5.

The passing of days at this house were quiet, yet restless at the same time, as Nancy seemed to be my eyes and my ears all the same. At first, it took me a while to ask her of things as they went around here, but after this, along with charming smiles and kind encouragements, I have managed to scoop up a few pieces of information I knew best would suit my curiosity.

On the day that I have met Reverent Johnson, when his walk with the mistress had ended, so had her great spirits for she had been under great anger after this. in fact, she'd stormed into the house, loudly yelling at Nancy when she had done any mistake of any kind and she had even punished Liesl when the child had done wrong in playing her musical tone. She had sent Mr. Connors "to his Maker" and had no tried at all to contact human life during the course of the following days.

I have managed to find out from Nancy that Miss Dunn was a woman of odd origins, coming from the East a few good years ago, perhaps two decades or so and thus I had realized that not only was this woman younger than I had expected – at around twenty-two of age – but that she had come to this place as a child with her mother alone and that since her mother's death some earlier years before, she had refused to have any other company beside herself.

She was not at all respected in town, for she was the greater source of gossip in this town. My presence here was not helping at all either.

'Why would you say that, Nancy?' I smiled as she helped me stand up so that she fixed the bedsheets and the pillows.

'Begon your pardon, sir, but you know how it is around these smaller parts, I mean, a young lady alone in the house with a single man… everyone knows you, sir, are by no wish of your own, but you see us, simple minds work very straightforward, you see, sir, I mean, what I'd see is a man alone in the house with a single woman, you know, sir. I mean no ill by saying this, but I suppose people think it hard for her… under the circumstances.'

'I understand what you mean', I said.

'Sorry, sir.'

'You don't need to apologize, Nancy.'

She helped me sit down by the bedside and smiled for some reason. When I asked her what it was about that she was amused, she excused herself again and said: 'Well, uh, I guess she's got a mind of her own, sir, you know, she wouldn't like it if she heard me telling you rumors, sir, I really think she wouldn't. But Father Johnson says she should marry and marry soon at that.'

'Nancy, how about you keep that comment to yourself, hm?'

'Yes, sir, sorry, sir.'

When night fell, the weather turned chilly once more, but for some reason, I heard the string sounds once more, slow, casual, simple, as if the player himself were so experienced that he could hardly make a mistake or need to stare at what he played. Nancy had left the door to my room open, so the music played on coming from the porch. It was very quiet outside and the starry night showed a good sign of warmth and calm sea breeze.

The music played on in very much the same manner as Liesl's song, even though she'd always miss out on a few strings, during which the lesson would cease, she would be punished and then forced to being once more. This time, the player was experienced enough to get the string sounds right and not only had the music carried on, but it also increased gradually in intensity, the pinching of the strings firmer, stronger, as if the player suddenly felt anger and wished to pull out the feelings from within.

The music was familiar to me, having listened to it several times, yet the strings and their sounds were strange, sad and out from this world, an instrument I have never heard or seen before and I was certain it was the very same instrument I had seen when I was carried onto the porch for the first time during the course of the passing days. The instrument had looked heavy, wooden-built, and so I wondered how it had ended being transported onto the porch, if there was no Mr. Connors to help.

I pushed aside the blankets and with my unhealthy leg, I was determined to step out from the room and take a peek at the singer, as I was certain now the player must have been this woman herself. I tried standing up and do my best to ignore the pain throbbing at my leg, yet as soon as I tried taking a step forward, my hand stretched over to the closest piece of furniture from the bed, yet the balance had been lost before I could take any step forward. As a result, I crashed onto the floor over the healthy side, yet it was enough to break a shout and a swearing expression from between my lips, while I tried to stand still onto the floor and make certain to find a position during which the pain throbbing at my leg would gradually subside.

Naturally, the string-music ceased immediately. I heard steps onto the stairs a few seconds later, the movement slow, but calculated, soon enough, under the dim light from the candles lit up in the room where I was kept, I could see Miss Dunn's dark figure coming up quietly. 'Playing games, are we, Mr. Chase?'

'I'd advise you, woman, not to laugh of me, but to hurry and help me on my feet!'

She stopped in the doorway, and now I could see she had no hesitation in showing off her face, although she still preferred having her face half hidden under the dark from the unreachable side of the candlelight. She held both her hands up front and stared down at e, making no haste to render her support to me.

'I do not help the weakling, Mr. Chase. The agreement was that I should offer you at best a place where you would be properly taken care of. It stipulated no such concern that I should raise you from the ground whenever you see fit to play games onto the floor with a beaten-up leg.'

'Stop this nonsense and hand me your hand, woman! I need to sit up!'

