After that whole thing with his dad, David took a deep breath and then took his plate to the kitchen, with Frida right behind him. As he was about to start washing his plate, Frida put her hand on his shoulder to stop him from doing what he was doing.
"Hey," Frida said as she placed her hand at his shoulder as David placed the plate in the sink, " I guess it's my job now…" she said with a faint smile, trying to comfort him after the scuffle with his dad.
"But hadn't we-'' David said as he was explaining there is no agreement yet but he was bluntly interrupted.
"David, your dad will be mad, you know it." Frida assured him so he wouldn't worry about it. "It's fine anyways. You need the energy for something I would say is more worth it than this" Frida explained that helping out his family is more worth it than having to deal with his father.
"Well, if you say so." David responded as he placed his plate at the sink before walking back to where his father went up to see if he could get him down with his sober self in order to get the agreement done for the day.
"...Dad?" David nervously asked as he approached his father, who was just in Frida's room, laying down on the wooden floor, sleeping with the bottle in hand.
As he got closer and closer to his sleeping father, he's starting to shake in nervousness as he poked his arm to wake him up and he did, in a startled fashion and it frightened David a little too hard that he fell over to the floor.
"Huh?! What happened?! Is it agreed?!" Stephen woke up startled and started yelling questions about today and the agreement and then calmed down to see his son fallen over to the floor due to his sudden and startled awakening. "I'm sorry, son. Didn't mean to…wake up like that." Stephen apologized as he slowly began turning sober and got up with the help of his son so that he could finish the discussion.
Meanwhile, Hilda was just washing her own clothes in the house since her mother is now coughing sick in her bedroom and couldn't do the chores around the house anymore and as she scrubbed her jacket hard, she hears Kaisa walking nearby with a tray of food and medicine for her mother.
"Madam Johanna, Kaisa Hammarlund is here with what you need." Kaisa said in a formal manner while knocking on the door, interrupting her coughing for a while.
"Come in." Johanna responded as she gave out a hard cough and coughed so hard that she started to gag before she coughs, giving out an uneasy feeling before she even coughs.
As Kaisa opens the door, she has now heard the master of the house cough hard while she sends the tray over to her bed. As she placed the tray on a table near the bed, she then went up to her and cleaned a bit of saliva on her chin.
"Thanks...Kaisa." Johanna muttered as she suddenly gave out a sneeze, which Kaisa quickly catches and cleans up quick.
"Do..you need anything else?" she asked as she placed the towel away while she prepared her plate so she could eat easily without a problem.
"...I have something to confess, just the two of us?" Johanna said, bringing in the interest of Kaisa to her and as Kaisa sat down on the floor to listen more about this confession, Johanna starts it off while she's eating.
"Sure, I guess." Kaisa just said as she leaned herself towards the bed to hear her confess about something to her.
"Okay, so to summarize it all, I regret having to bring Hilda down." Johanna starts off with a summary of her confession before she continues on. "After…..well, all those years I just hoped things would get better between us since I wanted a better life for her, but... I guess they didn't. I regret… a lot of" she suddenly started coughing harder and harde, and as Johanna began to try and suppress it, it badly got to the point that she barfed, leaving a mess around herself and a little bit of her bedsheets.
Kaisa then got up from her spot to clean the vomit with a handkerchief, preparing to get it wet in a faucet down the sink, but Johanna held her hand to call her attention back, while always looking forward. Johanna then began to pull Kaisa back a little and she began sobbing as she looked over herself and her bed, realizing where she'll end up, she began to quietly cry over her cloak.
"I…. d-didn't want to end like this…." she cried, sobbing away her tears, with a dry voice as the taste of her breakfast and vomit stained her mouth and a bit if her throat, "Why did it have to end like this….. Not for me…. Just… why with Hilda…." Johanna tried to tell her that she is getting worried over Hilda's future but she instead cried out another tear running down her left cheek.
Kaisa then handed her a glass of water and helped her chug it down as she cleaned the vomit around herself and around the bedsheets.
"I don't… fucking know… if i am going to make it out…. And honestly not even all the time in the world would be enough to pay off for everything I did….to her" She looked at Kaisa with her teary eyes with a faint smile, "just let her know … i am sorry-" the talking descended into unintelligible coughing before she was then offered up a spoon of opium by Kaisa before being spoon-fed.
Meanwhile, Hilda was finished washing her clothes and is just hanging them up on the roof and as she was hanging it up, she was hearing mumbles and a faint sobbing downstairs but she didn't mind that and continued hanging the clothes up and as she finished, she walked down the stairs from the roof to the attic to her bedroom where she placed the basket aside and laid herself down in her bed, back first, and just contemplated on what to do.
