The Secrets He Keeps

By then, Fiona was doing the dishes in the kitchen with her sleeves all rolled up.

I asked softly, "Do you need a hand?"

Fiona seemed pretty startled by my question. The bowl that she was holding slipped from her hands and fell into the sink with a loud clatter.

A panicked expression appeared on her face as she waved at me hurriedly as a sign that she didn't need my help. She even backed away from me when she saw me approaching her.

My gaze fell onto Fiona's arms. Now that her sleeves were rolled up, I could see long red scars, both old and new, marring her arms.

The sight of the scars made my gaze darken slightly. I was about to approach Fiona and grab her arm to ask her what happened when I heard a voice coming from behind me.

"Roxy, what are you doing?" Anthony asked.

I froze on the spot.

Fiona quickly glanced at me before shaking her head at me. Then, she rolled down her sleeves rapidly in order to hide the scars. After that, she continued doing the dishes with her head lowered.

I looked away as well and opted not to say what I planned to say earlier. Instead, I turned around to smile at Anthony.

"I noticed that Fiona was doing the dishes on her own, so I asked her if she needed help. Maybe I startled her."

Fiona responded by cowering slightly at that moment. She hunched her back before raising her head to look at Anthony frightfully.

Anthony frowned. "You don't have to do that. Fiona's capable of doing these chores on her own. Besides, one must always occupy themselves with productive things to do in life."

Once he was done speaking, he grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the kitchen forcefully.

I turned around to glance at Fiona and noted the evident terror in her eyes. Then, I lowered my gaze. My uneasiness and anxiety were starting to escalate.

That night, I kept having nightmares, which made my sleep restless. As a result, I got up quite late the next morning.

It was eerily silent in the courtyard. As I approached the main wing of the farmhouse, I heard a conversation drifting from within the building.

"Have you contacted him?"

"Yeah. The meeting will commence right after the Wintermoon holidays."

"Excellent. Be careful, now. You've got to keep a close eye on that one."

I paused in my action of opening the door. My confusion and uneasiness grew even more after hearing the conversation. Out of instinct, I called out to Anthony right away.

Everything went silent momentarily in the main wing. Then, I heard Mrs. Hawthorne cursing under her breath impatiently.

"Damn it! Is she this silent whenever she walks?"

The door soon opened with a creak. Anthony's tense visage appeared right before my eyes.

"When did you get here?"

I suppressed the waves of uneasiness as I rubbed my eyes while whining coquettishly, "I just came. I heard someone talking in the house, so I called out to you."

"You heard our conversation?" Anthony's expression changed slightly.

I stared at him in confusion. "Nope. I heard your and Mrs. Hawthorne's voices, but I didn't know what you were talking about because of the dialect you used.

"Oh! Anthony, why don't you teach me how to understand the local dialect? Otherwise, I won't be able to understand a single thing everyone says here."

Anthony visibly relaxed. He was quick to drag me into the main wing of the farmhouse. "Alright. You can slowly pick up on the dialect in the future. Did you rest well last night?"

Once I entered the farmhouse, Mrs. Hawthorne approached me in a friendly manner. "Roxy, you must be hungry, right? I'll go warm the food up. We'll be able to have breakfast in a while. Anthony and I have been waiting for you, you know!"

As I looked at Mrs. Hawthorne, I began to wonder if I was just imagining the part about her cussing me out.

Anthony kept me company the whole time. When I told him to help his mother out, he tapped me on the nose with a chuckle.

"My mom said I mustn't neglect you since you came all the way here as an esteemed guest."

Left without a choice, I could only ask Anthony to go for a walk with me.

The air during winter time up in the North was often cold and dry. I could feel the stinging winds blowing down my neck constantly.

Anthony could only tighten the scarf around my neck. "It didn't really snow this year, but the air is still dry and cold. Let's just go on a quick walk before going home."

I nodded. "Okay. I just wanted to pop out for some fresh air because I felt too stuffy from staying indoors for way too long."

After walking down a small stretch of road, we saw an elderly woman carrying a woven basket on her hunched back while relying on a walking stick to walk down the road with great difficulty. She seemed to be carrying something in her free hand too.

Suddenly, the things she was carrying fell to the ground. Apples began rolling everywhere.

I hastened my steps in order to help pick up the apples for the old lady. Then, I turned to ask Anthony, "Anthony, why don't we carry everything home for the old lady?"

Anthony paused in his steps. Then, he walked over with a frown and called out to the old lady.

"Mrs. Hackett, why are you carrying such a big load? Let me carry the basket for you."

The moment he was done speaking, he reached out to take the basket from Mrs. Hackett's back.

Mrs. Hackett raised her head to glance at Anthony. "Ah, you're the Hawthorne kid."

She decided to take his offer by handing everything to him.

After I picked up all the apples, I placed them back into the plastic bag. Then, I said to Mrs. Hackett with a smile, "Mrs. Hackett, we'll walk you home. I'll carry this bag for you."

Mrs. Hackett eyed me up and down. She muttered under her breath, "What a cute darling. Such a shame that she's blind when it comes to men…"

My eyelid twitched at the comment. Still, I pretended to not understand a single word that Mrs. Hackett said as I turned to look at Anthony.

"Anthony, what did Mrs. Hackett say just now?"

Anthony's gaze darkened slightly, but he still forced a smile. "She was just complimenting your looks."

I shot him a bashful look while giggling softly. I decided to stay silent.

Mrs. Hackett's house was pretty close to where we were. Ten minutes later, we arrived at her house. It was a tiny, rundown brick house.

Mrs. Hackett had Anthony put the stuff in the eastern room. After that, she took my hand and pulled me into the kitchen while mumbling words of gratitude.

The kitchen was dimly lit. Almost immediately, I could feel chills running down my spine. At that moment, I had the urge to flee from the house.

Mrs. Hackett sat me down on a stool before taking a seat next to me. She murmured into my ear, "Run, lassie. Quick, escape."

Those words were spoken in proper Anglanish.

I was rendered shell-shocked by the warning. I was about to ask Mrs. Hackett what was going on when I saw her pouring out some warm water from the thermos flask.

As she poured, she murmured in the local dialect, "This lass is a kind-hearted one. I don't have much to offer… At the very least, I need to serve her some water to warm her up."

At that moment, Anthony entered the kitchen while flipping the curtains aside at the doorway.

I clenched my fists before rising to my feet and approaching Anthony quickly. "What did Mrs. Hackett say just now? I couldn't understand her at all."

Anthony seemed to have heaved a sigh of relief. "It's nothing. Mrs. Hackett was praising you for having a heart of gold. Let's go home."

"Okay." I nodded heavily before reaching out to tug at Anthony's sleeve.

Anthony said his goodbyes to Mrs. Hackett. He then took my hand and began leading me home. "Why is your hand so cold?"

"I'm so cold… I've never felt this cold before…" I said while sniffling.

Anthony chuckled at my predicament. "I told you not to leave the house, and yet you wouldn't listen. Now you know how cold it is out here, huh?"

I pouted. "Yeah, yeah. I wanna go back to my room and tuck myself into bed so that I can play on my phone all day. Winter here is way too cold. I have no idea how you managed to survive all these years!"

"You're just not used to the weather here. In the future, you'll get used to it. Take my mom, for example—"

"Hmm?" I tilted my head to look at Anthony.

But Anthony didn't continue elaborating. He just smiled at me. "Come on. Let's hurry up and go home."

Although he had been holding my hand the whole time, I couldn't feel any warmth coming from him. My heart felt colder than the current weather right now.