„Kindness is only a mask that we use to obtain favors”

„I feel so bad,” Eva whispered, still being next to the field of jasmine flowers that was looking so lifeless at that moment, completely lacking its summer beauty. „I’m really sorry that I fell so down.”

„What do you mean?” Brian asked, who approached her while she was immersed in thoughts, thinking about the incident with Charlotte when they turned back to Image. Now, they were staying, one next to the other, watching the deserted jasmine flower’s field.

„That I slapped Charlotte Wilson. Regardless of my fury with her and no matter how much I wanted to do that, seeing that she was trampling under feet my father’s honor, I shouldn't have lost my inner calmness.”

„Sometimes is normal to lose our control, Eva. It’s normal to lose our head when we see that someone is trying to devastate our home.”

Eva smiled, but there wasn’t any trace of happiness or innocence in that smile. Rather, it was sad, with traces of bitterness because Eva was really feeling that she was also deserted, like that empty jasmine flower field, and this was due to the fact that she didn’t find home what she was looking for: inner peace. „Do you think he’ll turn back?”

„Who?”

„The old Soreman. I don’t know why, but I have the feeling that we’ll see him again here. Especially knowing that he bore a grudge against my father for what happened with Beth.”

„For what happened with Beth?” Brian asked in amazement. „What exactly happened to her?”

Eva watched him, this time cunningly smiling because even if her behavior from the past when she attacked Gilbert Soreman with the fire iron wasn’t a worthy action for a young well-bred lady, she was still feeling a certain satisfaction, more after understanding that those had been the first signs that she was capable to defend herself, if necessary, even if she thought she was weak. „I just mistook him for the hot bread that is necessary to bake,” Eva said, in slight laughter, passing by Brian and heading in the opposite direction of the road that was leading home.

Eva’s answer amazed Brian so much, who finally happily smiled and followed her, slowly walking behind her. Only when the man caught up with her and they walked side by side for a while, did Eva continue the story. „Many know about Alfred Stonebridge’s shameful fall, but so few know what was hidden behind that mask he was often wearing.”

„A mask? What kind of mask?”

„A mask representing kindness because dad always preferred to be good with others, less with his people. And … Charlotte Wilson was right… till a point, because even if I don’t know everything that happened 20 years ago, at least I’m sure that my father was guilty of those events.”

Brian swallowed hard and he again felt the sense of guilt in his chest. To chase it away, Brian slowly hit his chest with his fist as if trying to defeat slight indigestion and not to calm down his heart that was about to „gallop away” from his chest. „Why do you think so?” Brian eventually „dared” to ask.

„Because it’s obvious… he sold me to pay his debts. Better to say… he exchanged me for not paying his debts with Christine Bircham.”

Brian stopped, staring thunderstruck at Eva because even if he suspected that Eva had been sold for paying gambling debts… or at least that gambling had been the reason for all this… he never even suspected that Christine was behind all this and she also never mentioned this: that she knew Alfred Stonebridge so well to give him such big loan that he eventually couldn’t pay back and for this, he sent Eva into her house. „How did you…?”

„How do I know this?” Eva murmured while still walking. „Christine took care to inform me” and her bitter smile was again seen on her face.

***

A YEAR AGO

„I won’t do this, Ms. Bircham, no matter the consequences,” Eva told Christine, confidently looking into her eyes, when Christine called her into her office and told her that from that moment, she must accompany Emily to all the worldly events and that she’ll also have to „do certain favors,” if it is necessary.”

Christine, who had stood at her desk till then, suddenly rose her glance and fixed it on Eva’s, being ready to kill the girl with it, if necessary, especially after feeling in Eva’s answer a kind of revolt that she wasn’t ready to accept, more knowing how much she paid for her.

„You won’t do it, you say?!” Christine growled, standing up and going toward Eva who had stood all the time with her head up, staring right into her rival’s eyes. Then, when Christine was only a step from her, she grabbed Eva’s chin, tightly squeezing it while staring with hatred at her. „Do you at least know how much I paid for you?! To have you?!”

Eva started to slowly shake. „You paid for me? For having me?! What do you mean?!” Eva murmured.

Eva’s innocent question sketched an ironical smile on Christine’s face. „Dozens of bags with golden and this only in the last year because Alfred Stonebridge’s greed has no limit, more when it’s about winning. But… all loans have a price. Guess what price did your father pay to me for the money he received from me?! You, of course.”