As Hilda laid in her bed to rest, Johanna then finished the rest of her food and then lets Kaisa clean it up before going back to covering herself with a bunch of blankets so she could at least sleep in peace. As Kaisa grabbed the tray with the empty plate and went downstairs to wash it and while she was washing the dishes, she then heard the door open and she looked to the living room behind her and it shows Jared walking back inside with some food for them and she turned her head back to the sink to wash the dishes.
"How's Johanna, Kaisa?" Jared asks as he placed the bag of food on the kitchen counter as he walked to the sink to see the dishes that she was washing.
"She's not fine, I would say." Kaisa said sadly as she continued scrubbing the parts of the plate where the vomit landed. "She just confessed to me about Hilda." Kaisa continues and before she could fully tell him about the confession, Jared interrupted that with a question.
"What confession?" Jared immediately asks as he brings himself nearer to the sink and as Kaisa begins to feel nervous about revealing the confession, she suppressed these feelings very quickly and began to reiterate Johanna's confession quietly so neither Hilda nor Johanna can hear it.
As Kaisa retold the confession, Jared quietly listened through all the rambling, seemingly impassive, but he knew what that meant. With Johanna bedridden, he would be the top of the house hierarchy, which was a huge advantage for him.
"Are you sure she is not faking it?" he asked, without much concern in his voice and indirectly showing his intentions to her but due to Kaisa's naively swayed attitude, she couldn't contest it.
"W-Well i don't think she can fake it that badly…" she said, starting to doubt herself and beginning to believe in Jared's gaslightings.
After being informed of this, Jared walked upstairs and went over to Hilda's room and simply opened the door, making the girl jump out of her bed as a sheer reflex.
"Fuck! Can you just at least KNOCK?!" she shouted with a tone of a clear revolt against his action.
"Sorry that I had to barge in but your mom is fatally ill." he said, with minimal emotion, and as fast as possible. "I thought you should be informed." Jared added to keep her convinced.
Hilda stood still, wondering, Jared was about to open his mouth but Hilda made a gesture for him to stop. She maintained to fix her eye contact at him with such intensity her blind eye seemed vivid once again.
Jared slowly closed the door and left the room, leaving Hilda all alone again in the room and walking downstairs to await dinner.
Meanwhile, Frida had her own problems to deal with, on her own time. She was currently getting done with the dishes, as David's father kept drinking liquor on multiple cups, just giving her more work to do and more dishes to wash.
As she just began to finish the last batch of the cups, she was then met with another batch of cups from Stephen. She then just let out a sigh and simply grabbed the next cup, hoping she could wash it faster and finally end this cycle of washing and receiving cups.
She began feeling tired, cleaning cups with no breaks and was already seeing Stephen was about to reach for the next cup, until his wife took the bottle out of his hands, annoying Stephen out but he knew he couldn't release his anger as a guest in someone's house.
"I feel like you have had enough." she said, being concerned for her husband's condition, and after a few seconds of fierce eye contact between the two, he left the room, against his will somewhat.
After that standoff, Mary then placed the bottle back on the icebox before helping along with Frida in washing the dishes.
"I'm really sorry for the dishes…" she said as she washed two cups already and had placed them back in the cupboard. "I promise that won't happen again." Mary promised as she finished up some cups before leaving Frida with the rest, now having done her part in helping her.
"It's all ok madam, there is no need to apologize." Frida answered as Mary was about to go up the stairs, she turned around to see her with a faint smile on her face as she turned her head back into the sink to finish up the dishes.
After finishing the cups, she then placed them all back in the cupboard and then rested at the living room exhausted. She placed herself on the sofa before she turned around to lay down on it and then slowly drift off into sleep until Mary came along and sat down right next to her.
"David told me a bit of your relationship with him." As Mary said that to her while she's drifting off to sleep, Frida's blood immediately ran cold and woke herself up at the mention of it. "And, I have to thank you a lot for helping him, even if it is years after we still found out he has problems with...whatever may have happened with her." Mary thanked as she appreciated the help that Frida is giving to David as they have gone through a very rough time after their failure to arrange David to Hilda back then.
After being appreciated by David's mother, Mary, Frida changed her mood from shock to appreciation and a smile ran on her face as her hands were shaken by her, to show that she cares for her. Then Mary had to go to her bedroom, which by this point is now the main area for discussion, to finalize the deal and get this going but before she goes up, she turned around and said her something.
