1874


Constance looked at herself in the mirror from different angles and adjusted the necklace a bit to the right.

"It looks gorgeous on you, dear.", the shop assistant praised her, a woman with a very big nose.

Of course it looked gorgeous! That sapphire gem would make even a pig pretty! And it matched her eyes. The price was high but she could not care less about it. It was beautiful and it had to be hers. Zhang had given her a good amount of money to spend while he was in that meeting with the governor and she had enough after buying two dresses and a brooch.

"I'll take it.", Constance said, taking off the jewel, turning around and giving it to her.

"Excellent choice! Louise will wrap it for you. Or do you want to wear it?"

"Oh, no, wrap it. It's a surprise."

"...Connie?"

The girl turned around. A young woman had just come into the jewelry shop and was staring at her wide-eyed. At first, Constance did not recognize her and even thought that she was addressing to someone else but, no, she was looking at her, and there were very few people that called her 'Connie'. She examined her. Long, dark hair, plump, she wore a bulky yellow dress with a brown hat and sash, even at a good distance Constance could smell her perfume. Her mouth opened and formed a smile.

"Charlotte?"

"What a surprise!", the newcomer exclaimed, walking to her and kissing her cheeks.

"Oh, goodness, Charlotte, I didn't recognize you!", Constance smiled, taking her hands. "You look great!"

"Oh, thank you, dear. You're also dashing!"

"Here you have, Mrs. de Doom.", the assistant of the shop, that one called Louise, said to Constance, giving her a fine package with her jewel. She smiled and paid her. "Thank you, have a nice day."

"Thank you too."

"De Doom? You mean...the marquis?", Charlotte asked, with her mouth wide open.

Constance smiled and nodded.

"Oh, goodness! Congratulations! I've heard of him! He was...uhm...Japanese?"

"Chinese."

"Of course, silly me...Remember when we were children and dreamed of marrying a blue prince from far away lands? Well, you did! Where did you meet?"

"In...Frank's funeral...", Constance's smile faded quickly and looked away.

Charlotte looked at her with an expression close to pain and covered her mouth with her gloved hand.

"Connie...Oh, dear, I'm so sorry...So, so sorry...Please, excuse me for..."

"Don't worry, Charlotte. You didn't know."

"...Has the Police discovered who...?"

"No...There were no traces and my servants and neighbors saw nothing at all."

"I read something about it in the papers...I hope it doesn't end like Ambrose's case...What a pity, he was quiet but cute...S-Sorry, I guess you don't want to..."

"No, no, Charlotte, don't say that...I...I don't want to forget him...". The atmosphere had become tense and Constance did not want to see her friend like that, after years without knowing about her, so she smiled and forgot the issue. "What about you? Have you found your prince charming?"

"Oh!", Charlotte giggled, forgetting immediately about the two murdered husbands. "Do you remember Sean Graves?"

"Graves? The one with the face full of spots?"

"Not anymore! You should see him now. Just when I thought he would never notice me, he led me onto the dance floor in his grandfather's birthday party and told me he always loved my laugh. We started seeing each other and...well...we're going to get married in two months!"

"Gasp! Oh, Charlotte, congratulations! You are a lucky girl."

"Thank you! You're invited to the wedding, of course. I'll send you the invitation as soon as possible. I'm so excited! He'll be a great husband, I'm sure of that. He started working for Milton & Pound yesterday and we hope to buy our home soon."

"I'm sure you will, I remember Sean as a hard-working boy. Well, I have to go. It's been a great pleasure to see you after so many years."

"Yes, we should have coffee one of these days. Bye, Connie! See you soon!"

