Beauty Is A Curse

Mistress Number One

Vilayna's POV

After a week of slaving away under the sun, harvesting tiny pieces of cotton that were worthless in the depth of my grey emerald eyes but profitable in the eyes of a white man, I had finally mastered the art of harvesting cotton and was soon in the top 10 harvesters. And all in a week.
The fact that there were at least 500 slaves working on the field with me made the achievement even more satisfying and somehow filled one of the many abysses that had been threatening to consume my fragile heart. I'm sure you wouldn't disagree with me if I told you that I was a very skilled and ambitious individual, true to my dear Grandmamas words I was truly a fast learner.

"Wow!" Veronica exclaimed counting the bags of Cotton I had filled,"10!...10 bags! And it's only noon. What have you been taking?"She asked amazed.

I shrugged at my new found friend not bothering to give her a reply, one of my favourite qualities was my modesty, I had no desire to brag or raise myself higher than others while at the same time rubbing their faces in the dust. No that was certainly not me at all.

I offered a small smile as my friend carried on looking at me in sheer amazement, "Unbelievable!" She breathed still unable to accept my achievement,"All in a week."

Since the day I discovered Orlando and Veronica's little secret, we had grown ever closer together. As a pampered daughter I was often isolated from my peers and in time I found it too difficult to make friends, but it wasn't the same with Veronica, as soon as we'd met we just clicked. Like we were destined to be friends, there was no effort or stress needed, it just worked like sugar with tea, salt on food, beans and toast. You get the gist.

This was the one true friendship I'd ever had except from the one with Paminda and Grandmama. However in a way they were both invalid because Grandmama was family and Paminda was my pet, although she was a very good friend to me also. Netherless my new found friendship felt very strong at just one week old, it was truly amazing and above all refreshing. This friendship proved that I wasn't an 'unsociable animal' as my Farther had once said to me.

As for Solomon, his efforts to draw closer to me had reduced as I kept discouraging him in his every attempt.

Good. I muttered to myself. One less man for me to worry about.
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"Please."Solomon urged when I took a route which would allow me to avoid him for the 100th time in one week.

My foot stopped mid air just hovering above the ground ,as if his words had frozen me in place. I contemplated putting my foot down again to complete my next step away from him and thus widening the distance between us.

Tempting. A part of me commented on the situation but another part of me left me frozen in place unsure what to do. The battle in my head began between the part of me 'For speaking to Solomon'and the part of me 'Against speaking to Solomon.'So far each side had strong and valid arguments but my stubborn heart refused to hear him out.

"Please."Came his voice again as if he had sensed my uncertainty. Nethertheless this simple word gave fuel to the part of me that was 'For speaking to Solomon' and soon that part of me had won the mental case in my head and dominated my reasoning.

I slowly put my foot back to the side of its partner before turning to face the relieved, surprised and hopeful look in Solomons face.

"It's very clear that you don't like me."He croaked, his voice was breaking as if it they were the most difficult words to speak. I stared back at him blankly betraying no emotion."I was wondering if you would enlighten me in what I did to offend you."He continued hastily but at the same time in a calm tone.