"It's okay madam, nothing but my job as a friend." Mary said as she waved her a gentle goodbye before disappearing into the upstairs.
Frida, being called madam for the first time by someone of opposite race, she was delighted to see the grace that Mary is giving off and appreciated her for it and waited downstairs until the discussion is over.
After a while, they all finally came downstairs with David waving at her to tell her he's safe but most of her attention is now at Stephen, who is getting asked by Amelie too many questions that he decided to just block it out but she didn't stop asking more and more questions.
As everyone dispersed from the end of the stairway to the other parts of the house, David then sat down with Frida to ask her how's her day but she couldn't look at him, not for now, because she's worried about what is Stephen gonna do to her mother's pestering questions, considering that he drank multiple times in one day, she worries that it will end badly.
As David tried to get her attention, he saw where she was looking and followed her gaze to his dad, seemingly about to snap from all of the questions being asked by Frida's mother.
"For the last time…" he said, trying to keep the anger inside of him, "just sign it already so we can end this charade." He muttered, wishing that she would just stay quiet and sign it.
She reluctantly looked at the paper one last time, gave it a big sight and signed her name on the side of her husband's, closing the contract.
"Fucking finally," Stephen said with relief and mental exaustion as he sat down on the couch right next to Frida, "You may get your stuff." He said, complying to one of the terms in the contract.
As her family stood up to go upstairs and pack their bags, Frida was suddenly interrupted by Stephen placing his hand on her shoulder. "You. Stay." He just said, taking off his hand off of her shoulder before dozing off into another sleep.
"What? That's not fair," Frida revolted, saying that she should be helping her parents pack up for the journey towards their estate.
"I own you now." Stephen replied, slowly dozing off to sleep as he felt the aftereffects of drinking too much wine into his body.
"I….thought we agreed that we wouldn't use that term." Frida responded to his reply that he owned them.
And as Frida expected another response from him, he just dozed off to sleep while Frida was making her response. Frida just sighed hard at having to deal with him in the house that they agreed to serve.
"I'm sorry you have to deal with all of that." Mary came out of the upstairs area and saw Frida just standing where she stood near Stephen's place on the couch and walked towards her while she just stood. "He's been going through a lot lately, our financial problems still exist and due to that, he's been drinking a ton too." Mary explained why he did such action down there and gave Frida her condolences that she would protect her from whatever action that Stephen might be doing in the house in the future.
As that was going on, both Amelie and Henrie heard that from their room upstairs while they were packing up their belongings and clothing in bags or sacks. As they slowly listened to Mary's explanation downstairs, they began to think what Stephen is going to do to Frida1 when they finally arrived and did their part in the agreement.
As they finished packing, they went downstairs and saw that the house was now empty but with Stephen sleeping on their sofa and before they walked outside the door, they then wrote down a letter and then nailed it to the back of the front door before catching up to the others, leaving Stephen alone in the house.
Meanwhile, Mary, David and Frida were walking towards their house where the work will start by tomorrow so that they had time to choose out their options before they begin working. As they walked, David and Frida were just having small talk between each other while they cross through roads upon roads as they close the distance towards the house.
After a few more minutes of walking, they finally arrived and they went inside to rest while they waited for the others to return.
Meanwhile, Hilda was just furious, and she needed someone to show it to because she's feeling extremely aggressively. She got out of the house and walked through downtown with her wolf following her and her blind eye exposed.
As she finally arrived at Frida's house, she immediately barged herself inside and noticed one thing she couldn't tolerate. The lack of a target.
"Where could the cowards possibly be…" Hilda asked as she got a knife and roamed the house for a possible target to target on.
As she roamed around, she went upstairs to see if Frida was there but there was no sign of her and as she frustrated her way around the house, finding Frida, but instead she encountered a sleeping Stephen on the couch.
Because of her relative isolation in the house, she didn't recognize Stephen as his face aged visibly due to his drinking and after looking at him for a few minutes, she then just placed the knife back on the counter before walking out.
But before she got out of the house yet, she saw a letter nailed to the back of the door and she turned the door back to see the letter and the letter reads as:
"Hey Stephen, we already left so if you could, could you clean up your drinks and lock the house as you leave. We're already going ahead of you to the Ferguson estate around 263 Nuttig Road.To your regards, Amelie and Henrie of the Falkenberg family."