They hugged each other and Constance walked out of the shop and waited until she was far enough from the jewelry to sigh. Charlotte was the only unmarried girl of the group and also the youngest, three years younger than she was. Now that she was going to get married, the old gang had officially dissolved. They were all married and she had received letters or heard about the pregnancy and birth of the children of the other three members. The old times when they played in the grass, invited their families to taste their cakes and danced and sung till nighttime were gone. In a few years, the girls she once knew would be gone too: they would all be serious, responsible housewives and mothers with no time for that nonsense. The parties would become dull, serious reunions. She spotted her carriage and tried to imagine the always cheerful Charlotte with that expression housewives had after some years while appraching to it.

Fortunately, I don't have that look...

...And the price was having blood in my hands...

"Have you finished, madame?", Tim Humbert asked. He was a brunette man in his middle twenties, a bit older than she was but not much. He looked very mature, though his eyes had that childish sparkle. Constance thought since the very first day that if he was as diligent as he was active, he would not have all the problems he had.

"Of course I have, why do you think I am here? Come on, let's go home.", Constance said, getting into the car.

Humbert turned to her with doubt.

"Uhm...Don't you have anything else to do?", he asked her.

"No, I bought everything I had to buy. Come on, let's go."

"Are you sure?"

"Oh, Tim, please, how many times I have to tell you? Yes, I am sure, come on, what are you waiting for?"

"...Alright, Mrs. de Doom..."

He kicked the horse and the calash started moving. The travel was not too long: the house was in the outskirts of the city but Constance had enough time to put the sapphire she had bought on, admire it in front of her pocket mirror for some minutes and put it back to its wrap. She paid no attention to the people that passed by the car, rich and poor, the leaves falling from the trees or the beautiful brick buildings. She only perceived the ring of the bells of the church as something distant, unreal. Was there something better in the world than diamonds and gems?

Soon, they stopped in front of a house, built in bricks like the others but different from them because of its beautiful, well-cared garden. In Spring, the roses, the daffodils and lilacs were the envy of the city, though at that time of the year they were withered and gone. Constance came out of the car and walked to the door. When she opened it, she found a deadly silence and she did not dare to break it. She left her coat in the coat stand of the hall and headed to the stairs not opening her mouth.

...Too much silence for a meeting...

An idea crossed her mind but she thought that Zhang would not be so miserable as to...

...But she walked slowly, quietly like a cat towards the door of the bedroom and placed her ear on the door. At first, she caught nothing, but then she heard a voice. She pressed her lips. Yes, he was capable of doing it.

The moanings from inside became more and more evident. Her husband! In their bed! She was so furious that she decided to wait in Zhang's office or she would lose her temper and kill him and whoever was with him with her own hands. Once she was there, with the door open to listen well, she breathed deep and tried to calm herself. What made her furious was not that he cheated on her, which was not pleasant but after counting four girls in only one month of marriage it losed impact. No, it was not that: it was that that time he did it in their house, over the sheets they shared! He lied to her again with that tale of the meeting. Now she understood why Humbert was so reluctant to take her home!

Even the servants knew...What humiliation! She was sure that she was the talk of the city, everyone mocking of her!

...But it was over...

She was not going to let that scoundrel ruin her reputation.

Only one month of marriage...Only one...I didn't want to recur to this but you had it coming...If you think that I am going to bear the shame like some kind of Virgin Mary while you have fun with all the girls of this city, you are very wrong!

She heard the door open and rush to see who came out of the room from there, covertly, careful that they did not see her. The marquis came out first. He was tidying his fine clothes and his long, thin moustache, so sure that there was nothing to worry about that he did not even look if there was someone out in the corridor. He just walked in silence to the stairs and disappeared. Two minutes later, the girl came out of the room, closing the door behind her. Constance squeezed her hands when she saw that she was no other than Winifred, the cook. Oh, how she wanted to pull her heair and leave her bald, to throw her to the mud and knock her silly! But she was a patient woman. They would have their punishment soon. Both of them. She only had to wait.

