“Love is something that bonds us forever, while hatred destroys us and others”

“Are you sure about what we want to do?” Marianne asked Sophie, while the two were waiting inside the carriage, in front of Christine’s house, but that house was empty in their eyes because no trace of life was seen around.

And anyway, coming here, Sophie had waited to find out answers: about her father’s death, about the society games in which Edward was involved, but the most important for her was to find out about who her rival really was and where she could find her.

“Yes, I’m absolutely sure about this,” Sophie said and she got out of the carriage.

Being already outside, she looked with hatred at the luxurious house from in front of her. “Christine Bircham has good taste” she whispered through her teeth, but Sophie’s remark produced only a fake smile on Marianne’s face because she knew the name of the man who took care that this house to look so beautiful and to be Christine’s pride.

“Of course, she has. Especially knowing that we share the same man” Marianne answered and she went first toward the entrance door.

Sophie stood in place for a few seconds more, after Marianne’s departure and looking around, a kind of anxiety took over her: the place looked too quiet in her opinion and even a gust of wind wasn’t blowing there, troubling the surroundings, and that meant only one thing: they won’t find anybody inside of that house.

Knocking on the door, Marianne at first received no answer, but something inside her was telling her to insist and she did it. She knocked once again, and once again, till she felt that she was losing control and that her blood was flowing giddily through her veins, and then she just simply hit the door with the fist, making a deafening sound to be heard all around, coming out of the dried and thick wooden door.

“There’s nobody, isn’t it?” she heard Sophie’s voice behind her and in her friend’s voice, Marianne could distinguish a kind of trace of cunning that made her hatred hardening even more and to want to get in that house, at any price.

“Should we try to enter through the back door?” she told Sophie, but after her friend slowly nodded approvingly at her thought and they took a few steps toward the back of the house, the front door slowly half-opened and they could see Anne’s eyes, blinking in the darkness.

“Ms. Christine isn’t home at this moment. Please, come back later or leave a message and she will contact you later” simply told them the girl, while she was looking carefully at the two intruders, who weren’t inspiring her any trust.

“What a shame!” Marianne cunningly answered and she approached the door. “And… can I know when Ms. Christine will be back in town?”

“I can’t answer your question. Ms. Bircham decided to take a long vacation and she didn’t tell me when she will be back” Anne decided to close more the door, giving the two women a sign that the conversation is over, but when Marianne put her leg between the half-open door, Anne had scared, because she hadn't expected such a reaction from a lady from High Society.

She doesn’t know any of them, but something was telling her that their coming here wasn’t random and that they will bring troubles for her, because since she’s working for Christine, she never saw a woman entering this house to visit her master, and also, she never saw a man visiting Christine.

The one who always went somewhere for days was Christine, who always was telling her to keep an eye on Eva, but after Eva and Miss Davis left the house, Christine also decided to leave, at least for a while, and without telling anything to Anne, one morning she got in the carriage and went somewhere, taking with her only two small bags with personal stuff.

Anne saw her leaving, while she was watching outside through the half-opened window, but she didn’t dare to exit the house and to ask Christine what she should do. If Christine told her nothing, it means that she’ll be free for a while and this wasn’t a bad thing, because she could finally have some time for her.

Then, the days passed, one after another, and it was too silent and this made the girl get bored. Even if she cleaned the house twice a day, she still had a lot of free time and this made her feel sorrow that Eva and Miss Davis left, because even if Emily always gave her a lot of things to do, at least she knew that somebody was home, if something happened and that she was safe.

But now it is different. These two women, who came here uninvited and who were asking her a lot of awkward questions, were so unpleasant and it made the girl try to get rid of them as soon as possible, because she didn’t know the answer to any of the questions they asked, and even if she knew it, she would have told them nothing, because she’s loyal to Christine and these ladies aren’t Christine’s friends, for sure.

“And anyway…” continued Marianne. “As a servant in this house, you should know at least something of what your owner does. Otherwise, you eat for free the bread they are giving to you.”

Marianne’s remark and the way she was talking to the girl … superior and somehow unpleasant that she’s forced to talk to a servant and not to someone equal to her, made Anne feel how all the blood is flowing in her head and after she had suddenly opened the door, hardly hitting the wall with it, she leaned firmly on both legs and with her hands on her hips she snapped at Marianne, who was piercing her with the glance.

