Chapter 4

He threw the bowl aside and lunged at me. I dodged.

The man rubbed his chin with a lecherous grin and said, "Little beauty, Lady Marianne ordered me to kill you. It would be a shame for a pretty face like yours to just die like that. Why not have a little fun with me before you go?"

He pursued me like a cat playing with a mouse.

"Be a good girl, and maybe I’ll be gentle. But if you make me angry, you’ll suffer even more!"

I quickly reached into my clothes and pulled out a packet of powder. When he got close enough, I threw the powder into his face.

It was red pepper powder, and it blinded him instantly.

"Aaahhh—! Cough, cough..."

He clutched his face, coughing violently, rolling on the ground in pain. I may have pretended to be stupid, but I wasn’t. I knew Marianne had no intention of letting me go. She wanted me dead. Thankfully, I was prepared.

While he was still writhing in pain, I rushed to the carriage, climbed up, and drove the horse out of the forest.

When I reached the estate where my mother was, it was still midday. I didn’t wait for Marianne to get word; I found my mother and took her away immediately. The servants were confused and tried to stop us, but my mother had a fit, scratching and biting them. The overseer cursed us, "Get lost! If you want to go, then go!"

I dragged my mother onto the carriage and headed north. Only when we were on the rough mountain roads did I finally relax.

We had escaped Marianne's control! I had saved my mother!

Looking back at her in the carriage, I cried tears of joy. I sobbed, "Mother, we’re free from the Moore family. I don’t have to pretend to be mute anymore, and you don’t have to pretend to be insane!"

My mother, with her disheveled hair, hugged me tightly, and we wept together.

My mother was a healer. She was taken as a concubine by my father after he spotted her during one of her medical visits. My father’s first wife, Lady Lydia, had a face like a saint but a heart like a viper. She treated my mother kindly on the surface but tormented her in secret. She even had my mother’s first two sons killed. I survived only because I was a girl.

At first, my father protected my mother, but after his affections waned, he abandoned her. Lady Lydia continued to torment her, so my mother feigned madness to protect herself.

When I was ten, I was in the courtyard, learning to sing from the maids. My father and Marianne passed by, and he praised my voice, saying it was as sweet as a nightingale’s song. That night, Lady Lydia had her servants hold me down and forced me to drink a potion that took away my voice. Marianne watched, laughing, saying that the nightingale had had its beak cut off.

After they left, my mother secretly found an antidote, saving my voice, though it was never as sweet as before. My mother warned me to hide my talents if I wanted to survive. From then on, I pretended to be mute, never speaking a word to anyone but her.

Now, my mother and I had finally escaped the den of vipers. I wiped away her tears and vowed, "Mother, we can never go back to the Moore family!"

My mother nodded tearfully. "We should go to your aunt. Five years ago, she sent word that she had married and was living in a place called ‘Clearbrook Town.’"

After much inquiry, we finally arrived at Clearbrook Town two weeks later. We found my aunt’s home, only to be told she had become a nun.