Pleasure in Retaliation

CHAPTER V

GREETINGS, Miss Lynn.

It is my immense pleasure to serve you as my guest in the Hacienda Gentallan. The house has been quite empty for some time, and a companion like you would be very much treasured.

As a token of gratitude for your choice to stay in the premises and to formally welcome you to my humble home, I would like you to take these gifts so you would feel more comfortable on your stay.

I hope you will enjoy living in the place.

-Adrian Niccolo

PS. Worry not about the expenses, Miss. It is all free, just for you.

Even if I knew that I was alone inside the room, I could not help but glance around my surroundings as the words of Señorito Adrian kept dancing inside my head. I could feel the hot rush of blood on my cheeks, and the warmth has even doubled when my eyes involuntarily looked down the paper and reread the man’s words once more.

Yet even as I placed the paper back to where it was seated when I saw it, the words seemed like a broken record that kept on rewinding and rewinding in my brain—filling me with a mixture of gratitude and confusion.

To help ease the chaos in my mind, I reached for the paper bags and started to rummage their contents. I wasn’t even surprised—yet my mouth still fell agape—as I fished out designer clothes after designer clothes from the bags. After pouring out all of the paper bags’ contents, the whole surface of the queen-sized bed is filled with dresses, blouses, skirts, and shoes.

Feeling like a teenager, I began to wear the clothes and match them one by one, to see if all of it would fit—only to be left shocked as to how every clothes that the Señorito gave covered the exact measurements on my body. With a wide smile on my face, I half-walked and half-ran to the huge cabinet that replaced Celia’s little bed and started to fill it with the clothes that Señorito Adrian gave me.

When I finished placing all of the clothes, arranging them in an orderly manner and folding the empty paper bags by its creases, I was surprised to see a small paper bag that was still unopened. Eager to know what it is, I reached for the bag and started to open it—only to feel my whole body heat up in embarrassment when I came to read the label, and realized what its contents may be.

Even as my hands was starting to tremble, I pried the bag open and looked inside to confirm if my suspicion is true—and there it was, different pairs of undergarments made of lace.

It can’t even be considered as underwear. It’s lingerie, said my mind.

Without even wanting to get all of the contents out, I carried the bag and placed it inside the cabinet and placed my palm against my cheeks, silently praying that the deed would help in calming my nerves down.

As exhaustion sweeping over me, I started to lay down the bed when I heard a scrunching sound when my head landed on the soft pillow. Rising up from being laid down, I stretched a hand towards the pillow and found the note left by the Señorito.

I tried to fix the paper from being crumpled but failed. When I salvaged it to the most possible way, I read the note once more before folding it close. I leaned towards the bedside table, pried the top drawer open and placed the note inside before settling down the bed and dozing off to sleep.

“MA’AM Lynn? Are you there? Are you still asleep?”

I was awakened by a muffled voice coming from nowhere. While rubbing my eyes to clear my vision, I got up from the bed and looked towards the large window beside me and I became fully aware of my surroundings when I noticed that the whole room is covered in darkness.

The little rest that I had planned in my mind a few hours ago may have progressed to a deep slumber, and judging from the absence of light coming from the window beside my bed—I might have slept about half of the day.

I immediately jumped out of bed and walked towards the door. Upon hearing the question being repeated when I reached the door and realizing that it was one of the maids who were asking the query, I reached for the doorknob and opened the door for her.

“No, I’m awake now. Sorry.” I covered my mouth with my palm when a yawn has escaped form it.The maid gave me a faint smile before she went on with her statement.

“You are requested by Señorito Adrian to accompany him and Señor Guillermo downstairs as the dining hall for dinner, Ma’am Lynn,” she said in a polite tone.

My eyebrows came to a knot when I heard the maid said that I will not be alone with the Señorito for the last meal of the day. When my brain recognized the name that the maid stated and how she addressed it with “Señor”, I became uneasy when I realized who I might be facing when I go down.

I am about to meet Señorito Adrian’s father.

The maid did not wait for my answer and immediately left my sight after giving a slight bow. Not wanting to embarrass myself by being so late, I locked the door back and rushed towards the bathroom to take a quick shower. After fifteen minutes, I went out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around my body and headed towards the cabinet to find something to wear.

Having no choice but to wear the undergarments that Señorito Adrian gave as a gift, I picked the most decent one from the set—a black lace thong and a matching brassiere—then grabbed a cream-colored dress with thin straps and the hem ending an inch above my knees. Without minding the slight discomfort that I felt because of the lingerie that I am wearing, I could not contain my smile as I felt the soft fabric of the dress hug my body in all the right places. I run my hand through it once before going to the bathroom once more to finish my look.