She made no movement towards me, so I saw her figure half hidden under the dark. I was utterly surprised to see just how stubbornly foolish she was to refuse to be a kind Christian. 'You must be mad! I said you should help me, woman! Come here!'

'I do not take orders, Mr. Chase.'

'Can't you see I'm on the floor?! Come here, I said! You must help me, I can't make a single move at this point.'

She still stood there quiet, motionless until she irritated me greatly and I had to raise my voice at her: 'Now, woman!'

Finally, she made a twist from her mouth, so dislikeable of women her age and she took a few steps into the room. she looked around disconcerned, yet a little taken aback, as if she'd stepped into the room after a long absence. Finally, she pulled up her long sleeves from the silk-like coat she wore, twisted the large hems over her elbows and bent down under the weight of her clothing. Her hair was loose and black, so it came down one side crashing over the carpet, but she made no effort to pull it away. In fact, her figure now, under the dim light from the candle, looked very much young and fetching to the eyes, even though she reminded nothing of princesses or feminine beauty. Furthermore, she had a cut at the corner of her mouth to the right of her cheek, which should have decreased her appeal to men and I imagined it quite did.

Her bright blue eyes focused on my hands, while her fingers clutched to the elbows strangely firm. She seemed to be using her arms more than with just playing on strings. So she took one of my arms and forced it around her neck before she wrapped one of her arms around my waist. We spoke nothing, while we tried helping each other so that I would stand up on my feet and be taken to the bed. As soon as I was dropped gently on the mattress, my arm slipped from her neck along with her straight black hair, as if glided along the bed side and onto the floor.

'Ah… thank you.'

I could see the distraught written all over her face, a twist from her cornered mouth and a switch of eyesight onto the other sides. 'Very well, Mr. Chase. Now, if you are done fooling around, I shall like to return to my instrument.'

She stood up, brushed away her clothes as if she had gathered dust on the way to helping me out and she straightened her long sleeves. The silk coat was very strange-looking and I imagined it was of Asian original, as most of the things located around the house. there was an odd manner about her after she walked up a few feet away from the bed and wished me a good night. For some reason, I felt ashamed for putting her up to this simple, yet perhaps degrading task.

I saw her the way she acted so youngly around me, like a young woman who had been taught by her experienced mother not to speak to strangers or to accept becoming intimate with them. Perhaps the very idea that she had so bluntly refused to help me out was due to the fact that unacquainted with such tasks and doing them for single men felt perhaps strange to her, shameful and embarrassing for a young woman her age, without having some external help to accompany.

I hadn't held a woman in my arms for a long time, and I was very little acquainted with young women's behavior these days, especially since I've spent most of my life at sea, rubbing the floorboard or jobbing around the deck. But I could tell that this woman was embarrassed to spend her time alone with a man she hardly knew and with whom she currently shared an empty manor. Perhaps for this reason alone, she had refused for so long to show herself to me.

But before I could say anything to her, I realized I was left alone in the room, the door opened, while she was already by the porch, continuing on her string playing game.

6.

After this, the song Liesl had to train on had been changed to a subtler kind, a more difficult type and as I have heard, she had not been announced. As I have heard Nancy speak when she'd brought me the tray of lunch, Liesl had tried to ask why she would need to train on a song she did not know, but her mistress was determined not to tell her the reason, yet forced her into trying. In fact, a demonstration was given to prove her point, which was that she played it herself.

Later during the afternoon, when the Reverent Johnson came by for a discussion and asked Mr. Connors to call out for her, she refused to see him. He was very surprised, excused himself and tried to enter her study, but the study was locked. Thus was the behavior of this strange young woman, as she so obviously tried to seclude herself away from the outer world and pretend that she would push it away with mischief and miss behavior.

As soon as the priest was gone, she had been so angry that she had almost stricken down Mr. Connors, as mighty as he seemed beside her.

Nancy was around the room cleaning the place, and settling up the windows for some fresh air, while I enjoyed a glass of water and pondered whether I should have asked the priest to come by and let me know on the man who had been taken care of down town and who had been found with me after the ship wreckage.

She had just been telling me how this Mr. Connors did not work for her and that, if anything – as Nancy believed – he was actually brought in by the Reverent Johnson in order to provide Miss Dunn with some extra help.

'I daresay, sir, I think he's sort of a spy, I know that sounds silly, sir, I know it does, but he's sometimes very strange and if anything, he doesn't like changing around here, I should know.'

'Is that so, Nancy?'

'Yes, it is, sir, I am telling you, he should not be trusted at times. But he's a good man to have around, sir, you can trust him, he'll help with any task if necessary.'

But as soon as she spoke, we heard highered voiced downstairs, and for a while we pretended not to pay much attention, until I heard Mr. Connors speak something and then a loud whizzing sound filled the air ending with a thudding sound. To this, Nancy and I stopped our tasks and stared at one another, before she came down from the room and into the stairhall.