“It seems to me that the ladies from High Society don’t understand easily a sent message, so I’ll lower myself to your level and I’ll explain it to you: if I told you that Ms. Christine wasn’t home, it’s because she isn’t and I don’t have why to explain anything else to you. And related to my role in this house: I know it very well, because I’m here to keep away from this house all those uneducated beings that want to enter here, and to…” but her dare had been rewarded with a painful slap on her face and the hit of Marianne’s palm “had burn” the girl’s facial skin and it got till deep inside the bones.

Touching her cheek with her palm and staring at the two women who had dared to hurt her, Anne felt how the tears rushed into her eyes. She hadn't expected such a reaction toward her and the matter that she had been unfairly slapped deeply hurt her, because she didn’t know what to do further and when Marianne took a step in front, intending to enter the house, Anne took a step in front of the woman, blocking the entrance.

“To one side of my face!” Marianne wheezed through the teeth, but the girl stood still, while her eyes were focused on her rival and her hands grabbed the door frame, blocking their entrance. “Make room, I said!” Marianne yelled this time, but the girl didn’t move from her place, and this dare of the servant that was so loyal to the woman she hated the most, made Marianne lose her head, and, grabbing Anne’s hair, she pushed her inside the house.

Sophie followed the two, taking care to close well the door and to be sure that nobody saw them entering the house, but luckily for them, Christine’s house was built in an isolated place, less frequented by people, especially at that hour of the day and it gave them a certain safety to act as they wanted.

***

„So, here is my husband’s love nest” Sophie wondered when she finally got into Eva’s room, but even if she looked all over and she turned upside down the things, she couldn’t find anything that could help her to understand something of what happens with her family lately and this made her even mad than she had been before.

Before leaving, she looked around once again, to be sure that nothing escaped her sight and then is when she saw a small piece of paper, like a rumpled clod, thrown “accidentally” next to the bed foot and it remained there, despite the fact that Anne entered the room so many times to clean it, but it seems that she didn’t put so much soul in the cleaning, because she escaped such important evidence.

Opening the sheet, Sophie saw part of one of Eva’s letters:

“Dear mister Beneath,

I’m sorry to inform you this way that I decided to leave London, at least for a while, because your betrayal with another woman, broke my heart and…”

“Betrayal … with another woman … what does this mean?” Sophie couldn’t understand the message written in the letter and it also was due to the fact that she disliked Eva’s perfect handwriting, so nice written on the white sheet, but also Sophie was furious because Eva ended that letter to such an interesting point, that could have helped her to save her marriage, but now it was only a message written on a sheet of paper, but lacking any sense.

But still, at least Eva left something behind her because that letter hadn’t been thrown randomly there. It was the first letter she wrote to Brian, but because something wasn’t going as she wanted, she decided first to hide it in the pocket of her dress, but when Emily demanded her to burn the letter she wrote after that, Eva understood that she had to send Brian a hidden message and when they were leaving the room, she took the wrinkled message and thrown it under the bed, convinced that Brian will find it there when he will see that she doesn’t try to contact with him and then he will be the one entering this house to find her.

“He for sure will break into this room, looking for evidence of my departure, because he loves me and wants to know what happened to me,” told herself the girl, but she had been wrong because Brian didn’t come. He only secretly inquired about her, and when he found out that Eva wasn’t in London anymore, he started to look for her everywhere, but only not into her room.

The fact that Sophie found the message in her room was merely a coincidence and this was due to Anne’s negligence, who didn’t clean the room well. But this was just a go-off point, without many coordinates and with a lot of question marks, because another woman, about whom Eva was talking in her letter, means more problems for Sophie because this other woman can be more dangerous than an untried girl as Eva was.

Leaving the room, Sophie took care to slam the door, so hard so that a small picture, hung carelessly on the wall, fell on the floor, spreading all around small spalls of glass, but Sophie didn’t bother at all to turn back and to watch what she left behind her and this was her mistake because under that painting was hidden a message - a letter, hidden there by Eva and whose consignee was Brian, but which in the end was lying on the floor, without anyone showing his proper attention to it.

***

Bending to lift the letter from below, Anne gasped in pain and not without a specific reason - Marianne took care to leave all over the girl’s body deep wounds of her hatred.

After Marianne and Sophie left the house, none of them approached the girl to see if she was still breathing after she had been beaten so hard, because Marianne simply trampled her under feet, but this didn’t kill Anne, who laid on the floor for a long time after she was left alone, slowly weeping her wounds and her pain, but later she found the strength to stand up and to look around at what those intruders left behind them and there was really bad because the house was looking like if a hurricane had passed over there.

The two women looked in vain for something in the house and while they were looking all over, they did not bother to destroy everything in their way.