Because I didn’t want to take up so much time in preparing myself—I opted to just comb my hair, letting it fall down my back. After looking at my reflection from the mirror on the sink and admired the lovely dress for a brief second, I went back out to the bedroom.

When my eyes took a brief glance at the nightstand where Celia’s makeup has laid unused, thoughts began pondering in my mind on whether to use them or not.

In the end, I did not want to add more time to my lateness and did not want to let the owners of the house to wait, so I chose to ignore the urge to pick some of the make-up and leaned down to put on the sandals I was wearing this morning before I exited the room.

With each step I take, my chest becomes heavier and heavier because of the fear that is slowly growing in it. I have no idea of the character, or what kind of person the Señorito is—other than the fact that he has this kindness in his heart for not objecting and letting me stay in his home, and even giving me more things to wear. But the scary thing is the other fact, that I am about to meet the real head of the house of Hacienda Gentallan.

Even though there is a slight fairness in their part because they also have no knowledge of my personality—but the thought of being surrounded by people whom I still consider as strangers brings all of the sudden chills to my spine.

I walked the long path from my room to the dining room as my mind wandered away with my thoughts. After a few moments of thinking that I was walking towards nowhere, I felt that I was already getting lost because of the hallways that I passed through that are very much identical with the path that Celia and I took on our quick stroll this morning.

Having a feeling in my heart that I was going the right direction, my chest began pounding hard because of nervousness. After almost five minutes of seeing hallways after hallways and passing through them, I found the dining hall because of the housemaids that walked in and out of the room while carrying trays with food and beverages. After a few minutes, when I noticed that there were no more maids that went in and out of the room—I blew out an unsteady breath before letting myself in the dining hall.

Even before my feet did its first step into the room, I could smell the various aromas of food coming from the grand table—which made my stomach grumble in hunger. The most probable reason behind my body’s reaction towards the lovely smell is the fact that I slept throughout the day and did not eat anything for lunch time, resulting me to have an empty complaining stomach.

Ignoring the urge to throw myself in a seat—gobble up food like a cow and embarrass myself in front of everyone, I made two steps forward inside the hall. I was about to extend a hand to my forehead to wipe an invisible sweat when a man—a man who is a spitting image of Señorito Adrian­—turned towards my direction.

“¡Ay, Dios mio! ¡Que hermosa vista para ver!”

(Oh, my goodness! What a beautiful sight to see!)

The man said with utter delight as he stepped towards my direction. “Who is this, mijo? Why am I not informed that we have such a lovely guest!”

As the man who has the uncanny resemblance with the Señorito approached, Señorito Adrian then appeared to my line of sight directly from behind him.

I immediately figured out what the difference was between the two of —because the men did not have the same eye color and seemed to have different intensities on the expressions that they are wearing. The Señorito has blue orbs while the other man has brown, and the man who looked like an older version of him has a more cheerful and jovial expression than Señorito Adrian whom I can say is not someone who smile so often.

Having no idea on what to say or how to react, I remained pinned to where I am standing as I waited for the man to come—who, if I am not mistaken, is the pillar and head of Hacienda Gentallan—in front of me. When the older man finally got close to me, his lips immediately arched in a smile and held out a hand in the space between our bodies.

“Buenas noches a ti, mi querida,” the older man said politely, as he awaits my hand to rest on his palm.

I did not want to be rude even if the man was practically a stranger, so I lifted my hand up. And almost immediately, the old man took it and brought my hand up to his lip and planted a small kiss on its knuckles, making me blush.

“G-good evening…” my quivering voice trailed off. The thing that added to my discomfort was that I did not even know his name, nor how should I address him.

But the good thing was Señorito Adrian approached the old man and started to introduce the both of us to each other.Turning to the man who looked like the older version of him, the Señorito smiled and started to speak.

“Papá, meet Miss Lynn Dominique Aguirre. She’s a guest in our home right now and she will be staying for quite a while, so to speak,” he said before turning his face towards me and offering a smile in my direction, as he introduced his companion while waving his hand between the two of us. “Miss Lynn, this is my father—Guillermo Augustin Gentallan.”

I timidly lowered my head to a bow as a sign of respect for the Señorito’s father as I greeted him back.

“G-good evening, Sir—” I promised but the man immediately cut me off from what I wanted to say.