'Mr. Connors, I will have you leave this house at once! And if you dare repeat this once more, I will call on Mr. Johnson and ask him to remove you from this place!'

'Yes, madam, I'm sorry.'

'Apologies mean nothing to me, you fool, I need you to leave! Now, Mr. Connors!'

'Now, Miss, you should understand…!'

'Would you rather I open the entrance door to you, Mr. Connors?'

'M-madam…'

'See to it that you are out of my sight in the next few minutes.'

And then I heard a loud bang, as if someone had slammed the door. Mr. Connors was left in the hall to vouch alone for his leaving, but he pulled his legs across the floor and stepped outside. After this, all was quiet and Nancy returned into the room.

'What happened?' I asked frowning concerned.

'I don't know, sir, but I think I've just witnessed Miss kicking Mr. Connors out. Must've been something he's done, sir, I am telling you, he is a strange figure. Helpful, but strange. One should not trust him, and I don't mean to sound nasty at this, but with him not being employed and all, he wouldn't even need to work at this place. I daresay, sir, I'll be left all alone to deal with the house-chores. I'm not complaining, sir, certainly, I'm not but…'

'Nancy!'

'Ah, uh, yes, madam!'

She came out from the room before I could say anything and went running down the stairs, just as her mistress scolded her harshly for doing it so noisily. After this, she asked her to take Liesl home and sent her off without dismiss. She had one of her misfits and I believed it had been because she had been upset by this Mr. Connors.

Later on, during the evening, as I was napping having no occupation at hand, this young lady came into the room to fetch the tray of finished lunch which had been left in the room since she'd dismiss the young servant.

I could open my eyes and see her through the dim light from the candles. This time, she had been wearing something of a dark red colour, which oddly reminded me of the kind of dresses women made for themselves whenever they could not have money to buy new ones. Atop, she had her silk coat with her long sleeves reaching up to the ground floor.

She had caught up her hair in a strange Oriental fashion, but there were still a few strings of hair freed and settled upon her shoulders.

As soon as she picked up the tray and left the room, she did not return until later the evening when she had brought in the tray with dinner. She had served me a warm broth which felt soothing and homey, but I was most surprised to learn that – if the servant had not prepared the dish beforehand – she might have done the cooking herself.

I could hear her practicing her sad songs over the strings and I could imagine her sitting by the porch as she did so. Some time during the closing time of midnight, there was light coming from downstairs, as the door to my room was left open and I could almost hear the crickets singing, while the sea was quiet and soothing.

The woman played on her strings in various tones, as if she could not care less if she had guests in the house. for some reason, I listened to her singing and I imagined my life on the ship, as sickly and deadly as it had begun when we had decided to head straight for the end of the world. We had been promised many things before the task at hand and, although our ship was a simple merchandizing vessel, it had been plain to see that the company asking us for this long distance journey had in fact been planning a scheme of their own to cut low on the budget while giving more responsibility to those they deemed worthless as living creatures.

This place was quiet and it was secluded, strange as it may seem and I was interested to see the town once I would come back on my feet. Strangely enough, I missed not my home, nor the sister and the family I had left behind. Perhaps they still believed I would be asail by the ocean, trying to fulfill a task impossible to handle. But this song of strings, so strange in its perfection, so unheard of, reminded me of my human feelings, of the times when I was a child and I played as fisherman or sail assistant alongside my father before we lost him to the waves.

I had known the sea since a child and never had I been under this situation enough to realize that I had been lacking food for several months before I had been saved. I wondered how this other colleague of mine felt, now that his life had been endangered, and I assumed to be rightful that I see him with my own eyes, to convince myself that he would not die.

I realized just how foolish the idea should be, since I could hardly move on my own, let alone have someone carry me all the way to down town, wherever this place should be.

During the course of the following day, no one ever came to the house and there would be no one to roam the house except for the mistress herself.

As I woke up, I had been surprised to realize that there had been a tray settled on the side of the bed, containing a small covered plate with breakfast. There was little movement during the day and I could hear her practice her songs at the strange instrument I'd seen some time ago.

She would perhaps leave the door from the porch open and let in the sea breeze, the salty smell of the beach and the sound of the seagulls singing, while she played her songs and did little to disturb the quietness of the house.

I took it upon my task to try and exercise a little with my muscles, while I tried sitting up and down, after which I moved my leg as close as possible to the edge and sat by the bedside, facing the window.

She walked through the room undoubtedly bringing myself a late supper, yet none of us spoke with each other and she quickly escaped without so much as caring to see for my wellbeing. This woman smelled strangely of green tea and of other some such Oriental incenses which I could not decipher, yet I was certain now that her origins perhaps have started from the Far East alone.

