Anna felt very tired by now. She hadn’t slept well because she had replayed her encounters with the servants in her head over and over again. She had been looking for a way to get them to do something.
Anna hadn’t come up with anything good. She had been standing on her feet all day yesterday, and she wasn’t used to that, and now she had worked again this morning. She only wanted to take a nap.
“Anna, the dust in my office is becoming a problem. See that the servants take care of it. The whole house seems to be suffering since you have taken over the household,” Antonio commented. It embarrassed him that his office was dusty when he had business meetings in there.
His office? How could she get in there to clean when he was always in there?
Her mind raced until the servants brought in their plates. Antonio grabbed her plate from her spot and took a bite of her food as everyone watched him wide-eyed. He laid her plate back at her spot.
“Your food is fine, baby. I’m sure we’ll never have another accident like yesterday.”
Anna decided that this was the perfect chance to tell the maids to do something. He would hear her saying it to them and maybe he would realize that she was trying to do her part. “Office de Señor es sale. Ustedes …” She moved her hand in a wiping motion.
Vinnie was smirking at Anna’s terrible attempt to explain what she wanted. Nonetheless, the young woman had understood, but she played dumb and shook her head at Anna. Anna opened her napkin and wiped the table with it. Anna pointed to the girl, who continued to play dumb.
Vinnie took pity on Anna. He told the maid to dust the office right now.
Anna gave him a slight head bob and went back to eating very slowly.
Antonio had been shocked with Anna too. She hadn’t been able to get the servants to understand her. He would see to it that she got a dictionary. That would make things a lot more effective.
Anna worked in the sweatshop of a laundry room again. New things had come in. She washed their towels and worried what would happen when the laundry detergent ran out. She then dusted the living room and then their bedroom. It needed to be vacuumed too.
She went off and hunted one down. She hurried and cleaned up her reading room too.
When she finished, she went to the bathroom. Her period had come. No baby.
What did that mean for her? Was she relieved or was she sad? She lay down in her reading room and covered herself up and cried.
Antonio had heard her crying as he stood in their bedroom. He had come looking for her again. He stepped forward to the door, but he didn’t want to see his wife crying because she hadn’t wanted to marry him.
She would come around eventually, he told himself. One day, she would be able to look him in the eye and tell him that she loved him.
He had to give her time. He was glad that she hadn’t said it yet. It would have been a lie. When she did finally say it, then he would know that she meant it.
He called her name and pretended that he had just come in.
He went to her reading room and saw her curled up there. “What’s wrong now, Anna?” He hadn’t meant to be so cold, but he didn’t want to hear her saying the words that she didn’t love him aloud. He had hoped that she would sit up and wipe away her tears.
“I’m sorry, I just got my period, and I had already thought that I was pregnant. I’m so sorry.” She didn’t look him in the eye as she spoke, and she stayed where she was, bawling into her pillow.
“Anna, don’t cry darling. It’s alright. I’m here. You will probably be pregnant in a month. We will continue to try.” He held her close to his heart as she sobbed.
Secretly, he was relieved that he wasn’t the one causing her heartache. She had shared her problem with him. This was a good sign.
He brought her to bed and let her sleep.
Antonio was so relieved that he wasn’t the problem that it took him until now to register how disappointed he was. He too had realized that she had been late. He too had believed that she was pregnant.
Earlier he had sent Vinnie home, and now that Anna wasn’t there he felt lonely without her. He ate quickly, and then he went back up to his Anna. She needed him, and he wouldn’t let her down.
She was sleeping when he came in. He pulled her close and held her in his arms all night while they slept.
Anna waited for Antonio to pick out his clothes. She watched him get dressed. He had a great body. She hated having a period. It meant that they couldn’t sleep together, and that she wasn’t pregnant. Anna felt as if she were choking on her bitterness.
Antonio went out of the door. He stopped at the top of the stairs and straightened his collar. When he was finished, he held his hand out. She took it, and they went down to breakfast together.
Vinnie said good morning as they came in. He was relieved that they weren’t fighting. Still, the girl looked nervous, but that was normal for her. He hoped that she would eat nicely, and that they could have breakfast in peace.
Antonio sat her down gently, and then he sat down himself. Anna thanked him softly. The maids came in with their breakfast. Anna got oatmeal this morning. The maid who set it in front of her smiled snugly at her before she left.
Anna waited for Antonio to start talking before she picked up her bowl and smelt it. It smelled as it should. She put a tiny bit of food on her spoon and brought it to her mouth. It tasted fine. She stirred and saw the hairs in her food. There were several. She choked back the tears and stared out of the window.
“Anna, why aren’t you eating?” Antonio looked at her, and he wrongly guessed that she was still too sad to eat.
Anna looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “I still don’t feel well.”
“Go lay down. I’ll wake you for lunch.” He patted her hand and felt sorry for her.