That was what she did, wait and think. She thought about how formal he looked when he came into the room and showed his respects to her and poor Frank. Was he a friend of his? Now, he never mentioned him. A friend of a friend? Possibly. That was the first time she saw him. They told her that he was a diplomat, a very serious man, but she had to notice what the uniform hid when he cast his eyes on her during the funeral. He only waited to court her because Frank had died recently and she had to wait a reasonable time to accept any kind of wooing again. That defined Zhang perfectly: an animal dressed with uniform, a man with a great sense of duty and correct behavior only in appearance. How fool she was to believe that men like those were harmless! How could she think that he would respect her decision to take the sexual ambit of marriage slow?

At least he had something good that she liked: lots of money and a title. She could not believe that she turned from a simple farm girl to a marquise in some years.

All that thanks to my little friend...

Finally, when she reckoned that it was almost lunch time, she came out of the room and, after making sure that there was no one in the hall, she opened the door and closed it loudly.

"Constance?", Zhang asked from the living room.

"I'm home, darling.", Constance exclaimed. She walked there at the same time that Zhang was going to her encounter.

"We finished the meeting not long ago. Did you see the governor?"

"Hm, no, I got entertained in the dressmaker. Oh, and I found the cufflinks you wanted. They are in the bag Tim is going to bring."

"Excellent. Thank you. Did you find something pretty?"

"Lots and lots of things. I'm afraid I bought too much."

"Well, nothing is too much for the most beautiful woman of the world."

He placed his hand on her chin and kissed her in the lips. Constance closed her eyes and surrounded him with her arms, deepening the kiss. Even if she had to control herself not to bite his tongue and rip it off, she had to recognize he kissed like no other man she had met. When they moved away, she played with his moustache playfully and he took her hand, stopping her and kissing it.

"I want to show you something.", Constance said.

She put her hand into her sleeve and took out the little parcel in which the necklace was. She put it on and showed it to the marquis, who smiled.

"It is marvellous.", he said.

"Do you like it?"

"Yes."

"Then, I'll wear it for the party."

"Good idea. And I have a little surprise for you."

Constance saw him return to the living room and come back with a little box in his hand. He gave it to Constance, who opened it slowly. Inside, there was a silver ring with blue diamond in the center flanked by a crown of little, sparkling diamonds that made her eyes glitter too. She immediately put it on and saw that it fitted her perfectly.

"Blue, to match your new necklace and your eyes.", Zhang smiled.

"Oh, Zhang...", Constance smiled and hugged him. Chuckling, he kissed her forehead. Then, he moved back. "Well, if you excuse me, I have to send a telegram. We could practice your Chinese after lunch. Yesterday you made a mistake that could ruin your reputation in a social event."

"I'll try harder."

The marquis nodded and left the room. Constance raised her hand to look at the ring closer. Goodness, it was beautiful, the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She would have had it in her finger forever. But those things were not convenient to wear too much, they could attract the attention of malicious people or get lost. She went to her bedroom and placed it and her new sapphire gem in her jewelry box. They were good for parties and beautiful dresses but what she liked to wear all the time were her three pearl necklaces, not so appealing but as dear to her as if they were her own children.

Then, she descended the stairs and walked to the kitchen. Winifred was taking the stew out of the fire and placing it near all the other dishes. Constance approached to her with a little smile.

"Is that all?", she asked her.

"Yes, Mrs. de Doom, you can call your husband and sit down.", the cook nodded, cleaning her hands.

Constance nodded and then slapped her face so suddenly and with such force that the cloth fell from her hands and she almost fell with it. The cook turned to her with the mark of Constance's hand very well marked in her face, which was turning red, and placed her hand on it. She received a glare that contrasted enormously with the expression that she had offered her just a couple of seconds before.

"Pack your things and get out of my house right now, you whore.", Constance told her with a low, gruff voice.

Winifred opened her mouth to say or ask something but those blue eyes fixed on her like if she was trying to kill her with them made her desist. Furthermore, her eyes were welling up because of the slap and the circumstances. After some seconds of silence, she stepped back, nodded nervously, took off her apron and rushed to the door. Constance breathed deep, satisfied to have got rid of that woman and let out her frustration.

