f*******n LOVE

CAUGHT

Chapter Four

The next day. Victoria decided to sneak out yet again after her lessons. This time, she went directly to where all the children gathered to play and did not wander around looking for Lias. She knows exactly where to go since it's her third time coming out to play.

When the children saw her coming they started cheering for her. One of them joked "The rich girl came back!"

Victoria laughs and replies. "I'm just Victoria." She told them to treat her just like any other playmate there. And that she was there to have fun, and the children were more than happy to accept her into their midst. Someone asked, “what are we playing today?”

“Let's not play games today, instead let's explore.” Someone said instead and they all turned to look at who spoke and it was Victoria. Lias then butted in that there's a stream just outside the neighbourhood and who was bold enough to go on the adventure.

All the children cheered and said they were ready for the conquest. They did a sign of bravery which was amusing to Victoria but she tagged along and did it. The children set off together to the streamline.

Along the way, they saw some fallen logs and did competitions on who can jump the highest over it. For those that couldn't jump, they climbed it and it was all fun.

They saw some beautiful wild flowers and they picked them to beautify themselves. The females placed theirs in their hair to look pretty. While the males placed theirs in their clothes to look gentlemanly.

Some picked a lot to make bundles that imitate bouquets of flowers. There were also butterflies, lots of beautiful butterflies.The children chased them.

On getting to the stream, they saw dragonflies trying to skim the water and watched, giving commentaries on how each dragonfly was doing. They also saw little fishes in the water and were using them to do races as a sport.

Victoria was so fascinated by all these things and was wondering why she never noticed them which made her realise she's locked up behind the manor walls.

While the other children were playing nearby, Victoria asks Lias, "Do you always smile?"

Lias shrugs. "Not always." She then asked about his father because she noticed he wasn't around when she visited and no one talked about his father.

Lias went quiet firstly. Then he said quietly, “he died when I was much younger”. Victoria felt so sad that she had maybe touched his sour spot.

He says "It's just me and my mum now."

Victoria realizes that although Lias has very little, he has something she envies. He has someone who hugs him, someone who laughs with him. Someone who truly knows him.

Victoria starts of "Our house is very big..." She pauses. "...but sometimes it feels empty."

Lias was confused. He asked himself quietly, “How can a mansion feel empty?” But he still listens to Victoria. And that was enough for Victoria.

As the sun begins to set, they sit beneath the mango tree beside the streamline. Lias picks up a small stick from the ground. He draws two tiny stars on the ground.

One for him. One for Victoria. Then he said, "Even if one day you stop coming... I'll still remember you."

Victoria looks at him and replies, "Then I promise I'll keep coming."

They hooked their little fingers together and did the pinky promise sign.They burst into laughter and looked at themselves with determination.

As Victoria was walking home alone…Her hair was still threaded with wildflowers, her shoes dusty from jumping over logs and running through grass. She didn't realize that someone had been watching her.

A chauffeur from the Blackwood Manor saw her laughing with the children and playing with them. He recognizes her immediately. He had an unreadable expression to have seen the heir outside playing around in dirt.

He didn't call her or notify her that she had been seen. He just quietly turned around and drove back toward the mansion.

Back at the mansion. The staff were gathered together quietly in the servants’ hall and having their night tea. Miss Clara was sitting near a window and sipping from her cup when she heard Mr. Hemlock, who was the head chauffeur, enter abruptly.

Hemlock removed his hat slowly. Made a slight bow… something he only did when delivering serious news or bad tidings. He then cleared his throat and said, “I saw Young Miss.”

A hush fell over everyone present. The teacup in Miss Clara’s hand went still halfway to her lips. The soft clink of a spoon hitting a saucer echoed through the silent servant's hall.

Every head turned toward Mr. Hemlock even the scullery maid paused with dishwater dripping from her fingers.

Hemlock stood rigidly, his face as unreadable as stone, but there was something heavy in his eyes. The look of a man who had just witnessed something that shouldn’t have happened or perhaps something that should have been seen long ago.

Miss Clara slowly set down her cup. Her knuckles whitened slightly where they rested on the table. “Where?” She asked with a quiet intensity that made everyone lean forward without realizing it.

Hemlock straightened, his voice was a bit low but still clear, measured like a man reporting on something both extraordinary and fragile. "By the stream near East Lane," he said. "With local children."

There was a deafening silence. Then another servant maid who'd worked at Blackwood Manor for twenty years, gasped quietly behind her hand.

East Lane. That was miles from the estate. Beyond the iron gates, past the market district, into poor neighborhoods where no child of Victoria’s status had ever been seen wandering freely especially not playing in dirt and flowers like some common village girl.

Miss Clara didn’t react immediately. She just stared out through the window, the same one she’d looked through every night for eight years while Victoria grew up silent inside those grand walls but now with a new kind of tension tightening her chest.

She remembered yesterday the muddy dress. The tangled hair. That leaf still stuck to her shoulder as if refusing to fall. And today?

Today she wasn’t just sneaking out once, she was going back deliberately. On purpose. To play again with those kids.

Hemlock cleared his throat again softly before adding, "She seemed happy."

Those three words landed heavier than any accusation or anger could have done so far tonight among them all.

Victoria being genuinely happy outside their carefully controlled world? That wasn't supposed to happen without permission, without supervision and even without consequence.

The silence in the servants' hall stretched like a held breath. Miss Clara didn't move and blink. The firelight flickered across her face, casting shadows beneath her eyes.

Happy. That word turned over in the room, fragile as an egg. Hemlock stood motionless, still wearing his coat despite having just entered from outside.

One of the younger maids dared whisper: "She... she's been sneaking out every day?" No one answered right away. Miss Clara finally rose slowly from her chair and walked toward Hemlock without another word.

She didn’t speak at first. Just looked into his eyes searching for confirmation, for detail beyond just “happy.”

Hemlock remained still, hat in hand, waiting. He wasn't a person that exaggerates or embellishes the truths but he also would not be cruel enough to paint Victoria's joy as something scandalous… even though it was “technically”.

Finally Miss Clara asked in a soft tone “Did she look… like herself?” It was a strange question somehow. It was weird that Miss Clara didn't ask if she was dirty or caught behaving improperly but she asked if hemlock recognises her as the same Victoria they know or as someone else entirely since no one is watching her every move out there?

Hemlock blinked slowly and pondered on the question. Then he nodded. "She did." But then he added carefully. "...just slightly different.”