Anna nodded and left quietly. She went back to her reading room and lay down and cried again. She asked herself how long she could put up with all of this.
Would she eventually starve? Why did they hate her so much? She fell asleep again.
Chapter 30
Anna sat next to Antonio at the table once again. They were waiting for their plates to be brought in.
Anna hardly ate at all anymore. She was getting really good at slipping food into her napkin. She washed it out after every meal. No matter what the servants put in front of her it tasted funny.
Were they trying to poison her? She didn’t doubt it.
It was the why behind their hate that hurt her so. They didn’t think she was good enough for their Antonio.
What if they were right? Again this month she had gotten her period. She probably couldn’t even have a child anymore. The fall had most likely ruined her.
Antonio would realize that soon. He would be so disappointed in her. Would he want a divorce?
Her mother was due to visit in a couple of days. That would mean even more work for her.
Antonio would call her into his office when they came, and she would never be in her reading room. He hammered her with questions every time, and she had to be careful not to lie to him, but also not to tell him the truth.
She was taking care of the entire household in the meantime. The servants only cooked and shopped. She always had enough laundry detergent. That worry had faded.
Her hands were chaffed, but he didn’t seem to notice. They had fallen into a routine where they never spoke to each other at all.
She couldn’t remember the last thing she had said to him.
They made love every night. He was always concentrated on making her come. She did night for night. That too belonged to their routine. Did he think that it would help her get pregnant?
It hadn’t worked up until now.
She was doing it again, Antonio thought. Anna was lost in her own thoughts. She didn’t realize that their lunch was right in front of her. He couldn’t say anything because the room was filled with guests.
A maid was eyeing Anna’s plate and grinning.
Antonio picked up her plate and examined it. He took a bite. It was even spicier than his food. “She got the wrong plate again.”
He thrust the plate at the maid who looked horrified. He wondered what Anna was like with the servants, but the house wasn’t what it used to be. Everyone was slacking off. He would talk to her about that again this evening. The flowers weren’t being kept up as they should be, and everything moved on slowly.
Four months ago, he had brought his bride to a perfect house.
They would have their three-month wedding anniversary next week. She still wasn’t pregnant. He had a feeling that she blamed him for that. Could it be that it was his fault?
The maid came in with a new plate of food for her. He grabbed it again and tasted it. Anna hadn’t even noticed that it had been replaced.
“Anna, you have the right food now. You can eat.” He gave her a beautiful smile.
Anna woke from her thoughts and smiled back at him. She picked up her fork and ate. It tasted just fine. She gobbled everything up in a matter of minutes.
Antonio watched her again. He would never be able to figure her out. She drank her water down, and then she leaned back in her chair.
Maybe her mother would be able to help her. Anna was probably bored.
Anna watered the flowers in the courtyard and removed the dry leaves and blossoms that were past their bloom. She moved the wash to the dryer, and then she went in the living room and straightened up in there and dusted and mopped the floor.
Her heart pounded like mad while she quickly worked.
She went back to the laundry room and ironed his clothes. His things had to be perfect, or he would know the truth. Her own clothes she folded and laid in the basket as quickly as she could.
She watched the clock and hurried up with it. She had time to clean their bathroom. When she was finished, she splashed water on her face and laid down and waited for him to call her for lunch.
While she waited, she went through her list of things to do this afternoon. She had several guest bedrooms to dust, and the floors had to be mopped too. Most had bathrooms that needed to be cleaned over quickly too, even if they were never used. They could be needed at the bat of an eye.
Antonio often had guests that seemed to drop by, as if anyone could just drop by southern Mexico. His office needed to be dusted again. After her fiasco with the maid, he had forbid her to give the servants instructions during mealtimes.
The office wouldn’t get dusted, and he would come to her and ask her if she had assigned someone to do it, and she would have to say no she hadn’t. He would scold her again.
She hated being scolded, but she was making a lot of mistakes. Things such as filling cigar boxes, things she couldn’t guess at, and things that needed two people to do were her biggest worries.
He wanted the sofa lifted in the living room and cleaned under. She couldn’t lift it so she had shoved it and scratch the floor.
Antonio had assigned her with the task of finding out who had done that. He wanted her to fire whoever it was.
She couldn’t fire herself.
Lunch was over, and Anna had to get to work again. Once her mother was here, everything would get a lot harder to hide.
She checked the living room over. She went room for room everyday making mental to do lists. Items that needed repair were the worst. She had to talk to the butler for those things. He looked at her as if she were a bug or something.
She wondered how they could live with themselves.
She felt guilty about everything even things that weren’t her fault.
Anna stopped in her tracks. There was a gun on the coffee table. It was laying there. She didn’t know anything about guns, but she knew that she wouldn’t be the first person that they would think of once they realized that it was gone. She looked over her shoulder and around to the big room to make sure that she was truly alone.
Her hand hesitated as she reached for it. Then it moved with lightning speed.
