🎂🎂🎂
AFTER sharing the cookies I received from the gardener with Miss Rickman, Tabitha and I escort her to the gate. I don’t step beyond it though. I promised not to leave the grounds of our estate.
She waves goodbye as her carriage pulls away, and I wave back. The instant her coach disappears down the road, some humans emerge from the roadside.
Five of them, including my stepmother, Brianna.
I’ve also promised to hide behind my lord husband when I see strangers, and since he’s away on assignment, I was told to duck behind Ethan instead. But Ethan is somewhere in the house.
Two guards are usually stationed at the gate. That day is Haggis’s turn, his partner the old soldier who taught me how to crack walnuts. Brianna and two of the men rush closer just as they start to pull the iron gates shut for the afternoon.
I guess Brianna is sort of a stranger, but is this a dangerous situation…? Before I can decide, Tabitha steps to stand in front of me. The two guards, likely noticing Brianna and the men, slam the gate closed and hoist their spears, ready to stab any threat.
Brianna reaches the gate too late and clucks her tongue in annoyance before smoothing her expression. “Stand down. I am the mother of the mistress of this house.”
“Get back,” Haggis says to me in a low voice. He knocks his spear against the iron bars near Brianna’s grip on the gate. Walnut levels his spear at the two men.
“Are these people from Longhurst, my lady?” asks Tabitha just as quietly.
“Yes. She’s my stepmother!”
Tabitha nods without turning back.
“We need to talk, Abigail. Tell your men to open the gates!”
Tabitha’s voice is usually calm and soft when she speaks to me, but at that moment, her tone is loud and clear: “The lord of the house has instructed us not to engage with anyone from Longhurst. Please leave.”
I’ve not been told to hide behind Tabitha, so I peek around her.
I haven’t seen Brianna in some time, and she appears rather dirty. She always wore lots of heavy-looking jewels, none of which are present.
“Still hiding behind your servants, I see. Just like when you turned him away when he came asking for help.” She cranes her neck, staring hard at my face and clothes. Her eyes look like my stepsister’s during our encounter at the ball. I’d always thought Nadia took after the earl, but she definitely resembles Brianna more.
“Help?”
“Yes! That’s why he was forced to beg everywhere, only to die a pauper’s death!”
She must be talking about the earl. Did I turn him away?
My lord husband once asked me if I wanted to provide aid to Longhurst after its granaries were trampled by frenzy sheep. I remember saying no. The territory’s management was no longer my job, and the earl wasn’t going to give me food anyway.
“Honestly…” seethes Brianna. “I told him not to think too much, to just make use of you, but he’s always been a fool, so afraid that he made the stupid decision to marry you off—and look where that’s gotten us!”
“It was the earl’s job to prevent the frenzy sheep stampede, and he failed. It can’t be helped,” I tell her.
If a boss fails to lead, its herd will chase it away or even kill it. That’s true for monsters, and true for humans as well, I’ve learned. The earl failed, so he died.
“He’s your father! Don’t you feel anything for your own blood?! This is why they call you a mons—”
“Chase them away!”
At Tabitha’s sharp command, Haggis swings his spear at Brianna, and she screams as he strikes her hand with a loud clang against the iron gate.
“This is the residence of Viscount Noel! How dare you senseless commoners make a scene before a nobleman’s home! Guards, haul them to jail!”
Walnut whistles for backup as Haggis hoists his spear and pushes the gate open. The pair accompanying Brianna hurriedly pull her back down the road, diving into the shadows where the other two men lurk. They certainly move fast.