The day went by with no sign of lucy, it's evening and spring village gets more crowdy because of the night market holding on this day. Strange how they did'nt stop the night market from going on since the lady of the shoe print is not yet found.
Heaven pace round the shop, her mind and soul anxiously waiting for lucy. Something tells her to lock the shop and go in search of her but another tells her to wait, definitely she'll come back, lucy is the type of person that have alot of friends so she's visiting them for the last time. Yes she is.
The door bell rang and heaven rushed out in hopes that lucy could be the one at the door, her high spirit went down at who it was. Why does she keep seeing the wrong people today?.
Madam cordelia with her four partners in crime. Spring village is not complete without this five gossipers, forming a club of their own where fashion and ranks is all they care about, but most especially gossiping. Heaven have'nt seen any woman wealthy enough to beat their group, except for the village head wife who does'nt indulge herself in such childish things.
"You want to keep standing there or welcome us in dear?" Mrs smith deep acrobatic voice echoes out of the glass door. Her fat cheek boldly covered in red blush and her lips painted boldly in red like a japanese dancer. Her dress clungs tightly to her chubby body pushing out a very visible cleavage of her breast.
"Am sorry madams, my mind was occupied. Please do come in" heaven opens the door and gesture them in with her hand, giving a faint smile.
"It's too early to get your mind occupied darling, a cup of warm tea might help you flush those thoughts down the alley" madam cordelia said, her arms floating on the air as she walks to the tea table neatly arranged by the fire place.
If it was that easy. Heaven stare at the women and could'nt help but wonder what each of them would do if they were in her shoes. Madam cordelia of course won't want her perfect shaped body to wrinkle down so definitley she will bury master harrison far away to save her the drama of getting caught.
As for mrs smith, she definitely will make sure margaret gets blamed for it because getting back at her enemy is one thing she is good at.
"What about the dress i brought for amendments?" Madam cordelia ask.
"Am so sorry madam, i had alot of work to finish up so i am yet to start the amendments on your dress" heaven lied giving the most pitiful face ever. She needs more time to fix the dress before giving it to madam cordelia.
"Very well then, but so you know i bought that dress for a thousand silver coins, please handle it with care" madam cordelia said.
"Y-yes madam" A thousand silver coins is like a life savings to her, now she's getting herself in another trouble.
"Please serve us some tea and buttered biscuits"
Heaven serves the tea and biscuits but soon regrets it. Having tea by a cozy place will only give them the multivation and comfortable feeling to start their gossip, they will only be a hinder to her and lucy in leaving spring village before the night comes.
To while away time, heaven brouht out some materials to start working on. She'll be at ease if she leaves behind minimum work for mr.halls her employer.
"Serves her right, everytime it's beryl this, beryl that, i even forget i have a daughter" mrs smith voice fills the shop.
Heaven almost forgot that they don't only gossip, they also hate on people who are better than them.
"But now look where beryl got her, getting pregnant before marriage" madam cordelia said and they all started laughing.
"Am going to have fun watching a rough cleansing"
"Me too"
Unbelieveable, beryl got pregnant before marriage. She opens her mouth wide in shock.
It's a taboo for a maiden to get pregnant before marriage in the kingdom of alexia, they say it brings bad luck upon the kingdom. In the early days the maiden gets stoned to death but now they bath the maiden in a extremely hot water and ram's blood, after which she's taken round almost half of the kingdom saying sorry to anyone that comes her way. They believe it drives the badluck away.
Heaven has witnessed a rough cleansing once, she could'nt watch for long because of how gruesome it was. As the daughter of the head of spring village and the son of the assitant head of spring village, beryl and Edwin should know better that such ungodly act before marriage is forbidden. She feel so sad for beryl, as if she does'nt have hers to worry about.
"because of that beryl of a girl, my husband yellled at my daughter for failling the embroidery competition, he locked her up and said he'll only let her out if she's ready to be more like beryl" mrs evans said.