After she's done reading she then would begin to think about why they were going to Nuttig Road for a reason and as she reread the letter, she then noticed the specific mention of Stephen, and as she begin thinking about why they would mention him in the letter, her brain finally clicked as she remembered his name back when she overheard their agreement in 1745 and she immediately realized what this meant. Stephen or Mary had bought off the entire family but for what reason, she didn't know but she now knew where her target was and rushed out of the door and slammed it on the way out, waking Stephen up with a grunt of annoyance because of the slam.
Meanwhile, Hilda was now going through roads to David's house, still furious. So she started heading to David's house with a fast pace, and a hateful stare that made anyone get out of her way as quickly as possible.
Eventually she arrived at David's place and just couldn't help but smile, with a large grin with such sadistic joy her blind eye seemed once again, alive.
As she observed the house further, she then saw David and Mary having a chat together near their porch around the front of the house and Hilda found a good opportunity to whip out her anger at them.
She then walks out of view from the porch and then starts grabbing grass and weeds out of a public garden and then went back home to light it back on fire and then went back on but as she walked back towards Nuttig Road, she then encountered Jared walking back home on the other side of the road.
"Hey Hilda." Jared asks from the other side of the street, quickly getting Hilda's attention and turns her head to where the voice came and sees Jared with a confused face. "What's with the burning plants?" Jared asks as she looks to the burning grass and weeds she collected and lit.
Now this is another fact of her life that she tried to hide away from him as she knew she had a tendency for arson so she decided to lie her way out of this situation.
"I'm uhhhh", Hilda tries to think of an explanation quick before Jared suspects something out of her, "I was planning to give this to a logger in exchange for some firewood, hehehe." Hilda got it out of her mouth but by this point, she's nervous about if this lie is working or not but to her surprise, Jared shrugged it off and left, going back to the house.
After that teensy incident, she rushed towards the house with Dagger by her side and then she arrived again and now she planned on what to insult him.
"Hey!" Hilda screamed, catching David and Mary out of nowhere and as David turned his head around to see who yelled, he smelled smoke and turned his head to where the smoke was going and there she was. "So, how's your summer vacation going? Do you feel fine or do I have to push you over again?" Hilda asked as she tried to act genuine as the frustration and anger died down a little but she can read David's face and she knew he's hyperventilating and as she waited for a response, Frida barged out of the door to see what's going on.
"What th-" Frida came out of the house, pushing the door out of the way and then immediately being in the line of sight of Hilda- "Hilda?! How did you find us here!?" Frida yelled back in horror as she faced Hilda right outside their porch, holding a torch of burning grass and weeds.
"Oh hey, Frida!" Hilda taunted as she waved the torch around to scare them even further as she pulled out a little chuckle before stopping. "I'm just checking around, and somehow I found both of you." Hilda said as she gave out another little chuckle only to be immediately replaced with a burst of laughter as the embers of the torch fell to the road.
"You can't harm us now, Hilda." David replied back, trying to toughen up a little bit before returning back into his usual afraid self. "We now live together and you can't attack us directly." David continued as his vain attempts of scaring her away was futile to her burning fury.
"Nice try, David, I didn't know you were into dark coffee?" Hilda joked as she looked to Frida to see her reaction and her reaction was just the most perfectly made face when being offended Hilda saw that day.
After looking at Frida's angered face, she then bursted into a laughter as she just stood there, laughing like she just got a good joke before stopping.
"Says the one that gets a sunburn from a candle." Frida barked back with her own insult to pay back for the hurtful insult that Hilda hurled at their ears.
"Oh, you're being tough with me, eh?" Hilda responds as she goes closer and closer to scare them even further before backing off.
"You are so black, I need to squint to see you in the dark!" Hilda pulled an insult right out of nowhere but it did prove effective in bringing their morale down and to satisfy her frustration and anger.
After enduring another insult, Frida then was about to pull another insult but backs off a little to think of something that hurts deep into Hilda but after a few minutes, she gave all she could.
"Well…..if you fell on a milk container you would drown because no one would be able to find you!" Frida taunted back with an insult of similar vein but it did the intended effect of countering Hilda's insult.
As this back to back insult fight was happening, Johanna was now laying in bed, still because she couldn't get up. As she waited for Kaisa to arrive, she then looked around the room for a while and it was a room full of memories but as she wandered her head around the room, she then hear the door open and she turned her head around to see Jared with some sandwiches he made downstairs.
"Hey madam." Jared greeted as he placed the tray right next to the table before sitting on the bed right next to Johanna. "How are you feeling today?" Jared asks as he brought out a thermometer and some gin before placing the thermometer on her mouth, below the tongue, before opening the windows to let out the miasma.
