Silence

Chapter 26

Sebastian began to re-train Adalina nearly every day in between chores. Unconsciously, she remembered everything he had taught her. Her mind didn't remember learning anything, but her muscles certainly did.

During some of the times he was re-teaching her self-defense, he would see her hand go to her waist to grab something that wasn't there. It appeared that her arm knew that a weapon was supposed to be at her waist and she kept trying to grab the nonexistent object. Since Adalina didn't remember that she used a whip against attackers, the whip was not at her side.

Once she had gained back most of her knowledge of fighting, he gave her her whip back and began retraining her to use the weapon. It came to her even faster than before seeing as her body had not forgotten those lessons either.

Sebastian was quite pleased at her quick progress.

But he was even more pleased that Adalina finally wasn't scared of him anymore. While fighting each other may not have been the most romantic thing for them to do, it did allow him to touch her again.

He savored each and every second her body touched his, even if those touches were nothing more than attempted attacks against him in order for her to perfect her skills.

Adalina hung up some laundry in the yard to dry, satisfied that she was coming along so well in her training times with Sebastian. The more she worked with him, the more her memories of training with him before came back to her. She still didn't remember anything else, but maybe if she just continued working normally, the rest of her memories would soon return to her.

She picked up the laundry basket that contained the clean clothes and sheets she had taken down that were ready to be put away. Then she started to head inside.

Suddenly, one of the laundry lines snapped off one of the posts. It whipped across Adalina's back, and though it didn't slice very deep into her skin at all, she froze.

The laundry basket dropped from her hands, the clean linens inside sprawling everywhere.

She wasn't in the yard at the manor anymore. Her mind had quickly taken her back into that room where she was whipped when she got caught stealing. Laughter from the men echoed in her ears and reverberated around in her brain.

Her legs gave out and she sank to the ground.

"Adalina?" Finnian said in confusion when he saw the young woman on the ground, the laundry basket toppled over next to her. He slowly approached her. "Are you okay?"

The head maid gave no response. She continued to stare blankly ahead of her.

"Adalina?"

She still did not show any sign that she had heard him or even saw him in front of her. Her breathing was heavy but not fast, as if she was trying to catch her breath after running for a long time.

Afraid of making things worse if he did anything to her, Finnian quickly went to go retrieve Sebastian. Sebastian always knew what to do.

"Mr. Sebastian!" he called frantically.

"What did you do now, Finny?" Sebastian sighed.

"No, it's not me! Something's wrong with Adalina."

Sebastian didn't wait for Finnian to explain the situation further. He quickly went out to the yard and saw the same scene the gardener had witnessed.

He slowly knelt in front of the young woman.

Adalina could feel a small line of blood making its way down her back.

Loud deep laughter filled her senses. Then someone slowly counting up joined the noise. The numbers were drawn out, the person taking his time in between each of them.