Eva finally watched elsewhere because she felt how Christine’s scornful glance was burning her inside and more after listening from her, while Christine told her so openly and shameless, that she bought her. But … she knew about this, that she’d been the price for her father’s debts, but she had never expected to be, in the end, the „right exchange” for watching his back.

Disgusted with Eva’s unbearable ignorance, nescience somehow born from innocence, Christine pushed the girl’s head away from her and moved away while cleaning her hand off the skirts of her dress as if she has stained it with something „stinky.”

„I hope that being aware of everything now, you won’t revolt against me again, Eva. You have to pay your father’s debts if you want to live: both of you, actually. More than this: living in this house - it isn’t for free,” Christine added while her words were resounding somehow ironically and in mockery, trying to completely disarm Eva, to make her submissive and easy to control, as she had done with Emily. Then, Christine approached the dressing table, took some tobacco from the drawer, put it in the pipe, and lighted it, barring the fact that the thick smoke was quickly spreading over the room.

„And… what’s the price for paying my „debts” and of my father’s?” Eva eventually asked, disgusted, watching that repugnant woman, barely seen through the thick smoke that was surrounding her.

„Becoming someone’s mistress, of course. Or what: did you think that I was looking for a daughter?” and Christine burst laughing. „I’ve never been a mother, thank God for this. And... I never looked for daughters, only for loyal people to help me with my plans.”

„Plans? What plans?”

„You … are you really stupid or do you only pretend to be?!” Christine hissed the question. „How do you think, why enters a woman into a man’s bed without being his wife?”

„Pleasure?”

„Not only,” Christine said, standing up again and moving toward Eva. „Not all men offer pleasure to a woman in the bed, as not all the women are skillful in such … profession. But… each of them can get certain benefits if they do that. One of these, is money, of course. But the priceless thing one can obtain into a man’s bed is for sure the power,” and this made Christine’s eyes blink in delight, a blink that Eva saw when the tobacco smoke sprawled and she could see Christine’s radiant face right in front of her - a woman dying for power, hungry for money and extremely dominant. „It’s difficult at first, I won’t deny it,” Christine said this time in a lower voice. „But you get used to it: with the disgust, with the disdain, with… not feeling anything or being completely cold when someone’s hands and lips look for pleasure on your skin,” and Christine swallowed the bitter spit gathered in her mouth while remembering those moments when she had to „take care” of someone who she really hated: and she did this only to have power.

„What a shame, Ms. Bircham!” Eva murmured, taking Christine by surprise. „I have no intention to get used to it, as I have no intention to enter this game.”

„Then? How will you pay me for what you owe to me?” Christine said, calmer this time, staring toward the girl that dared to confront her and it was the first time something like this happened because those who got to „owe” something to Christine were usually submissive and were doing whatever she was asking them to do. But Eva was different and even if she was easy to hurt or manipulate, nobody could kneel her that easily and this was a dare Christine considered worthy to observe.

Christine didn’t receive an answer that night about how Eva will pay her for what Stonebridge owed to her. But the answer revealed itself one day, a few days after her conversation, when Brian Beneath came into Christine’s house and she understood that he was interested in Eva. And Christine understood that it was the perfect chance to have everything Brian had priceless or at least how she thought that it was: the huge fortune of Beneath’s and … their power in all the economic and social spheres.

***

„…from that moment, I knew what Christine was expecting from me and what hurt me the most was the fact that I realized so late how blind I was, living in this house and that I never suspected that my dad can do with me what he intended to do to Beth when he sold her to the old Soreman,” Eva continued her story while they were advancing on a country road, abundantly watered after last night's rain, but still quite battered by the wheels of the carts, by the horses’hooves or by the peasant’s shoes who were often passing by there to see the lands before winter that was approaching in such a hurry.

„And… what happened then? How managed Beth not to get into Soreman’s hands?”

„Simple coincidence,” Eva murmured. „First time he came into our house, acting as the perfect groom, I and Beth chased him away by swooping on him with what we could grab in our hands in the way. But… even if we thought that it was over when he left, he still „passed by” a few more times, and this was only due to my father’s „insistence” who was telling him that we are young and brainless and that if he keeps coming in our house, then Beth will get used to him and she’ll want to go with him, in the end. But… it didn’t happen as my father wished.”

