Chapter 21: The Cruel and Beautiful Tricks of Nature
"How are you healing?"
Malia didn't move from where she stood and tried to keep her face from betraying her discomfort. "I think I should be in good shape very soon, Mrs. Quincy."
"Good," the blonde beauty smiled wider. "Are you shocked to be here?"
"In your home? Yes."
"Then we share that sentiment," Abigail folded her hands in front of her. "I wasn't expecting John to bring you here, so you can imagine my unfortunate surprise when he had all the servants fawning over you."
"With respect, Mrs. Quincy, I didn't ask to be brought here. The Magistrate said that I needed to be put into protection, that is all I know."
"Malia, you can drop the innocent act," Abigail clenched her jaw. "I know."
Shock ran through Malia like an ice storm and it was all she could do to not turn and run from the study, and as far away from the Quincy home as she could get. "What?"
"I know," Abigail repeated. "About you and my husband, that is. I've known for some time."
"How?"
"I'm his wife, Malia," Abigail said as though that answered everything. "There is nothing about John that I do not know, his whores included."
Malia tried and failed to keep the shock from her face, so much so that her mind didn't even register the insult. "Mrs. Quincy... I..."
"Oh, I am not angry at you," Abigail said, shaking her head. "No, actually I find myself not caring at all. Do you want to why?"
Trembling from head to foot and incapable of forming words, Malia nodded.
"Because he will tire of you soon enough," she said. "He will see that bedding you is a fruitless endeavor, that you will always be and outsider here in England. His lust for you will die out soon enough, and that I can promise. You are the first he has strayed for, yes, but you aren't special enough to latch onto, no matter what he tells you."
Malia didn't know what she felt more: shock, anger, or humiliation. She should have known it would come to this, that her's and John's fantasy would end with the wrong person finding out. She just didn't expect that someone to be Abigail, far from it.
"Shocked speechless I see," Abigail chuckled. "Ah, my dear, young girls with no means to speak of, much like yourself, will always reach too high and forget that it's a long way to fall after it all slips from your hands."
"Is that why you brought me here?" Malia asked. "To tell me that you know?"
"No," Abigail shook her head. "It's not even the most important part."
"What is?"
"Arthur Denning assaulted you that night, because you saw him murder Cromwell."
"I know, I was there."
"What else do you know?"
Malia frowned. "If you're asking if I know about your affair with him, I do."
Abigail closed her eyes in frustration and cursed. "Of course you do. May I ask how? You couldn't have gathered that merely from his attack."
"Why do you care?" Malia asked. "I should think that you wouldn't be too afraid of my telling anyone."
"Words spoken against me in this town will be swallowed up," Abigail said. "And the last thing I need is you blathering on about things you can't possibly know. I have a family to protect, something that your childish brain cannot comprehend, and the news that John and I both have been unfaithful to one another is enough to ruin us. That is why I care."
"I was there that night in the woods," Malia said. "When you and Denning were arguing. I heard you and I hid."
"And you were there, no doubt, because you were returning from bedding my husband."
"I was not bedding him then," Malia didn't know why that was important. "But meeting him was the reason I was there that night."
"A cruel trick of fate, wouldn't you say?"
Malia did not reply to that.
"There is no doubt that you heard everything that night," Abigail continued, sounding like she was trying to fix a shattered mirror grinded to dust with mere words. "Wonderful. So now we are both inclined to keep silent."
"I should think so, if the Magistrate ever found out about your-"
"Oh, he knows," Abigail said, silencing Malia. "And forgive me if I find you a culprit in that given this new information."
John knew about Abigail and Abigail knew about John. In less than ten minutes, this whole scene was going into the gutter, and Malia's life was spinning out of control. "I didn't say a word of this to him."
"How am I to believe that?"
"Do you not think that this case would have been over and done if I had? That your husband would have tied you to Arthur Denning? That Cromwell wouldn't have had reason to ask you anymore questions because he had all the answers?"
Abigail said nothing.
"Please know that I said nothing to your husband about what I saw that night. I cannot tell you how he found out, but it wasn't from me."
"How am I to know that you are not lying to me right now?"
"You have every reason to, and I cannot change that."
The two women stood there for a time and stared at one another. Malia still wanted to turn and run, but there was something about the both of them knowing each other's secrets that kept them in place. Abigail's would ruin her more than Malia's, so there was a sense of reassurance.