When night fell, as I tried once more the exercise of sitting up and sitting by the edge of the bed, I also decided to light up the candles by the bedside, since this task had bene usually done by Nancy, yet now I doubted there would be anyone to do it for me. What were necessary had been already placed aside by the small candelabra, and there were a few used candles inside it, so the task at hand seemed simple enough.

I could hear her coming in through the room to pick up on the tray of empty plates I had left after supper. I lit up a small match before I tried to stretch my hand and push the match to the very tip of my fingers so that I would reach the candle with it. One other hand was resting around my stomach, feeling the pressure of the pain from my wounds.

The match slipped form my hand and the flame dropped onto the carpet. I stepped onto it as quickly as possible, but the gesture was abrupt and so I gasped out gnashing my teeth. I heard her pick up the plate and waiting.

I expected her to say something harsh, but there was only silence, so I felt compelled to do something of this. 'I'm sorry. I'm a bit sloppy, it's seems.'

I heard her settle the tray aside and come around the bed. This woman was looking straight at the candelabra by the bedside, and she now wore a different type of coat on, a white one of thicker material, which bore on the side large sleeve a few Oriental characters. She took the candelabra in one hand and pulled it closer to my reach.

'At this distance, you should be able to do it yourself.'

'Thank you.'

As she walked away from the bedside, I heard her pick up the tray and almost walk out from the room. 'The songs you play. They are very strange. They sound very sad.'

The woman simply waited by the door with the plate in her hands. 'They are songs I've learned as a child. I dismiss change, so I prefer playing what I know.'

'Maybe you should try a more vivid tone, madam. I may be so bold as to say that a woman of your age would chose a more colourful play than this.'

'I do not like colourful. Colourful is for those who chose to live life in pursuit of happiness. I have not chosen that path.'

'Happiness is not impossible to achieve, if that is what you mean to say.'

'I am not interested in happiness, Mr. Chase. Happiness is a state of mind, a belief that while we are still alive, we should enjoy life, for we will soon die. But I believe that there is no need to enjoy, for we die anyway.'

'That's an unhealthy way of mind for a young woman such as yourself.'

'It's what I chose to believe.'

I turned my head to face her with my eyes. 'Has no one shown you otherwise?'

There was a twitch in her eye, like she meant to say otherwise or regret to have had a mind of her own spoken out loud. Yet, as soon, she looked away and pushed herself into the hall holding the plate up. 'Indeed, no one has, sir.'

'You may call me Christopher.'

'I will choose not to.'

'You are a very stubborn young woman, aren't you?'

'It matters not what you think.'

'Don't leave!'

She stopped in the doorway with the pate in her hands. 'I will not subdue to any further requests, sir. I bid you Good night.'

'I haven't subdued you to anything yet, madam', I said amused. 'And before you go, I have a question I much preferred it if answered. We have not been properly introduced…'

'I could not care less!'

'I understand your stubbornness and the indolence with which I am treated, as I understand, you are still but a child - …'

'I'm not a child!'

'… But I would much prefer it if you gave me your first name. After all, I have been sharing the same place of home with you for the past half a month and it would be deemed decent to at least know my benefactor's name. Maybe I'll want to thank you properly when I am gone.'

'I needn't your thanking, sir, as you may have heard, this had been an agreement, it has never been my intention to take you in.'

'Your name, woman. You've already made it clear I have been forcedly imposing on your good will and hosting.'

'I refuse to give you my name, for it has no relevance, Mr. Chase!'

'It's Christopher.'

I turned around slowly and looked up at her, as she leaned against the balustrade from the stairs, still holding the plate in her hands. 'Give me your name, please. I would like to know it.'

She looked at the plate in her hands confused, and then she looked sideways as if what I asked of her was the most difficult task ever. Suddenly, her evil frowning disappeared gradually and it felt strange to see a more compassionate side of her, yet I could tell she was struggling within. Perhaps giving up her name meant that she would subdue to her unwanting will of socializing.

'Kayo. But I will have you know, sir, I will not have you call me as such. If you do so, then I will have Mr. Connors kick you out from this house. Is that understood?'

'Aye, I understand.'

For some reason, while she then turned around to leave, I found it strangely amusing to realize that she had felt awkward answering the question. Yet I now knew her full name, the name of this strange young woman I knew so very little of, but of whom I was certain I would gradually grow to become interested. It felt as if she were in dare need of a friend, for she seemed to hide many secrets, to cast upon everyone a spell of belief that she would be cruel, and stubborn, yet that in truth, deep within, she would be a kind, yet broken-hearted soul. Her name was strange however, a combination I have never heard before: Kayo Dunn.