„Why?”

„Because of my last step-mother’s death that knocked everybody off his perch because even if she seemed healthy and buxom, the symptoms started to appear so suddenly, and this outran everybody. Even if I’m more than sure that he didn’t love her, my father tried to save her, and because of this overran the constable even more than he was till then. And… I was the sold one, eventually,” and Eva’s voice resounded so sadly, that made Brian’s heart wince because of sudden pain.

Instinctively, Brian grabbed Eva by the arm, stopping her. Then, she turned toward him, watching him in amazement, because even if she knew that Brian loves her, she also knew that he hates to show his affection in public. But he stopped her by holding her hand while watching her with love and sadness at the same time. „Eva, do you think that you’ll forgive me someday?” his question made her look thunderstruck at him.

„To forgive you? For what?”

Brian suddenly pulled her toward him, holding her to his chest and sticking his face off the top of her head. „Never mind. It was a bad idea that crossed my mind. Forget it!” he quickly added, as if trying to chase that idea away from him because the fear of losing her suddenly entered again his soul, and a confession on his part was definitely a bad idea.

***

Slowly rocked in the trot of the horses that were hardly pulling the carriage on the road sloppy by the rain, Keen seemed completely out of reality while his eyes were staring at a blind point through the window at those black fields, sunken into a thick fog over which flocks of black crows were flying, looking for food.

„Hard times are approaching,” Keen murmured. „Or maybe only the weather is changing?” he added. „Or… will it be worse than till now?”

„Maybe!” the voice of his own mind suddenly answered him and Keen unwillingly winced because he hadn't expected at all such an unexpected answer.

And his mind was right because the recent events from Brighton that brought to the teamster Albert’s death, to the unexpected escape of Emily Davis and Lorenne Fabeau were floating in a kind of thick fog, a fog of conspiracy.

Why exactly of conspiracy?! Not even Keen knew this, but his sixth sense never failed him and he was sure that this time it won’t betray him too. But…how to solve all this?! More, how to start to investigate that case without calling into question his action because, besides the thoughts that were spinning in his head like the rats on a boat about to be drowned and this only to find out what really happened, Keen was sure that Lorenne and Emily acted like this not because they just wanted this and, even if there was often told that the „Red Ants” were led by Christine Bircham, he found out later that Emily Davis had a bigger influence within the organization. Now instead, with Emily missing, Keen had the idea that there was someone else who was controlling everything from the shadows.

„A puppeteer!” he eventually murmured when he saw how the flock of black crows that swooped like the grasshoppers over the fields, suddenly raised in the air, scared, and they floated over the field as if they were the waves on a water surface what made the detective compare them with real puppets controlled by a puppeteer. „But… what if what I think is real? Then… who’s that person might be? Luis Chesterman with whom Emily and Christine had a close relationship, both business and affaire? Or maybe is John Evans?”

But, even if both Chesterman’s name and Evans’ were familiar to the detective and he also knew well what they can do, it wasn’t convincing the detective afterward, whose worm of a hunch was sneaking through his soul, eating everything it was meeting in his way, especially good thoughts.

„Or maybe… No, it can’t be. It’s too risky. He won’t ever dare do that!” Keen murmured, suddenly shaking his head as if trying to chase that thought away. „But what if…,” once again the voice in his head told him, a fact that made Keen turn back to that idea.

„What if…?” Keen asked this time loudly as if provoking his mind to give him a better idea.

„Helen Walker!” he said as if a freakish idea, but so real, suddenly exploded in his mind as if it was a bomb. „Everything starts and ends with her,” Keen added, nodding yes because it was everything so clear: everything that happened in those 20 years was somehow related to her - the fact that Eva got into Christine Bircham’s house, that she had been later deceived by Emily Davis, that Albert Shin died, paying this way for his betrayal in front of Emily for helping Eva to run away and that, eventually, Lorenne Fabeau also ran away. But Keen was so curious to know why Lorenne ran away if she insisted that she hadn’t anything to hide from him or from the police. And… where did she run? He was sure that she didn’t leave the country because he already asked his good friends that knew everything and everybody. But yet… her unexpected escape from Brighton made Keen think that she was heading to London, where the puppeteer could also hide and who Keen considered being extremely dangerous, once he was acting from the shadows.