“Ay, por favor. Please don’t call me sir,” the old man said, exasperated by how I addressed him. “Please do call me Señor Gui, or you can call me Papá. I would definitely not mind at all,” he said in a happy note while he gently pressed on my hand, before letting go of it and letting me retrieve my hand.

“A-ah, yes, S-Señor,” I answered the man politely.

My eyes unconsciously flew towards Señorito Adrian and saw him exchanging glances to the both of his father and I. When he seemed to get the look on my face, clearly he could perceive the look on it as me asking for some kind of help, he waved a hand in the air and pried Señor Guillermo’s attention away from me.

“Papá, don’t scare her too much. She might shy away and might choose to leave the hacienda because of your moves,” he said jokingly.

“Ay, mijo. No estoy tratando de hacer ningún movimiento con ella,” the Señor answered his son in a flat tone, and the two men ended up in a laugh—with me just staring at the both of them in veneration and awe.

(Ay, son. I'm not trying to make any moves on her.)

When the two men finally calmed down after a few moments, the Señorito then turned to me and motioned for the dining table with a smile on his face. “Please, Miss Lynn. Join us for the last meal of the day,” he said in a polite tone.

Feeling ashamed because I don’t have any idea on how to answer the Señorito and didn’t want them to wait on me, I resorted in nodding my head as answer to him. The man’s smile grew even deeper even if there was a glint of seriousness in his eyes upon seeing my reaction. I just chose to shrug it off and went with the flow of the events.

“Very well. Let us get to it before the food gets cold,” he said before guiding the three of us to the dining table.

I opted to sit on a on the longer side of the table, while Señor Guillermo claimed the master’s seat and the Señorito took the seat beside him—where our seating position fell on me facing Señorito Adrian’s direction.

When both of the men fell snug on their seats, they immediately reached on ta grab something to eat without any hesitation from the center of the table where rows of different trays of various dishes has laid.

Absent-mindedly, my gaze skimmed through the middle of the table and did a mental check on how much food was served. As my stare lingered at the luscious food on the table, a puzzling thought came to my mind.

From what I had noticed this morning and from what I was seeing in front of me right now, it seems that every time the Gentallan family would have a chance to gather for a meal, not even a single space would be left uncovered by trays and trays of food—a clear sign of how deep their pockets were.

As to my observation, most of the food that was served were a variety of seafood, adobo, curry, and a lot more kinds of homemade viands. There were also different kinds of desserts, salads, crème caramel—and the one that really caught my attention was the two hefty trays of lasagna.

My eyes instantly flew to the man who’s seated in front of me, who was also talking intently to his father, when a thought had popped into my head and tried to hide the threatening smile on my lips. I guess Señorito Adrian had figured out what my favorite food was when I had the first meal of the day with him this morning, which brought my heartbeat in a manic motion—which had also brought a rush of hot blood to both of my cheeks.

I instantly dipped my head down low when I felt the sudden rush of emotions and forced myself to calm down—with the faint fear that either the Señor or the Señorito would notice my distress.

When I felt the heat dissipate on the both of my cheeks, my instincts took me eyes towards the man in front of me, and secretly heaved a sighed when I saw that he had not noticed my sudden dilemma.

I waited for the two of them to finish filling up their plates before snatching a large scoop of lasagna, and my lips instantly curled into a smile as the delicious smell infiltrated my nostrils.

Feeling satisfied with the amount of lasagna on my plate, I then chose from one of the viands and scooped an ample amount to my plate. A few moments had passed when Señorito Adrian suddenly called my attention. I stopped what I was doing for a while and looked up to meet his gaze.

“Oh, and by the way. Miss Lynn,” he called in a soft manner.

“Y-yes, Señorito?” I answered him with a polite tone.

“Did you happen to receive the gifts I gave you?” He asked before gobbling up the food from the fork that he was holding. “I hope all of those has suited your preference.”

My cheeks blushed slightly when I heard what the man said, as I remembered the kind of underwear he included in his gifts. But I tried to shoo it off my mind and smiled at the Señorito before I answered his question.

“Yes, S-Señorito, I have received all of it,” I answered in a soft voice when I could not stop my lips from trembling. “T-thank you, Señorito, for y-your generosity.”

Señorito Adrian just answered my thanks by nodding his head in my direction and giving me a smile before turning back to the food in front of him. I was about to do the same when Señor Guillermo suddenly spoke, so I looked towards his direction when I heard him call my name.

“Miss Lynn, mijo told me that you’re our guest from Cagayan de Oro,” the Señor said in a muffled voice as he wiped his mouth with a table napkin. “I’ve heard about a small emerging company which is run by an Aguirre, are you connected to them by any means?”