"My husband will tire of you," Abigail finally said, as though she was now trying to convince herself more than she was trying to convince Malia. "As I did with Arthur... Soon you will return to the shadow in Dawn-Bridge you once were, without worth, means, or a man of power to latch onto. Oh, how I relish to see you wilt, Malia, I will savor every second of it."
"I would be lying if I said that I don't share that same feeling right now, watching you wilt."
Abigail smirked. "Enjoy him, in that time. But know that it will not last."
Malia said nothing, but felt her heart thudding hard in her chest. She didn't want to believe Abigail. John loved her! She knew words were seldom enough, but when they were together, she felt it. He loved her, and she loved him. Abigail was wrong, John would never tire of her.
"Go," Abigail waved her away. "Heal. You are no use to this house as a servant and I would not have anyone of note know that you are here. You are free to roam about as you please, but stay out of sight. When Arthur is caught, you will fade from memory. Mine and John's both."
Malia still didn't trust her. "Why are you so comfortable with the knowledge that your husband is being unfaithful to you?"
"Because you know my secrets as well," Abigail said simply, sounding calm but her eyes betraying the hatred. "If you didn't, I would tear you apart."
XXX
"What distracts you?"
Malia turned to look back at John and smiled. "Nothing, I'm content."
He sat up in the bed and drew her into his arms. "Does it not feel miraculous to be together without the oppressive walls of the underground?"
Malia sighed and rested her head back on his chest. "I don't know, maybe."
As of the moment, they were in Malia's room. The night was young and there were many scented candles lit, giving it the romantic illumination that they were still hidden away, far from sight from anyone that could catch them. This was their first time together since Malia had come to the Quincy home, and she was happy to finally be with him, but thought of Abigail under the same roof caused her skin to crawl all the same.
"I didn't think you would miss it," he said, kissing the side of her head. "But you do not deserve to be hidden away under dirt, Malia."
"It was our haven," Malia whispered. "A small piece of the world hidden away just for us. Somewhere we didn't have to worry about halls filled with secrets and homes rank with dark desires. It wasn't the place but rather what it meant to both of us that I miss. But it's not bothering. I love being with you."
John placed a hand on her chin and turned her face so she was looking up at him. "Alright then, my love, tell me what is bothering you?"
Malia wondered if it was worth it to tell him. "Nothing, honestly."
"It's not nothing," he insisted. "Malia, you don't have to hide anything from me. I said I would take care of you, now I can't do that if you keep things to yourself."
She said that I would be a passing phase for him. That he would soon lose interest. What if that is true?
"Malia?"
"Do you think we humans were meant to fall in love just once, John?" She asked. "That we were wired to find just one person to love that loves us back, or doesn't?"
He chuckled. "Where is this coming from, my love?"
"I'm just wondering is all," she said. "My mother once told me that animals don't mate for love, they mate for survival; offspring. What if humans are the same, and love is an illusion? I know I love you, but what if it's a trick from nature?"
"I hardly think so," he assured her, running his thumb over her lips. "And if love is a trick, then it is either very a cruel or very beautiful one."
"But can one man love more than one woman? Can his feelings for one fade with time, and then the other soon after?"
"Really, Malia, why these questions all of a sudden?"
No secrets, remember?
"Abigail called me to your study today," Malia finally said, feeling her stomach erupt in a nervous storm as she did. "She just wanted to talk. She told me that you knew about her and Arthur... And that she knows about us."
John tensed and cursed under his breath. "What else did she say?"
"That she would leave me alone simply because I could possibly ruin her with talk of her affair with Arthur."
"That's relieving," John still sounded trouble. "What else?"
Malia gulped and surrendered to her common sense. "She said that you would tire of me, and I was allowed to be with you until that happened."
"I hope you didn't believe her."
"Of course not," but Malia failed to convince herself with those words, for she had for a fleeting moment thought Abigail to speak truthfully. Even now she feared it. What reason did John have to stay in love with her?
But John didn't hear the doubt in her voice, and kissed her deeply, lowering her back down on the bed as he did. "Good. Because I love you, and that is never going to change."
For some reason, Malia closed her eyes as he made love to her, because she wanted to imagine that they were in their haven underground rather than in the comfort of her room in his house.
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