"I heard sir lumley's son denied ever bedding her" the other woman said.
"If i was edwin i would do the same thing, i mean no one wants to be held down by something, irrelevant"madam cordelia giggles, her tea cup half way to her mouth.
Such a mean word to say about someone's unborn child, they talk like their daugthers are any better. Last two weeks she saw madam cordelia's eldest daughter lucy coming out of the village motel with an unknown man. She tried covering her face with an over sized bonnet hat but she saw her, lucy got embarrassed and rushed in the carriage.
She wonders if madam cordelia will still talk like this when she finds out what her daughter has being doing or what the other women would do if their daughters were in beryl shoes. Sniggerish women.
Beryl is the apple of the villagers eyes, beautiful, smart, kind and well mannered. Every maiden wants to be like her, it's no surprise that they hate on her.
"A rough cleansing is not enough, they should send her over to Harrison so he'll have someone to talk to in the other life" mrs smith said in mockery which made the others laugh.
"I heard harrison lytton had an arguement with a lady on the day he died, someone saw him running after her " mrs evans said.
Heaven heart skips at what mrs evans said, her intuition was right all along, someone saw them. Thank the heavens she wore a bonnet hat, she'll make sure to throw her dress away before they use that as another means of searching.
"Am sure she was the one who killed him, our sweet harrison, i was planning on setting a day for him and lucy to meet" madam cordelia sips from her tea missing the disgusting look thrown at her from mrs smith and mrs evans.
Everyone wants their daughter to end up with a man like harrison lytton, he' good looking, rich and well known. Too bad death took him away from them.
The evening went by with the women filling her ears with gossip. Heaven keeps looking at the door every seconds, by eight the night market will start and anyone who is'nt buying or selling will be arrested, all the shops around her are already closing for the day. Madam cordelia and her friends left to their various houses.
The street is as quiet as a grave yard with the only source of light coming from heaven's shop.
"Where are you lucy?" After pacing round the shop in anxiousness and a hard thinking, she decided to put on her shawl and go look for her friend. She don't know where to start searching from but she'll start from somewhere.
"Heaven"
"Ah!" Heaven drops down the lantern from her hand in shock.
"It's me lucy" the voice whispers in the dark.
"Lucy?"
Like a mad person, she searched the cupboard for the matches box in the dark shop, she turns on the lantern after she found it.
"What happened to you lucy?" Heaven ask worried. She raises the lantern on lucy to see how worried and sweaty she is.
"Margaret took the shoes from me and was going to tell the head inspector about you, i could'nt think of anything else so i held her down and tied her to the tree in your uncles's farm" lucy said in one go breathing so fast. She ran like crazy just to get to the shop on time before heaven leaves.
Earlier today she almost got caught by the inspectors if not for her secret admirer who helped her out thinking she was hiding something she stole from someone. she can't lie, she steal to survive.
The fool would'nt let her go because he helped her. Her plan was to throw the shoes in the land of the dead where no one dares to enter then sell off her traps so she and heaven can have something to survive while on their journey.
She had no other choice but to follow the fool so he can leave her off the hook and he can easily go back to the inspectors that she was hiding something stolen. After wasting half of her time she left his house only to be stopped again by two inspectors and was asked to open her basket where she hid the shoes.
Lucy did'nt know what to do and almost opened the basket until a lady ran pass them, the inspectors had to run after her thinking she most be up to no good.
Taking that as an oppurtunity, lucy ran into the bush near her before the inspectors comes back. It was a little late in the evening so she did'nt know where she was until she met margaret in the bush crying, the lord knows she did her best to avoid margaret, and she is very sure the lord knows how margaret saw the shoes in the basket.
From behind margaret pulled the basket from her hands which made the shoes fell out of it and she got hold of them.
Her evil side took the best of her when margaret threatens to go tell the head inspector, she had no choice but to knock her out and tie her to the tree in the bush. Worst it's her so called father's farm.