits brought out the perfect looks of his figure.
He was looking at Abigail working in the backyard, he could see that it took her a lot of energy. Even to bend over her body to sweep the leaves on the ground took almost half a second to finish, and when she turned her face, she looked into his direction, her expression was helpless but soft, and it touched him right in his heart.
He closed his eyes, and turned around, moving his eyes away from her.
The door was knocked, and he said in his cold voice, “Come in.”
Stacy was standing at the door, she had her hands buried in her pockets, and didn’t seem too happy. This caused Joshua to frown.
“Have you decided where you wanna go to study abroad? You are leaving at the end of this month.”
“That’s too fast!” Stacy yelled out loud, she didn’t sound happy either.
“Of course, it’s already been three months.” Joshua sat down in his seat, and took out a map, “Choose it.”
Stacy didn’t expect her brother to actually keep his word, and she didn’t want to leave at all. She took the map and stared at it for a long time, then she threw it away, “I don’t understand this, and I don’t wanna go.”
“Don’t understand? Lambert already wrote it all out for you, these ones.” He gave her a sheet with a list of universities in Europe and America, “Choose one, and when you get it, you can go.”
Stacy’s eyes filled with tears, she couldn’t hold back her anger anymore, “Joshua, do you not like me at all? You are just going to send me to any country, and university that I point at, aren’t you afraid something might happen to me? Aren’t you afraid it might be dangerous?”
Joshua wasn’t moved at all by his sister’s little speech, he was still saying to her coldly, “This is life, and this is how independence looks like, if you don’t learn how to be independent, life will knock you over soon.”
“I don’t wanna be independent!” Stacy yelled, and she was so loud that even Abigail who was passing outside, got scared and jerked around. She raised her head in surprise, and saw that both of them were looking at her.
“Choose!” Joshua closed his eyes, and tried to ignore the girl outside, while demanding from his sister.
“Okay, then you come!” Stacy pointed to Abigail and said. Abigail wanted to go back to her room when Stacy called for her. She hesitated shortly, and looked at Stacy.
“I asked for you! Hurry up!” Stacy was very impatient, and went outside to pull Abigail in, “Choose one, I thought you hate me so much, now you can choose where I will be going to die!”
Abigail looked at the document that was pushed into her hands, and her eyes brightened up.
There were so many places on it that she dreamt about before, places that she wanted to study in. Paris, the city of architecture, the capital of fashion. Italy, a country that had a long history for jewellery design, deeply influenced by the Etruscan civilization, highly respected for gold.
London in the United Kingdom, where there are at least two large scale international jewelry fairs every year, each time attracting well known exhibitors and individual companies from more than 100 countries, the jewelry on display is enough to amaze the whole world.
Birmingham University has always been the school she wanted to go to.
“Say it already! Which country, which school!” Stacy took back the sheet impatiently, and used it to smack Abigail’s face.
Which country, and which school, it didn’t matter to her, as long as she had the chance to go back to school, a life without any worries.
But this was not what Stacy wanted. Abigail’s eyes flashed, and her’s met with Joshua’s. She quickly looked away, she didn’t want to have any communication with him.
“Miss Caunter should decide.” She backed away a few steps, and was trying to get away from Stacy, but she couldn’t.
“I told you to choose, so do it! I am giving you a chance to pay it all back to me, you can send me far far away, you never have to see me again, you never have to be afraid of me again!”
Abigail was standing there, she was silent for a long time, then she finally said, “I think going abroad should better be voluntary, if you don’t want to, you are only wasting time there, and money, I think in that case it’s better to just stay here and do something else instead.”
Stacy’s eyes widened, and stared at Abigail in disbelief, she never thought Abigail would say something like that.
Abigail was quiet for a while, then she took her eyes off Abigail.
Abigail was afraid that if she stood there too long, people would see her secret, so she laughed and said, “This is your business, I am just telling my opinion, sorry, I gotta go back and rest.”
Stacy finally let go of her arm, her expression puzzled.