Anna held it so it was pointed at the floor. She hid it in the folds of her skirt and hurried up to their room. There, she searched around for a good place to hide it.
If he suspected her, he would look in her reading room first and then her nightstand. Nothing else here was hers.
She went into the bathroom and searched around for a good spot in there, but there wasn’t a good spot in there either.
Anna then decided to hide it among his things. She climbed up on a chair and hid it in one of his shoeboxes. She put the box back. Slowly, her heart returned to normal. She went into her reading room and waited.
She asked herself why she had done that. The reason was clear. Anna had a feeling that she might need to protect herself. The servants were getting crueler every day. It was an insurance.
An hour later, she heard the commotion. They noticed that the gun was missing.
Antonio came into her reading room and sat down with her. “Something terrible has happened.”
“What?”
“One of the servants has stolen from me,” he told her.
Her hand went to her throat. He saw this as an act of thievery. What would he do when he figured out that it had been her?
“You don’t have to worry about your necklace. Just don’t ever take it off, my dear.”
“What was stolen?” she asked meekly.
“A weapon.” He looked worried.
“Was it loaded?” This would be the easiest way to find out. She had no clue how to check it herself.
“Probably.” He gave her an odd look. That had been an odd question. Why had she assumed that it was a gun?
“Do you think someone plans to use it against us?” She too had realized her mistake.
He eyed her as he answered, “I don’t know what the plans for it are.”
“Was it a special gun, like for a special occasion or was it only the everyday business kind?”
He laughed then. She was trying not to sound naïve. She wouldn’t have touched it. He felt stupid thinking that she could have something to do with it. Of course, she had assumed that it was a gun. They were the only weapons that they had.
“It wasn’t a show gun but a real one,” he answered her.
“You don’t think that someone would start shooting innocent people like it sometimes happens at schools?”
“No, honey. I shouldn’t have told you. I scared you. I’m not allowed to do that.” He hugged her and kissed her.
“Should I help you look for it?” she offered to throw suspicion from herself.
“Not on your life. I don’t want you anywhere near a gun.” He smiled at the idea of her with a gun. He had to think of her trying to defend herself with her Swiss Army Knife. She had no clue about such things.
“I have to go back to the others. I want you to stay in here.”
She nodded a little ashamed of herself. She knew that it would eventually come out, and he would flip out then, and he would never trust her again.
Anna regretted taking it. She wouldn’t know how to use it anyway. If she couldn’t yell at the servants to get them to do what they should, then she wouldn’t threaten them with a gun either.
Chapter 31
“Anna darling, how are you.” Her mother walked towards her with open arms.
Antonio had his arm wrapped around Anna, but he let go as her mother neared her. He greeted Francesco.
“My, have you gotten thin. Let me guess you are expecting,” her mother whispered in her ear.
Anna shook her head no. She didn’t say anything else. Her mother gave her an odd look, but then she turned her attention to her attractive son-in-law. He kissed her hand and gave her complements.
Pamela would talk to him later about Anna. If he were cheating on her daughter, she would chop his thing off.
Antonio called a servant forward to take up their luggage. He smiled at Francesco. He guessed that the two of them were a pair now. Francesco had been very taken with Pamela at the wedding.
; Antonio went back to his Anna and hugged her. He ushered her into the living room and ordered a servant to get them something to drink.
Their guests joined them shortly, and Francesco laid his arm around Pamela. He smiled and announced their engagement. Nothing stood in the way but his children. He was sure that they would love Pamela as much as he did. He kissed her then.
Anna’s jaw tightened a bit. She was already so dizzy from hunger and work. Seeing her mother kissing a new man not even a year after her father’s death was too much for her.
Antonio squeezed his wife’s hand to warn her.
She nodded at him that she had understood.
“Well this calls for champagne. Anna, tell the maid.” He wanted her to cool off before she said anything that he would make sure she would regret.
She left the room and went into the kitchen. The women gathered there stared at her and smirked. “We need a bottle of champagne and four glasses in the living room right away.”
She turned and left, hoping that they would realize that he had sent her to tell them, thus he wanted it. She returned to her husband.
Anna waited and wondered. If they messed up, would he scold her in front of her mother? The disappointed look that he often got in his eye killed her.
His butler came in with champagne. He poured for everyone.
“Only a little taste for Anna. She isn’t used to it.” Antonio was all smiles. “A toast to the happy new couple.” He lifted up his glass.
Anna smiled and lifted her glass. She was happy that everything had gone well, and that she didn’t have to worry about him scolding her. She took a sip, and her nose wrinkled up.
Antonio loved her so. She was so perfectly innocent.
They discussed where to have the wedding. Francesco insisted that it be in his town. Anna’s mother pouted a little. She wanted her friends to see what a good catch she had gotten.
Anna was worried about their clothes. Her mother had mentioned that she had her dirty clothes with her, and she asked if the servants could take care of them. When was she supposed to take care of that?
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