"I'm….fine, I guess." Johanna says, in a very hoarse and dry voice, grabbing Jared's attention real quick as he turned around to hear the voice from her.
"Christ, that voice…" Jared said, trying to act like he's shocked, "you poor madam, I'll go and fetch Kaisa to help you out." Jared responded, still trying to act helpful and shocked.
"...thanks" Johanna responded back, with the same dry and hoarse voice that still runs in Jared's nerves.
Jared gave a somewhat fake smile as he left the room. "I promise to call Kaisa so she can properly take care of you." he said gently before closing the door.
As the room was left to the whims of silence as the room began feeling windy all around her, Johanna would soon return to thinking about Hilda's future and rethinking back into her life.
Johanna kept looking around, the painting, the silver bowl displayed at the end of the room, the expensive bed…..she noticed how useless it all was in the end. She spent almost her whole life trying to keep those things, and when the end comes, that's when it was never about the value but it was the purpose of it.
She wondered what Hilda and Jared would do with all that money, or what little would remain from her. As she began to stop tilting her head around the room, she took the thermometer off her mouth and then as she reads the Mercury Thermometer that was now around Trolberg at the time, she then read that she had felt a 45 degree fever.
"...fuck you..." she whispered at herself while she placed the thermometer in a bowl of cold water to cool the mercury back downfor later before waiting for Kaisa again.
Then as a few minutes gone by, Kaisa entered the room with her typical smile and shy look of someone who constantly is about to tell them they forgot to lock the front door.
"H-Hello mistress, are you ok?" she asked as she put a wet cloth on her forehead to ease the fever.
"No…." she whispered once again, before coughing hard while Kaisa filled a cup of hot water for her.
By this point, every time she coughed it sent a tiny bit of her blood all over the sheets, she knew that and moved her lips, mouthing her lips in a way that speaks "sorry".
As she grabbed some sheets with the tiny bits of blood in it, Kaisa then proceeds to hug Johanna to comfort her through this hard time as she slowly and quietly sobs as Kaisa repeatedly patted her back and her shoulder to keep her calm.
"It's all okay, mistress, you shouldn't have to worry about this." She said as she released her arms around her and packed the sheets to clean it up. "I called a doctor, Jared advised against it, but I don't think he knows much about treating the ill." Kaisa said as she told Johanna about bringing it a doctor for her.
"Fuck….him" she said, getting all the energy she could to say a couple more final words, "he really think….I don't know what he is up to? That bastard-" she was interrupted by a heavy cough "pervert……" she turned her head around and looked Kaisa in the eyes with a somewhat vengeful smile "I know what will happen to men like him near Hilda…… he is going to eat his lies or have them shoved up his ass!" Johanna shouts out of the silence of the room as she lashes out her anger that she nestled away into herself.
Kaisa swallowed dry at her sudden personality change but she began to think that she may have been right about Jared but she focused on helping her out first.
After she gave her some gin along with a leeching before cleaning her up and going downstairs to await the doctor.
While that is happening, back at David's front porch, Hilda and Frida kept screaming at eachother while David was sitting on the couch that was brought outside in constant fear as he kept hearing multiple insults hurled at each other along with some insults from Hilda aimed at him.
It wasn't until now Hilda had realised how close to her hand the fire was, so she realized she wouldn't continued with just insult and so threw the torch to towards the ground
As she threw it, the fire was at the near end of the stick and when it landed, the fire resurged and it created a small fire right next to a bunch of twigs on the ground.
"Oh, great! Look at what you made me do!" hilda tauntingly said as the fire slowly dies out.
"WHAT I DID!? YOU HAVE BEEN HUNTING US DOWN SINCE THAT YEAR!" Frida shouted back, making David flinch while Mary had to rush back inside to get a bucket of water to extinguish the fire.
"You wanna fight again? Huh?!" Hilda taunted and after hearing it, Dagger got up from sleeping as he was laying by the side of the fence, watching it all unfold and after hearing the command, rushed towards her side immediately as some men walked towards the spot for entertainment.
'W-well...Frida barked back but she looked around as more people, mostly white, began to gather around to see where this is going, and then the guard was called, bringing in Alfur the redcoat again into the crowd.
After some fierce stalemate, Frida hesitates to attack and convinces David and Mary to walk back inside defeated, giving Hilda a smirk of victory while everyone in the crowd booed while they walked away, including Alfur, who was then relieved that nothing happened.
"Yeah… that's what i thought…." Hilda said as she walked back home with a smirk on her face as Dagger followed along, letting the fire burn out as she walks back home.