Lia counted the stock of vegetable jars on the shelves, scribbled the number on a loose-leaf of paper, then crossed it out again. She cocked her head to the side as if in deep thought before recounting the jars again. With great difficulty, she managed to write down the correct number of items this time.
When she was done with the inventory, she handed the list to her boss. Old Bart snorted as he glanced through it.
"You're getting better at taking inventory of our stocks." Lia almost grinned when she heard this. That was the closest compliment she could get from the man. "At least, you don't waste that much paper anymore."
She found out, among the many other things that she discovered when they moved in this place, that paper was a rare commodity. It was a product most commonly reserved for wealthy people. Tamara had a bunch of them in their old house where she scribbled her research so Lia did not think much about it. Imagine her shock when her employer flew to anger when she wasted a lot of them due to her mistakes.
"Meanwhile, your writing is..." He trailed off and clicked his tongue.
'Not much I can do about that,' she thought. She had done a great deal of pretending when she came to this city, but her handwriting was the one thing that she did not have to pretend to suck at. The corners of her mouth twitched, but she caught it immediately and went for a sheepish smile instead. "I'm a fast learner."
Her employer only grunted, going back to cleaning his table. He was getting ready for the next day. This also meant that Lia was free to go. She grabbed her things and informed Old Bart that she was leaving, only getting a shoo-ing gesture from her boss.
Old Bart was bulky despite his age, which Lia assumed to be in his late fifties or early sixties. He towered most people, adding that to his forever glowering look, and Lia wondered at first how his patients kept coming back to him. Well, it was not that he was the only physician around the city of Yarrin. Lia heard a few more, scattered around the town. But beneath that grumpy expression, Old Bart was just a big bear who cared and listened to his patients attentively. He never turned away anyone, no matter how minor the pain or injury was.
She further proved how a big softie he was when he was the only one willing to give her work when they arrived in town, and Lia was in desperate need of income. He trusted her and taught her in terms of handling patients and giving simple first aids. He was such a sweetie that Lia felt bad for lying to him and pretending to be ignorant about counting and writing.
'I needed to survive in this world. I want to live.'
A cold gust of wind greeted her when she stepped outside the clinic as she gripped her sweater tighter around her neck. She missed her long hair at a time like this. Probably the only thing that she missed from their previous town.
After she settled everything down with Jeremiah, sure that he got everything that he needed to make sure that everyone got the medicine, she found Frankie waiting for her with the servant clothes she asked him to bring. Once the camp quieted down, the two of them snuck away from the mayor's mansion.
"Are you sure about this? What if we get caught?" Frankie glanced over his shoulder for the nth time as if he could see anyone in the darkness.
"Then, we make sure that we don't get caught." Lia's steps turned into a jog. Staying in that place as though waiting for her execution was too stifling. She would crumble and die. So she did the most sensible thing to her at the spur of the moment -- she ran with Frankie on her tow. "Look, we may be safe there. But what about our mothers?"
That silenced Frankie as they trudged through the forest. After a day of non-stop walking, they managed to find the cave where both their mothers hid. Lia almost burst into tears, grateful that she did not lose the only family she had. Not again. Never again.
From there, they made a journey until they arrived at the city called Yarrin. They settled on a land just outside the town and lived beside Yolly and Frankie's house. The mother and son pair had stayed with them, never giving up their unwavering support.
When Lia first raised the issue of working, Tamara was adamant about allowing her. When her mother did relent, after rounds and rounds of discussion, she only had one reminder:
"Never ever tell people that you are educated."
Lia added another rule to herself on top of her mother's advice: Don't stand out.
If there was one thing she learned from her previous experience and from the novel Lia's experience, it was that standing out was never a good thing. Tamara was shunned because of her knowledge of medicine, and the novel Lia was used because of that as well.
When she started interacting more with other people in Yarrin, she realized that women from low-income families were generally uneducated. They did not know how to read and write. They were expected to be homemakers, after all. Lia did not realize that before, seeing as both Yolly and Tamara knew how to read and write. They also knew how to handle business, and sometimes, Lia even heard them discussing politics. All the things that society frowned upon, they could do it. Apparently, they were the exception. Lia need not be an exception. She had to blend in. A cannon fodder like her needed to avoid the spotlight and must stay on the side.