WOUNDS OF silk

3. Eeva

When the morning rushed in a blur, Eeva felt groggy and disoriented. Limbs ached, coiling in the couch the whole night. Her back hurt. Spine protested when she tried to rise to her feet. Eeva must have fallen asleep sometime in the early hours of the dawn.

Eeva quickly showered and dressed in a pale pink blouse with a ruffle neck and a pair of jeans. She slipped out of the room before her husband woke up. She didn't want to face her husband not knowing what to expect from him after his last night's violent coercion.

Eeva scurried down the stairs, her mind boggling at the stark reality of her life she was thrust into. She stumbled, missed her footing on her next step. Her body flew forward, almost tripping down the flight of stairs. Her heart leapt in panic as she scrambled to grab onto any nearby solid object to find her footing. Her palm curled around the railing to steady her and prevent her fall.

A sharp pain radiating in her ankle and Eeva realised she had jabbed her foot at the bannister and hurt herself.

Damn!

Eeva climbed down the rest of the stairs in her wobbly steps and trudged straight into the kitchen, knowing quite well she didn't have to face her father. She hardly ever seen her father meandering in the western wing of their house. He prefered to take his meals besides dinner in his office on the entire opposite side of the house.

As she sauntered into the kitchen, the maids were cooking up a storm, preparing several dishes for breakfast as if they were going to feed the entire guest list of her wedding, not just her family and her husband.

Eeva staggered to her feet, moving stiffly over to the stool to sit down but her awkward movements didn't go unnoticed to the several pair of eyes present in the kitchen.

A young maid, almost her age or a few years older, brought her a cup of coffee, blushing the whole time. After the maid turned away and busied herself with her tasks, she kept sneaking glances at Eeva and stifled a laugh.

Eeva didn't know what piqued the maid's curiosity but when the head maid whispered something in the girl's ear, the young maid nodded, turned away and disappeared behind the storage room.

Eeva didn't bother to rack her brains further when the rich aroma of hot coffee shook away fatigue from her bones and gave her energy to endure the day. She helped herself, stuffing freshly-baked cookies into her mouth from the rack, put on the counter to cool off.

Her mother walked into the kitchen along with her sister, Meira, trailing a few steps behind her mother. Her mother went rigid and parted her mouth in a shocked 'O'. Eyes bulged out in shock, making her already big eyes round and huge.

Her mouth couldn't believe her eyes. She didn't expect to see Eeva, gobbling up her cookies and swallowing a mouthful of coffee to wash the crumbs down her throat.

Her mother blinked a few times, then her eyes roaming the length of the kitchen as if any second Eeva's husband would pop up out of nowhere. When her mother didn't find him, her eyes narrowed at Eeva as she asked in a terse voice, "Where is Mr Romanov?" 

Eeva shrugged her shoulder, paying no attention to the seriousness in her mother's tone, "Upstairs. Sleeping. Snoring like a pig when I left the room."

Her mother gasped and looked horrified as if Eeva had just killed her own husband at her wedding night. Eeva didn't bother to look up as she drizzled more chocolate syrup over her cookies in squiggly tails, "You should have waited for your husband to come down for breakfast before you started shoving food into your mouth. That's not how a proper woman should behave."