“High Society is just a lie,” Anne said disparagingly, while she was watching in what Eva's room had been transformed after Sophie passed over there. The same panorama was seen in Christine’s dormitory and in her office, and Anne sighed because she understood that the “intruders” moment of madness will cost her a day of work to put everything in place.

But the girl didn’t rush. She had enough time because for sure none of those who used to live in that house wasn't thinking of coming back home soon, so she crawled toward the bed and, opening the letter, she read the message, written in.

“Dear mister Beneath,

writing these lines, I decided to put my soul on this paper and to confess to you in connection with all that I feel.

It’s a real storm in my soul and this is due to your betrayal with another woman and I ask you not to even try to deny it because I saw you with her and it wasn't just a product of my imagination, because …”

“A real treasure!” whispered Anne, hiding the letter, because those few lines meant her salvation: it was what Christine had always dreamt and Anna had it in her hands, and this letter was bringing her money because she decided to ask for a good payment for this piece of paper and after this to leave.

Yes, she decided to leave this house and she decided to do it just after she had been wrongfully beaten, even if she swore before not to do this ever because she saw in this house her place of refuge, but in the end, it became her prison.

Smiling to the idea that had formed in her mind, Anne touched with both palms the letter hidden under her clothes, sticking it to her chest and feeling it as if it was her salvation and it made her really happy.

And she stood like this for minutes in a row, enjoying her victory, but when the first rays of the dusk entered the room through the half-open window, Anne stood up and left the room, having only one thought in her mind - to find Christine and to take her reward.

***

Christine’s eyes had deeply pierced in Luis’glance, but in her eyes was no drop of love, but hatred, because his request meant betrayal for her.

“Do you at least hear what you say?” she wheezed through her teeth, while her eyes were burning in the flames of anger and the corner of her lips was slowly shaking, moved by a sudden twitch. “Another girl in your bed? And, what about me, Luis? Are you asking me this? Me, who entered your bed each time you asked it and I served you as a trustful dog, trampling my own honor under feet?”

“Let's not dramatize,” he said and he put his palms on her shoulders, but the move which was generally calming her, today made Christine shout irritatingly and her hand pushed him hard away from her.

“Let's not dramatize,” she said prolongedly and deliberately because she had intended to make him feel guilty, but what Luis was feeling at that precise moment wasn't guilt: he wanted a new woman next to him, and this was hurting Christine’s soul … soul which she had thought it was hardened, but it was full of love for him … a strange love, but still love.

“I’ll wait in the usual place,” he said dryly and left the room, leaving Christine alone to deal with the entanglement of feelings that pierced her heart. He had no intention to give up to new sensations for her sake and often, when Christine made him a scene of jealousy, finding out about a new woman who entered his bed, it surprised him a lot because he couldn’t understand how Christine still wasn't used to his style of spending the free time and to enjoy life.

Passing through the living room, Luis watched the young girl for a few moments, while Anne was quietly waiting for Christine next to the chimney, with the back at him, and even if she was a simple servant, her appetizing body drove Luis crazy, who could scarcely control his outings so as not to approach her right there and touch her.

Feeling his presence, Anne watched him, but Luis looked elsewhere right away and exited the house, heading toward the stables. The girl, feeling something weird at him, approached the window, intending to spy on him and to understand if he was planning something, but that window wasn’t heading toward the stables and she couldn’t see anything, and her sudden move and her interest to look outside after Luis left the house, caught Christine’s eyes, who was descending the stairs at that moment and she right away pierced the girl with her glacial glance, but even if she was boiling inside because of anger, she decided to control her actions and not to betray herself and Luis’intentions.

“Why are you here?” Christine said dryly to the girl, approaching her, and, sitting down on the sofa, she looked at her with superiority.

“I just wanted to tell you about an unpleasant incident which happened today. Two ladies entered the house without permission and …”

“Enough!” Christine told her coldly and raised her hand purposely to interrupt the girl’s energetical speech. “I’m not interested in what happened there. Even if I can guess it watching your face.”

Anne crawled back a few steps, touching her face. She felt ashamed that she showed up like that in front of Christine, but she did it because she lacks money and she needs to eat. It’s why she didn’t wait for her wounds to heal and she came here, but it seems that her presence is something that irritates Christine.

And it was true. Staring at her, Christine wasn’t seeing the wounds on the girl’s face, but her blossomed chest, beautifully outlined through the dress bodice, as well as rounded thighs which could be distinguished by the hem of the dress and which denoted the girl's youth, a youth of which Luis was so hunger, while he had dared to ask that girl in her bed, even if Christine was still living with him in the same house.