But that was not the end. Humbert was taking care of the horses and eating outside. He would come back soon. She could lose no time then. She had to do everything before Winifred abandoned the house. It was crazy, some would have said, and there were many risks but Constance wanted to try.

"Zhang! Lunch is ready, dear!", she shouted.

No response. She walked to the opposite side of the room, moved the little table aside and took off the loose tile of the floor, revealing a hole deep enough to introduce one's arm. Zhang told her about it when she moved to the house and it was his idea to place the table there, to avoid any stumbles. She had to thank her husband to show her the perfect hideout for her hatchet. She looked at her reflection in the blade and smiled.

"Zhang!"

"Yes, I heard you, I'm coming!"

Constance put everything back to its place and took the carving knife from the kitchen tools. After a moment of thought, she hid it inside the stew pot, took it and tied her hatchet to her back with her sash before carrying it to the dining room. Zhang was already there, with some papers on the table.

"Uh-uh-uh. No work while eating.", Constance reproached him, leaving the pot on the table.

Zhang chuckled and moved the papers aside. Now that she had her hands free, she grabbed the hatchet.

"Sorry, Constance, but you know, this work req-"

The head of the marquis hit the table and his body leaned a bit.

Constance, losing no time because the servants would be there soon, ran back to the kitchen to put the hatchet into its hideout again and returned to the dining room. She immersed her hand into the pot and took the knife from it. The stew was hot and she had to clean her hand and the knife but at least Zhang had not seen it. She was not interested in fighting against someone like Zhang, who was not only stronger than her previous husbands but also had served many years in the Chinese Army. She grabbed the body and held it with one hand while she stabbed it with the other seven times. The chest, the heart, the lungs, the neck, the back...Then, she let it fall to the carpet and took her time to breathe.

The front door opened and she heard steps. She had to continue her plan.

She grabbed the knife again and looked at it. For a moment, she doubted. It was going to hurt so much...Nothing could assure her that it was going to work...But she had to try, she had to do it before it was too late. She bit her under lip and doubted no more.

First, she made a few cuts in her arms, chest and dress and pulled it to give the appearance of a struggle and brutality. Then, she plunged the knife into her stomach. She let out a gasp and supported herself in the table. Her white dress was dyed with blood. She felt nauseas, sweat running down her forehead.

It was in that moment when the door opened. Humbert stuck his head in before coming in.

"Excuse me, Mrs. de Doom, I only wanted to know if...you..."

His eyes opened wide when he saw the scene. He walked a few steps and became still, shocked by the view of so much blood and the decapitated head of the diplomat on the table. Constance turned around and wobbled towards him. The coachman ran to hold her and his hands became stained with the blood of her own hands.

"W-What-? Mrs. de Doom, what's happened?"

Constance opened her mouth but instead of a faint explanation or a desperate plea, she started screaming:

"HELP! SOME-hugh-ODY PLEASE help!"

"Madame! Please, madame, calm down, I'm here!", Humbert exclaimed, putting his hands on her shoulders. "Calm down, everything is going to-"

"NOOO! PLEASE, NOOOO!"

"Calm down, please!"

Constance heard steps. Everything was becoming blurry and she could barely stand up but she did an effort to place her hand on Humbert's chest, leaving the mark of her bloodstained hand, and gave him the knife. Humbert looked at it with a confused expression. He muttered something, not understanding, while Constance fell on the carpet and huffed, touching her wound. It hurt but it all was worth it when Winifred came into the room. She had changed her clothes, surely obeying Constance's orders to leave the house, and had lost a shoe in the way. She looked first at her mistress lying on the floor with her belly bleeding, then, at the head of her master on the table while his body spilled all its blood a few steps away from it, and, finally, at the coachman with his clothes full of blood and a knife in his hand. She covered her mouth after letting out a scream and ran out of the room.

