"Steal!" her lips crooked into a sneer! "Steal! Ha!" but she did not have the ability to challenge all of them. All she could do was save herself now. She knew she had a narrow escape. She could only save herself if…. She gulped. That was the hard work of all of them in the morning shift. If she threw those boxes on the ground to stop men from following her, it would be her end. She would never be able to return here.
"Ha! Abi you fool. You think you can outrun us?" the man sneered and Abi sighed. She did not have a choice. She ran toward the stock she had gathered near the door so that they could transfer it into the store room tomorrow and threw the boxes toward them.
And then she looked at their mortified faces with a smug look,
"I may not outrun you, but I can stop you. I dare you to come and get me now." they did not dare. If they trampled the luggage, they would destroy all their hard work. And not only that, they would damage the goods worth hundreds of pounds. It would take their life to pay so much.
They stood there and looked around like a fool. When their boss, Mark, reached them. His face was red and his clothes were disheveled. He was full of rage.
"You filthy verminous. Why are you standing here like a statue? Go and grab her. Hold her by her wrist and force her on the ground." He shouted when he reached closer to them. Only then did he notice the fallen boxes on the ground and his body trembled with rage.
"You! How dare you. Do you know how much this cost! It's more than all of your income for a month. All of you pick the boxes, while you two go and follow her." The man bowed and ran and the other cursed the woman. Throwing them by pushing them was easier but picking them one by one while making sure that the goods were not damaged was not easy.
"That bitch!"
"Bloody harlot. How dare she reject our boss." if they could not get revenge on her, at least they could make sure that she would be ruined by their boss. It would be their revenge on her arrogance.
When the man reached out, Abi was already gone. They looked around, confused.
"She could not run so fast. There is no way she had already reached her house." they claimed in a frowning voice. The other man nodded. They knew where Abi lived. In this small town, everyone knew where others lived. Had spent life looking at each other.
"She must be hiding somewhere." another whispered as he kicked a small box and looked behind it with a task, "if she did not want to sell herself, why did she choose to accept the night shift. She is no fool to not understand its meaning." The man was beyond annoyed. He should have been working and earning a dime for his family. But here he was running on the road to chase a crazy bitch for his boss. For which he would be paid nothing except a smug look and a rare compliment.
The compliment would not feed his family. But worse, if he could not catch her, he would be punished.
"And if that happened, he would beat the pulp out of that foolish woman.
"What kind of shit luck is this!" he cursed again as he checked the dark alley and then around it. But the woman was nowhere to be found. As if she had disappeared.
"Go and knock on every damn door until we find her." Abi took a step back when she heard that. She had hidden inside the carriage instead of a house. The carriage looked too fancy with dim sconces near the window and the soft black leather. She had seen that insignia somewhere and was sure that it belonged to a noble, but for now she did not care.
She had thought that they would run fast to look for her. But those damn idiots were smart enough to look near first. She leaned on the chair. Praying to the god above to not send the owner of the carriage back.
If he would create a ruckus, she would be caught and then Mark would not let her live. Her chest burnt like someone had thrown a burning coal on her chest. Why? Why was there so much injustice in the world? Why was she at the lowest point of her life when she was working so hard to rise! All she wanted was a night pay.. And now not only had she lost her job, but she did not know how to save herself.
Tears burnt her eyes and her heart exploded in her chest. Their voices, though fading because of the closed windows, felt near. Her hands itched to pull the curtain away and peek again, but her mind refused, afraid that their cold eyes would stare back at her.
"Go away or i will call my husband." she heard someone shouting and wondered if a woman dared to shout at both of them? And would it make them run away. She could only pray to god.
"Pardon, mademoiselle. I did not mean any harm. I was only looking for a helper. I will pay well of course." The accent was so perfect. The voice of a perfect gentleman followed. It churned her stomach though. And bile rose to her throat.
The voice could belong to the owner of this carriage. She took a step back, then two until her back hit the seat of the carriage.
"Stefan, where is the help coming? Do not tell me we are going to stay… Who are you?"