The Mistress

Chapter 23. Smash the Mirror

23

1494, Montefalco Italy

I ran back into our new home, went up to my room and grabbed my bag from under the bed. The black cat jumped up on the bed as I sat down and emptied the bag. I found the little cracked mirror and held it in my hand. It looked so similar to the one we had at home.
There was nothing about the mirror that seemed to jump out at me other than the crack. I tried grabbing at the part of the mirror where it was cracked but my hands were to shaky. Moving the mirror all around in my hands but I saw nothing. Flipping it up side down, turning it and even examining the sides of it proved to be a failure. I sat the mirror down on my bed and the cat came over to examine it. He sniffed it a few times before just laying down right next to it. I stared down at it and the next thing I new I smashed the mirror with my fist. I winced when I felt the cold glass slice the side of my fist open. I thought there must have been something behind the glass but when I moved the shards there was nothing there. I was expecting at least something to be there.
The blood dripped down into the broken glass and I just kind of stared at it. "Lena!" I heard Micheletto yell. I shoved what I could back into the bag and threw it under my bed. The glass and the mirror I couldn't get rid of, but everything else I could. I brought all the things my father sent to me in that box. I couldn't risk Cesare or someone else finding it while I was away. "What are you doing?" Micheletto bust into my room and scared the cat.
"I don't know." I continued to stare at the blood dripping from my hand.
"Come on." He took me from my bed and down stairs.
He cleaned up my sliced up hand while I just kept thinking about the mirror. Is that really what he meant? What I never see but others do is my face and the only time I see it is when I see my reflection. Why else send the mirror is that's not what he meant.
"Are you gonna say anything?" Micheletto finished up with my hand but I didn't answer. I kept thinking until it finally hit me. He must have been talking about the mirror in our home.
"Oh my." I whispered.
"What?" He asked.
"Nothing." He didn't believe me. He knew something was going on.
"So you're not going to tell me why you sliced up your hand?"
"I was an accident." He saw right through my lie.
"If you say so."
He let me go and I let myself sink into the rocking chair that was by the fireplace. The fire hadn't been lit yet but it was still a cozy place to sit. The stray cat had made his way downstairs and plopped himself at my feet, staring up at me with big green eyes. The black cat meowed and watched me as I rocked back and forth. "I can't believe you let that thing stay here." Micheletto complained.
"He's cute." I replied when picking up the cat. The cat squirmed are for a second trying to get free but once he realized what I was doing he stopped.
"Did you name the little devil?"
"Yes" I paused for a moment because I hadn't yet names him. "It's" I stopped once again. "Onyx" it was the first name that came to my head.
"Is that right?" He smirked at me. Micheletto knows everything and I mean everything. "I'll be outside."
I returned to petting the cat.

The next morning I woke up to find the cat sitting on me once more. It was staring at me, it didn't blink or move. "Hi." I said to the cat and he finally meowed. I pushed the cat off of me before getting out of bed.
Upon going down stairs, with the cat following me I might add, I see Gabriele cleaning the kitchen.
"Where is Micheletto?" I ask her.
"Outside, just wait until you see what he has done." I raise my eyebrow at her. "Just go look" I cautiously walk out to the front of our home. I stood and saw no one outside, not even Micheletto himself. Not until I heard the sound of a chicken clucking. The cat, who I should start calling Onyx, ran back into the house and over to Gabriele. I followed the sound of the animals to the back on the house, a place I had not spent to much time in yet. The side of the house was covered in dead vines, dirt and had a weird smell that I can only compare to urine. I should have walked the other way.
I first noticed Micheletto's red hair. His back was turned to me. The back yard was large, bigger than the house really. There was a barn, a small barn. It would probably fit two horses and maybe a cow. The back of the house overlooked rolling green hills. In between the house and the barn were 7 rows of crops freshly planted by none other than Micheletto himself. But what got me was the livestock. I knew that we did not own a cow or chickens but it looks like we do now.
"Um?" I interrupted Micheletto who had just finished planting the last bit that he had. "What's going on?"
"Perfect timing." Micheletto turned and came over to me.
"Where did these animals come from?" I tried counting the chickens but I was so overwhelmed at what was happening.
"I got them this morning, aren't they lovely?"
"Yes but who is going to take care of them?"
"You" Micheletto shoved his shovel into my hands.
"Excuse me?" I was offended, how dare he? I am a lady, not a commoner.
"You want to blend in don't you?"
"Well yes but I-"
"Then you will do this. The plants get watered once a day, twice if it is extremely hot. The cow you can milk once. The chickens, well you can just check for eggs periodically."
"Micheletto I've never done anything like this. I don't know what I'm doing."
"Well it's time you learn don't you? Here is the watering can." He picked up the rusted old water can and pushed it into my arms, it caused me to drop the shovel. "I filled it this time but when you run out the well is just down the road there."
"You aren't actually serious?"
"Oh yes, I am."
"And what are you going to do?"
"I am going to start building a fence so the horses don't have to stand out front all day." I pouted like a child. "Don't worry, Gabriele will help"
"That doesn't make me feel any better."

Gabriele joined me shortly after but she just sat on the grass on the side. She sat eating an apple which bothered me because I was sweating buckets, my feet hurt and my back was killing me.  "Aren't you going to help?" I spat at her.
"No." She bit into her apple. Before I could yell at her she spoke again. "Micheletto said for today you would water by yourself, since that's all you're doing. Tomorrow I will help with the animals."
"Really?" I groaned. I had no idea what Micheletto planted here in the dirt, he didn't even explain to me why he did this? I got so tired that I sat down directly in the dirt. The moisture from the ground seeped into my dress, my loose hair fell into my face.
"Here Hun." Gabriele kneeled down behind me, grabbed my long blonde hair and tied it up. "It's going to he alright."
"He's an ass." I commented.
"But he loves you, he wouldn't be helping you if he didn't."
"Once I start showing I won't be able to do this anymore" 
"I know"

At the dinner table I was massaging left hand with my right. Small calluses had already begun to form. My hands were smooth like velvet and as fragile as porcelain, I can't do this.
"I know who you're thinking." Micheletto said with a very full mouth. "But remember you wanted my help." He swallowed his food and gave me an arrogant smirk.
"I didn't know what it meant at the time." I shoved a piece of bread in mouth and chewed it with much sass. I did not think it was possible to chew bread with sass but it turns out I did it because Micheletto just glared at me.
"It's okay, you're just not used to this kind of life." Gabriele tried to calm us both down. I'm not mad at Micheletto, I mad at all the things I must do. My hands are too soft for this, my skin to porcelain for the hard sun and my brain just not mentally prepared for it. It's either this or return home and tell Cesare about his bastard child. So I think I'll just stay here.

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It has been far too long since I updated. I have started a new job which I love. The down side is though since I'm working all the time I don't have too much time to sit and write like I used to. I miss and and try to get some writing in when I can.
But this story is far from over and I'll keep writing until it's done :)