"HELP! SOMEBODY CALL THE POLICE!"

"W-What? N-No, wait! Miss Bacon, please, wait!", the cook had already fled and her screams echoed in the street. "I didn't do it! Mrs. de Doom..."

He controlled his impulse to chase her and turned to Constance. She looked at him to the eyes and drew a smile. Humbert stepped back and shook his head slightly, slowly, because of his incredulity. Constance could see his chest come up and down anxiously.

"...You...You did...", he muttered.

The front door opened with violence and three men, one of them their neighbor, Mr. Thompson, and one policeman, pounced on the coachman, who dropped the knife and struggled against them. Winifred could not stop screaming and whining.

"No! No!"

"Tell that woman to shut up and call a doctor! The mistress is still alive!", the policeman grunted.

"Come here, you murderer!", the man Constance did not recognize said, dragging Humbert out.

"NO! It's all a mistake! SHE DID IT! SHE DID IT!"

What happened next was unknown for Constance. She only distinguished the blurred image of a skirt and two pairs of legs in front of her and the feeling of a hand touching her arm before she lost conscience.


Everything was dark. Even if she had her eyes open, she could only see black.

She felt that she was lying on a rather comfortable bed, probably in a hospital. The injure in her stomach still hurt a lot, so she did not try to move. She did not know if she was still bleeding...she hoped not. The wound was not supposed to kill herself.

After all that had happened, she felt very calm. The excitement (and she was surprised to have that word in her head) of the ellaboration of her crime had passed and she only thought about answering the routine inquiries of the investigation. Well, that and Zhang's blood on her hands.

"There she is."

Constance closed her eyes immediately and listened with attention. She heard some steps towards her. More than one person were approaching to the bed. She smelled soon a not very pleasant mixture of cologne, whisky and tobacco. For a moment, she thought that it was some kind of bum until she heard those authoritarian voices.

"Will she live?"

"She will recover soon. We've had to operate on her but she is now out of danger. The knife did not affect essential organs, though she lost much blood. It is a luck that they brought her soon."

"Humbert was going to silence her after killing her husband when the cook heard the voices and distracted him."

"Was she the one who called the police?"

"Yes, an officer that was in his usual patrolling and some men in the streets reduced the killer. He was very nervous and it was not easy to take him to jail."

"I can imagine it. What has he said?"

"He insists that the widow beheaded the diplomat."

"That's all he can invent? Pff, how can a young woman like this reduce a man like de Doom, behead him with a kitchen knife and injure herself? Nonsense."

"Humbert was heard raving about the marquis in the local tavern. The waitress has confirmed it to us a couple of hours ago. According to him, he did not pay him enough and menaced to dismiss him because of some neglects in his work. He said that one of these days he would teach him a lesson he would never forget."

"What about the cook?"

"Oh, the mistress had dismissed her just some minutes before the attack. She told us that she made a terrible mistake that made her furious. She left the food and went upstairs to prepare to go. Then, she heard Mr. de Doom crying for help and found her wounded and Humbert in front of her with the knife."

"She will have to declare in the trial, of course, when she wakes up."

"That won't be necessary. He had a motive, he had access to the weapon while the cook was out, he had the strength necessary to stab and decapitate a man...The parents of the widow will come tomorrow. A lot of arrangements have to be made, you know. Apparently, this woman lost two other husbands murdered too but this time she has seen the author and she almost died with her husband. She will be too weak and disconsolate to testify. And, well, Humbert is doomed."

"Will they execute him?"

"Being the murderer a diplomat, surely. China has been pressing, apparently."

Silence.

"She is pretty, isn't she?"

"Well, now she is free, Lawrence. Go ahead."

The other replied something but they walked away and Constance could not catch all their words. If she had been completely sure that there was no one around, she would have laughed at that. Yes, she was free and glad to know that her pretty face and her wit had saved her from the gallows and made her win a pretty good sum of money.