“And…” the girl stuttered. “I would need my payment. Not the other way around, but the products finished and I…” and the girl had touched the place where she hid the letter, intending to take it out and to give it to Christine, who stood up right away and turned her back to her and this forced Anne to change her mind and she decided to wait for the proper moment to give her master the letter.

Even if she had the intention to leave the room saying nothing about Luis’request, Christine suddenly changed her mind and she did it, bothered by the girl’s youth and she said sharply between her teeth: “till I’ll prepare the money for you, please go to the stables and help Mister Chesterman with what he needs. Later … come back here and take the money for your “service”, and the last words Christine said them with such hatred, that Anne shuddered, but while she was watching behind Christine, who was already climbing the stairs to the second floor, she decided to listen to her for the last time and she exited the house.

***

When Anne entered the stables, she found Louis alone. He was caressing the ridge of a gorgeous, black mare, of pure race, and he put in those caresses a kind of hidden passion, while he was spying on the girl with the corner of his eye.

"Ms. Christine sent me here to help you!" Anne stuttered, overwhelmed by his intense looks, and even if something was telling her to leave, she stayed, because she was a loyal person and she couldn't give back if she promised something to somebody.

“Of course!” Luis said dryly, taking his eyes off her and looking again at the mare. “It’s necessary to clean the last stable. Yes, the last on the right. When you finish it, you are free” and saying, he slowly kissed the mare’s black neck.

Anna, feeling dizzy by his words and somehow scared, froze, but she decided to listen to him, and even if she didn’t know how a stable should be cleaned, she took a broom thrown on the floor and she moved toward the stable which Luis talked about.

Entering the last stable, she was surprised to see how tidy she was, and she felt confused, not knowing what to do. Then, she heard the stable door closing behind her and when she looked back, she saw Luis entering, who was watching her with hungry eyes from top to toe.

Anne crawled a little bit back, not understanding what was happening, while Luis was approaching her more and inside him, the desire was boiling his blood and when Anne smelled the approaching danger, she had tried to escape, passing next to him, but the man grabbed her tightly in his arms and then he threw her above the pile of straw, laying on top her.

The girl tried to escape, she struggled and cried, but his strong hand was snapping the wrists of her hands like in pliers, while his mouth was touching hungrily her lips, somehow trying to stick them of his and this movement was producing disgust to Anne, but not the same Luis was feeling who, crazy about the girl's scent and the softy touch of her skin, broke her dress, exposing in front of him the splendor of a tasty naked body and then, his blurred mind thought about nothing more than to possess her and his lips, looking for the sweet aroma of the skin, kissed it fiercely.

He wasn’t interested at all in the pain that he was producing for the girl. On the contrary, this was awakening inside him a wild instinct and then, the union of their bodies and the squirm of the girl's body, while she twisted up, practically sticking her body in his, when he deeply penetrated her, made him feel a huge pleasure.

And the girl’s tears on his face: it wasn't cooling his arson, but it was making feel, even more, provoked to continue and he intensified his movements, considering the girl’s moans of pain as ones of pleasure.

But the pleasure was only for him and the deep entering of his body in hers were filling him, were making feel a virile man, to feel that he’s wished by someone and this gave him the strength to continue for a long while, enjoying that youth with all being, and to want to have her and to subdue her for more possible time.

***

This savage act Luis had with Anne, hadn’t been something private, known only by them. Their act of love had actually taken place under the glance full of hatred of Christine, who couldn’t control herself and followed them and she got at the stable door at the moment when Luis was just starting to possess the girl’s body and his moans of pleasure drove Christine crazy and instead of helping Anne, who was imploring her with the eyes to help her, she left her there, prey of a wild man, with cruel instincts, because he wanted it and Christine could only be submissive and wait for him to forget about this girl, not counting for her that Anne considered her as a mother, as a pattern to follow in life, as a friend who will take care of her.

After Luis was finally tired of having the girl, he stood up, intending to leave the stable, but seeing in front of him a furious Christine, it didn’t surprise him at all, because it happened and before and he knew her “oddity” and without even stuttering, he said only a “take care of her not to talk” and he left the stable.

And Christine did it, who didn’t even care about the girl’s weeping, and she shoved at Anne’s feet a small bag with money, wheezing dryly: “Perish in front of my eyes and the farther away, the better. If I see you one more time sneaking around the man I love, I swear I’ll kill you with my own hands” and she left, leaving Anne crouching on the stable floor, full of straw, wishing only one thing: to die.