Leonard was reclining on the outside walls when Olivera stepped out of the slaves house, firmly holding the bag which was slung on her shoulders like it might fall off the next minute.
"Finally..." He muttered, standing up straight, and walking off in the direction of the second field, expecting the amused Olivera to follow him.
"Are you okay?" Olivera asked, now walking side by side with him, after almost running to meet up with him few minutes earlier.
Leonard soughed. She must have noticed his discomfort.
Not trusting himself not to snap at her, he hummed a positive reply, hoping that she wouldn't push further with her queries till they got to her cell.
Olivera bit her tongue to keep from talking as she heard Leonard's reply. She knew something was up with him, but she also knew that he didn't want to talk about it. He would prefer she kept quiet. And keep quiet, she will. She decided, allowing silence to rein around them.
They walked wordlessly through the second field to the hilly regions where the prison yard was located.
On getting to the prison house, Olivera gulped down nothing as her eyes found the bulky man who had slapped her last night. He standing some feet's away from them, outside the gates. He hadn't seen them either. And he wasn't alone.
He was groping the left breast of a seemingly willing slave girl(she could tell by the slave tag on her wrist) whilst talking with the task mistress, Rose. They communicated as if the man wasn't sexually touching a girl right there.
The action grated on her nerves. The shamelessness and willingness of the slave whose hand circled the waist of the bulky man. The shamelessness of the man too. And the disregard in the woman's eyes.
Unconsciously, she burrowed more to the side of Leonard, seeking protection from these evils.
"Don't worry. He won't touch you." He whispered, before circling her waist with his hand.
"Trust me, and calm down." He said, pushing down a protest which he knew was brewing and was about to be spewed out from her mouth. He had taken her unawares.
Olivera nodded, and relaxed, ready to play along.
Rose first caught sight of them and scoffed.
"Here she comes..." She said, staring at Olivera with contempt.
"Just one day, and you managed to snag enough attention due to a community." She grouched, her eyes filled with disdain and misprision.
But Olivera kept quiet.
Leonard would know what to do best. She thought, burrowing deeper, if possible, to Leonard's side.
Already, she could feel the huge man staring at her. Right there and then, she imagined him licking his lips disgustingly as he had done earlier today. She shuddered at the thought, whilst peptalking herself from within that he wouldn't do anything, not with Leonard standing by her side.
"What do you mean by that, Rose?" Leonard asked, tightening his grip on Olivera's waist. He could sense her fear; knew who was triggering it too.
"Ask the shy cow beside you, if you're pretending that you don't know." Rose replied, crossing her arms across her chest.
"Ask her what she had done to win the doctor's heart? Did she give it to him so good that he had lost touch of his senses? Because I don't understand why he wanted to colonize her for himself. I don't understand why he had thought that he would overrule the Alpha's order. And don't tell me the apprentice crap. I certainly don't buy that cunny bullshit. So, tell me, shy sly cow; did he taste good?" She asked, peering at Olivera like she could see through her.
But Olivera kept quiet, not feeling angry, but actually sad. She felt pity for her task mistress. She thought the latter looked like a woman whose inborn goodness had been sucked away by the cares of life, by frustrations and so many disappointments. She was sure that the task mistress was mateless. Perhaps that's why she was bitchy. Perhaps it was an indirect consequence of the Alpha's ruling. Hadn't Nick mentioned that the members of the pack who had been mateless before his reign, still remained mateless. None had found his or her better half. It was a curse. She was sure of it.
"What cow? There's no cow around here. Or do you see any? Have the goddess blessed you with an extraordinary sight to see invisible animals? If that is so, I believe it is worth mentioning to the Alpha." Leonard answered with all honesty, incredibly proud of Olivera's nonchalant silence. He had thought that she would have burrowed the more towards him, or perhaps start sniffing to keep some tears at bay.
On the other hand, Olivera almost snickered at the woman whose face had gone stiffer by the passing second at Leonard's declaration-her sadness instantly forgotten, but for the precarious situation she was in.
"Sarcasm doesn't go well with you." The bulky rough man bellyached, freeing the breast of the slave from his wandering hands.
Olivera swore that she heard a moan leave the lips of the girl caged in his thick arms.
Curiously, she let her eyes settle on the slave girl, probably hoping to see a sigh of shame at being touched that way publicly, but rather she was greeted with dark brown eyes which were looking at her with scorn.
What a cheap idiot! She cited in her mind, shifting her gaze from the slave to her task mistress, whilst withholding herself from snorting.
"Shut up Francis. I don't remember including you in the conversation." Leonard said nonchalantly, as if bored with the presence of the huge man.
Francis.
His name was Francis then. Olivera thought, stealthily allowing her eyes to wander around the build of the huge man.
On a normal day, if she wasn't a slave and he wasn't a shameless scum, she would have tagged him handsome, but now, in this situation, with his face ridden with wickedness and his eyes as cold as death, she pronounced him ugly, too ugly to be called ugly.
"Be careful Leonard." Francis growled, letting his hands fall away from the girl's waist.
Did he want to fight?
"Be careful Leonard..." Leonard mimicked, shaking his head side to side in a funny way (unknown to him though), that Olivera let out a giggle, before she could stop herself.
"Did you just laugh at me?" Francis thundered, pushing the slave girl away from him, before taking might steps towards Leonard and her